In this post I’ll talk about my year in 2025 at Chicago, Northwestern University. I have stayed here for one year to do some work on my four-year PhD.
Why travel?
The best advice I got was to not go abroad just for the sake of it, but try to find a welcoming place. I most certainly have, everyone in the computational pathology lab at Northwestern has been very accomodating.
I also considered Great Britain and Germany for a stay. One PI once told me that stereotypically, in his point of view, for this field, the US is really good at techical details, new models and solutions. Great Britain he recommended if I wanted to work with new datasets. I’m not sure to which extent it is true, but I think the advice is useful when you consider different labs. I had followed and enjoyed a lot of the research coming out of the pathology lab in Chicago, so that’s why I wanted to go there.
About the lab
I’ve been working at the computational pathology lab at Northwestern. The lab “develops computational approaches to analyze data generated in the pathology lab. […] goal is to improve diagnostics, to advance clinical translation of computational pathology research, and to provide investigators with tools to generate new insights from complex data”
I’ve been working with different professors, helping out with some software used by the lab and others. One of those is the digital slide archive, a suite of tools for looking at whole slide images. I really enjoyed working on this project, since it is open source, hence re-usable and has good potential for future applications. A consulting firm called kitware has done some of the development, which means DSA is not only useful for academia but also has high code quality.
Things to do in Chicago
My past 2.5 years before Chicago was in Tromsø, Norway. It’s a small city with 80 000 people. So coming to busy Chicago was a bit overwhelming at first. I got annoyed by honking cars and crowds. But eventually, I’ve come to enjoy it.
Most of my spare-time activities is volleyball, trampolining and volunteering at a dog shelter called PAWS. I found Meetup groups for volleyball, and there’s also “rec leagues” where anyone can sign up. Highly recommended. PAWS has been great. They were one of three dog shelters that I applied for, but they were only one that replied quickly and let me start within one month (all volunteers need some easy, basic training/education before starting). Plus, being in a new country, it’s really nice to focus on something other than myself.
Beyond that, Chicago has a lot to offer with museums, food, parks, events and great beaches (yes, they are not just in Florida and California). My personal favorite is the art institute of Chicago in Millenium Park. I’ve gone multiple times, each time for several hours and I’d still be up to go again.
My visit to the hospital
This is one of the biggest worries for a lot of people coming into the US so I’ll share my story. I ended up having three different health insurances: one mandatory insurance from Fulbright (who payed me a scholarship, so they also provided a minimum coverage for a visa), another from the university (mandatory) and another from a company in Norway, which also came together with renters insurance, etc, making it a good deal, although somewhat redundant.
I sprained my ancle while jumping on a trampoline. I initially wanted to just wait it out, but there was a bit of pain. I first called my Norwegian insurance, since they had the best coverage with the smallest fees. They recommended a hospital that I could call. When I called the hospital, the phone operator was worried that my insurance would not cover non-urgent appointments, even when I told them I had a direct referral, and suggested I could visit the ER if needed. I then told them about my second insurance from work, which was American. The worry went away and I got an appointment the day after. I got an x-ray and a cast. The bill was 290 dollars (roughly 20% of the actual cost without insurance). A slighly stiff price, but everything else went smoothly.
Taxes
This is also one of the worries I’ve seen people talk a lot about coming into the US. I had no American income while in the US, which made the whole process easy. But, I still had to submit a tax declaration form to the IRS. I spent probably four hours in different seminars to learn that all I had to do was fill out a simple form using a third party service called Sprintax, which took about 5 minutes.
The curious aspect is the Norwegian tax report. There’s a tax treaty from 1970 which states that academics do not have to pay taxes to the Norwegian government while in the US. Or, you still have to pay around 10% to be a member of the free public health system. To qualify for this, you have to contact the Norweigan tax authority asking for permission. Apparently they can refute it if your work abroad doesn’t seem aligned with your degree or something of value. So, submit your recommendation letters and work description together with the request for tax exemption.
My Fulbright scholarship was paid in full three weeks before going. That could in theory mean that I should pay a full tax amount for that sum. I made the inquiry to the tax authority on whether the money was tax exempt or not: in one way, absolutely yes, since the money was going to be used for my exchange. In another way, no, since the money was paid before I actually arrived in the US. I inquired the tax authority if I could get tax exempt status. My understanding is that there is no formal rule that documents this, so the tax authority replied they “trusted I was correct” and I got the tax exemption status for the scholarship. The difference from having the exempt status or not would be 40 000 NOK in taxes, or 4000 USD, so this was very nice.
Cultural differences from Norway
“Mid-western hospitality” is a thing. People will say “have a nice day” in the elevator and greet you wherever you go. I’ll be honest and say that I think its nice and I think some Norwegians could learn from this. If I’m ever bored I’ll sometimes go to a bar alone and grab a beer. I usually end up talking with somebody. I don’t feel like it would be as easy in Norway.
Beyond that, I haven’t had any major cultural differences. I feel like Americans are better at events, like getting the crowds going at sports or community events. Also, Americans are overall hard workers, which I think is admirable and slighly underrated in mainstream media.
What I miss from Norway might be the de-polarized political climate, awesome nature that is pretty much always at most 20 minutes away, and in some cases, straigthforwardness: Norwegians are often quiet and don’t work for tips, so if anyone talks to you, its because they want to.
My tips
Pretty much every price you see is pre-tax and with an asterisk. A 15 dollar lunch is actually closer to 20. A 1400 dollars per month apartment is actually 1600.
Traffic is OK. I find highways in the city to be demanding, there’s usually cars exiting and entering lanes rapidly on both sides. You’ll be overtaken on both sides too. This makes it hard to position yourself for the right exits. For safety, I recommend surrendering to the flow of traffic, don’t expect to make every exit if you’re new in town. Also, not all cars respect pedestrian crossings, so always look twice and walk cautiously.
I feel public transport is overall safe, although you will see homeless people sleeping on the metroline/CTA. Sometimes they’re also loud. It’s mostly at night up until 6 AM. That being said, I’ve ridden with the CTA (metro) most hours of the day without trouble, and my overall impression is that it is safe. If you’re in Chicago outside of winter, I’d also look at renting bikes with Divvy.
Reflections
This is my third stay abroad: I’ve been to Germany for three months and Peru for twelve. I also moved to Tromsø in 2022 without knowing anyone and stayed for 2.5 years.
My best advice if you’re travelling solo is to stay busy from day one. It’s exhaustive, but investing into activities/meetups/events has cascading benefits. The first six month of any stay abroad is usually always fun and exciting, and then reality sneaks in. For your own mental health it’s a good thing if you can tell yourself that you’re trying to adjust by being active. I stayed super busy the first two months before letting myself “settle down”. Be true to your interests, you’re less likely to make connections if you don’t actually like the activity you sign up for. Otherwise, try to remember why you bothered travelling in the first place and remind yourself of it during hard times. Also keep in mind that you may be less robust to handle negative events like break-ups, difficulty at work or financial trouble if you usually rely on initimate friends and family for support. This is normal, but depending on the length of your stay, you still have to find a way to deal with it. For me, volunteering is the best “therapy” if I’m thrown a little off.
Beyond that, if anyone makes it all the way down to this part of the post, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message if you have any questions or travel tips for being abroad :)
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