HI there, I'm an italian dentist training in USA and for the next year i got an offer for a 1 year fellowship in Geneva. They would give me 30000 USD, which is about 35500 CHF. Is it a fair amount of money to live there? i heard that life is VERY EXPENSIVE overthere... please any info or suggestions will be very helpful. Thanx

If you come as a student, that'll just keep you afloat. Think tiny appartment, lots of pasta and sandwiches, drinking during happy hours only.

35K for a year?.... will you have to pay rent and such out of that?... ya, think reallly tiny aptm.

The standard income for an student working at the University as an assistant is CHF 2500 per month or CHF 30000 per year.

You got a better deal, that is 2958 per month.

You will be taxed and have to pay for AVS etc, count with 20-25% less so you would receive montly maybe 2200 -2300 netto.

with 2200 a month you can rent an studio for around 600-700, you'll have to pay for a mandatory health insurance, there are some student insurances if you are under 25 that would cost 90 per month if not be prepared to pay 300 per month insurance.

so with 1200 per month, you can live well and do some sports and cultural activities at the uni where they are free of charge for students...

Social life in Switzerland is expensive. think of 100 CHF for dinner for 2 in a restaurant or 15CHF to 20CHF to go in a disco with 10 CHF drinks, and this is only in an standard place.

as of standard things. you can eat for under 15 per meal on migros restaurants or even less at the uni or if you cook yourself. In an standard restaurant it'd be around 20 per meal, bus tickets cost 2.30 per hour or you can get a monthly abo for 70, Geneva is small and rather flat and bike friendly so I advice you to get a bike, bikes get stolen often in Geneva so you better get a cheap one at the flea market ( 120 maybe ) and dont't risk to have it stolen.

Drinks during the day are around 3.50 a beer, 2.80 a coffee. Bottled water is 5

a standard breakfast ( cafee - croissant ) will be 5

So you can have an idea