I didn’t fully understand Aalto - until I got here

When I applied to Aalto University, I didn’t fully understand what made it different.

Looking back now, that might be exactly why it changed my mind.

But first, a bit about me.

I’m from Spain, and I studied Industrial Design Engineering. I’ve always been into design, photography, products… and honestly, a hundred other things.

Choosing a master’s back then felt stressful. I felt this pressure to choose the “right” path, even though I wasn’t fully sure what I wanted yet.

Looking back now, ending up at Aalto was probably one of the best decisions I’ve made.

From industrial design… to almost anything I’m curious about

Coming from a technical design background while having many creative interests can feel a bit contradictory.

What I didn’t expect is that at Aalto, that “contradiction” actually becomes a strength.

I came to study Collaborative Industrial Design, but since arriving I’ve taken courses in marketing, business, and entrepreneurship. I’ve also tried ceramics workshops, learned how to use photography studios, and even joined startup-related courses (which I wasn’t interested in at all before).

And that’s kind of the point.

As long as you complete your core courses, you get a lot of freedom to explore different areas and shape your studies around what you’re curious about.

Discovering entrepreneurship (without planning to)

During my first year, I randomly got exposed to the startup world through the Aalto ecosystem something I didn’t even know existed before applying.

Through the Aalto Founder School, I experienced a completely new way of thinking: faster, more iterative, and much closer to real-world problems. It honestly changed the way I approach design.

I even joined a hackathon for the first time, and somehow, we ended up winning it. That was something I would have never imagined doing before coming here.

Right now I’m actually writing this from Munich, on the last day of a field trip where we explored the startup ecosystem and met people building companies. Stuff like this happens more often than I expected in courses.

What surprised me most is how connected everything feels to reality.

You’re not just learning theory, you’re actually working on real challenges, often with real companies.

The student life (more than I expected)

Before coming to Finland, I had heard that student life was active, but I didn’t really get what that meant.

What surprised me most is how much is constantly happening.

There are always events, gatherings, projects, and student-led initiatives going on. Back home, it was sometimes hard to find things to join. Here, it’s more the opposite, you often have to choose between multiple things happening at the same time.

I once heard there are more events than days in the year… and honestly, it kind of feels like it.

My biggest learning so far

If there’s one thing I didn’t know before applying, it’s that Aalto doesn’t expect you to have everything figured out.

It actually gives you the space to explore, try things, make mistakes, and connect with people from completely different backgrounds, and I feel that’s where most of the learning happens.

You can chat with Daniel and other Aalto Squad student ambassadors on Unibuddy!