Foundation Year (1 Year) Completed, possible to change course?

It depends on your Uni, but I know some of them (example: Nottingham) have the same general Foundation Year program for Engineering, Physics and Chemistry and allow you to switch between them.

You'd do better asking somebody at your Uni though.

So, you're looking to switch Universities, courses, or both?

how did you pay for your foundation course? loan? im from US. and a mature student, im going to apply to UK universities this coming sept-jan. so im doing a research everything about UK unis and the likes specially the money for the degree/course.

Ohh hi there

I have a ******** of advice for you if you ever want it. Nobody really told me how to do anything so I had to figure it all out on my own.

I'm also a US mature student and to answer your question I am paying through everything via loan, besides a few grand in savings bonds and stocks I have.

Courses in the UK, with international fees, are less costly than the costs of most out-of-state Universities, at least good ones. I say this is my main reason for going but the real reason is that I have been wanting to vacate the US for quite some time and I loved the UK when I visited it. Especially certain unis in Wales, though, are very cheap

I definitely recommend you save the cash once you decide on a few places and visit their open days before taking offers. This totally changed my opinion on a few unis... I thought I wanted to go to Bristol before my interview, and decided while I was visiting that I seriously hated the place.

Let me know if you have questions about stuff, because I've got nothing to do until September when I start And I'd like to help people out who need it.

OMGG!!!! youre the perfect person for me. i mean *for asking questions* because i kinda sort of have the same situation like you.
like i have been wanting to leave us really bad for change of scenery. and i really want to go to UK so bad. and to be honest, no one is helping me with everything so i had to do this research and ive been doing research for like months already. 1 and half months lol. i was about to give up and just apply here in US but i really cant stop thinking about UK. if i were not to go to UK ill end up applying to NYU, GWU, Georgetown *which are all expensive* and the only one i visited was GWU and Georgetown. i havent been to NYU and i heard they have a crappy financial aid. but uk got my heart.

im actually working in the medicine field right now and im tryingto save money as much as i can.i havent got any new clothes for almost a year now because im just working and going home right away and sometimes go out with fam. thats about it.

why do you hate bristol?i thought they got the coolest campus ever?i really need your help about this, i emailed some of the universities that i wanted to go to like st.andrews but i havent got any response yet. im going to take the SAT I/II/ACT exam this coming sept/nov. and im still thinking if i should apply to community college here for 1 year so i can register for 2011 entry. i feel like im running out of time and i really want to leave so bad. and were not getting younger so im desperate to go back to studying.

and also, what do you mean by saving bonds and stocks? just curious. im really glad i saw you here in tsr.

Are you looking to start on a foundation year course, and if so, what in? I would reccomend doing that because the entry requirements for a foundation year course are much less strict and they tend to look kindly on hard working mature students (I'm 22). My grades in high school were awful mostly due to depression and a few other circumstances, but my SAT scores were pretty high.


2011 entry would be your only option at this point, and I think you have a little bit before you could begin applying via UCAS.

Do you know about the UCAS system? Basically I think every uni in the UK makes you apply via UCAS, which involves filling out a ton of stuff and writing a 'personal statement' of a given length about why you want to study. It's the biggest pain about this whole process, except maybe waiting for results.

The first thing in the process for me was going to the UK in September, when Freshers Week was beginning for everybody. I saw a few unis and spent some time places and it really hardened my resolve for doing all of this. The UCAS system opened up for new applications sometime in September (I think? Or maybe it was a little later) and I spent some time getting my application together (You need stuff like HS grades, SAT scores, etc). I had mine submitted RIDICULOUSLY EARLY (there was no reason to do this, I'm just impatient) and had my first offer from York in December, a few days before Christmas. The rest of the Unis I had to interview with, which I went to do in May. Waiting all that time was torture.

Bristol.... I just had a bad experience. The entrance to the physics building was very ugly, like 1970s scary-building sort of thing. I'd been studying and studying for my interview with the department, even on the train. I had prepared a talk to give as well to demonstrate my knowledge of a few things. Basically, the first person I met (one of the interviewers) was decently nice but kept making quips about my being American, which didn't really annoy me that much but seemed rather unprofessional of him. The second person I met was during the interview with both of them, and he was generally a bit nasty. Their interview tactic was basically to ask stuff way beyond the scope of a Foundation Year student and to make massively intimidating equations all over the place and basically scare the **** out of you. It worked. They basically made me feel utterly stupid and horrible about myself and I cried on the train on the way back to Nottingham, where I was staying. Then they gave me an unconditional offer. ********.

Parts of the campus were a bit pretty but not the parts I was in. Nottingham has a much prettier campus.

I'm not sure what to recommend to you in terms of going to US community college for the year. It might spruce up your skills for starting at Uni in 2011 but I'm not sure if it would help you get into a specific year at Uni (ie start year 2, or skip a foundation year). You'd also need to declare your current classes/exams as Pending and the offers your are made from unis might depend on the grades you get, which would mean you'd be waiting longer to find out if you're accepted. Most of the non-foundation-year programs require AP exams or something equivalent (something I didn't have), so foundation year was the way to go for me, but I don't know what you might have in terms of qualifications.

Just make sure it's something you really want because it's a ludicrously long pain-in-the-butt journey but it's incredibly worth it in the end.

Oh, and my grandma gave me some US Savings Bonds every year for Christmas when I was a kid, and I finally found them in the attic. So that's like $500 toward my tuition.. or maybe just a plane ticket. :P

And I had 1000 shares of some stock as well that I'd saved... to help with living expenses

Yes, the foundation course is my only option. I was thinking of taking medicine or biology. and im working in the medicine field right now. and to be honest i dont have AP, i was thinking of taking that next year but im pretty sure i wont be able to make it since i never really took ap class.

Im not completely sure about how the UCAS works but i know some of it like, you can put up to 5 unis of your choice, is it possible if i can put more instead of just 5 unis?and also, its not that my grades are awful when i was in HS back in my country, its just that school there is kinda hard and they have the weirdest grading system ever. but im going to make the most of the scores through SAT/ACT for now. and for the HS Grades, do i really need it? or is there any other option besides the HS Grades? ill do try my best to contact my school in my country though just in case.

Haha i like how you submitted your Application too early, if i have all my requirements now, im sure ill do the same because i like being the first one haha :P

I just saw UCAS and their deadline for medicine course is October 15 for 2011 entry im not sure if the foundation course for medicine is included to that though, im really confuse and im having a hard time with this. I havent got any emails from them yet only to Aberdeen telling me that they need my Sat/ACT and all that stuff.

oh my, sounds scary.. to be honest im getting nervous right now just thinking about that interviewers that you said. but im glad you got an unconditional offer.

wait!what did they asked you on the interview? sounds interesting to me though. so where are you studying now? still at bristol? or did you transfer? I would love to go visit before i go choose my UNI but i dont think i have enough money. since i need to save money as much as i can. where did you stay? did you get a hotel? how much was everything? i just wanna know just in case i do visit on their open days. but ill try and see if my job will let me though.

i heard nottingham was great too, but i think their accommodation is Really really really expensive.

hmm what do you mean by declare my classes/exams as pending?
this is really want i wanted to do and i have an obsession with UK sceneries. thats also the country where i want to live. and to be honest youre the only person who i got kind of the same situation here in TSR i mean, i saw one member who got the same situation likes ours, but she didnt respond to me and i think she never went online anymore. so far youre the only one who cleared most of the things for me, and thank you for that. If possible, can i message you whenever i need to ask something just in case? i hope youll be fine with that.

i need to get out of here really bad and start the studying seriously, i feel like im going nowhere if i stayed here for too long. :/

You can only pick a maximum of 5 unis total per application and you can only apply once per year. I applied to Nottingham, Bristol, Manchester, Cardiff and York. I got unconditionals for all but Manchester, but had to interview everywhere but York.

I wound up accepting the offer from Cardiff and I begin there in September, on a Foundation Year course, which moves over into a full course in my program (Physics).

I was very lucky when I came for my interviews; I have a friend who lives in Nottingham who let me stay with him. Every time I needed to go to a different city for an interview, I took the train from Nottingham. It didn't end up being too terribly expensive for me, except for the plane tickets (which were about $700 a month in advance from Washington state to London and back) and various trains which varied from 30 pounds to 100 pounds at the most.

If you come over, get a railcard straight away; it saves lots of money on the cost of train tickets, and trains will get you everywhere.

At the interview they asked a lot of things.... since my course is for Physics most of them were about math. The level you are meant to be learning in a Foundation Year course is roughly equivalent to A levels... which means you're learning the more advanced algebra/trig/etc. They STARTED OFF by asking me about calculus, which is what I'd be learning, not expected to learn... after that they questioned me about "if i were a physicist in a box and x happened, what could you establish from it" about your surroundings, what's happening to you, etc.

My other interviews were mostly about my background in math, if I'm willing to study before the course, and asking me to complete various worksheets in math equivalent to higher GCSE level.

You're going to need to give them as much information as is humanly possible on your UCAS, and I believe the rule is that you MUST provide high school grades. Reason being that it's illegal to omit them, as well as the fact that for an international student they need to prove your proficiency in English (even if you're from the USA) for the visa, and HS grades are the easiest way to do this. Also, certain things are worth a certain number of "points" on your UCAS application, which means your grades/GPA give your application more weight against others, as do your SATs etc. A given course at a given uni has a certain 'requirement' of points on an application to be accepted, so if you have something, it is best to include it.

As to finding a course, I don't know too much about medicine, but you should search UCAS for courses (you can do it on their website) to see if there are Medicine with a Foundation Year courses. Those are the ones you specifically need to apply to when you do.

If you can't make it to the country for an interview, Universities are typically very understanding. Their alternate methods can vary. Cardiff made me an offer sight unseen due to my personal statement and a few extra letters I sent. Nottingham made me do some worksheets and meet with this REALLY REALLY NICE LADY before being made an offer. Bristol were going to do this awful Skype interview thing along with a test given at a local high school. Manchester basically said "lol, we don't like you".

PM me and I'll send you my email or something, we can chat however.

oh my youre doing physics, im really bad at numbers :P
so you applied as a foundation year to all of the unis right? what made you choose cardiff? my bestfriend lives in sussex but im not sure if id want to stay at her place, since she lives with her family and that would be too awkward for all of us. i do want to visit, i might look up for some cheap place if i do go though.

is it really that hard to get accepted in uk universities? because im not really planning on applying to any unis in here. im well more focused on uk unis. Did they also ask you for your HS Diploma? how about your reference? who did you put on yours? since weve been out of school, im not sure if i can put a teacher/prof.

i might not do the medicine course, since its too late for me, i will just go to my 2nd choice of course which is biology, but im worried because i havent study biology for like almost 4yrs. everything is really freaking me out and making me so worried :/

why did you also not accept the offer from the rest of the unis that you applied to? is it because of the thing that you said about the campus and the like? just wondering. :P
i was wondering, when did you take your sat exams? did you take it last year before you sent your application to ucas? or last last year 2008? im going to take mine this sept/october and i was wondering if i should make the ucas yet or not because i dont have the sat/act scores yet lol. haha or is it better to get every thing first before i apply to ucas? argh, sorry i ask to many question. :/ i messaged you my email address.

My reasons for picking Cardiff over the others were mostly personal ones. I hated Bristol's cocky attitude when I was there as well as the buildings. York was lovely but I wanted a bigger city sort of life, and I've always wanted to live in a busy city, so I decided to decline. I LOVE Nottingham but I spent so much time there that I wanted to see somewhere new, and their Astrophysics program wasn't as comprehensive as Cardiff's. Manchester rejected me so that was that. Cardiff had a great feel on the open day, I loved the facilities and the city and everybody was very relaxed and very nice. York were too, and Nottingham, but I just liked Cardiff the most. Some people would say I'm dumb to turn down Nottingham and other more "highly ranked" places like Bristol, but from what I can gather the ratings are pretty arbitrary and crap... they don't matter so much for an undergraduate.

It matters more to find a uni where you'll be happy spending 3 or 4 years.

Also, not sure if you know, but Scottish unis take an extra year... so if you are worried about money that should certainly factor into your decision.

I needed my high school diploma and my transcripts. On UCAS I had to put my senior year grades and GPA. I haven't been in high school since 2004 and my SAT was taken in 2004 as well. You have to include everything anyway, no matter how long ago it was.

For my reference I used an old high school teacher that I did a lot of work for (and was a TA for). I had no work references because I ran my own business for several years, but the high school reference worked just fine.

It's not THAT hard to get accepted but it's not that easy either. It depends on the so-called Prestige of the uni as well as how presentable you are in your application. Mature students and International Students are handled on a case by case basis. When you apply, talk to the unis first (looking up the admissions tutor works best) and tell them about your personal situation; straight up ask them if you stand a chance. Be wary, some may encourage you to apply anyway (this is what happened to me and Manchester) but most are reasonable enough.

Biology (and medicine) are very competitive, but you should have a good chance if you take the time to write a good personal statement and properly explain yourself. Working in the medical profession is also going to be very helpful for you.

Do visit though, even if you need to couchsurf for a week or two. Any friend worth their salt would be understanding

hey, did you have to do a deposit before you register for class? i just saw someone on facebook and they were like *oh i had to deposit first and stuff like that* so im just wondering if you had to do the same.

hey, i just registered for SAT I and II today, my sat I exam is on october and the II is on nov. 9. on my sat subject test, i put chemistry, biology and literature. how many subjects did you took when u did your subject test? im doing the ACT as well, that way i can choose which one is better and send them the better one.

i was wondering if you and i could chat, i have a lot of questions, if thats okay to you. i was looking up for what you called me *admissions tutor* in st.andrews but i dont find any, so i just sent them an email, and also with edinburgh.

im still working out on my personal statement, i find it hard how to start it thats why im doing a lot of research about it. anyways, im looking forward to chat with you if ever you allow me to add you in your messenger. just message me, and ill add you. thanks a lot!