[saachi]

I think first you need to decide between sciences or arts, because some universities are better for some courses and you can't really decide until you know what you want to do... You've mentioned all really good universities but there are SO many more options don't go on things like 'my aunt likes it'

Have a look at the league tables (don't follow the precise ranking, though just remember that the top 5 and then the top 20 are very good, the exact rank keeps fluctuating and so doesn't matter)- but only after you decide what you want to do!

[Katie_p]

First choose one or two courses that you are interested in, and then look at Universities that offer those courses. On your UCAS application (the only way to apply) it helps to put 1 aspirational Uni, 2/3 "your level" Unis, and 1/2 "backup" Unis. This way you make sure that you should get at least 1/2 offers, and you give yourself a chance of going somewhere amaaaazing, but you don't put all your eggs in that basket!

You said you'd like to be somewhere with good transport - any of the London colleges will have this, Manchester is very good for transport, Birmingham looks quite good. Basically any of the big cities should have excellent transport. To be fair, most Unis will anyway - I'm at Warwick and I can get to Coventry, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon (home of Shakespeare), Rugby and Birmingham all on the bus. I can also get Megabus/National Express from campus to almost any major city.

If you live in a city at home, it might be an idea to try somewhere a bit more country-based, or vice versa if you live in the country. It's also considering the community you want to belong to - Warwick has LOADS of international students so you'd be bound to meet people from your own country, and from plenty of others besides. It's also a very "closed" community, because it's not in a city or town. A city University will have much more of a city feel, there will be the usual features of everyday life to witness, not just the student ones. There will probably be more distractions and choices of hobby, but you might find that student-specific activities, especially in a 1-Uni City (as opposed to London, Birm, Manchester which all have 3 or more) are a bit lacking.

The final thing is to make sure that you actually look at the Unis you shortlist. Try to book a few visits at your favourite choices so that you can come and see them. For some, you just won't "feel right" and others that you maybe didn't consider as highly, you'll fall in love with. If there's no specific open day when you're planning to be here, just go to the Uni anyway, wander around, find some students sat in a cafe and ask them about their experiences. You'll still get a very good feel for the Uni, and if you use public transport, you'll know if the transport links are sufficient! Sometimes if you ring the Uni admissions team they will book an individual tour, but that might not always be possible, so just be prepared to speak to the students who are around and get as much of a feel as you can for the place.

[FigureSkater]

(Original post by Tizoxic)
COURTSIDE:O Wowow. I don't particularly like the country either Unless it's for chilling out on holiday. Then it's always nice. But yeah, how come you want to study in the UK? US unis seem to be so much more flexible, and they probably suit me more because I have no idea what I want to do I do math, further math, economics, physics and chemistry. Any ideas? Tornadoes do sound exciting though! It's mostly tsunamis and stuff down where I live. (I think disasters aren't supposed to be exciting though, more destructive and scary and all that)

it's shorter, i have more chance of being in a city, it's by more stuff(what is next to oklahoma/texas besides drug gangs & hicks!?), it's cheaper than private or out-of-state universities, & i don't have to take all the other stupid classes i don't wanna take!

tornadoes ARE fun! one time i was in kansas & there was this gigantic storm & it blew out a window in our car! it was so exciting! lol, i don't think most people think of that as fun either! but it was kinda fun because there was a nice breeze the rest of the time oh & then we went to mcdonalds & my friend's mom only had a $100 bill. i'm pretty wure the girl at the window thought we had robbed a bank or something!

[Tizoxic]

(Original post by FigureSkater)
it's shorter, i have more chance of being in a city, it's by more stuff(what is next to oklahoma/texas besides drug gangs & hicks!?), it's cheaper than private or out-of-state universities, & i don't have to take all the other stupid classes i don't wanna take!

tornadoes ARE fun! one time i was in kansas & there was this gigantic storm & it blew out a window in our car! it was so exciting! lol, i don't think most people think of that as fun either! but it was kinda fun because there was a nice breeze the rest of the time oh & then we went to mcdonalds & my friend's mom only had a $100 bill. i'm pretty wure the girl at the window thought we had robbed a bank or something!

Bank robbing during a tornado? Like a boss XD I've never quite been in a natural disaster. There were supposed to have been earthquake tremors about a month and a half ago, but I didn't feel a thing! Guess I'm just too rock-solid
But yeah, I see why you prefer the UK. Different people want different things, I suppose.
Sigh. I've got 14 AS Level papers this time, finished 11, got 3 left now. They started on May 9th and finish on the 21st of June. So long left! But only 3 papers, so that's something I suppose. What's going on with you? Oh, and I want to do the SAT in September, 2400 here I come

[FigureSkater]

(Original post by Tizoxic)
Bank robbing during a tornado? Like a boss XD I've never quite been in a natural disaster. There were supposed to have been earthquake tremors about a month and a half ago, but I didn't feel a thing! Guess I'm just too rock-solid
But yeah, I see why you prefer the UK. Different people want different things, I suppose.
Sigh. I've got 14 AS Level papers this time, finished 11, got 3 left now. They started on May 9th and finish on the 21st of June. So long left! But only 3 papers, so that's something I suppose. What's going on with you? Oh, and I want to do the SAT in September, 2400 here I come

thug life
we had some big earthquakes not too long ago!
ugh.. end of the year stuff is never fun!
i took some ap test last week, i did really bad on the writing portions though! but maybe the people who grade it won't be able to read my horrible hand writting & will just assume that i did awesome
2400! i wish i got a 2400! i've never taken the sat, but i've taken the psat. i got 149(at least it was over the average!), i think.... it's 1490 in sat scores
i think that was pretty good considering i fell asleep during it & had to just guess on like 1/2 it because i didn't have time though! but pretty much everyone else i know got above 210 but they all studied & stuff

[FigureSkater]

[QUOTE=Tizoxic;37733125]COURTSIDE:O Wowow. I don't particularly like the country either Unless it's for chilling out on holiday. Then it's always nice. But yeah, how come you want to study in the UK? US unis seem to be so much more flexible, and they probably suit me more because I have no idea what I want to do I do math, further math, economics, physics and chemistry. Any ideas? QUOTE]

what are your interest?
you could obviously do something like accounting!

[Tizoxic]

Not accounting. It's so blah. I was thinking something more along the lines of theoretical physics, aerospace engineering or maybe even nanotechnology

[FigureSkater]

(Original post by Tizoxic)
Not accounting. It's so blah. I was thinking something more along the lines of theoretical physics, aerospace engineering or maybe even nanotechnology :D

i know! who would want to do accounting!?
ooh! those sound fun! you could make a rocket or something! cool! science is soo much fun!
i would wanna do something like that but i can't because my school messed up my math stuff :mad: that's why i'm stuck with history or art(any where i go, us or uk) but i really do like art & history that thats fine :)
we take an exam when we're 12 to see if we'll be in pre-algebra or algebra1, i had a few pages in my test missing & i was only like 2 questions away from being in algebra 1 even with those pages gone! & then the next year i had an idiot teacher that made me stay in pre-algebra for the 2nd time because he didn't like me(i had one of the highest grades in the class :mad) but he got fired so that was pretty cool :) lol another time i got detention for doing my math homework.... i think math is unlucky for me :P

[FigureSkater]

(Original post by Katie_p)
First choose one or two courses that you are interested in, and then look at Universities that offer those courses. On your UCAS application (the only way to apply) it helps to put 1 aspirational Uni, 2/3 "your level" Unis, and 1/2 "backup" Unis. This way you make sure that you should get at least 1/2 offers, and you give yourself a chance of going somewhere amaaaazing, but you don't put all your eggs in that basket!

You said you'd like to be somewhere with good transport - any of the London colleges will have this, Manchester is very good for transport, Birmingham looks quite good. Basically any of the big cities should have excellent transport. To be fair, most Unis will anyway - I'm at Warwick and I can get to Coventry, Leamington Spa, Stratford-upon-Avon (home of Shakespeare), Rugby and Birmingham all on the bus. I can also get Megabus/National Express from campus to almost any major city.

If you live in a city at home, it might be an idea to try somewhere a bit more country-based, or vice versa if you live in the country. It's also considering the community you want to belong to - Warwick has LOADS of international students so you'd be bound to meet people from your own country, and from plenty of others besides. It's also a very "closed" community, because it's not in a city or town. A city University will have much more of a city feel, there will be the usual features of everyday life to witness, not just the student ones. There will probably be more distractions and choices of hobby, but you might find that student-specific activities, especially in a 1-Uni City (as opposed to London, Birm, Manchester which all have 3 or more) are a bit lacking.

The final thing is to make sure that you actually look at the Unis you shortlist. Try to book a few visits at your favourite choices so that you can come and see them. For some, you just won't "feel right" and others that you maybe didn't consider as highly, you'll fall in love with. If there's no specific open day when you're planning to be here, just go to the Uni anyway, wander around, find some students sat in a cafe and ask them about their experiences. You'll still get a very good feel for the Uni, and if you use public transport, you'll know if the transport links are sufficient! Sometimes if you ring the Uni admissions team they will book an individual tour, but that might not always be possible, so just be prepared to speak to the students who are around and get as much of a feel as you can for the place.

i was thinking about maybe finding a school out side of a city because right now at my own school it takes 30-50(some times 60!) minutes to get there from my house, so anything under an hour really wouldn't be that bad. also i'm used to spending 1 1/2 hrs in a car about every week, but i wouldn't want to spend that much time travelling more than once a week!

i think i might be able to visit some in october, maybe september, but i'm not really for sure. i can always ask people on youtube about the transport & experience is! lol

[Tizoxic]

(Original post by FigureSkater)
i know! who would want to do accounting!?
ooh! those sound fun! you could make a rocket or something! cool! science is soo much fun!
i would wanna do something like that but i can't because my school messed up my math stuff that's why i'm stuck with history or art(any where i go, us or uk) but i really do like art & history that thats fine
we take an exam when we're 12 to see if we'll be in pre-algebra or algebra1, i had a few pages in my test missing & i was only like 2 questions away from being in algebra 1 even with those pages gone! & then the next year i had an idiot teacher that made me stay in pre-algebra for the 2nd time because he didn't like me(i had one of the highest grades in the class :mad) but he got fired so that was pretty cool lol another time i got detention for doing my math homework.... i think math is unlucky for me :P

Always remember: "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe."
I'm off now, I need a break from the Internet, probably a long one. Nice talking to you, peace and good day.

[FigureSkater]

(Original post by Tizoxic)
Always remember: "If you ever start taking things too seriously, just remember that we are talking monkeys on an organic spaceship flying through the universe."
I'm off now, I need a break from the Internet, probably a long one. Nice talking to you, peace and good day.

peace out man!

[FigureSkater]

sooo... does anyone know any good schools for history or for art?

[Nynyflower]

(Original post by FigureSkater)
sooo... does anyone know any good schools for history or for art?

What about History of Art? And seriously, just look at the league tables, find a course that interests you. You could be in the best city in the world but if you don't like your course you will hate it. Also you may have to consider a uni slightly further down the league tables if your grades aren't as good as some of the International students who will be applying.

[FigureSkater]

(Original post by Nynyflower)
What about History of Art? And seriously, just look at the league tables, find a course that interests you. You could be in the best city in the world but if you don't like your course you will hate it. Also you may have to consider a uni slightly further down the league tables if your grades aren't as good as some of the International students who will be applying.

it's not all about the rankings. it's also about where it is, the atmosphere, the people, etc.