[comeflockin]

I`m 22 and looking to leave my country (Malta- EU member state) to apply at a foreign University, now, i`m poor, and my dad, who brings home the $$$ took early retirement (hes 58) and so my family has officially no one earning money, what he has must last till he unfortunately dies. He didnt get that much and well due to a lot of huge problems with my living conditions (he isnt chucking me out + love him v. much) i decided to try and leave.

Now to cut a long story short, i would really like to leave and try and find a free foreign University, doesnt matter where, so long as its acceptable quality, (subjects at A-level = Biology, chemistry, physics. (i think the US equivalent is a Major) + other lesser ones) [A levels in malta are harder than A level in UK just FYI, so they may be worth more]
since family = no income i suppose we could qualify for some scholarships/ extra grants.

The amount of information on the net for this area is overwhelming that is why i came to ask. a lot of the things you guys have to do we dont in malta so i`m overwhelmed.


Do you guys have any sort of advice, knowledge, information or useful comments for someone in my position?

[MattLBates]

UoM is the only University that I know of that is free. You could always get a student loan from a bank, and use that to manage your finances. It's what nearly everyone does. Consider it a decent investment

[comeflockin]

there are a few unis in europe that are free, example norwegian universities. But they all have deadlines which passed.
Here in malta we apply for educational institutions in august, everywhere else they want it in january/ march the latest.

Are all universities like this? with january/march deadlines?... we would not even have a clue as to our results of what ever we are doing in Malta by those dates

[tooosh]

Scottish unis will be free for you, but you still have to pay living costs.

Unis in the UK work with a predicted grade system, where teachers guess what grades you'll get and send them off. Then you get offers, where if you meet the minimum A-levels you get admissino.

[comeflockin]

but as i go through the admission deadlines, i`m finding them all closed, which isnt making sense to me, how do they make deadlines before everyone has recieved their results?
Here in Malta i havent even recieved my results yet, how was i supposed to apply if i receive my results like 3/4months MINIMUM after the deadlines. ?

I have checked all unis from Norway, Sweden, Holland, Finland + many more individual univer.. (from UK, US, germany spain),
the deadlines where all january, latest march... does everyone else in the world receive their results so much bloody earlier than us?... i hadn`t even started my final exams and the deadlines had already passed.

Could you please make me understand???

[tooosh]

You give them PREDICTED grades and they make you offers on those. Predicted grades are made at the end of AS or beginning of A2.

[comeflockin]

hmm we have absolutely nothing like that in Malta, just A level, u do the full 2 years otherwise you get absolutely nothing!

oh, well wouldnt everyone just predict high grades?
Also do you see any hope for me to apply this late to a foreign university?

[MattLBates]

It's simple once you get used to it. You apply in January to multiple Universities and you give them as much information about you as possible, usually done online (through UCAS). Each of the course you apply to has a set of grades you have to acquire. The Universities choose if they want to accept you. Then you sit the exams. When the results come out in August, the Universities you applied to inform you to tell you whether they are satisfied, then you choose the preferred University.

Emmini l-ahjar haga li amilt hija li tlaqt min Malta u gejt naghmel l A-levels awekk.

[MattLBates]

This also means that if you decide to go to Uni in the UK and you have not applied, then you apply in Jan 2013 and attend in Sept 2013

[migulic]

In Belgium you can apply (or rather, register - everyone is allowed to start first year, a lot of people drop out after 1 or 2 semesters) through the end of September. The only exceptions are medicine and dentistry in the Flemish part and engineering in the French part, there are entrance exams for those.

The problem is, almost all bachelor's degree courses are taught either in Dutch or in French - so I guess that's not an option for you?

[Skriblerier]

(Original post by comeflockin)
I have checked all unis from Norway, Sweden, Holland, Finland + many more individual univer.. (from UK, US, germany spain),
the deadlines where all january, latest march... does everyone else in the world receive their results so much bloody earlier than us?... i hadn`t even started my final exams and the deadlines had already passed.

Could you please make me understand???

Norwegian students apply for universities and university colleges early February/March, they recieve their results in June or July after exams in May/June and they are informed of successful applications in July if I remember correctly.

For NUCAS (if you haven't seen it before): http://www.samordnaopptak.no/info/english/

Please remember that even if Scandinavian-based universities and colleges might not cost money like UK universities do, it's still very expensive to live in these countries if you don't have the income of residents or if you're not supported by your own country (especially Norway). Besides, it's cold here.

[comeflockin]

thx for all the info, it was appreciated, but i started thinking about this too late, there where tooo many things to sort out. So I had to abandon the plan.