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Year in the US - worth it?

I'll be doing American Studies at Nottingham from September on and there's the option of doing a 3 year course, or a 4 year one which would include a year in the US. I applied to do the 3 year one, but am now thinking that I might really regret not doing the year abroad, so I asked if they could transfer me to the 4 year one... Haven't heard back yet, so I don't know if it would work, but I was just wondering what everyone else thought?

Originally, I didn't want to do it because I didn't want my studies to take another year longer, but now I think that I wouldn't be able to afford doing a masters in the US, so I should probably really take the chance to go there as part of my BA?! How much of a difference will it make to my CV? Will it be a great advantage? Will it be worth the extra year?

Here's a list of the US unis I could go to:

University of Georgia
University of Illinois
University of California
- Los Angeles
- Irvine
- Santa Barbara
- Berkeley
- Davis
- Riverside
- Santa Cruz
- San Diego
Texas A&M University
College of William & Mary, Virgina
Louisiana State Uni
State Uni New York
-Albany
- Binghampton
College of Charleston, South Carolina
Reed College, Oregon
Middlebury College, Vermont

And then in Canada:
UBC
Calgary
McGill
Toronto

--- but even though I love the idea of going to UBC, I think I'd rather go to the US....

My question is, do you think a year being spent at one of those unis will be worth the year longer your BA would take?
My first choice would be one of the UC's, preferably LA, Berkely or SB... Any advice on those?
Also, which unis would you recommend, which avoid?

But just generally, would it be worth it ?
Thanks! I know it's a long way off, but I think I'll have to decide soon whether I wanna switch to the 4 year course, in case they let me at all...
Thanks! xx

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Sb All The Way!

I've been accepted for a 1 year exchange at SB so I'll let you know how it goes :p:

All reports (from other people here and friends over there) suggest that it's awesome.

Reply 3

Freckles

Yeah, I think I would want to go to one of the UC's how far is SB from LA? How about Irvine and Davis? Do all the UCs have a good reputation? Because I heard not...

And yeah, let me know how your experiences went :p:

Are you doing a 3 year course and still get to go abroad?
Do you think it would be worth doing a 4th year for it?

Schmeeble, I know you did American Studies as well, was this a 4 year course?

I just really need encouragement that it would be an invaluable experience and worth going to uni a year longer for!

Reply 4

arkbar

100 miles NW of LA.
http://www.eap.ucop.edu/reciprocity/undergraduate/ Is a helpful website.
Not all UCs have the same reputation, obviously Berkeley is the highest (5th best in the world and all that) and LA is also a world leader. I'm not sure about the reputation of everywhere.
Yep I'm doing a 3yr course, schmeeble would be the one to ask about a 4yr course :smile:

Reply 5

Freckles

Okay, cool, thanks! It's cool you get to go away for a year and still your BA only takes 3 years! I don't know why Nottingham doesn't do it like that... Maybe so that you can enjoy your year away more and don't have to make certain grades? I dunno... I'll wait for Schmeeble to come back and tell me about it then :P What course are you studying?

Reply 6

fonzievision

For me it'd be a no brainer Middlebury College, Vermont all the way!

Reply 7

Evil Muffin

Hell, yes, its worth it. I was at W&M (until a week ago!) and there was someone from your course there. Spending a year abroad can change your perceptions of the world in so many ways: you meet interesting people, make contacts in other countries and generally get away from humdrum Britain for a while. Its certainly given me the travelling bug too; after graduating, I want to do a TEFL course and teach in Asia for a year (where I now have friends).

Reply 8

Freckles

Well, I got an emailfrom admissions, saying I could change no problem :wink:

So I should do it then?? Arghhh, I can't decide :p:

But I'm beginning to believe you might be right and one more year won't be too bad... After all, that gives me one more year not to have to dealwith job applications etc LOL

Reply 9

Freckles

Also: How tough is the workload in the states? They say I would have to get a C average (minimum) on all my courses to be able to proceed to year 4 of the course when I come back. A C average sounds well doable, isn't it? I mean, I really wouldn't want to have to struggle all year long on order to make the grades... But a C is probably easy to get anyway, isn't it? I don't know about college, but when I went to High School in the US, you usually got a B for a lot less work than here :confused:

Reply 10

Evil Muffin

silkweed

If you do the work, turn in the essays, do the reading assignments you'll get a C average no problem. If you want to see more of america then go to perhaps a university in California versus a liberal arts college such as William and Mary which is a great school, but has a lot of grade deflation and is a bit in the middle of nowhere. :wink:

Agreed

Just scraped a 2:1 after converting my grades for the year :frown:

Reply 11

mbm1087

I would really recommend it, and my first choice would be Middlebury! It's my favorite US school- absolutly beautiful and very international. The campus is lovely- all these old stone buildings, with a really cute VT town. Tons of really cool places (Burlington VT, Montreal, etc) are close by as well. I loved the student body- I found them friendly and down to earth. The classes seemed challenging, but rewarding too!

I live about thirty minutes away from William and Mary, and while it's a great school, it's not my favorite. (Alot of people love it, but it just wasn't for me.) I found the campus to feel a bit small and the location isn't great- it's in the heart of collonial williamsburg which is super touristy. There is not much to do, and it's not very international. (Alot of the students there are from Virginia. There are some international students, but it wasn't nearly as much as Middlebury). The workload is very initense, and alot of my friends there are always stressed out! I have a lot of friends and relatives at W&M and have spent alot of time there as well, but it really isn't my favorite. (Not trying to insult William and Mary! It's a great school, that's just my opinion on it.)

Good luck, and I think a year abroad would be worth it! :smile:

(Oh, and sorry in advance for my terrible spelling!)

Reply 12

Freckles

Thanks so much for the input :smile:

I have signed up for the 4 year programme now and I'll see where I'd end up :smile:

Middlebury does sound great! I never realized it was such a good school, because I hadn't heard of it before! Duh me, I guess :wink:

I'm still all in for California, I think, just cos I wanna go there so badly, but I love the east coast, too :smile:

Any thoughts on the other schools?

Reply 13

schmeeble

I would recommend the four year course completely. I did four years and i found it wonderful. Not only do you get to spend the full year in the states, but i found that when i came back to England my studying habbits had improved and i was a lot more engaged with my course.

Santa Barbara is wonderful, i had an amazing time, it's beautiful and is a very good school and also has a um, how should i say rather 'active' social life!

Reply 14

mbm1087

Hmmm.... I guess if you're looking for something very different from Nottingham, California is probably your best bet. I've studied in both (California- Occidential College, right outside of LA, and England- Cambridge University- Jesus College...both of these were summer programs) and they are very, very different. As an anglophile, I prefer the northeast, but that's just because it reminds me of England. I don't know a whole lot about the universities in California, but my first choice would probably be UCLA because of its location. Good luck! :smile:

Reply 15

mrteacher

i would do the extra year! go for it!!!!

Reply 16

Freckles

Thanks guys :smile:

Reassurance is what I need :biggrin:

I have signed up for the 4 year course now, too :smile:

Let's see where it takes me :p:

mbm1087-- You like LA then? UCLA sort of IS my first choice, I'm just not sure how much I'd enjoy living in LA. Never been to California, the farthest west I went was Salt Lake, so I really don't know, but I totally think I'd love Cali, just not sure about LA...

Reply 17

mbm1087

LA was cool- very different from the east cost (where I live). I saw some celebrities-inlcuding Tom Cruise- and I wasn't even there for very long. There were palm trees every where and the whole thing felt pretty glamorous, alot like how I'd imagined it to be from tv. I think that if you like the California vibe from books, movies, etc, then you'll probably like LA. The only thing I didn't like about LA was how it was so spread out. Unlike New York or London, most people have cars in LA because you really can't walk every where. I've never been to Northern California but I've heard it's really cool as well.

Reply 18

schmeeble

UCLA is gorrrrrrrrrrrgeous, i'm not a fan of LA in general, but having been to UCSB (and loved it) the only thing i found that it lacked was a big collegiate sport atmospher, like LA.. there's no american football team at UCSB which annoyed me somewhat, so if i could reapply now i wmight have put UCLA on my list of choices.

Reply 19

Freckles

I wanna put it as my first choice :biggrin:

Do most people get into their first choice? They told me most people got into one of their top 5, but I dunno... You think that, out of the list I've posted, many people will wanna go to UCLA? I reckon so... Oh well, I'll júst have to come up with an important reason why I have to go there :p: