Going on exchange to UK!
Hey guys! I'm an Australian Uni student and I just found out I can get plenty of money from the government/my university if I go on exchange, so I'm applying to come to the UK for uni, but obviously don't really know that much about the UK or the unis here, so wondering if anyone has any advice on where to go, or anything I should know or whatever.
The options I have are University of Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Birmingham, Bristol, University of London, UEA, Nottingham, St Andrew's, Durham.
I'm not doing any particularly important subjects there, so I'm really looking for somewhere that'll be really fun, and have a really good atmosphere. Thinking probably somewhere not too pretentious, since the University I go to is suuuuper pretentious, and even though I love the absolute crap out of it, I reckon it'd be fun to go somewhere where people are a bit more down to earth.
Leaning toward Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham or Birmingham, any thoughts? Anyone want to sell me their university?
The options I have are University of Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Birmingham, Bristol, University of London, UEA, Nottingham, St Andrew's, Durham.
I'm not doing any particularly important subjects there, so I'm really looking for somewhere that'll be really fun, and have a really good atmosphere. Thinking probably somewhere not too pretentious, since the University I go to is suuuuper pretentious, and even though I love the absolute crap out of it, I reckon it'd be fun to go somewhere where people are a bit more down to earth.
Leaning toward Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham or Birmingham, any thoughts? Anyone want to sell me their university?
Welcome to TSR! Which Australian Uni are you at? What are you studying?
St Andrews, Edinburgh, Bristol and Durham are both very 'traditional unis' and tend to attact top applicants and you'll tend to find more private school educated people there than other Unis. They are however all in very 'historic' British towns and would give you an amazing cultural experience - you'll probably never get the same opportunity to live for a whole year in cities that date back to Medieval times ever again in your life, so dont dismiss them as 'posh'.
You need to think about what sort of place and size of place you want to be. Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester etc are big industrial cities in northern England. Lots of facilities/big city shopping etc but will seem massive if you arent used to this size of place. London is hugely expensive! They are also Uni campuses that are spread out over an entire city. Many International students find this a bit unsettling and prefer a more modern 'campus' Uni like UEA.
Have a look at each entry for these Unis on Wikipedia - these will give you a quick idea of the flavour of each Uni, and have a look at the Wikipedia entry for each town/city. You can find videos of the Unis and of the towns/cities on You Tube - again these will be useful for seeing what everything looks like. Try and narrow your choice down to 2 or 3, and then knock two out - this is easier than trying to pick 1 out of 11.
St Andrews, Edinburgh, Bristol and Durham are both very 'traditional unis' and tend to attact top applicants and you'll tend to find more private school educated people there than other Unis. They are however all in very 'historic' British towns and would give you an amazing cultural experience - you'll probably never get the same opportunity to live for a whole year in cities that date back to Medieval times ever again in your life, so dont dismiss them as 'posh'.
You need to think about what sort of place and size of place you want to be. Birmingham, Nottingham, Manchester etc are big industrial cities in northern England. Lots of facilities/big city shopping etc but will seem massive if you arent used to this size of place. London is hugely expensive! They are also Uni campuses that are spread out over an entire city. Many International students find this a bit unsettling and prefer a more modern 'campus' Uni like UEA.
Have a look at each entry for these Unis on Wikipedia - these will give you a quick idea of the flavour of each Uni, and have a look at the Wikipedia entry for each town/city. You can find videos of the Unis and of the towns/cities on You Tube - again these will be useful for seeing what everything looks like. Try and narrow your choice down to 2 or 3, and then knock two out - this is easier than trying to pick 1 out of 11.
(edited 10 years ago)
I'd suggest avoiding St Andrews and UEA - they're both in small, relatively isolated towns that aren't particularly well connected. My overriding memory of Norwich (where UEA is) was finding that almost everything was shut at 8pm on a Tuesday, including almost all the food options. Also, the campus is an ugly concrete monstrosity. St Andrews might be pretty but it's not even got a train station, and your nightlife options would be distinctly limited.
Durham and Bristol have reputations for having a high proportion of privately educated Oxbridge rejects. Not entirely fair, and Bristol is a lovely city (it's my hometown; never been to Durham though) but something to consider anyway.
London is incredibly expensive, and not really worth the extra money imho. You can have the cheaper / better lifestyle elsewhere and visit London to do the touristy things when you wish. Plus, because of the expense, you tend to find that people are very spread out in terms of where they live, so you lose the student village effect that you get elsewhere (at this point I'll mention that I know it isn't the case in Australia, but in England about 80% of students leave home for uni, in Scotland it's more like 60%).
Manchester, Glasgow, Nottingham, Birmingham and Edinburgh are all places that I think you could be happy at, so at this point I'm going to put in a plug for Manchester. It's my own uni, and I've been very happy there. Very well connected (eg 2 hours to London on the train), lots going on, relatively close to the city centre, fantastic nightlife, low cost of living, ranks very well internationally (40th or so in the world, depending on what league table you use), and a more normal proportion of privately educated students. Unless you want a beach, or to be in a relatively rural location, Manchester had everything you could ever want really
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Durham and Bristol have reputations for having a high proportion of privately educated Oxbridge rejects. Not entirely fair, and Bristol is a lovely city (it's my hometown; never been to Durham though) but something to consider anyway.
London is incredibly expensive, and not really worth the extra money imho. You can have the cheaper / better lifestyle elsewhere and visit London to do the touristy things when you wish. Plus, because of the expense, you tend to find that people are very spread out in terms of where they live, so you lose the student village effect that you get elsewhere (at this point I'll mention that I know it isn't the case in Australia, but in England about 80% of students leave home for uni, in Scotland it's more like 60%).
Manchester, Glasgow, Nottingham, Birmingham and Edinburgh are all places that I think you could be happy at, so at this point I'm going to put in a plug for Manchester. It's my own uni, and I've been very happy there. Very well connected (eg 2 hours to London on the train), lots going on, relatively close to the city centre, fantastic nightlife, low cost of living, ranks very well internationally (40th or so in the world, depending on what league table you use), and a more normal proportion of privately educated students. Unless you want a beach, or to be in a relatively rural location, Manchester had everything you could ever want really
Posted from TSR Mobile
Hey, thanks for the replies! I currently go to the University of Melbourne. I looked it up, and Melbourne is actually technically bigger than any of the UK cities except London, although it's very spread out, so I think somewhere biggish would probably suit me. The student village atmosphere sounds nice, but it always frustrates me when things close really early, because I tend to wake up late, and do things late. I like going out quite a bit, so Manchester appeals to me in that respect. The only thing is that one girl I spoke to said it doesn't have as much of a community feel, because it doesn't have a proper campus, is that something that you found, or just that person's experience?
London does put me off by being expensive, someone at Holloway said it wasn't too bad, because it's just outside the city, but I think I'd rather spend the money on something else, plus I kind of think it'd be cool to learn about a smaller place, get to know the atmosphere of somewhere less huge than London, if that makes sense?
I guess the medieval town things is kind of cool, but then Manchester is kind of cool in it's history of being the centre of the industrial revolution. I dunno, I find something cool about the whole Northern industrial thing.
I didn't realise that Bristol was a posh, historic, uni, the only thing I knew about Bristol was skins, and I'd heard there were a lot of chavvy types around there, so I guess that changes my attitude a bit.
I think that makes me think it'll be between Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, or maybe Edinburgh. I went to Edinburgh last year and it was just so pretty, it's hard to knock off.
London does put me off by being expensive, someone at Holloway said it wasn't too bad, because it's just outside the city, but I think I'd rather spend the money on something else, plus I kind of think it'd be cool to learn about a smaller place, get to know the atmosphere of somewhere less huge than London, if that makes sense?
I guess the medieval town things is kind of cool, but then Manchester is kind of cool in it's history of being the centre of the industrial revolution. I dunno, I find something cool about the whole Northern industrial thing.
I didn't realise that Bristol was a posh, historic, uni, the only thing I knew about Bristol was skins, and I'd heard there were a lot of chavvy types around there, so I guess that changes my attitude a bit.
I think that makes me think it'll be between Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, or maybe Edinburgh. I went to Edinburgh last year and it was just so pretty, it's hard to knock off.
Original post by alejandro_o
Hey guys! I'm an Australian Uni student and I just found out I can get plenty of money from the government/my university if I go on exchange, so I'm applying to come to the UK for uni, but obviously don't really know that much about the UK or the unis here, so wondering if anyone has any advice on where to go, or anything I should know or whatever.
The options I have are University of Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Birmingham, Bristol, University of London, UEA, Nottingham, St Andrew's, Durham.
I'm not doing any particularly important subjects there, so I'm really looking for somewhere that'll be really fun, and have a really good atmosphere. Thinking probably somewhere not too pretentious, since the University I go to is suuuuper pretentious, and even though I love the absolute crap out of it, I reckon it'd be fun to go somewhere where people are a bit more down to earth.
Leaning toward Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham or Birmingham, any thoughts? Anyone want to sell me their university?
The options I have are University of Manchester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Birmingham, Bristol, University of London, UEA, Nottingham, St Andrew's, Durham.
I'm not doing any particularly important subjects there, so I'm really looking for somewhere that'll be really fun, and have a really good atmosphere. Thinking probably somewhere not too pretentious, since the University I go to is suuuuper pretentious, and even though I love the absolute crap out of it, I reckon it'd be fun to go somewhere where people are a bit more down to earth.
Leaning toward Edinburgh, Manchester, Nottingham or Birmingham, any thoughts? Anyone want to sell me their university?
I have a second cousin at Manchester, but I was told that she mainly went there for Brian Cox...not sure how true that is.
I'm at Bristol, so I'll be biased. There are quite a few ex-private school students, but state educated people like me do exist! To be honest, you can't usually tell the difference unless it comes up in conversation.
You'll hear about the Oxbridge reject thing, but I don't think that we're particularly special in that regard. a good proportion of people who apply to Russell Group unis will have also applied to Oxbridge, and most of them will fail to get in. That's just the way the system works, and I don't see why having people who applied to Oxbridge at your uni should be a negative thing.
When you say University of London, which bit do you mean? You can't apply to all the institutions in it, and they are all quite different!
EDIT: I went to Bristol from London, no complaints.
(edited 10 years ago)
That's fair enough, it's just at Melbourne Uni you get a lot of really pretentious snobby kids, and sometimes they're really nice, but it's also kind of annoying, and can be hard to relate to when you're not from that background at all. Idk about over there, but here it seems like they all grew up in this little rich private school bubble and can be hard to relate to them, and sometimes they have so much ignorance about anything outside of that bubble.
But anyway, quick question, how many subjects usually amounts to a credit point? so 60 credit points is how many subjects? It says you should have studied 200 subject points to take subjects in most areas, how much is that?
But anyway, quick question, how many subjects usually amounts to a credit point? so 60 credit points is how many subjects? It says you should have studied 200 subject points to take subjects in most areas, how much is that?
If you want to avoid the 'snotty college thing' that Melbourne's rich kids all seem to want to belong to, avoid Durham and St Andrews as they are the same.
Manchester Uni might suit you as it has a similar academic atmosphere to Melbourne, and if you want nightlife etc, it could be good - PS. it also has trams. Edinburgh if you want the 'scottish experience' - its a beautiful looking Uni and you'd get to see some snow in winter. Bristol if you want to be closer to London - btw, Bristol is an older Georgian city, good nightlife and lots to do. Chavs are not an issue - where did that come from?
Any idea what 'sort' of History units you might be interested in - modern, medieval, european etc? Remember, each Uni will have a specialism.
Manchester Uni might suit you as it has a similar academic atmosphere to Melbourne, and if you want nightlife etc, it could be good - PS. it also has trams. Edinburgh if you want the 'scottish experience' - its a beautiful looking Uni and you'd get to see some snow in winter. Bristol if you want to be closer to London - btw, Bristol is an older Georgian city, good nightlife and lots to do. Chavs are not an issue - where did that come from?
Any idea what 'sort' of History units you might be interested in - modern, medieval, european etc? Remember, each Uni will have a specialism.
PS, Credit Points - basic info here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_Accumulation_and_Transfer_Scheme
Dont get hung up on counting up if you have the right number of points. 120 points a year in the standard for a UK degree, so what they are trying to say with 'minimum 200' is 'you must have done a sensible amount of history courses before you get here and not be in your first year at Uni'. If you have enough of a bias towards history in your Melbourne degree you should be fine.
Dont get hung up on counting up if you have the right number of points. 120 points a year in the standard for a UK degree, so what they are trying to say with 'minimum 200' is 'you must have done a sensible amount of history courses before you get here and not be in your first year at Uni'. If you have enough of a bias towards history in your Melbourne degree you should be fine.
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by sparrowhawk4
I have a second cousin at Manchester, but I was told that she mainly went there for Brian Cox...not sure how true that is.
If it's true, it wasn't particularly wise. He's only recently started teaching again (one 10 credit module to first years, that's all he does) and according to friends who took that module, if you email him looking for academic help with that module, you get an email back telling you to go through his PR company....
Original post by alejandro_o
Hey, thanks for the replies! I currently go to the University of Melbourne. I looked it up, and Melbourne is actually technically bigger than any of the UK cities except London, although it's very spread out, so I think somewhere biggish would probably suit me. The student village atmosphere sounds nice, but it always frustrates me when things close really early, because I tend to wake up late, and do things late. I like going out quite a bit, so Manchester appeals to me in that respect. The only thing is that one girl I spoke to said it doesn't have as much of a community feel, because it doesn't have a proper campus, is that something that you found, or just that person's experience?
I guess the medieval town things is kind of cool, but then Manchester is kind of cool in it's history of being the centre of the industrial revolution. I dunno, I find something cool about the whole Northern industrial thing.
I guess the medieval town things is kind of cool, but then Manchester is kind of cool in it's history of being the centre of the industrial revolution. I dunno, I find something cool about the whole Northern industrial thing.
I don't think that there's a problem with it not being a campus uni. All of the academic buildings are pretty compact within the city (though some of the engineering buildings are a short walk away) and accommodation is no further than 1.8 miles away. Everything that you'll ever want as a student is contained along a 3 mile stretch of road (Oxford / Wilmslow Road), which also happens to be the busiest bus route in Europe. Second and third years tend to live around the Rusholme / Fallowfield / Withington areas, which is effectively where the student village is located. I've never felt that there's a lack of community at all, to be honest, but different people find different things.
You can definitely find a lot of history in Manchester - Cottonopolis did not pass without leaving its architectural mark on the city, and nor did many other aspects of history (there are even Roman ruins in the city centre, around Castlefields).
I didn't realise that Bristol was a posh, historic, uni, the only thing I knew about Bristol was skins, and I'd heard there were a lot of chavvy types around there, so I guess that changes my attitude a bit.
Ah yes, I'd forgotten that Skins had made its way to Australia. Turning on the TV in the NT and seeing a pond less than a mile from where I grew up, where I used to play as a child, was a bit jarring! Skins is basically the life that we all aspired to when we were in the sixth form. The Inbetweeners was rather closer to reality I'm afraid!
There are rough bits of Bristol, as there are in all cities, but to be honest Bristol students inhabit some of the nicest parts of Bristol (Clifton / Redland / Cotham / Stoke Bishop) where you don't really get much by way of chavvy types.
Original post by returnmigrant
If you want to avoid the 'snotty college thing' that Melbourne's rich kids all seem to want to belong to, avoid Durham and St Andrews as they are the same.
Manchester Uni might suit you as it has a similar academic atmosphere to Melbourne, and if you want nightlife etc, it could be good - PS. it also has trams. Edinburgh if you want the 'scottish experience' - its a beautiful looking Uni and you'd get to see some snow in winter. Bristol if you want to be closer to London - btw, Bristol is an older Georgian city, good nightlife and lots to do. Chavs are not an issue - where did that come from?
Any idea what 'sort' of History units you might be interested in - modern, medieval, european etc? Remember, each Uni will have a specialism.
Manchester Uni might suit you as it has a similar academic atmosphere to Melbourne, and if you want nightlife etc, it could be good - PS. it also has trams. Edinburgh if you want the 'scottish experience' - its a beautiful looking Uni and you'd get to see some snow in winter. Bristol if you want to be closer to London - btw, Bristol is an older Georgian city, good nightlife and lots to do. Chavs are not an issue - where did that come from?
Any idea what 'sort' of History units you might be interested in - modern, medieval, european etc? Remember, each Uni will have a specialism.
haha I actually went to Manchester briefly and couldn't understand their tram system at all. They seemed to run more like trains, very different to Melbourne.
And the chavs in Bristol thing was because I knew this English girl briefly who used to put on her "Bristol chav" voice for our amusement at parties.
I think I'll have to talk to the course advisors to work out subjects and credit points and things, because at the moment it all seems really confusing.
But yeah, Skins is pretty popular here, even though when it was on in Melbourne it was on at like 11.30pm on SBS. For some reason I always had the idea that they'd deliberately chosen a rough place to base Skins, and that kind of formed my opinion of Bristol. But then, when I saw Durham on the list I immediately thought of Billy Elliot, and when I looked up the university it was not what I expected at all....
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