American Interested in UK Uni

Get used to it. You want to come to thr Uk? You'll have to deal with worse than me. I think you're in a little dream bubble about the British Isles.

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Is there any way to kick a user out of a thread? *cough* Arnamdo

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Don't worry about this guy, he's either trolling/flaming or an idiot. However you might want to read up on the UK and UK university's before you come other. Quite a few of your views are based on stereotypes.

I had a small dream of heading out to the US a couple months ago...but then didbmy research went out there to look at some colleges but decided that the UK was my best bet.

In my research though. I found that the US-UK Fulbright commission are an excellent resource in helping uk students go to america and Americans to come to the uk. Give them a ring or send an email. They are honestly the best people to give you advise.

They also have a full bright commission scholarship if your very smart and can prove it.... But think thats for those who want to do post grad here

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(Why do so many Americans study at St Andrews? Apart from anything else, it's blooming miles from the nearest airport :-D)

Thanks for the info! I'll definitely check out those links. So are the post-92 institutions not as good then?
I always thought St. Andrew's was pretty elite and very hard to get into. And an international school, so it'd probably be appealing to American students.

Is there any sort of financial aid for international students? Also, I think I read it would be about the same ($34,000) to go to Edinburgh. So much, yet still way cheaper than an American private school....

Ooh, and Edinburgh and Glasgow are a part of it

Thanks! I'll send them a message inquiring about my situation.
I notice Aberdeen isn't on the list, is it still considered a good school?
I ask because it's only $20000

Hi all,

Sorry if this isn't the right section. I would have posted this over in the Universities thread but as I'm not decided on any one school or location I thought over here might be more general.
A bit about myself- I'm an American student, about to start my second year in uni here in the US. However, I'm looking to transfer after my 2nd year and finish my undergrad studies at a uni which has a better program for my interests. I started looking into UK schools when I found out they're much cheaper than American unis, which are pretty expensive. I'm hoping to study/major in Environmental Studies or Science, as I'm interested in Environmental Planning and conservation.
From what research I've done it seems as though there are a lot of schools in the UK which are well thought of. At the moment, the only school I know much about is University of Edinburgh.
Does anyone have any recommendations for my search?

It just seems from what I've read that (as I told Arnamdo) these days you want least expensive+best education. I commute to my current school, am living with my parents, there are about 20,000 students. So that's part of it, that I want to go to a smaller school where I feel less like one fish in a big ocean of fish. This is going a bit off topic but I just don't see any opportunities from finishing it out at the school I'm at, which is only mediocre. Any job I'd get would probably be in this city, and I'd be stuck living with my parents, whom are strict, until I'm at least 24 or 25. Some schools have reputations for being good at career services.
When I originally applied to schools I applied for a few that I could never get into, as my mom urged me to, a few local ones, and a few other schools which were expensive but mediocre. So I ended up at a mediocre local one. After that happened, I decided to spend two years at public school then transfer to a better school to save money (instead of being at the better school for 4 years). Better schools here=private schools=$$$


I'm sorry if I offended you. I've just always had the perception that education in the UK, and elsewhere, before university is better than here. It just seems like every European (sorry to lump again, but my experiences are limited) I've met is proficient at English, their native language, and occasionally another language.
Again, I'm sorry if I offended you. I've just always been so envious of how easy it must be to travel to a completely different country when you live there. That's so much opportunity.

(As for the languages- it's also a stereotype that British people *don't* speak other languages: in the "good old days" you needed at least a C at GCSE in a modern foreign language to go to university - far from fluency I grant you, but an improvement at least now. My brothers and I are all fluent in at least one other language in addition to English - with all three of us, it's a different non-European language- and we're from pre-Norman English stock on both sides: not statistically relevant I grant you, but shows that the "English are so bad at languages" is a stereotype just as much as some of the things you've been pulled up for suggesting."

Hi all,

Sorry if this isn't the right section. I would have posted this over in the Universities thread but as I'm not decided on any one school or location I thought over here might be more general.
A bit about myself- I'm an American student, about to start my second year in uni here in the US. However, I'm looking to transfer after my 2nd year and finish my undergrad studies at a uni which has a better program for my interests. I started looking into UK schools when I found out they're much cheaper than American unis, which are pretty expensive. I'm hoping to study/major in Environmental Studies or Science, as I'm interested in Environmental Planning and conservation.
From what research I've done it seems as though there are a lot of schools in the UK which are well thought of. At the moment, the only school I know much about is University of Edinburgh.
Does anyone have any recommendations for my search?

It isn't a stereotype, the vast majority of British people don't speak other languages. Having a GCSE in a language means nothing, lots of people I know who did GCSEs in French would now have trouble counting to 20. I didn't say Brits can't learn other languages - given the right circumstances anyone can learn a second language. The reason Europeans in general speak English in addition to their own language is because they have been exposed to British/American TV, films, music and pop culture from a young age - most of this isn't dubbed but will have subtitles instead. Unfortunately British people aren't exposed to French/German/Spanish culture in the same way, so it is much harder to learn.

How did you and your brothers learn this non-European language? I'm willing to bet it wasnt at school, or if it was, you attended private language lessons.

One of my brothers it was at school, through the regular GCSE/A level route (as well, of course, as spending time in the country later); the other took free language classes at university and then got a scholarship for a programme in that country, and I worked overseas for a number of years.

I genuinely don't know the figures for Brits speaking more than one language, but if you think about the number of second and third generation families we have here, I think it would be high: a lot of people speak English with a perfect regional accent, but also speak another language at home with their families. Plus, I realise it's not representative of the country as a whole, but the majority of my colleagues speak at least one other language fluently (admittedly, mostly European languages, the majority French and/or German) - and we have no modern languages departments within our institutions. Both of my parents only speak English, but a lot of their peers are also extremely competent to totally fluent in other languages, mainly European but also Hindi, Urdu, Cantonese and Farsi.

I'm not disagreeing totally with you: but I think it's a stereotype that often simply isn't correct, and I think it's harsh to come down on someone for their stereotypical attitudes about the British whilst perpetrating the same.

Obviously I am not talking about people who speak foreign languages at home. That is an unfair comparison because such people are brought up to speak their language at home, they learn passively in the same way we learnt English - in a sense they didn't have to learn at all, they just picked it up. I am talking about British people who only speak English at home.

Perhaps your generation was lucky, perhaps you had good teachers, perhaps your work colleagues are an anomaly. All I can say is that nobody in my extended family, none of my friends or their families speak a foreign language. When I tell people that I'm teaching myself French or that I'm going to do a languages degree at university, I am met with completely blank faces. I didn't study languages in primary school, nor did I take them to GCSE level because my school decided it wouldn't even offer languages to 2/3 of the year group (thank you Tony Blair). Maybe my generation has just been very unlucky, but certainly languages hardly featured in my education.

Have a look at Queen's University Belfast, they are trying to attract more international students so you might have a good chance of getting into year 3 here than most good English and Scottish unis that have more international students. I'm almost sure they offer bursaries for international students too! Queen's is a good Russell group university and Belfast is a beautiful city .

Also you could look into the University of Ulster which although it's Russell Group is still a really good uni. They are also trying to attract more international students so that could give you a chance.

Btw the reason they are trying to attract more international students isn't because they are bad unis it's just because they are made up of a lot of Northern Irish and UK compared to international students

Don't bother! Even if there are bursaries available it isn't going to make it worth it. Fact is Northern Ireland hasn't moved on as much as people seem to think. Some of them are nice but in general they're a bitter bunch and they don't welcome outsiders. Well they'll say hello and be polite but they won't want anything much to do with you. All the cliques that go out together are all Northern Irish and have known each other for years. The locals probably have a great time when they come to uni in belfast but if you're an outsider then you'll stay that way for as long as you live here. You'll never fit in or feel at home, you'll always be "that foreigner". I know this sounds really terrible but I'm not exaggerating. Really for your happiness and your sanity go to England or Scotland if you want a UK uni.
Anyone who tells you that "Belfast has great craic" they're having you on!

Are you even from Northern Ireland?

Unlucky enough to have made the decision to live here

Where abouts?
My experience up here in Londonderry is that everyone loves Americans, Canadians and Italians

England, they sure don't love the English!
In general I wouldn't recommend it. There's nothing in Northern Ireland that isn't bigger and better on the mainland. You're far more likely to fit in and make close friends in England or Scotland.
In Northern Ireland they'll say hello and be polite but they have their own cliques and outsiders are not welcome. They all go home at the weekends too. Honestly I'm not saying any of this out of badness. Nothing against Northern Irish people but a Northern Irish uni isn't the place for an international student to settle and be happy and make lots of friends.
It's a real struggle even for an Englishman.

I'm Northern Irish....
Protestants would tend to like English people, Catholics not so much because they see them as the enemy however this has no affect on American etc.
And the English are just as if not more racist than the Northern Irish, a shop in England wouldn't serve me because I was wearing a PSNI cadet jumper.

Ii was just stating that this person would have a better bet at getting into QUB or UU as a third year student than any good mainland uni