Advice for studying abroad in the UK

I live in Canada right now and I am considering spending a year on an exchange program to study in the UK. Below is the list of the universities I can choose from. Please give me some opinions about some of the better ones. I would prefer a medium-sized university (not too big) with MINIMAL international students (fewer asians please because I'm asian) - i want to make local Brit friends! =P Close distance to good shopping would be a bonus too!!! Thanks!! PS i'm studying sciences/pre-med but i'd rather have a good "exchange of culture" experience in general rather than to study a lot so it's not too important to go to a university for the sciences specifically.

Heriot-Watt University
University of Aberdeen
University of Birmingham
University of East Anglia
University of Edinburgh
University of Glasgow
University of Manchester
University of Nottingham
University of Wales, Bangor
University of Wales, Swansea
University of Warwick

Reply 1

saintjude

The best ones are probably Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Nottingham and Warwick, so it's either Scotland or the Midlands. What do you fancy? If you check the websites it will probably tell you the proportion of international students in a table somewhere - at a guess I'd say the Scottish ones would have more because since it's 4 years it fits better with the US system and so might have more Americans - don't know though. They're all in decent large towns or cities except Warwick, which is in the middle of nowhere.

Reply 2

krazy

hey saintjude thanks for replying - if you'd like it'd be awesome if you could check out http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/t173358.html for me too! =P

I hear Birmingham not so good . i'm considering edinburgh. glasgow no one has really mentioned yet! manchester seems good too. nottingham i'm considering although someone mentioned crime ? warwick i hear has the best reputation out of them all, although it might be too big for me and with too many international students. i don't mind being in the suburbs as long as theres a city close by i can visit once in a while!

Reply 3

recurring

University of Birmingham
University of Edinburgh
University of Manchester
University of Nottingham
University of Warwick

On reputation, i would recommend those. Birmingham has quite a lot of asians. Manchester will have lots of shopping etc, it's north in England. Edinburgh is a beautiful city in Scotland with an excellent academic reputation. Warwick is a bit in the middle of nowhere with ugly buildings, but nonetheless an excellent reputation. Nottingham also has a decent reputation but is a bit of a rough city. Hope that helps. I would go for Edinburgh/Manchester/Nottingham but thats just me.

Reply 4

anna_tucker

Krazy...not much to add except i've done the opposite to you and am on exchange in canada this year (alberta)....BUT does your current uni have a 'study abroad' office like here at the U of A? I think they carrie a lot of the current propectuses and can also put you in touch with people who are at each of those universities who are currently on exchange in canada.