How is London like? What good universities besides Cambrige and Oxford are there?

well sorry to say you just Flunked Geography-- neither oxford or cambridge are In London Oxford is about 51 Miles from London Cambridge is about 44 Miles from London

The ups and downs of living in a big city are the same as everywhere - I'm a Londoner and I've visited San Francisco so I think I'm safe in saying that. Because of the British Empire and the way it meant that in the past all sorts of people could immigrate here because they all used to be British subjects, all the world is here and if you'd like to explore different cultures and traditions, this is the place to do it. I'm a civil servant working in one of the government ministries and I have 4 staff. One is Indian, one is Sri Lankan, one is Jamaican, and the other is from Ghana. I used to have two more before the last reorganisation and those were Latvian and Ukrainian! Nowhere is perfect but I still love being here. London is an expensive city to live in so don't underestimate the cost. Oxford and Cambridge are of course nowhere near London (though not too far and you can easily "do" either of them in a day trip from London by train). Each consists of about 30 separate colleges in a fairly small town, which totally colours life there, and the old stone college buildings scattered all over them makes them quite a tourist attraction. The University of London, meanwhile, is Britain's only truly federal university and it's pretty much second best to "Oxbridge". Others I would put in that bracket include Durham, Bristol and Manchester. If you want to apply to university here, you have to do it via UCAS at http://www.ucas.ac.uk/ and you will find there that the University of London doesn't apparently exist, because you have to apply to one of its colleges, which are effectively separate universities except that "head office" awards the degrees. http://www.london.ac.uk/colleges_institutes.html gives you the list of them and as you can see, some of them are quite specialist. So it depends what subject you want to do - remember that the UK university system is rather different in that traditionally, you pick one subject and do nothing but that for 3 years. The whole modular and major/minor business is quite a recent innovation here. UCL, King's College and Queen Mary College are the most "generalist" but Queen Mary is in Mile End, which is a scruffier kind of area. The London School of Economics and Political Science, known to everyone as the LSE, also has a very high reputation. What used to be in that list was the Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, where I spent three very happy years getting my BSc in physics. I have a University of London degree but that's because I was there 25 years ago when it was still part of it - it's become an independent university since as it has such a high reputation in its own right. The other one in London I would suggest is the City University, which is best for business subjects. There are other universities in London but they are ex-polytechnics with a more vocational bias and less demanding of high grades to get in. If you can afford it, come and study here. British universities are popular with overseas students as because we specialise in a subject right from the start, the traditional bachelor's degree course is only 3 years long, and especially in London you are likely to meet fellow students from all over the world.

I assume that you know that neither Oxford nor Cambridge are in London, and that you are you not going to be studying English. :-) presumably you have the massive amount of savings required to attend university as a foreign student and support yourself while you are here? Remember that you may be looking at a long and expensive commute on public transport unless you can afford central or halls accommodation. I went to university in London and enjoyed it; lots to see and do without being stuck on a campus, and if you are a history and culture buff you will love it. Wouldn't live there now though, I've learned to like fresh air and peace and quiet.

There are numerous colleges in and around London, including: Imperial College London (probably the 'best' school in the country after Oxford/Cambridge) University College London The London School of Economics King's College I took a one year master's at LSE after finishing college in the US. London is a fascinating city, with more to do than virtually any other place on Earth, though it is also extremely expensive (I went when the dollar was at a historic low against the pound, so it's probably better now, though still definitely not cheap) and sort of cold and not entirely pleasant during the winter. Unless your family is quite wealthy don't count on having a lot of personal space. On the plus side you can meet a lot of people from all over the world--thanks to my time spent at LSE I know multiple people from Kyrgyzstan and Chile for example. It's also very close to Europe--I spent weekends in Rome and Barcelona and backpacked around during spring break.

The best in London are UCL, Imperial and the LSE.