University in UK?

One of my friends from America went to college in Britain. Admissions was solely based off of his IB scores. He went to Birmingham, and they accepted applicants with a minimum of 32 cumulative points [including exams, TOK paper, CAS notebook, etc]. Things like extracurriculars weren't factored into the decisions. SATs definitely won't matter. I'd say your best bet is to first research colleges that have the programs/ majors you're interested in, in the locations you'd like. Then email the admissions people to ask about minimum IB scores to gauge the difficulty of acceptance.

http://www.yaledailynews.com/scene/scene-cover/2010/04/23/whats-better-oxfords-depth-or-yales-breadth/

Schmod is incorrect on the campus front, lots of universities have campuses. I'd say the majority of town universities in fact. Birmingham, UEA (Norwich), Essex, Sussex, Nottingham just to name a few. My apologies, and thanks for the correction -- my experiences with UK Unis are somewhat narrow. I guess the point I had is to not expect a campus, like you would of an American University. I went to St Andrews, which had several "campuses" dispersed throughout the town (as well as a number of standalone buildings). The word "campus" was never used. Seconded on mippy's job advice. I stayed in the US primarily to have better job and graduate school prospects, based upon the advice of a faculty adviser. Based upon the American UK graduates that I know, I can say that this advice was flat-out wrong -- this advice is admittedly anecdotal, but there is the important caveat that a degree from a UK university provides you access to one of the easier paths to getting a visa to work in the UK, should you choose to do that after graduation.

" 2. I think that in the UK, as in a lot of Europe, you enter a specific degree program and are expect to stick with that." Not all of them - Lancaster for one suggests students choose three subjects in first year and then specialise afterward. But yes, this is true of most universities here. You can change course but this can be difficult due to missing out on required modules/papers that happen in the first year. Many universities offer joint honours or 'combined studies' which are more flexible. Oxford is not the be all and end all, and if you want to do non-traditional subjects it will be no good to you anyway - though if you choose economics you could do a lot worse. London School of Economics would be great for you, and has an excellent reputation, but bear in mind that living in London is very expensive (i wanted to apply to LSE until I started thinking about how I'd actually *live*). I moved here after university to work, I'm on a reasonable salary, but I still have to think about what I spend and even as a city person I find the urban sprawl a little overwhelming sometimes. Definitely try and visit anywhere you're seriously considering so you can get a feel for the city - after all, the city is your home as much as your school. I went to Manchester, an excellent university in a large city (Glasgow and Manchester are the largest cities outside London with the advantage of being cheaper to live in) which has so much for students to do - I knew a few American students there as they're part of the Fulbright program. I can't tell you much about the economics programme (you should be able to read up on any courses on university websites) but I took courses in the same faculty and they have some excellent, well-reknowned tutors. Generally in the UK, the equivalent to the Ivy League is the Russell Group, which are seen as 'the best' universities, but there is some degree of snobbery around that, particularly as they concentrate on traditionally academic courses which is not what everybody wants or needs from higher education.They tend to be oversubscribed. Given the choice again I would go to Manchester, but Edinburgh is a gorgeous city too. I don't understand SAT/GPAs so afraid I can't advise there. UCAS is how UK students apply to university but I don't know how this applies overseas. Schooling - in the UK our equivalent of 'seniors' don't take the whole class programme you would but concentrate on three or four subjects for 'A-level'. You may find you have a more rounded but less specialised education, but the jump from school to degree is not going to feel any more challenging. If you're genuinely interested in your subject you will do fine. Housing - students move into halls of residence, which can either be on-campus or further out. Second and third years tend to share accommodation with friends (iona says most people live in college - this is an Oxford/Cambridge thing. I much preferred having my own house, cooking my own food, feeling like an adult and part of the city. Some like to not worry about that and get on with studying.) Some halls are catered, some are not but will have a kitchen (you will need to get your own plates etc). Beware private halls as these are very expensive. When I was a student (2000-2003) internet connection was a fixed annual fee in halls but this has probably changed now with wifi being common. Halls are great places ot make friends, but miserable if you don't get on with your flatmates. Remember drinking is legal from 18 here so a lot of the student lifestyle revolves around drinking- good way to break the ice, but can be dispiriting if you're not into it. (Many UKers start drinking when underage so most have got the binge-drinking thing out of their system by 18.) We don't have sororities or fraternities here. Nobody cares about college sports except for the people who play them. A depressing proportion of students don't really care that much about their course and only about doing the minimum work possible to get A Degree on their resume, but perhaps I was a grumpy person as a student - and I'm sure the same applies in the US too. I think the biggest problem for you will be the same you will find when moving country at any time - you won't be familiar with your surroundings and may end up spending more on things than you need to, say. Expect things to be more expensive, even in familiar stores (Gap, for example, take the dollar sign off their prices and replace it with a pound.). In large university towns you will be able to find plenty of things geared for students and student budgets - nights out, bookstores with used sections, etc. There's a website called The Student Room which is a forum for UK entrants - could be worth looking at. "It's great if you want an easy degree but not so great if you want a competitive degree particularly if you want to work in a country other than England." This is complete rubbish. Many of my contemporaries are now working overseas - some at Fortune 500 companies, some even in Scotland. I had twenty hours a week class time in my final year, plus a part time job (necessary), which is a lot when outside class time is factored in. Your degree is what you put into it.

As always, league tables are dubious at best, but the UK has several universities at/near the top of the international ones. A short term is not, per se, a sign of an easy course. If that were true, Oxford and Cambridge would be the easiest degrees in the world. Grade inflation is a problem, but the more serious problem from the point-of-view of someone considering a graduate degree, especially outside of the UK, is the lack of granularity with with grades are assigned (basically "Excellent", "Good" and "OK" are the three possibilities). Universities have become more cooperative in providing more detailed transcripts in recent years. If you spend your time well at somewhere like Oxbridge or LSE, I would not anticipate problems getting into a graduate program in the U.S. "You will have to go well beyond what is formally asked of you by your program of study if want to get into a good graduate program elsewhere" is good advice wherever you end up. Many of the best universities will not lead you to water and make you drink when it comes to excelling in your preparation for graduate school, but the best -- and that includes several in the UK -- provide the opportunities for an international-calibre preparation. In fact, at least in the sciences, it is probably easier to go from UK undergrad to a US grad school, rather than the other way around. Many UK departments are (wrongly!) concerned about what they see as a lack of focus and depth in a US major. Unless you really are an Anglophile, I would not necessarily recommend Birmingham over Harvard, for example, but there are benefits to going somewhere else for undergrad, where ever you go. You demonstrate initiative and gain experience, contacts and broadened horizons that employers (and graduate programs) welcome.

This isn't directly relevent to your questions but I would advise you to take a good hard look at class time and course requirements you will get in your prospective degree program. Some English universities offer very abbreviated terms (10 weeks) with hardly any hours per week and have absurdly easy exam setups (weeks of study time before final exams - re-sits for failure). It's great if you want an easy degree but not so great if you want a competitive degree particularly if you want to work in a country other than England. Grade inflation is also pretty crazy here so your degree qualification will not provide much in the way of discriminant information - you will have to go well beyond what is formally asked of you by your program of study if want to get into a good graduate program elsewhere.

Warning: I was an undergrad and postgrad at Oxford, so take all this with a pinch of salt. 1. No. Get a place and you get a visa : ) 2. It's not impossible to switch, but it is difficult, and it often costs time. (And at most universities you can't finish a degree any time of year other than June, so if you fall back, that's a full year, not a semester.) Of course it depends on the old and new subjects, as other people have pointed out. My basic recommendation is: if you want to try subjects or you're expecting to change majors then perhaps England and Wales are not for you (Scotland is more modular, and different.) The one exception are broad courses like Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, or Natural Sciences at Cambridge. In both of these you drill down over the three (or four, respectively) years. There are courses like these at other universities. 3. Post here! Given your background, you should start with the "Russell Group", which are the top 20, and cross reference that with newspaper league tables/books that discuss the social aspects. Universities outside that group have pockets of excellence, particularly at graduate level, and should not be dismissed, but that's as good a place as any to start. 4. If you want to be in a world city like New York then of course London is your only option, and LSE is the best place to do hard humanities like economics in London. My impression is that, (i) LSE is a very international school (ii) LSE is a sometimes characterized as a graduate school with an undergraduate school attached (iii) London is crazy expensive. Other London options include UCL and Kings. Imperial College is a top London school, but it's a science university. Edinburgh (and its University) is great, but I don't know the education system there. Manchester and Birmingham are the big English cities outside London. Smaller English/Welsh cities with good unis include Sheffield, Cardiff, Leeds, Bristol, and Brighton. Bear in mind that an English city with a population of, say, 500,000 has a very different character to a US city of the same size. You should really visit these places if you're considering applying, as they are unlike anywhere in the US. Finally, while LSE has a strong reputation in your particular subject at undergrad, I think the Oxford has the strongest reputation of all, thanks to it's PPE course, which I think is perfect for you given your broader/undetermined interests. It's 50 minutes from London by train. It's a very unusual town, and students there lead much more university-oriented social lives than anywhere else in the UK, especially London, which may not be what you're looking for though. 5+8. I don't think the UK's reputation for an extremely challenging undergraduate system is deserved, to be honest. I have interviewed US undergrads for admission to Oxford in physics. True, the kind of 17 year old who shows the initiative to apply to university in another hemisphere is probably not representative of the general population of 17 year olds, but put it like this: all the ones I interviewed got places, and they were among the strongest applicants I have ever spoken to. IBs are generally considered more rigorous too, which won't hurt your chances. Your IB background will not be a problem, and will be familiar to most Russell Group admissions offices. So here's my advice: if it wouldn't be a waste of time for you to apply to Ivy League schools, Columbia, Stanford, UC Berkeley, or the top liberal arts colleges, then the top 10 universities in the UK, including Oxford and Cambridge are certainly not beyond your reach. Re: economics, not all secondary schools in the UK offer this as an A level (= AP). This means economics departments don't usually require it in their admissions process, and they don't assume it in their first year. They teach it from scratch. A good way of assessing whether this is going to be a problem is to look at the course you are interested, and see what, if any, A levels they insist on for someone coming from a UK background. 6. UK universities love Non-E.U. students because they pay full fees (£5-20k/pa, depending on university, subject, etc.), and are a big part of what keeps the UK higher education system solvent! Because of this, very few universities will waive fees, never mind pay them on your behalf. Only the very richest institutions offer scholarships at undergraduate level for non-E.U. students: Oxford, Cambridge. Visit their websites. LSE, which others have mentioned, is a very international school, so they may have some too. You may be able to find private or Governmental scholarships too. http://www.fulbright.co.uk/study-in-the-uk is an example. I know http://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/ keeps databases of these, so you could send them an email or give them a call. 7. UCAS is the organization with which you place your application. You fill in one application for, which you can submit to up to six universities (you cannot apply to both Oxford and Cambridge, and there are some other restrictions depending on subject, but that's the basic idea.) They pass it on to the universities, and most of the later correspondence regarding offers/rejections will go through them. Some universities ask for additional testing, or like to interview candidates (likely a phone/Skype interview in your case), in which case they will be in touch directly. But as far as your concerned, UCAS is a form you fill in and an address you get emails from. 9. They are very different, but then US undergrad classes are very different to US high school classes. And colleges in the US differ greatly in their approaches in the US, never mind comparing continents! In general, the approach in the UK is more consistent among universities, and in terms of lectures and smaller classes, not unlike the US approach (putting aside the fact that you "declare your major" at 17, and are not as free to design your own course). The exceptions are, as ever, Oxford and Cambridge, which emphasize the "tutorial approach". Here's an article on the http://www.williams.edu/admin/news/chronicle/, which explains the idea in US English ; ) 10. Yes, for freshman everywhere. "Halls of residence" are either catered or uncatered. Up to you. The usual exception: Oxford and Cambridge halls are pretty much all catered, and students there often (but are not obliged to) live in college accommodation for the full 3 or 4 years. 11. Yes, you can take a gap year. Demonstrating you plan to do something constructive with it (and, ideally, relevant to your degree) is important though. Feel free to email me if you have more questions, especially about the Oxford/Cambridge application/admissions process.

Something that no-one else has said - Scottish universities, especially in 'arts' subjects have a different system and may be a better fit for you. They have a four year degree structure, which gives an extra year of courses and so extra flexibility. Most of my friends at uni changed their degree while they were there (it was difficult to change schools - so if you started off in arts, you'd end up in arts unless you did an awful lot of work, but within that I knew people who started off in languages and graduated in English lit, media studies to history and so on). I knew quite a few people with the IB and they did absolutely fine. Most Scottish universities pitch their first year at people finishing Highers - ie a year less study than in England (in practice most people come to uni after doing Advanced Highers, but a sizable minority still come straight from Highers), which flattens the learning curve a little. The only problem - no really big cities. Glasgow and Edinburgh are as big as it gets.

PS: I have not studied economics since 13, but I doubt many UK kids have either. I am already studying it in an IB setting, though, and will be taking HL Economics - so 2 years - before I graduate from high school. So I may be a teensy bit more prepared than other peers when it comes to this. I have no problem with a London school that is very integrated into the city. Having a campus, student-geared businesses, etc. is not important to me (I've lived a mile away from a huge state university my whole life, so I've gotten a taste of that.) My first choice US school is Barnard, which is somewhat similar in that respect to what I imagine you guys are describing about UK schools, though perhaps to a lesser extreme. Nunoidia, thanks for the reality check about why I want to go to a UK school. I don't think I've given that question nearly as much weight as I should. I guess I like the idea of studying somewhere with different ideology, and having a broad range of experiences - I studied at a Norwegian IB school for 2.5 months and loved it. I'm looking to have a more immersive experience than a year abroad. I would like to live in a Really Big City and NYC only has a few options that appeal to me, so I thought London or similar would be another good option, given that I'm not too talented at learning new languages. Also, cheesy, and not at all a big factor, but it just feels 'right' to return to the country where I was born for an extended period of time.