British Universities

I'm planning on studying abroad in either England or France, and I figured since YWS has so many users from the UK some of you may be able to help me out. I'm trying to choose amongst several universities in England, and I really want to hear opinions of them from real British people, instead of just reading facts about them online.

Here are the ones im considering:

King's College, London
University of York
University of Bristol
University of Durham
University of Kent, Canterbury
University of Manchester

And then I'm also considering Sciences Po in Paris if anybody knows anything about it. Also I'd prefer England to Scotland, but if you guys know about the University of Edinburgh or the University of St. Andrews at all, those are still on the list.

What I really want to know is stuff I wouldn't be able to easily read online - like what you guys think of the cities, the campuses (if you've seen them by chance), the like aura/vibes of the schools, how prestigiously they are regarded by the general populace, and just what kind of experience I'd get from going to each university for a year (esp considering I've never been anywhere outside the US and Mexico). I'm especially interested in the cities and areas that each are in. Also I'm double majoring in History and in Politicial Science with an emphasis on International Relations (as my college doesn't have IR as a major), if you guys know about those programs at any of the schools, though I am slightly more concerned with the cultural experience and having fun than the academics. I like to party and go out if that can be factored in as well, like if one area has cool nightlife or something.

If anybody knows anything about any of these universities, I'd be really grateful for your opinion. Thank you guys!!

Edit - Also weather/climate!!

Edit - Also weather/climate!!

Rain. Seriously, prepare for rain, but also prepare for it to get really hot, then cloud over, then get kinda warm, then start raining. Apparently in South Africa, you can stick your head out the door in the morning and the weather you see then will be the same for the rest of the day. In England you have to prepare for rain. And maybe sun. And possibly some more rain.

King's College, London
University of York
University of Bristol
University of Durham
University of Kent, Canterbury
University of Manchester

Well, if it were me, I'd go to King's in London, because London is really cool, and as you're doing History, I'm thinking you'll be on the Strand campus, and the Strand is great. Loads of cool old buildings, loads of atmosphere, and it's near the Maughan Library, which is huge. And there's a froody statue of a dragon in the middle of the street! The Strand's in the cool, posh, cultural bit of London, and you're pretty well placed to get to all the neat bits of the city.

Kent's really nice, and they have a freaking ginormous library as well, and a really lovely campus on top of a hill with a beautiful view of the city, and lots of trees and all. Canterbury's a great city; it's old and they still have the ancient stone city walls in places. There's loads of shops -- charity shops and a comic book shop and bigger name-brand shops like Debenhams and GAP and all, and buses and trains come and go pretty regularly.

I know Durham's divided up into colleges, like Oxford and Cambridge, and it's ranked, like, third in the country, I think. I don't think I've ever been there, but I know it has a cathedral, and I imagine it's got lots of atmosphere and history and all. And sheep.

I've never been to Bristol or Manchester, so I can't help you there. I went to York once but that was ages ago.


As for their reputations, all your choices are pretty prestigious. ^_^ I don't know how well they rank in your chosen subject, but have you checked the Independent University Guide? It comes out every year and everyone references its league tables. This is the 2011 one and Unistats is a good site as well.

People scare me, so I can't advise you on each place's partying skills.

As I said, if it was me, I'd go to London. I may be slightly biased, seeing as I do go to university in London, though not at King's, but once you get used to it, London's pretty freakin' awesome. I've seen four famous people there and been given free pizza. There's always something going on somewhere, and there's beautiful buildings and bridges and crazy unfriendly people and street performers like buskers and living statues and a million cool shops -- and then in the middle of all that urban whirl, you've got places like Regent's Park which go on forever with ridiculously tame squirrels and walkways and trees and flowers and all that park stuff.


Rambling...

I go to the University of Edinburgh and am horribly biased so take whatever I say with a grain of salt but I think it's amazing. Can I ask why you'd prefer England? Edinburgh has a ton of international students and students from all over Britain, and it's a gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous city. It's a capital city, so it has a great nightlife/cafe scene/museums/everything, but it's small enough that you can get to know it quite quickly and walk across the city centre (and then some) in an hour. It has this weird thing where a lot of the city was built on top of itself, because in the sixteenth century the poor people lived at the bottom and the rich people lived on the higher streets - so for example, there's a street called George IV Bridge which is actually a bridge over another street called Cowgate. It's really cool especially compared to a lot of places in the states where everything is built in a grid. Then there's also the Meadows, which is basically a big meadow in the middle of the city, and Arthur's Seat which I think is a big inactive volcano also in the middle of the city in case you fancy some climbing in between class
And it's very historic; I live in a building built in the 18th century, which is considered 'new'. One of the student unions is the oldest one in the world (fun fact I have from working there, haha). Also, something you might want to consider is that it's very easy from Edinburgh to get to Inverness, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands which are also gorgeous.

The University is spread out across a few campuses: there's George Square, which is right in the centre of the cityand where most humanities and social science classes take place, and the medical school is right there as well. Basically it's a big garden which someone donated to the uni and the tenement buildings have all been converted into offices and then there are some lecture theatres and the psychology, neurosciences, and informatics schools etc. The Main Library is on George Square as well and it's just undergone a ton of renovations so it's sparkly and new. Then there's King's Buldings for science and the Royal Dick Vet School but all history is on George Square.

I don't know what Edinburgh is ranked but it's in the Russell Group and the History program is really good (I do History ), I think it's just under Oxbridge and around KCL/UCL etc (could be wrong though). It's definitely regarded as a great university though, not necessarily better than others on your list, but still great. I think any of the cities you've mentioned (except maybe Durham or York) will have a great nightlife, but the only one I can comment on is Edinburgh. Pretty much every night you can choose from live indie gigs, cheesy or student club nights, pub crawls or quizzes, shows, whatever. Also, one of the student unions has a club in it and there's a student night there every Saturday.

I'm sure you'd have a great year at any of the universities you mentioned (but as I said, I'm biased!) but I know a ton of people who studied abroad and Edinburgh last year and adored it. I agree with Twit, I'd either go with King's or Edinburgh. King's if you want to be in London, Edinburgh if you want to be in a capital city that's a bit smaller and less intimidating. But as I said they're all good schools and you'll have a great time at any one of them.

Let me know if you want to know anything else! Sorry for sounding like an advert, I promise I just really like it here.

Ahhh you guys are awesome, thank you both!!

Twit:

Apparently in South Africa, you can stick your head out the door in the morning and the weather you see then will be the same for the rest of the day.

Where I live in southern California, you can basically stick your head out the door and see what the weather will be like for the next month. It rains like 10 days a year and the weather doesn't change, except for maybe a 15 degree average difference between summer and winter. So yeah I'm kind of intimidated but excited for that!! It'll be so unreal to have actual seasons, and rain!

Your breakdown of them is super helpful, thank you so much. And that first website, gahhh I think that will be invaluable to me from here on out, thanks for showing me that too!

At first I was all about King's, but recently I've thought I might get overwhelmed in such a huge city. And that perhaps since London is such a globalized, international city, I might not get as much of like traditional English culture? Do you think that'd be true or no? But it's still definitely one of my first choices and now more so after hearing your and Mars' opinions; it sounds amazing .

Can you tell me anything about York, though? Cause right now that's my other favorite. Like even the city of York, like what its reputation/vibe amongst British people is?

Mars:
Ahhhhh I almost wish I hadn't read your post because now Edinburgh is one of my new favorites, and I already have too many options I can't choose from. But no, thank you so much!! Eeeee haha Edinburgh sounds so great it makes me excited. The main reason I'd prefer England is just because I already love and am familiar with English culture, just from all the books I read set in England and from watching shows like Top Gear. Other than like the two books I've read about Mary Queen of Scots, I know nothing about Scotland, lol. And just the more extreme weather since it's farther north is daunting to me. Or is the weather not much colder than like southern/mid England?

I actually have an Australian friend/acquaintance who goes to the University of Edinburgh too, and apparently he also loves it, though I'm not really close to him. The vibe I get from Edinburgh is like exactly what I'm looking for though, like the previous notion I had of it as super old and historic but still real lively and then plus everything you just told me. Just that it's not England and the weather are the only two cons. What is Scotland/Scottish culture like, in your opinion? How does it differ from England/English culture?


Thank you both again!! Does anyone else have opinions about the schools/cities?

I had an interview at King's. It's a gorgeous place in a perfect location and everybody there was really friendly. Unfortunately I didn't get in, but it was a lovely place. London is a wonderful city but I completely understand what you mean about feeling overwhelmed and when considering going to King's I thought the same. But at the same time London has an incredible buzz and it is quite metropolitan but you would still experience a lot of British culture- especially considering it's a capital city.

The others I can't give much of an opinion on- I was interested in Durham but they wouldn't accept one of my Leaving Cert subjects (Irish) and a subject, so I didn't apply. I know it's very high in rankings.

If you're looking at Scotland, I was offered a place at Aberdeen which I didn't take (I'm staying at home in Ireland) but I would have loved to go there. It's a very ancient university supposedly with fantastic resources- I know someone who goes there and absolutely loves it. Aberdeen as a city though is extremely far north and therefore cold and remote so that would probably weigh against it.

My mum went to Manchester but that was a long time ago and she says the city has changed a lot so I can't give you much of an opinion there. But it's not so much a difference between Scotland and England, I'd say, as the fact that you'll get a different experience in whatever city you go to.

As for the weather, I'm always persuaded that England gets less rain than here but there will still be a lot of it. I remember that summers in the south can often be quite nice- but of course you won't be there in the summers if you're studying. So expect rain and damp cold weather. As for Scotland, I really can't give an opinion since I've only been there once.

I'm applying for history this year (well, next week, actually!), so maybe I can give you some thoughts! I'm thinking about York, Durham and maybe King's too, but out of the five I'm applying to those are the three I've never actually visited! Durham and Oxbridge are jointly considered the best in the UK for history, but if you want an international relations-based degree, the history course at the London School of Economics is pretty much just that (which is, incidentally, why I'm not applying there!).

King's and University College London are supposedly the best of the London unis, with the latter coming out just on top (but both are great). UCL's not a very pretty place and it's very stressful with all of the traffic, so I wouldn't recommend it if you hate cities. But York is great, too - it has an excellent reputation and again in the top 10 (based on rather flawed League tables, though, it has to be said...). I've always wanted to go there because it looks like a decent place to live - sort of semi-rural with some nice old buildings, but respected academics too.

Be aware, in case you're not, that not all universities in the UK do joint honours in that subject - it's more common to do just one subject at degree level. I've heard that Bristol's a bit stuck up, but that's probably just rumour. But it's not a very nice place anyway, in my opinion. xD Finally, although I didn't go to the Manchester open day, my friends who did said that though it had a massive student population, it was a really nice uni, and obviously, being in the city, it'll again have great nightlife and shopping places etc.

So, just some thoughts?

And just the more extreme weather since it's farther north is daunting to me. Or is the weather not much colder than like southern/mid England?

I don't know how cold southern England gets... I think Scotland does get colder, but not much colder. Definitely colder than Cali, but if you've ever lived around Chicago or Boston, it's warmer than that in the winter. I mean it gets cold but not horribly cold - if you have a coat and maybe on the colder days a sweater under it you'll be fine. It does rain quite a lot though. And it gets REALLY windy. But like Twit said, the weather changes from minute to minute. One minute it'll be windy and rainy and overcast and the next it's sunny and gorgeous and the next it's snowing (although it doesn't actually snow much here). I've gotten used to taking a cardigan/jacket and umbrella with me everywhere just in case. I don't think it would be different enough from England to be daunting though; Scotland gets kind of a bad rep for weather and it's really not that bad, my mother was telling me I'd be waking up with icicles on my nose when I moved here (I haven't)

What is Scotland/Scottish culture like, in your opinion? How does it differ from England/English culture?

Well it's similar to English culture in that there's a lot of drinking... and that's it. No, just kidding! I don't know too much about English culture though and I think southern English culture differs a lot from northern English in the way that Edinburgh culture differs from Glasgow and the highlands. There is definitely a big sense of nationalism among Scots, I don't know if England is the same way, but it's only got 5 million people so there's a big sense of nationalism but not in the same way that Americans can be patriotic... if that makes sense.

This is kind of a difficult question. As I said there are a ton of international students in Edinburgh (mostly American and Norwegian and Australian it seems like) so honestly, you'll be getting a lot of different cultures. And there are a TON of people from all over England and Wales as well. Which makes Edinburgh culture a bit different from anything in the rest of Scotland but why I said it's like London, but smaller. You'll find hipsters, punks, yahs, tourists, athletes, ravenclaws, people who are in between like me, everyone really, and all different nationalities. But then there's also the Castle and Royal Mile and ghost tours which are really interesting if you want to learn more about the history of Edinburgh.

Of course it's easy to get to other places in Scotland if you did want a heavy dose of Scottish culture. I don't think I really answered your question but hope this helps anyway!

Manchester or London are going to be best for nightlife. Just as a warning though the universities you have chosen are very prestigious and very hard to get into. I am sure your bright and its fine to ambitious however I would recommend having a insurance university one thats perhaps easier to get into i-e Sheffield. I know people who got three As but because they aimed for really prestigious unis and didnt have an insurance they had to go through clearing as uni's like university collage London, Durham are very picky and usually interview.

p.s York is great but the accommodation is not good at least it wasn't when I went

University of Kent is absolutely fabulous for Euro/Foreign students. Great community there.

King's College, London

Where I want to go. I also have like a dream university: Oxford. But that's... *puts hand on chest and breathes deeply*...a dream.

I would like to go to Aberystwyth in Wales .. so nice