US vs UK universities

[_naataliee]

I'm curious about

-pros and cons

-how different are they

-your experiences

Also, I wanted to know how international students felt going to a new country

Oh and I currently live in the US but I'm interested in possibly going to the UK.

[Arrowhead]

Not all US universities are the same, much like how all the UK universities are not the same. Each one offers a different academic rigour, social atmosphere, campus versus city life, etc. It also depends entirely on what you look for in a university because what you think is important in a university experience might just be completely different from what I do. So me listing off the pros and cons of going to my university (because really, that's all I'll be able to do, I cannot give you a holistic view of UK Universities in general), is not going to help you in the slightest.

Maybe if you gave us a better indication of what you would like and not like in a future university, we may actually be able to help you.

Edited April 20, 2013 by Arrowhead

[_naataliee]

Well I would like to do something in the medical field and also business. Are there UK unis that can do both majors ? But I like universities in the city rather than rural areas. Oh, and one that has an orchestra. That's all that came in my mind so far.

But I would like to hear about your university

[Gaby]

Well I would like to do something in the medical field and also business. Are there UK unis that can do both majors ? But I like universities in the city rather than rural areas. Oh, and one that has an orchestra. That's all that came in my mind so far.

But I would like to hear about your university

How on earth do you want to do medicine and business at the same time? It's quite a crazy idea, to be perfectly honest...

[Yahooo!]

In the UK we don't have majors and minors. You can't do Medicine and Business either here, I don't think anyway. So if you do decide to come to the UK then you'll have to choose between the two. Medicine here is a 6 year course, which is undergraduate study, unlike the US we don't have a Pre-Medicine course, so straight after the IB in September you can start Med School. The Business courses here are usually 3 or 4 years, depends if you decide to study a year abroad.

[Arrowhead]

Well I would like to do something in the medical field and also business. Are there UK unis that can do both majors ? But I like universities in the city rather than rural areas. Oh, and one that has an orchestra. That's all that came in my mind so far.

But I would like to hear about your university

Building on from what Yahooo! said, the UK doesn't have Major and Minor courses, there is no undergraduate programme where you study basically high school courses on steroids. It's very practical and very focused in UK universities. You can choose to do Medicine as an Undergraduate (which is INSANELY competitive to get onto by the way). Talk to Sandwich if you want to know more about studying medicine in the UK since she's doing it at the moment. You can also choose to go to a Business school and get a Business degree instead. You will most likely not be able to do both unless you can find a university that offers a course combining your interests.

I'm not sure if you want to have the activity of an orchestra so that you can be part of it or because you like that kind of music. I'm going to go ahead and assume it's because you play a musical instrument pretty well and would like to keep that going. I don't know if there's an Orchestra or Grand/Classical Music Society on every campus. I know LSE has an Opera Society (or at least it did in my first-year).

If you prefer city-based universities in the UK, you should look into the Universities of London (UoL), universities in Manchester and Birmingham. There are many more, but this is where you should start looking in my opinion. If you have questions about the UoL specifically, please feel free to ask me.

I will also encourage you to look into Scottish universities. There are some revered universities in Scotland (especially for Medicine) such as St. Andrews, Edinburgh, and Aberdeen. From what little I know about Scottish universities, they offer much more flexibility in degrees as compared to English ones, with an option to some general courses. This article might help shed some more light on that topic. But again, I'm not certain how much flexibility you will be offered when pursuing something as rigorous and demanding as Medicine. That's just my stray and lay musings though.

As far as my university goes. I'm in my final-year of a law degree at the London School of Economics, part of the Universities of London.

1. Pros:

- Specialised in social sciences

- I've met a lot of like-minded people

- It's very career-focused and driven an atmosphere

- Often times my lecturers and class teachers are brilliant thinkers in their respective fields

- In the heart of London

- A lot of academic freedom

2. Cons:

- Lecturers are sometimes too busy in their own stuff to pay much attention to overenthusiastic undergraduates

- Halls (Dorms) are pretty terrible in 1st Year

- Very expensive to live in London

3. Comparison to the US: I have no idea. This is the only experience I've ever had of university.

4. My experiences:

- It's been [insert excitable adjective here]!

Edited April 21, 2013 by Arrowhead

[carpediem]

A note that medicine in the UK is super, super competitive. I don't think anyone in my school got in for medicine, and one medicine applicant was Head Girl (which is something like being head of the student government of the whole school), and this is a school where some go to Oxbridge (if you want some perspective). Some have to take the route of applying for biomedicine or biochemistry, and then if they are able to, transfer into a medicine course. That's how difficult it is. (If you couldn't tell already, you apply directly into your degree from high school and it is very difficult to change it. If you want to change it in the UK, you have to re-apply into that course and essentially start university again.)

Also, you have to consider where you're going to practise medicine - is your medicine degree valid in the country you'll live in? One example is here in Singapore, only some UK university medicine degrees are valid.

Well I would like to do something in the medical field and also business. Are there UK unis that can do both majors ? But I like universities in the city rather than rural areas. Oh, and one that has an orchestra. That's all that came in my mind so far.

But I would like to hear about your university

How on earth do you want to do medicine and business at the same time? It's quite a crazy idea, to be perfectly honest...

Actually, in the US it's possible to major in Business but still qualify for med school, as long as you have the credits. A bit weird, I know.

[Gaby]

Well I would like to do something in the medical field and also business. Are there UK unis that can do both majors ? But I like universities in the city rather than rural areas. Oh, and one that has an orchestra. That's all that came in my mind so far.

But I would like to hear about your university

How on earth do you want to do medicine and business at the same time? It's quite a crazy idea, to be perfectly honest...

Actually, in the US it's possible to major in Business but still qualify for med school, as long as you have the credits. A bit weird, I know.

I know it's possible to do in the US, but not in the UK, where double majors hardly exist at all, and if a university does offer them, they're usually of similar discipline (e.g. Law with Criminology)