European Univeristies

[fruttidee]

So I haven't decided yet what and where to study. I'm considering various locations and courses.

I think that I have to limit my choices to Europe as US tuition fees are outrageous and even though when getting into some Ivies (which is close to impossible) would secure cover of fees there are still costs of living in US, travelling to and from my country and lack of ability to legally work on student visa. Besides, I'm not really into doing SAT in addition to IB exams.

My other dream direction would be Australia due to their great climate and ranking good in World University Rankings unis. But I could not afford studying there and flight tickets as one-way travel would last around 2days.

So, what I'm left with is Europe. The most obvious choice is in that case UK. Some best unis in Europe are placed there.

Starting with England, my first choice would be Oxbridge and if I get there I'd obviously not hesitate to go there. However, I need some alternatives in case of being rejected. I'm wondering which unis to choose from in UK. I'm interested in top-notch ones as I don't want to leave my own country and pay a lot of money for some avarage university and know that I could get better education in my hometown for free. I realize that the rankings of unis varies according to subject but Good University Guide 2010 might give us some idea. I'd love to live in London and study at LSE, UCS or Imperial College but I think I can exclude that as living costs in London are simply too expensive. I've got a bit of the problem here cause I can't afford living in expensive, big city and won't be able to survive in small town (I've been in some English small towns this year, eg. York, Salisbury, Chester, Bath and it's killing me! deserted, boring, nothing to do). Do you know some unis that would combine decent living expences and exciting, vibrant city and great unis? Manchester, Nottingham, Liverpool maybe?

The good alternative to English universities would be Scottish ones as European citizens don't have to pay tuition fees (which would allow me not to take tuition fee loan and significantly decrease the amount of money I'll spend on studying). I also know plenty of ppl who got full scholarships in best Scottish unis that covered all their life expenses. Do you have any opinions or some experience with this unis? Edinburgh? Glasgow? These are at least placed in big cities. Though, I've lately been to Edinburgh I didn't like the city at all. Maybe I haven't seen the best parts of it ut was left with bad impression. St Andrews ranks great but I'm afraid it's completely in the middle of nowhere. I think the same goes for Dundee and Aberdeen. Also the bad thing about Scotland is it's climate. I'm not sure how I'd survive in the country in whoch 80% of the time it's raining.

I have no idea about Wales. Do you know anything about nice Welsh unis?

Generally, I think that if I decide to study abroad, some place in UK would be my destination. Except from Oxbridge, Scotland being financially better for me and English big cities more welcoming. However, for Polish ppl living in UK is generally really expensive. Comparing our salaries to British ones and the exchange rate from Polish złoty to pounds. That's why I'd also like to consider some other, non-UK European destinations. I'd really appreciate your advice. Unluckily, my choice is very limited here as I don't know any other foreign language at sufficiently good level to study in it. That's why I need to consider courses taught in English

The first country I can think of is Netherlands. Does any of u have any information about studying in Utrecht, Amsterdam, Groningen? Maybe some of ur friends or u have decided to go there? These are amongst some best unis in Europe and living in Netherlands would be significantly cheaper than UK and still English is commonly spoken there.

Do you have any ideas of some other possible destinations in Europe. The conditions are: very good university, course taught in English, ideally country in which English (alternatively: German or Spanish) is commonly spoken.

I was considering studying in Spain (since I love the country) but I'm not sure if there are some courses taught in English and even if there are, the best teaching staff would be teaching in Spanish and that's what Universidad de Madrid or Barcelona would get their fame for and english taught courses might have worse reputation. Correct me if I'm wrong

It would be great if you'll share here your ideas on studying in different European universities.

Edited July 5, 2009 by fruttidee

[Vvi]

Good universities in Wales that are in a decent sized city: Cardiff. Everywhere else is tiny (from what I can make out).

Liverpool University is not so great reputation-wise. The city is very industrial. Manchester is a good university in a big city, Nottingham has about 250,000 residents so I don't know if that's large enough for you, Leeds has 750,000 people and is very metropolitan. Warwick is ranked highly but is in the middle of the countryside, situated between 2 towns. Bristol is a decent sized city. Durham and Exeter are small towns. Sheffield is a good city to live in, and it's decent sized as well. London obviously, but living costs are about 2000 pounds higher than elsewhere each year.

St Andrews has very expensive rent for students and only 18,000 people (it's also very traditional, don't know if that matters at all to you). From what I've read, Edinburgh is fantastic but slightly expensive to live in. Glasgow is a big city, and the university is one of the oldest.

And it rains everywhere in England, I'm not a fan of rain myself but there's only so many factors I can choose from when picking universities.

There are good universities in Sweden (Uppsala, Umea) and in Finland (Helsinki, Turku), and I know that some overseas undergraduates do their degrees there. I don't know how many of the degrees are in English, so you should check their webistes. Also be aware that some countries (like Finland) are currently reviewing their university systems in order to stop overseas students from studying for free there (because most of them study and then leave the country, basically using the country's free facilities). i don't know which other countries are doing this now, but it would affect you financially.