Difference Between the UK and US
Below is a list of pros and cons for both the UK and the US, they are laid out as just a list so you can decide what is a pro and what is a con for you depending on what you want in a college system. However, you should first understand that the layout of the two school systems are different. The US is laid out over a four-year process to get your bachelor's degree, the first two years are easier general education classes and the last two years are harder degree-specific classes. Whereas the UK's bachelor programs are laid out over three years with an option to add a fourth year in the beginning, the three-year layout is filled with only degree specific classes and if you add a fourth fountain year then that first year will be filled with general education style classes to help you know what you are interested in (for more information on what a foundation year is and what it entails click here).
United Kingdom:
So many travel opportunities- Being in Europe you are so close to so many different countries and cultures and flights/train tickets are so cheap that the travel opportunities are so abundant.
Usually cheaper tuition and living expenses- This really depends on the school you are looking at, you can find a lot of schools that have relatively cheap tuition however you can also find schools that have crazy-expensive tuition.
You get to experience a new culture- Though they speak the same language and the culture seems relatively similar, it's actually really different and such a cool culture that everyone should experience.
Nobody is required to live in the dorms- Many people choose to live off-campus all three years, however, if you want to live on campus (which is a good idea for international students because you won't have to worry about finding roommates or furniture) the school offer them but they might be more expensive then if you were to live off-campus.
Very nice dorm arrangements- The dorms are set up in a suite or apartment-style set-up from what I experienced. How it works is everyone gets their own room and attached bathroom, and there would be an "apartment" that would have anywhere from 3-6ish of those rooms and they would all share a kitchen and possibly a sitting area. Of course, this will all depend on your school but this is how all the schools I looked at were set up.
There are no meal plans- As mentioned above you share a kitchen with your roommates (unless you choose to live alone off campus) therefore there are no meal plans, you are responsible for your own food. This is a great opportunity for students to learn how to cook and grocery shop, or if that's not your thing you will get really good at ordering food.
More specific and focused programs- If you are interested in a very specific career or subject, for example (I made this up), let's say you want to be an artist for scientific studies and generally you would have to either take a general art degree or science degree but in England, they have very specific majors so they would probably have a Scientific Art course (again this is completely made up and I am not sure if this course exists). This can be really great if you know exactly what you're interested in and if you don't that's ok too because they also have more general degrees for students like you!
Before you even apply you know your class schedule- When you are looking online at the different courses the schools offer you will click on a course and it will give you so much information like tuition price, the classes you will take, and when, teaching style, entry requirements, and much more! Therefore you are guaranteed to get into those classes, you don't have to worry about them filling up.
They don't require you to take general education classes- Since they do a more career-focused program and it's only 3 years, there are no general education classes instead you are only doing classes that pertain to your degree.
A lot of career development opportunities- Many schools require you to take an internship or offer you to take a year off (typically between years 2 and 3) to have an internship that the school will help you get (they will help you with your resume, practice interview, etc.). As well as, the schools offer so many career development opportunities like guest speakers, career fairs, and hand-on learning activities. A good way to find these opportunities would be to join the society that goes with your course (for example I am in the international business course so I plan to join the business society)
Independent schooling/living- As I went over above the on-campus living that the schools offer is apartment-style, so you will have to cook and clean for yourself. The schooling is also very independent because you can't really change majors very easily so everything is more focused.
Clearing process- The UK offers this awesome thing called clearing, and what this is is near the beginning of school (July-September) they offer clearing which is where if you didn't get into any colleges but still really want to go school or maybe you just missed the deadline to get your application in you can call and talk to an advisor and they will look at your previous education information and decide to welcome you to the school or not, they are doing this to fill any open spots in the different course from students that decided not to go there. For more information in clearing click here.
Cheap application process- UCAS has two different prices for applying for schools, if you are just applying to one course it is £20 and if you a are applying to multiple courses it is £26 total (not per application). For more information on the price (this is under #10 on the website) and the whole application process through UCAS click here.
Can't change majors- Since there are no general education classes and you just go straight into the classes for your degree you can't really change your majors unless you want to restart all your classes, but this might be different depending on the school.
Typically not as many scholarships through the school- When I was looking for these scholarships I saw that each school only offered 1 or 2 scholarships to international students, however, you can find many international student scholarships through external places/programs.
You will be far from your family and friends- This is an obvious one but just prepare yourself to probably be really lonely and homesick for the first little bit since you will be making all new friends and your family won't be close by.
You will have to go through the visa process- In order to go to school anywhere outside of the US you will need to get a student visa for that country which is a confusing process, but your school can help you and answer any questions with this. But you will need a passport obviously and it needs to be valid the entire length of your visa which is the entire time you will be in school, so if you don't have a passport or it is going to expire soon then make sure to get that all figured out ASAP since COVID has really delayed this process, so you might have to wait multiple months to receive your passport after ordering it.
School sports are not as big- If you are expecting school sports like the US you will be very disappointed, though they still offer school sports (they actually offer a large variety of sports) they are more club-style sports instead of huge intense teams that require you to be recruited, instead, they seem more like a way to be social and active at the same time. So even if you have never played the sport you are still welcome to join, which is super cool because you can try new things and maybe learn to play a sport you have always wanted to try. That all being said there might be some bigger school sport that is taken more seriously at different schools.
United States:
Set up to easily transition from childhood to adulthood- Since most schools require you to live on campus and have a meal plan your first year (sometimes two) your transition into living alone is a lot easier since you probably share a bathroom with other people, so you don't have to worry about cleaning it and you don't have to worry about cooking for yourself, really all you have to do is make sure you don't run out of meal points. Therefore this transition isn't as scary or overwhelming, especially since your first-year classes are also usually the easiest classes you will take.
Lots of school spirit and pride- There is so much school spirit in the US and I think a large part of this stems from how massive school sports are, so everyone cheering for your team and it is such a large social gathering to go to sports games and show off your school pride.
Tons of school clubs- Most schools have over 100 clubs and its really easy to create your own club which is super awesome because you will most likely find something you're interested in.
Closer to home/easier to visit home- This is pretty obvious but since you are still in the same country the flights/drives are relatively short depending on where home is for you.
Easy to change major- This one really goes with the point below but because your first two years are just general education classes it is super easy to change majors since you haven't gotten into your major-specific classes yet.
Require general education classes- These are classes you have to take that are usually pretty low level and they are for a huge range of subjects so if you don't know what you want to major in these will really help you see what interested you.
Typically very expensive- Colleges in the US are pretty separated from the government, they can really charge whatever they want for tuition and they really take advantage of this. Even if you are going to school in-state tuition alone can be outrageous, then when you calculate in housing, food, books, and other school-specific charges (like maybe sports games passes or gym memberships) it can and usually is quite the financial burden.
Has a very business feeling- At the end of the day college is a business and the higher education industry makes hundreds of billions of dollars every year, therefore these schools are trying to making money in any way they can. Therefore you can feel more like a customer then a student sometimes which though it can be really hard on your bank account does get you good "customer service", so if you have questions or want more information from a school it's pretty easy to get that because the staff at a college is trying to convince you that their school is the right fit for you so they can get your tuition (and other expenses) money.
Very expensive application process- Each application can cost anywhere from $50-$70, and it can get even more expensive. This, of course, is just the application fee, so you pay this if you get in or get rejected, so it can really suck to get rejected to a school after you just paid them $70.
Minimal opportunities to travel internationally- The only real option to travel internationally is to study abroad which can be very expensive, however, some schools have really awesome study abroad programs that match tuition, so if you are curious about studying abroad make sure to ask about these programs!
A lot of scholarships through the school- Most schools offer what seems like hundreds of different kinds of fo scholarships to any student that applies which is really awesome and can really help lower the cost of college.
Process/How-To
Make a list of what you want in a college- This is such a great way to start your college process, especially if you are feeling really lost. Spend a lot of time with this and be as specific as you can, even put things you think are kind of silly or dumb to put just put it on your list. I have created a PDF that you can use for this (click above), or create your own! Make sure to have three categories: things that are a requirement (ex. for me this was that they had the exact course I wanted and required me to take an internship), things that you would like but if the school doesn't have it you would still be ok going there (ex. for me this was a ski/snowboard club), and the last and if you are feeling really lost try to start with this one category is things you don't want in a school (ex. for me this was I didn't want to be further than an hour outside of London).
Choose your location(s)- If you can get a rough idea of where you want to be living and going to school it will really help you narrow down your options and give you a better idea of what schools are available to you. For this, you might know exactly what city you want to be in or maybe you know you want to be near the ocean or in a small town or that you have close easy access to a train station or an airport. It can be anything you want because at the end of the day this is where you will be living for multiple years so think about what a location as to offer like job opportunities, travel opportunities, activities to do, weather, price of living, etc. For this, if you have no clue then watch youtube videos of different places in England and see what towns look interesting to you.
Determine your budget- Make a list of every possible living expense you can think of (food, visa fees, phone plan, transportation, flight out, etc.) make sure it includes everything except tuition. From there figure out how much you can afford to spend per year during college and subtract all those expenses you just came up with and that will tell you how much you can roughly spend on tuition, once you have that number it will help you narrow down your list even more. When creating this budget don't subtract possible scholarships you could get because you never know if you will get them or not, so pretend like you aren't going to get any scholarships, and then if you do get some scholarships you will have the extra money in your budget for fun! Click here for a good article on budgeting as a student in the UK! Also, click here for a list of affordable Universities in the UK for international students!
Start contacting the schools you're interested in- Look on the websites of your possible schools and find the email or contact information for the international team. They are there specifically to help international students and they can answer any possible question or concern you have. They can also help you set up communication with students or teachers and help you see a viral tour of the school. They can also help you apply even if you have already missed the application deadline, they are seriously one of your biggest resources so use them!! For community college students that are reading this, some schools will let you go straight into year two (skipping the first year) if you got your degree from community college, so this would be the time to ask if the school will accept those credits and how to handle that process. All the school I applied to stayed that I should apply for year 2 entry and see if admissions will take the credits and then if they don't either reapply for year 1 or (the better option) just email the international or admissions team once you get your rejection and just ask them to send it back through the admissions process but this time for year one. I would say most schools won't accept your credits, however, don't give up because some schools will (I was able to find a school that accepted mine!!).
Continue to research and narrow down your options- Now that you have at least a few schools in mind look at student life, teaching style, career development opportunities, clubs, sports, etc. Make sure that you would actually want to go to this school, and don't stop looking until you are excited about a few schools. Below is the tips section will be good ways to make sure a school is a good fit for you.
Apply through UCAS- UCAS is the program that the UK uses for college applications (it's just like the CommonApp) and you can apply to all your schools through that one website, this will also be the site you will go to to see what schools you got into and ultimately where you will go to make your final decision on a school! Something to remember for applying is that you aren't just applying to a school and then once you get in you choose your course, instead, you apply for a course at a school. As mentioned above it is £20 if you are applying to just one course and if you are applying to multiple courses it is £26 total (not per application). You can click here to go to the UCAS website, they have a lot of really great articles on how to apply, how to make your application strong, how to write a good personal statement, and really anything you need help with. If you are a community college student and applying for year 2 entry you will select this when you are choosing the course you are applying to, it should all be on the same page.
Wait and order your school- Yay you're done with your applications and now you just have to wait which is exciting yet scary at the same time! Though this step is not essential it would really help you later on and take a lot of stress off you. That would be to create a list of your school options and put them in order of the one you want to go to most to the one you want to go to least. This might be really easy to make from all the research you have done up to this point or could be really difficult if you are like me and hate making decisions. So maybe this step takes you five minutes or maybe you take a few weeks to continue your research and make a list you are super confident in. But then once it comes time to make your decision you can easily reference your list and decide, and then its time to relax and get super excited!
Tips
Use Across the Pond- Across the Pond is a super awesome company that I actually used and really liked and they help US students go to college in the UK. They can help you with anything and everything from telling you to want schools would be a good fit for you to actually helping you fill out your applications. It is all email-based so you will have someone that you are contacting who is helping you and answering all your questions. All their help and advice are free so don't be afraid to contact them! Click here to go to their website to learn more.
Email, email, email- As mentioned above email will be your new best friend. Never be afraid to email a school or ask a dumb question because they are so willing to help you and answer your questions. Just remember that there is quite a big-time difference so don't expect a response right away.
Respond quickly- This goes with the above tip but it is so important that you respond as quickly as possible to your emails and to be as specific as you can with your questions or concerns (so make sure if you are asking about teaching style for example that you include what course you are interested in). This is all because they will take usually at least a day to respond so if you are quick you might be able to get them while they are still on their email if you have more questions or if you don't then your question was specific so they can immediately answer it instead of needed to ask you for more information because then that will only delay your answer longer.
Start the process early- Its never to early to start with this process, so even if you are only a freshmen start your research so that when it gets time to apply you know exactly what courses and schools you are interested in and you don't have to deal with all this your senior year when you're already probably pretty busy with other things. Also if you start early you might decide you want to go maybe in a different country that might speak a different language, so it gives you plenty of time to become fluent so you can pass any language tests.
Watch Youtube videos- This is so so helpful to see your school or location if you just type into the search bar the name of the school or "Day in the life at ___ University" you will get the perspective of someone who actually goes to that school and sees if it's somewhere you can see yourself.
Contact students and teachers- This is another great way to learn about a school, you can learn about student life, teaching style, and out of school things you might be curious about. To find a person talk to look on the school's website to see if they have a program you can talk to them through, and if not just email and ask the international team if they can put you in contact with someone from the school.
Follow your school's social media- This is another great way to learn about all the opportunities your school offers, so maybe that is really awesome guest speakers, or career development opportunities, or ways students can get involved.
Different terms- The UK, as we all know, has slightly different lingo than the US, and sometimes they are really hard to understand, or sometimes they are easy. If you are ever confused about a word that keeps coming up in your research, of course, Google is going to be your best friend with this. But the two most common things/word for me was courses and societies. Courses are just majors/degrees so I am going to do the international business course, aka I will be majoring in international business or I will eventually graduate with an international business degree. Societies are just clubs, these cover all career clubs, random hobbies clubs, and also sports though sometimes the sports are just under the school sports section of a website but sometimes they are under the societies section.
Rent is stated in weeks not months- This is a pretty obvious one if you read closely but if you are like me and tend to just quickly skim something you might get the impression that rent is insanely cheap like only £200 per month (yay!) but no that is actually the price per week. So just be careful of this when you are creating your budget or just looking into the price of living.
Get rid of your US phone plan- Another pretty obvious one but don't keep your US phone plan and just upgrade it to the international coverage, it is going to be crazy expensive and you really don't need it because a lot of UK phone plans are also European plans (meaning that you can use your phone anywhere in Europe and not get charged international fees). Though this doesn't really have anything to do with college it was something I was curious about so I asked an international student at one of the schools I was interested in and she told me the best option for international students was VOXI (click here for more info), and two other good options were Vodafone (click here for more info) or EE (click here for more info).
Wow, you made it to the end, haha! I know that was really long and probably super overwhelming and honestly, you will feel like giving up many times but just keep going, don't give up because it will be worth it! Something that always helped me when I felt down and like giving up was watching the student vlogs on YouTube and seeing how happy and fun the person was having and I knew that that's how I would feel too! Also, be honest with yourself and make sure you are ready for this huge change because if you aren't quite ready that's ok and completely normal, take a gap year or two! Then when the time comes to actually go you will appreciate it so much more because you will know that it was the right time for you to go and have that experience!
If you have any questions at (seriously feel free to reach out, I clearly love talking about this!) feel free to reach out through email or social media. Our email is thetravelbuzzpodcast@gmail.com or you can go to the Contact Us section of our website. Our Instagram is @thetravelbuzzpodcast and our Twitter is @travelbuzzpod, again feel free to reach out!
We also recorded a whole podcast episode about this called Ep. 2-How to Go to College in Europe (click here to listen or look under the Podcast tab on our website). Also, make sure to check out Milan's blog post on how to go to school in the Netherlands (click here to read that) because a lot of her tips would work for England as well!
Good luck,
Kailey
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