It’s not the worst starting place, and you can tweak it a bunch (for example, if accommodation is in a catered hall, food costs should be lower, b/c 10-12 meals a week are paid for). Student discounts make a big difference, but even so the £15/month budget for “Tobacco and Alcohol” was…laughable.
You might find this article more helpful for getting a sense of costs:
Right now D22 does not use tobacco or alcohol, but has a mean Boba Tea habit that would make short work of £15. I will check out the other link, too. Thanks! She is super excited about the possibility of studying in the UK or Ireland so I hope we can make it work. She is very motivated to score well on the SATs now so even if university in the UK doesn’t work out and it’s just college in the US with a year or semester abroad, the SAT prep will pay off I’m sure.
@sweetgum, you asked about how D saved money by registering directly with the university in London.
First, understand that it is very common for US schools to proudly declare that “studying abroad for a semester/year won’t cost you more than studying here.” Wonderful, if your child is not paying much due to financial aid or merit scholarships. My D’s support made a huge dent in the price, but it was still expensive at a school on the CC “Top Universities” list. If D had studied abroad through one of her US school’s programs, it would have cost us the same as the US school, plus airfare etc.
As you’ve already noticed, the cost at UK universities is usually quite a bit lower than US schools. By enrolling directly through the UK university’s study abroad program we paid their program price, not the US school cost. This saved us thousands, even considering airfare.
Some US schools will only allow study abroad through their own programs. Lucky for us, D’s school was flexible. She worked with her advisor to have her classes approved for transfer credit beforehand, even to fulfill requirements for her major.
“Be aware that as an international student there is also a £300/year NHS fee”.
This fee is paid in a lump sum of £1200 when you apply for the student tier 4 visa.
Also don’t forget to budget in airfare. And for the next year or so flight availability could’ve be affected due to reduced demand. One thing about studying abroad…you can never choose to drive to school ?.
And food (and other purchases) isn’t always cheaper, especially when VAT is factored in.
For the sake of completeness you may, if you have not discovered it already, like to go to the UCAS course search site. They list every uni offering each subject. After that comes the weeding out. Have fun.
I realize you are not concerned about employment, but do keep in mind that the placement statistics for schools would be for UK citizens with a right to work there, which your student doesn’t have.
Thanks for all your comments. Yes, @rhododendron, your explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks for that.
Considering the high cost of going to college/university in the US, the £1200 NHS fee is not a make or break deal, nor is airfare home. Certainly something to be aware of and thanks for reminding me, but unlikely to be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Good point about placement statistics @roycroftmom. I know our neighbor who studied at Trinity in Ireland did have a year abroad or placement year in Moscow. I’m not sure exactly what field she was studying/working in. Do you think that a placement year would be out of the question from the UK universities that offer those optionally?
4mummy, I will direct D22 to the UCAS site. We have been using The Complete University Guide and it seems to be a good starting point, but might as well look at the real deal.
Right now D22 is expressing some interest in Strathclyde. Do y’all know anything about it?
Strathclyde is very Engineering oriented and it also offers very strong business courses (programs).
Since there are no general education requirements it’s not really a problem.
They have good placements (internships) but I’m not sure those are offered for English.
It’s not next year @CollegeMamb0, but 2022, so plenty of time to research. She is just a junior this year and won’t graduate until spring of 2022. Exeter looks like it could be promising. Thanks.
She has an online Scottish friend who is interested in Strathclyde so we checked it out a little bit. Strathclyde offers 11 courses in “English and Creative Writing”. “English and Creative Writing” is the single course (not a combined of “English” & “Creative Writing” if that makes sense). There are combined courses with Education, Spanish, History, French, Law, Psychology, Social Policy, HR, International Relations, Journalism. I think that covered it. It looks like some of the combined courses offer a year abroad and on the web they seem to have good career services for International students, but I don’t know how it is in real life.
@Publisher William & Mary is a very good school, but if she’s staying here we would not be inclined to pay OOS unless there was some serious merit aid. It would be cheaper to just go to the UK for all 3 or 4 years. She really really really wants to go to the UK right now, but she is only a junior so has plenty of time to change her mind and these are some weird and interesting times to be living through. If things settle down a little in 2021 she may come back around to going to an in-state North Carolina school (or a LAC with good merit) and just doing a year abroad.
Thank you all for all your assistance. I’m all ears/eyes if y’all have any other tips or suggestions.
I think going to university abroad works best for those students who are certain in their course of study, who affirmatively do not want an American college experience, and who are, compared to their peers, unusually independent and self-reliant. It helps if the student has substantial experience travelling alone, preferably abroad, prior to enrolling.
She is pretty firmly committed to the idea now and she is pretty independent and self-reliant as a junior and I’m sure will be more so by the time fall 2022 rolls around.
DD22 is still very committed to the idea of going to the UK for university. Her school is offering the PSAT in January and all 11th graders in NC are required (in the before times at least) to take the ACT. I am wondering if UK universities have a preference for the SAT or the ACT or if it matters to many of them. Anyone have an inkling? Things are so crazy this year. She has not signed up to take the SAT yet — wanting to do the PSAT first, but I’m wondering if we should try to sign her up. I don’t think the school (very small) will offer it.
They are pretty interchangeable these days- just double check the qualification options for each school she is considering. I can’t think of any that don’t take both- and most are more interested in APs/Subject tests.
The only reason to both is if she really doesn’t take to the ACT (some people really don’t- half of the Collegekids took to the SAT and the other half much preferred the ACT- with results to match.
Yes, we have looked at a lot of different UK universities. She has a chart with all the requirements and I think most do have ACT and SAT both listed. She did fairly well on the Pre ACT (not Oxbridge or Ivy league), but in the range for the unis she is looking at.
Things are so mixed up this year I am not sure about SATs, but surely the ones in May and June will be happening.
The main thing is not to have repeated tests since you must declare all scores. Practice mock tests, don’t take the real one more than once if you can avoid it (assuming you get the required score). Also there’s no super scoring.
I would say that the general preference for AP tests over subject tests is much weaker for SAT over ACT but perhaps marginally present at the tippy top level, just because there’s a slightly longer tail, so a 1600 SAT is much more impressive than a 36 ACT. The UK really likes long tail tests, which is why 70% is a top score, not 90% like in the US. That is also the score needed for a first class degree.
I don’t think she needs to stress about the long tail if she isn’t planning on applying to Oxbridge. One ACT in range and she’s done.
The beauty of the UK system.
She got a 27 on the Pre ACT, but has not taken the actual ACT yet. She is a bit weak in Math, but excellent in the Reading and English portions. She is using Khan Academy to prep for the PSAT. I would like to see the Math go up more, but she is not going into anything STEM so maybe that is okay. She took the SAT10 last year and did in the same range as the Pre-ACT, but I can’t remember the score off the top of my head.
I will encourage the continued practice on Khan and we’ll see how the PSAT goes. I’m sure she would be thrilled to be one and done with the ACT and/or SAT.
She is still most interested in Strathclyde at the moment who want a 27 ACT and two 4s on APs. She will only have 3 AP classes (APUSH, AP English, and AP Psych) just because her school is small and they only offer about 7 AP courses and the others are STEM, which is not her strong suit. She also looked at UEA, but we cannot find a SAT or ACT requirement there. They do want three to five 4+ APs.
^ UEA says “ We welcome applicants who are able to present SAT and/or ACT qualifications in support of their application, alongside one or more of the options noted above. “ so it seems to be optional but probably an advantage.