Hi,
I am looking into studying abroad in the fall. I was looking into Studying in the UK. I have always wanted to go there. I would of course use the opportunity to travel to other parts of Europe.
Two of the top options I have are Aberystwyth University in Wales, and University of Westminster in London. They are pretty much opposites in location. London, as we all know, huge city, and the school is in the heart of it. Aber is a school of 9,000 and the town has around 15,000 people. I am really torn between these two areas for different reasons.
I feel a small school has many adventages. Less tourists, better immersion in the culture. But going to a Cultural hub like London also has advantages. Lots to see on a day to day basis, huge international presence.
Opinions?
Also would me being in Wales make it more difficult to get to mainland Europe on weekends occasionally? Being in London you are so close to other major cities in Europe. Thoughts?
They are two very different experiences.
Aberystwyth is a small university and seaside town where much of the local population is bilingual in Welsh and English and the local culture reflects both. The university students come from ‘everywhere’. Students known to me who go there enjoy it. The countryside around is beautiful.
Westminster has several campuses, mostly in the centre with one on north London at Harrow. It might be worth finding out where you will be based. Their web site might help. Your experience will be in a multicultural, busy capital city.
In terms of international travel the nearest airport to Aberystwyth is Birmingham, served by trains and coaches from Aberystwyth. The train journey takes about three and a half hours, the bus longer, so would need to be factored in to short trips. However many cheap airlines fly from there. I do not know how long it takes to get to the various airports around London. You might find it helpful to ask students using the UK site, the student room, where you can also find forums on different universities.
Enjoy your period abroad.
I’ve just looked up the bus travel times to Aberystwyth from Cardiff airport and Heathrow - 4 and 7 hours respectively. Eek! Even though I would 100% choose Aber, it depends what you want out of the experience. Many US students choose study abroad in the UK because the dominant language is English (though as noted above, you’re bound to come across a fair few of first language Welsh speakers in Wales. But everyone can speak English as well. they have a retty good English radar) even though they have very little interest in the country. Then they spend all their time travelling elsewhere. If you choose Aber, you’re clearly not going to be doing this. But you probably have the opportunity to be far more immersed in the local culture than most American students, and to make local friends.
I would advise you to join the walking/rambling club (which means hiking, and I am sure there will be one) because through this you will get to visit the rural parts of Wales (which is most of it) without a car. Hard to access by yourself. You will also make friends in the club. I was in a similar club in Oxford and it was great fun.
Are you a city person? Do you need to be with other American/international students or are you ok with being the only foreigner at any event? If you are from a small town, Aber might be easier. on the flip side, especially if you have never been abroad, it might be more difficult because as you have already identified, it’s going to be much less multicultural.
Are you an outdoorsy kinds of person? Do you like climbing, camping, biking etc? If so, I would choose Aber.
How do you feel about it being rainy every day? In the winter both places will be dark before 4pm. But Wales is a lot wetter (London actually gets less rain than New York. It’s actually myth that it’s really wet. But it can rain at ANY time in the UK. here is no dry season, rain is evenly distributed throughout the year. Of course no-one will believe me to feel free to check, such as here. http://www.holiday-weather.com/london/averages/)
If you’re there for a full year, remember you will have 4-6 weeks off at both Christmas and Easter which you could use for travelling.
Thanks for the response! Honestly I am not sure whether or not I am a city person! haha. I live and go to school in upstate New York in a city of 50,000. I live in the suburb. I dont care if there is Americans where I am at. I did talk to a girl on my campus that studied abroad at Aber. She actually went to London, Dublin, and parts of Italy while there. I also believe Aber has quite a large international student population.
But again its tough to choose between a big city or small one. There is for sure positives and negatives of both!
I suppose it depends on what you want out of a study abroad experience. SOme students go abroad because they want to see the sights, get into stuff, travel around the region, party, etc. A big city is more conducive to that type of experience. (No judgment - that’s why I went.) Other students go because they want immersion in the culture; they want to be away from tourists, to learn a language, to see how people really live. I mean, people really do live in London, too; it’s no less English than New York or Los Angeles is American. But obviously your experience will be very different.
Personally, were I studying abroad again, I would want to be in a large city. I studied abroad in Amsterdam in college, and I thought it was great. There was always lots to do in the city and it was easy to get out of the city to go to other cities in Western Europe by train. However, I still learned a lot culturally about the Netherlands in Amsterdam - people still spoke Dutch on a regular basis, and there were lots of cultural events and surprisingly few tourists (although the fact that I was there January through April probably had something to do with that). And the biggest celebration of the year, Koninginnedag, actually took place all through the country but was probably biggest in Amsterdam. AND I traveled to the country side when I was in the Netherlands as part of a project I had to do, and I remember being really glad I didn’t study abroad in a small town or rural area of the country. There wasn’t much to do and I felt very lonely!