All of these are accurate from my experience. My son is a senior IR major in the William & Mary / St Andrews joint degree programme. This means two years at each university. Academically, he was much happier in the W&M American liberal arts atmosphere. He has found his W&M professors more accessible and mentoring. At St Andrews, where you may only have one lecture hour per week, he wasn’t able to build the kinds of relationships with professors he has at W&M. That might have been the luck of the draw with a few uninspiring professors at St Andrews, though. He found his two years at St Andrews generally “easier”. Very few exams, just a lot of long papers to write (for IR - can’t speak or other majors). Also, I know a lot of students dislike general education credits, but my son enjoyed the off-major classes he had to take at W&M. Instead, at St Andrews, when he had developed an interest in the Persian language, wasn’t allowed to pursue it because it was outside of his IR course of study.
Socially, St Andrews was preferred hands down! In the UK, uni students are adults, not kids. I have seen American parents freak out by how little family outreach and information there is. There is not really a campus culture - you live in the lovely town of St Andrews like all of the other residents. My son was never particularly interested in school spirit and such, so he was fine with that. As mentioned by someone else, there is a strong pub culture, and with the drinking age at 18, it is easy for students to gather in them. But, even if someone doesn’t drink alcohol, there are pub games and quizzes, live music, pub food. Being in the UK afforded easy travel around in Europe, which was also a perk.
Studying in the UK for Americans can be a great experience, but students and parents need to really understand the differences and adjust their expectations.