<p>Hi</p>
<p>I was just wondering if I would be able to take my 2nd year out of my university here in the UK and study in the US as a visiting student. </p>
<p>I’ve vaguely heard of visiting student programs but as they are unlike anything in the UK, could someone please explain them to me? Do you literally just exchange for a year and earn credit? Also, what universities offer this program? I already know of Brown and Columbia but where else could I study? Does Stanford have a similar program? Could I write to a department asking if I could gain a visiting student status? Also what do MIT mean about their visiting student program in the link below?</p>
<p><a href=“http://web.mit.edu/policies/5/5.5.html”>http://web.mit.edu/policies/5/5.5.html</a></p>
<p>Thank you</p>
<p>Goldfly</p>
<p>one key aspect is that you have to be absolutely full pay.</p>
<p>
That would depend on the rules at your UK school.about granting of credit from other institutions.</p>
<p>^yes it depends if you direct enroll as a visiting student ( you apply directly to the US institution, you pay full freight and your school decides whether to accept the credits or not, but you can choose what US university you go to) or if you’re an exchange student (you stay enrolled at your institution, you pay fees there, the classes you take abroad count toward your degree although the grades rarely do, but the process goes through your home institution and you can only apply to the universities they have an exchange with.)</p>
<p>Ah ok thank you! I think I’m likely to apply to the university itself as a VUS because the exchange links of the universities that I will to apply to in the UK are pretty mediocre (with the exception of Cambridge-MIT). </p>
<p>You can select your 4 other UCAS schools based on what universities they have exchanges with. 
Honestly it’s a perfectly good criterion to use since there’s a correlation between the US university you can go on as an exchange student and the selectivity of the home institution; and since it’s not always the case, you can select your safety based on the exchange, some are pretty sweet if you compare selectivity of the British institution vs. US institution. Also, do not dismiss LACs (unless you are very interested in a large campus where football is important.)
But if you have the money to pay for a full year, as long as the school accepts visiting students, it should be pretty straightforward to direct enroll as a visiting student and get your classes recognized; universities may treat it as a “sandwich” year unless you’re in American studies though. You’ll always have your transcript from the American institution! Also you should not just take classes “because they’ll be recognized” - British universities have a narrower curriculum but taking a breadth of classes is a hallmark of an American undergraduate education, and if you are a visiting student at Brown or Harvard, you should take half classes just because they interest you and sound great, even if (especially if!) they don’t match a class in your program at home. Typically you’d do Year 1 and Year 2 at home, Sandwich Year in the US, and Year 3 at home, with your Sandwich/exchange year recorded but not counted toward your final results. </p>
<p>Thank you for your response you have been incredibly helpful. I think I have my heart set on my current five choices as I have spent a lot of time thinking about where I would like to go. Besides, there is no university (again with the exception of Oxbridge) that has an exchange link with one of the US colleges I would like to apply to. Regarding LACs, I have thought about it but I would like to major in economics and I think that the likes of Warwick and Bristol would have better economics courses than places like Ponoma and Amherst. Last thing, could you please respond to my thread:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/1649590-quick-question-about-the-common-app-essays.html#latest”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/common-application/1649590-quick-question-about-the-common-app-essays.html#latest</a></p>
<p>As I have a question about the Common App that I need answering? </p>
<p>Thank you once again,</p>
<p>Goldfly </p>
<p>Actually I was thinking of Bowdoin, Colgate, and McKenna :)</p>
<p>What is your major?
How do you feel about being in a very rural environment?</p>
<p>That MIT link states that the Visiting Student status is specifically for research projects and that you can’t take courses at the same time, so it’s not really appropriate for your purposes - although conceivably the research could be used for your dissertation. I don’t know how easy it would be to be invited, especially in a field like economics - you’d probably need to get a really strong recommendation from someone at your own university, and again, I don’t know what their policy is likely to be on the matter. MIT’s Special student status might be closer to what you want, although my impression is that it would not be transferrable credit.</p>
<p>If you want to do a year’s exchange and get credit towards your own degree, it will depend on your home university’s policies. They might not accept credits from any college other than those they have links with.</p>
<p>If you go to Warwick you could do your exchange with Cornell - would that work for you?</p>
<p>My major would be in economics and a very rural environment does not really take my fancy which is why I’m shying away from LACs and places like St Andrews and Durham in the UK. </p>
<p>@Conformist1688 thank you! If I were to spend a year at MIT for research then I would perhaps do it towards a postgraduate degree and you said that the Special Student status won’t get me credit so I’d probably apply for VUS programs at Harvard, Columbia, Yale, UPenn and Brown. How do you know about the Warwick exchange? Unfortunately, that is only for the Business School which does not offer economics 
</p>
<p>My mistake - I assumed economics was taught in the Business School. I got the list of partner universities from the Warwick website.</p>