UK or USA

**Ghost02** · 07-07-2009, 02:13 PM

Imagen your an American and have the opportunity to go to the UK for college, would you do it or stay in America?

To the brits here, if you had the opportunity to have college in America would you do it?

What makes the UK 'diffrent' from the USA, I have never been to the UK but in my experiance your sense of humor is much more interesting. Lets keep politics and such out of this. I am more interested in living style and such.

[If this belongs in the sandbox, sorry.]

**CingularDuality** · 07-07-2009, 02:17 PM

If you have the chance to study abroad, I would absolutely take it! You'll not only be getting the standard university education, but a much more important dose of worldly learning.

I know that my travels throughout the world have made me appreciate what we have in the USA much more.

**Kerostasis** · 07-07-2009, 02:24 PM

Originally Posted by CingularDuality

I know that my travels throughout the world have made me appreciate what we have in the USA much more.

See by contrast, I have learned to greatly appreciate what we have in the USA just by hearing about the rest of the world 2nd-hand. And with that appreciation comes a complete lack of any desire to go experience those non-US conditions for myself.

**Jeepo** · 07-07-2009, 02:33 PM

Hmmm, I would say any opportunity to get out of your home country and see the world should be grabbed, irrespective of where you are from. The UK is not a bad place to start for an American as the language is obviously the same, plus a lot of interests etc are in common. In fact when I was at uni one of my close friends was a girl from Iowa, until she discovered that drinking with UK folks was a bad choice, as we obviously have a 3 year advantage there....

But it makes you appreciate what you have at home, and gets rid of any ignorant ideas some harbour about foreign countries/people. Also, travel is travel, and the UK is a great stepping stone to Europe. Grab the chance or you may regret it. Plus while I am sure the USA is great and all that jazz, surely the UK is not such a step down Kero? I find the "stay at home" attitude some what puzzling, as your own personal experience and impressions will always be better than what you see in the media? I mean, if I believed what the media portrayed about the USA, I would think it was a land inhabited by rednecks and hicks who all go around shooting each other and hunting mexicans at the border, but I am not as stupid as that, and that is not America, just a representation from some group with an agenda. And I still want to go visit the states!

**AdeptAbyss** · 07-07-2009, 02:58 PM

I'll be off to canada in a few years will be great to see somewhere else than the U.K if you have the chance to go somewhere else and do something different take the chance, even if you dont like it at least you now know ;D

Or come over to N.I

its always fun and games over here :P

**Ferris Bueller** · 07-07-2009, 03:05 PM

Originally Posted by Kerostasis

See by contrast, I have learned to greatly appreciate what we have in the USA just by hearing about the rest of the world 2nd-hand. And with that appreciation comes a complete lack of any desire to go experience those non-US conditions for myself.

Jeepo has a point. Your attitude on this is very confusing. Thats the equivalent of saying that you hear from a friend that eating steak will cause your head to explode, so you decide never to eat steak. You have to try things for yourself. The conditions in other countries have nothing to do with it. You do it to gain new experiences, to broaden your cultural horizons. Reading about these things or watching videos online is no substitute for experiencing them yourself. I could go on for days about the things I've seen and the absolutely rock-solid-kick-ass experiences I've had in other countries.

I've travelled all over the world and you know where one of the most filthy places I've ever been is? PHILADELPHIA. Thats right, the birthplace of our country is one of the dirtiest, nastiest, most crime ridden places that i've ever been. Other cities in other countries pale in comparison before its level of putrescence. But hey, why believe me? GO THERE. Find out for yourself.

**sordavie** · 07-07-2009, 03:24 PM

The UK college curriculum is quite different than the US curriculum for most fields. The major difference is in diversity of required classes. At most colleges in the US, you're required to take a much broader range of courses. In the UK one focuses more narrowly on their major. You get a more liberal education in the US but a more concentrated one in the UK, given that you study hard and make the most of it.

**Ghost02** · 07-07-2009, 03:25 PM

Any good colleges in Northern Ireland?

**PanzerHans** · 07-07-2009, 03:58 PM

I had two chances of studying abroad and grabbed them both. My first one was as an exchange student(high school graduate) in Minnesota, the other one finishing my MsC(IT) in Australia. Both were major eye openers for me.

The US mid western hospitality was amazing and has left a lasting impression on me but I was also amazed of how little my fellow students and friends where I studied knew about the world outside USA.

Australia was quite different, great laid-back people(I studied in Gold Coast, Queensland) and fantastic weather. Cultural wise a bit more secluded than MW-US, but still a fantastic place.
I would love to spend more time in Australia.

If you get the chance to study abroad grab it, but make sure you go to a good college, you are going to need those skills later.....

**AMosely** · 07-07-2009, 04:10 PM

First and foremost you should find a college that best suits you in terms of size, curriculum, location, and how it matches your aspirations. If you aspire to be a world citizen, possibly living overseas, then you should seriously consider attending college overseas. If you are fairly certain that you intend to stay in your native country, you may instead want to enroll in an American college and consider a semester (or more) abroad - that's the purpose of such endeavors - to sample overseas curriculum without a 4+ year commitment to living there. Most schools offer programs through partnerships with other universities that make such arrangements very easy (credits count 1:1, room, board and visa is easier, etc).

**ScratchMonkey** · 07-07-2009, 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by PanzerHans

make sure you go to a good college, you are going to need those skills later.....

I rarely use much of what I learned formally at MIT. (I can recognize the higher-level concepts, but never have need of all the detail.) But the fact that I went there opened a lot of doors. For a lot of hiring desks, it's the diploma, not the training, that gets you in the door. A similar thing happens with a military background, as it shows tenacity and loyalty, things companies love to see in an applicant.

The hardest thing about choosing a school or a major is that one rarely knows what one wants to spend the rest of one's life doing at 18.

**DrBeat** · 07-07-2009, 04:46 PM

Although I am still young, I would love the opportunity to study abroad.

**Birdman1011395** · 07-07-2009, 05:18 PM

I would even say that if you don't plan on being a world citizen, at least look into places out of your state/region. Of my high school friends, only three of us went to out of state schools, granted Virginia Tech is instate and most everyone went Engineering. But still, you should look into going elsewhere, and it doesn't have to outside of the country if that's not you bag, baby. Live in the (Yankee) Northeast, try the heartland. Live in Scotland, try Wales. Just go somewhere else, it'll help make you more independent too!

**Blackdog1** · 07-07-2009, 06:19 PM

Here is my very real experience of this sbject matter first hand.

Firstly, your choice of college or (University) as we Brits call it and which country you get your degree in, depends very much on where you truly want to live and work.

For example, I wish I had, had the chance to get my college degree in the US, I would have loved it. However consider this....

I now work and live in the US and to be honest, in business and even just in everyday life it is ALL about which college you went to? Which College team do you support? Unless it's Cambridge or Oxford....US companies really dont know/recognize/value any other college degree from the UK.

I have been at so many countless business conferences where discussion ultimately goes to where you went to college. Here in the US its a huge thing....if you intend to live and work here, then its a huge thing.

For example my Leeds University education means spit here.

College sports in the UK are no where near what they are here. For example my quarter final final appearance in the British UK Basketball University Championship, might possibly have gotten me into "NBA draft consideration" had I played to the same level here in the US. The fact is, UK sports at University are simply not supported. We had 15 people watching our quarter final.... You get 5000 people and above often watching high school football here.

Now...a combined approach if sports are of no interest to you, is to do your degree in the UK and then come bck and do your MBA at a name University here.

I fully agree and endorse as many Americans as possible to get out of their country borders to simply get a perspective of how truly blinkered and controlling the media is here (irrespective of political bias) and to understand a little bit more of how the world percieves "Americans" per say.

There are many ways to see the world, by education, military service, work related travel and or earn enough money that you can take vacations all over the world.

Just some things for your consideration.

**ollie_fool** · 07-07-2009, 06:47 PM

What blackdog says is probably the most important thing to consider, if you go to university internationally employers will only recognise degrees from the top schools, e.g cambirdge, oxford, i know the only US universities ive heard of are Harvard, Yale and MIT.

If you do plan on coming to the UK i think its very different from the US system, for example, we dont have a Mojor/minor thing, you pick a specific course and only study that topic, how broad the curriculum is depends entirely on the course and unversity.As an example, I chose a reasonable broad course which was biomedical science, but at the same Uni there are also much more specialist courses such as virology, or mouch broader course such as biology which covers pretty much everything. You really need to decide what it is that you want to do and find a course nthat fits you, rather than making the choice based on location.

I might consider going to america but i would definately wait until im a bit older, maybe to do a graduate degree after my course in the UK, so i'd be 21.

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