US Universities

[Somebody Else]

I'm, uh... being... ejected from my current institution of higher education, and am contemplating heading off to America to study.

Just wondering what various people here think of the universities there, they're merits and reputations - social as well as academic.

At the moment, I'm thinking that Yale seems rather good... But I don't really know - I've never even been to America. I'm thinking it's between Yale or Harvard... I just hope I'm not aiming too high.

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

Well, they're...



flaming liberal.



Other than that, quality depends on the college. Many colleges also have individual strengths like a business or arts department...

Other than that, I don't know.

Sorry about the... ejection.

[Goofball]

I'm, uh... being... ejected from my current institution of higher education, and am contemplating heading off to America to study.

Just wondering what various people here think of the universities there, they're merits and reputations - social as well as academic.

At the moment, I'm thinking that Yale seems rather good... But I don't really know - I've never even been to America. I'm thinking it's between Yale or Harvard... I just hope I'm not aiming too high.

Er... Not quite sure how to say this...

If you are being ejected from your current institution, I doubt if you would find Yale, Harvard, or any of the ivy league schools to be very receptive to your application.

Try Arizona State (or is it U of A, I always mix the two up), they are a pretty good party school. Or at least they were ten years ago. Sorry, my info is a bit dated.

[Somebody Else]

They don't need to know...

Just tell them the good things I've got going for me... And hey, I did get accepted here...

Hmm... I'll have to take SATs too...

[Kaiser of Arabia]

The Collage of William and Mary in Williamsburg Virginia, is an awesome collage, Ivy League and in the middle of Colonial Williamsburg. Awesome indeed.

Another good one is Seton Hall in the Oranges in Jersey. Bad location, but good school. AND home to the deadliest dormatory fire in history *swells with pride*

Yet another nice on is Stampford in Ny.

[son of spam]

Yep, William and Mary is good. My mom used to work there as a postdoc, and it seems like a pleasant sort of school. Might be aiming too high though...dunno. Depends on your major. I know that Law would probably be hard to get in.

Tell us your major.

Harvard-->Business/Law/Math/Humanities/Bio stuff
MIT-->Engineering/Math/Physical Sciences
Yale-->Dunno...mostly law

Other schools:

Princeton
Johns Hopkins
Stanford
UC Berkely
UPenn
Swarthmore
Dartmouth
Brown
Columbia
SUNY
NYU
Caltech
Wash U. in St. Louis
Tulane
Rice
Emory
Georgia Tech
UGA --I used to live there too, so I might be biased when I say 1337 r0x0rs w00t! ;)

All good schools.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

It really depends on what you want to study. There are lots of good schools.

http://www.collegeboard.com/csearch/

[DemonArchangel]

Demon Sez: I would recommend Johns Hopkins, although the campus is old and crappy and the locale sucks major *censored*

But they have an entire section of library dedicated a listing of all roman graffiti.

[Redleg]

They don't need to know...

Just tell them the good things I've got going for me... And hey, I did get accepted here...

Hmm... I'll have to take SATs too...

If you are being ejected for grades most colleges and universities will share that information - especially if you are trying to transfer credits. If its for behavior - and especially if you are applying for the Ivy league schools they often want references and letters of recommendation to get accepted to them. Unless of course you or your parents send a large cash donation to the Unversity for the new Libary or Stadium.

If you are not wanting to share your acdemic record with the Unversity and start from scratch with your higher education - I suggest any of the State Unversities is a good start - several are actually very good depending on what subjects - some are better then others.

Junior Colleges and Community colleges are even more relaxed on their acceptance criteria - and are also good places to rebuild Grades prior to applying to the bigger and better known schools.

[Somebody Else]

Surely I can say that I chose entirely the wrong subject, and that a broader education is what I need? That is, if they bring my dropping out up. Besides - I'd be changing system entirely... so starting over would be implied. I mean, if I do really well on these SATs, surey that should put me in good stead... I had a look at a practice one from the website, and they don't look particularly taxing.

References and letters of recommendation... perhaps I can get my last school to provide those. Anyway, it's all a little while off yet.

[solypsist]

keep in mind that here in the US one has to pay to go to school; it isn't free like in the UK

[Somebody Else]

Wasn't really free for me either, so no big deal.

[Shahed]

and no mate...you can never aim too high !

what do you want to study ?

[Somebody Else]

My problem is I've never been good at knowing what I want, which is why I think the US system is rather good, in that the first year at least, is rather broad in scope. I mean, my interests range from classics to science... but I can't work out what it is that I'm especially in to.

[Shahed]

If u work that out and get back to me, I could help you.

Choose !

[monkian]

This is not a flame or 'american bashing' etc - I just curious.

I've heard that American qualifications from um.. 'high school' etc (?) aren't considered to be equivalent to European A levels and other higher qualifications.

Is this the case or is it just Old Guard European elitism ?

[Somebody Else]

It is true - as A levels are much more specialised. The flipside is that we with our A-levels may well be very good at a few subjects, but are very weak at everything else. I'd much rather have had a broader education to a slightly lower standard, than the narrow, high quality one I had.

[Shahed]

The first question is to decide which area you want the broad education in, for example if it's in business administration, I'd recommend:

1. Stanford: Great reputation, awesome campus, great crowd and ..California... good change from oxford, great faculty, great extracurricular

2. MIT-Sloan..same as above but no california

3. Harvard: boring elite school but hell u got the name

4. Thunderbird: Up and coming, not ivy league, but very good circulum...good reputation, great campus (on a former air force base)...great xtracurricular, great crowd, and.....arizona !

You need to choose a field it will make it much easier...trust me i just went thru this.

btw you are probably to late for a US transfer but you might be just in time for an Australian transfer if you apply in the next two-three weeks.

[Devastatin Dave]

Here's a good one...
http://www.newyorkbartendingschool.c...OVMTC=standard


And there's always...
http://www.uscollegesearch.org/a_cut...y_college.html

[Somebody Else]

Well, I like the ratios in the second one...

[Cebei]

Which seems to be a good place for a post-doc for international relations/international politics kind of stuff?

[Kongamato]

Georgetown, perhaps?

[Demon of Light]

If you come to UCSD (University of California, San Diego) you'll get a quality education in a temperate climate. San Diego really does have the best weather of any place I've been and UCSD is a quality institution with an established record in accepting foreign students.

[Teutonic Knight]

University of Virginia

[English assassin]

University of Virginia

I know a few of the profs in the law school there. It seems like a good place. Really nice campus too.

[BDC]

Yes this Saturday in London there is some thing about studying in America... I would have gone but sadly my school only decided to inform us today and guess what, some people have to work Saturdays! So thanks for that my sixth form. I should have gone to college...

[Mount Suribachi]

Well as someone who has studied at both a British and an American university I feel qualified to speak on this subject I studied Chemistry btw, at the Universities of Salford and Toledo.

1. As Soly says, you will have to pay for your edumecation. We're not just talking living costs, we're talking tuition fees, the whole shebang.

2. This is expensive - we're talking 10s of thousands of $$ over a 4 year degree. Most of the US students I knew held at least 1 and often 2 part time jobs during term time. During holidays they would go home and work a full time job. To us lazy Brits this was a real culture shock, we were used to spending our free time in the pub, spending the money the government gave/loaned us. Unless of course you have rich parents. And if you're not a US citizen you may very well struggle to get a job on a student visa

3. Yes, the education is broader, but it does narrow down as you go through the years. In the UK we specialise a lot earlier, though since I was a stoodent 10 years ago our curriculum has been dumbed down a bit to match the US way of doing things eg you no longer do Physics/Chemistry/Biology at GCSE, you do "general science"

4. Due to their later specialisation, as others have intimated, US degrees are less "advanced" than British degrees, for want of a better word. Much of the Freshmen & Sophomore curriculum I found to be roughly equivalent to A-level, Junior and Senior courses were about the same as a 1st or 2nd year British degree. It is my learned opinion that to get the same level of education as a British degree (in your chosen field) you would have to do a 1 year Masters degree at a US university.

Any questions feel free to ask

[Mount Suribachi]

Oh, I forgot to add, although it is academically "easier", its actually not quite the case.

Our first term there, all us Brits breezed through our classes laughing about how easy it was, doing as little work as possible and when we got 70% in our exams we patted ourselves on the back at how well we'd done. 70% in a British exam is an A grade. 70% in a US exam is, at best, a grade C. To get an A you would need 90%, and to get 90% you need to do some serious swotting, even for a relatively easy subject.

Although the subjects and questions were generally easier, we found we had to work much harder when revising for our exams - which were btw much more numerous than in the UK, lots of mid-term exams, all of which contributed to your final grade.

In my second term I did much more swotting and my GPA jumped from 1.9 in my first term to 3.2

And finally, lest anyone thinks I am bashing US Academia, whilst in the US I had to study Statistical Mechanics, which to this day remains the hardest thing I have ever done in my life. 1 hour, 3 times a week I would concentrate furiously and leave class with a spinning head......

[Shahed]

Somebody Else, are you talking about Master's level or Bachelor's level ?

[Teutonic Knight]

I know a few of the profs in the law school there. It seems like a good place. Really nice campus too.

From what I've heard it's one of the best secular colleges in the country (besides top Ivy League obviously).