Academic Factors / Schools in Scotland

Applying to College
1

<p>When I first looking into studying abroad, for some reason, the University of Edinburgh appealed to me right away. Something just clicked. I'm a pre-med student and know that it has a reputable science program and the campus and area is gorgeous. However, for my studying abroad application, it asked me to rank the schools in Scotland that I would most like to go to. I never really looked into University of Glasgow or St. Andrews just because I was so into University of Edinburgh. Then it asked me to rank the academic factors that have influenced my decision to study abroad at these schools. Other then a pre-med emphasis, I don't really know what else to put down.</p>

<p>To shorten all of this up, I have two questions:</p>

<p>If you were to rank these three schools, what would your rankings be and why? (This is more so I can see how others view these schools, and just for fun)</p>

<p>What academic factors should students consider before they study abroad?</p>

<p>I understand a lot of this may come off as pretty ignorant just because I want to go to University of Edinburgh off a "gut instinct" basis, but I don't really know good differences to consider between the schools, and which academic factors to favor them individually. </p>

<p>Thanks for the help and thanks for putting up with this long post!</p>

2

<p>1.) Edinburgh
2.) St Andrews
3.) Glasgow</p>

<p>I study at Edinburgh and was accepted to all three. Edinburgh is the best. Especially if you are interested in Medicine, Edinburgh’s school of medicine is internationally renown and one of the best in the UK (I would say top 3). It has a long history that you need to read up on - almost all the top US med schools are based off it. </p>

<p>Your gut instinct is correct - Edinburgh would be considered by most as the best of three and I get that information from the many people I have spoken to both abroad and in Scotland. Especially if you meet Med/Science students abroad, they would have heard of it and get a little excited. Especially doctors. But they would not have heard of St Andrews. This is not factual proof though, but I would say it’s significant. </p>

<p>Edinburgh is definitely considered the best in Scotland and the facts pointing towards this are:</p>

<ul>
<li><p>Research. Take a look at the RAE 2008 (A long research assessment run in the UK over many years that assesses each department of each uni.). Actually google it and compare the reports for Edinburgh vs others. Edinburgh just has a ton more research and research funding than St Andrews or Glasgow and most others in the UK. The only that compare are Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, LSE and a couple of others. In fields such as Medicine or Informatics, Edinburgh has the highest research and quality of research output by a mile. Take a look at [Research</a> excellence | About us | School of Informatics](<a href=“http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/about/research-excellence]Research”>http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/informatics/about/research-excellence) for example.</p>

<ul>
<li>Funding. Edinburgh has the third biggest endowment in the UK after Oxford and Cambridge. It’s about 7 times more than St Andrews and twice as much as Glasgow. This affects everything from lecture rooms to computer labs. The university seems to do well at getting donations - JK Rowling donated a few million towards research last year and recently professor Higgs @ edinburgh due to the Higgs-Boson discovery.<br></li>
<li>Reputation. If you do go to Edinburgh, you’ll find that there are very few Scottish students. This is because they compete with the whole of the EU for entry. Edinburgh is extremely well known across the EU (Italy/Sweden/France etc) and there are more Romanians in my year than Scots or English. EU students do not pay fees at Edinburgh, though they do at Oxford/Cambridge, so it is considered by many to be the top university in Europe for EU. </li>
</ul></li>
</ul>

<p>Glasgow and St Andrews do not excel in all three of these factors which I think are important. Quality of lecturers, undergraduate programme and teaching comes from these three factors since Edinburgh attracts very good academics/researchers. Maybe that isn’t entirely true but is the best at an educated guess. </p>

<p>St Andrews has a very good reputation - especially in the US. Outside of the US and UK you’ll find it’s less known than Edinburgh. It is the third oldest english speaking uni after Oxbridge, and royalty love it. Other than that, I think it’s pretty bad at sciences, arts definitely solid. Americans like it way too much though. </p>

<p>Glasgow is also good. All three of these universities are top in the UK by the way. Glasgow is a very different city from the other two - much bigger, more industrial even more Scottish. It’s the less international of the three.</p>

3

<p>Beware though, if you’re a science student in the US Edinburgh will be much much much harder. You should study extremely hard for exams, much more than what is considered studying hard in the US! At least 2 weeks of preparation per exam.</p>

4

<p>They are all excellent universities, and there is no reason to worry about the academic reputation of any of the three. However, I would agree that Edinburgh is the best of the three. </p>

<p>Before going to St Andrews, however, consider if a small Scottish coastal town that is relatively isolated and dominated by the Uni is really what you want - Edinburgh and Glasgow are much better for nightlife, culture, transport and so on.</p>

5

<p>Ha thanks so much for the help! Yeah I assumed walking into this whole thing that my gpa would have to drop, no matter how much I study due to the different grading system and difficulty of courses. I figured it was a once in a lifetime chance though, and it’ll be a good learning experience haha.</p>

6

<p>You need to find out EXACTLY how your US school will calculate your GPA from study abroad before you sign up for any program. I get PMs from people all the time saying study abroad ruined their GPA. Some schools are very harsh and may consider for example 60% in the UK (very high here) to be the same as 60% in the US. Other schools will apply some kind of grade translation. Others will just say if you attend, you pass (so you can spend all your time partying then!). It is extremely unlikely that a study abroad student will be required to take any of the difficult end of year exams.</p>

7

<p>At Edinburgh, exchange students take end of year exams - at least in sciences. I also got annoyed by someone who went on exchange to Edinburgh 30 years ago (!) and is still upset about how it ruined his GPA.</p>

8

<p>I think it’s wrong to just put 60 or 50 without explanation but my daughter’s colleges said most grad schools, especially today understand the various grading systems. Twin 1 's school puts it on but doesn’t calculate it on transcript although a guide that is also on their website, is given. Twin 2 has it put on a second transcript and doesn’t have it effect GPA. If you did very well, they will include it seperatelty, (3.4 GPA, 3.7 with Univ of London) for example, from what she told me.
Some colleges, if you had trouble adjusting, don’t want it to hurt your GPA, others, if you did well, want it to reflect that, but you always have the choice of including that in your applications.
I also think it matters more if you do a year vs a semester. At one daughter’s school, they almost only do 1 year which is harder to ignore. </p>

<p>I agree with Cupcake, always check, part of the maturity to go abroad comes with preparing and knowing everything you can at home and abroad.</p>