Ireland (Cork) vs Scotland (Edinburgh or St. Andrews)

Applying to College
1

<p>I'll be studying abroad next spring somewhere in the UK or Ireland, either in Scotland or Ireland, with a very slight possibility on studying in England.</p>

<p>If I had to choose right this moment without any chance to think it over, I would choose Edinburgh, but I'm also looking closely at St. Andrews and Cork, Ireland. </p>

<p>Edinburgh pros:
1.It's in a bigger city. I've never lived in a city with more than 10,000 people, so this may be a good experience for me.
2. It's a beautiful and walkable city from what I hear.
3. It's not terribly far from England, but also not terribly far from the highlands (I'd like to do some hiking.)
4. Easy to travel from. Obviously I'll be studying when abroad, but the main reason to go abroad is to experience the world. Traveling is much more important to me than quality of academics while abroad. </p>

<p>Edinburgh cons:
1. It's a bigger city. This could be a pro or con. I am an avid runner and am missing track season to go abroad. With only one more year left after being abroad, I want to continue training almost daily when abroad, and it may be harder to find good territory for running in Edinburgh (I'd like to run on trails occasionally)
2. Cost of living is higher. My financial aid transfers, so tuition and housing won't be a problem. But I'll be on my own for food.
3. Weather isn't great, but it's probably not any worse than St. Andrews or Cork.
4. It looks like it would be easier to get a schedule with 3-4 day weekends every week. Harder to do with the English department at Edinburgh. Better for traveling. </p>

<p>St. Andrews pros:
1. Smaller town. I enjoy open spaces, and not just for running sake. Although it will offer more running options, especially with the Fife Coastal trail running right through.
2. It's on the coast. So is Edinburgh, apparently, but I've never heard Edinburgh being referred to as a "coastal" city. St. Andrews is near many small coastal towns.
3. It's a little bit closer to good hiking territory and the highlands.
4. Lower cost of living.</p>

<p>St. Andrews cons:
1. Smaller town. Again, sort of a contradiction like Edinburgh as a bigger city.
2. Further from transportation, but only an hour or so from Edinburgh, so not terrible.
3. St. Andrews seems to be less Scottish than Edinburgh. More Americans. I don't know enough about this though. </p>

<p>Cork pros:
1. A little bit warmer in January and February. (but also a little more rainier)
2. A good mix between a big and small city.
3. Fairly easy to travel to UK and rest of Europe.
4. Looks decent for running. Someone from my college went there a few years ago and ran with the cross country team. I would probably be able to do that at Edinburgh or St. Andrews too.
5. One of the biggest pros: A whole month for spring break! Edinburgh and St. Andrews have 2 weeks, which is great, but 4 weeks is a lot better and would allow for some great traveling.</p>

<p>Cork cons:
1. Haven't heard anything great about the city like I have Edinburgh. Haven't heard anything terrible either.
2. I have heard if you don't drink than Cork is not a good place to be. Don't know if this is true or not. I don't drink. I realize Scotland wouldn't be a ton better, but I hear you can find things to do in Edinburgh even if you don't drink.
3. Hiking not as good? Scotland has beautiful hiking territory, but Ireland seems decent as well. I just don't know that much about it. </p>

<p>Right now I'm leaning heavily towards Scotland. Edinburgh with St. Andrews close behind. I would love to hear from experiences in these cities. Other suggestions are welcome. I haven't completely ruled out England, but I'd rather not go far into June. I'd really like to stick around at the end of May for a couple weeks if I was in Scotland, especially since it would work out well for my parents to come over and visit before the tourist "high season" arrives in mid-June. </p>

<p>If you can add to or refute to any of my pros and cons, that'd be great!</p>

2

<p>What you have to ask yourself is city vs. country. If you can’t decide, then you can start weighing pros and cons.</p>

<p>Weather (which really is going to be much of the same no matter which of the three you choose), accessibility to other parts of Europe, etc. just shouldn’t factor heavily in your decision. I can tell you it’s going to be easier to get to other parts of Europe from Edinburgh than Cork, yet you have listed under Cork easy access to other places. Also, Cork is in Ireland, not England.</p>

<p>A lot of your points seem to be about relative location to hiking, running, or other European cities. Look at things that are going to affect your daily life. When you get there, you’re not going to be spending as much time as you think going to other places or the countryside to hike. </p>

<p>You’re going to have more to do in Endinburgh than any of these other places. You’re going to meet a fair amount of Americans no matter which place you go.</p>

3

<p>Tough choice for you. I’m Irish. Easy choice. Cork is a college town, young at heart. Like Scotland, Ireland has plenty of opportunity to run, hike, bicycle, etc. If memory serves, it is about 60 miles from Cork to Shannon Airport which can get you to a lot of places in Europe. Irish Rail also covers the country like a blanket and can take you almost anywhere you want to go including the amazing city of Dublin. And of course there is the Dublin airport where you can catch a flight to places you can’t get to from Shannon.</p>

<p>Whatever your decision, you will enjoy your trip. And 4 weeks off gives you a lot of time to see the rest of Europe. Of course 2 weeks isn’t bad either.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the replies. I still haven’t decided yet, but I am looking a bit closer at Cork. </p>

<p>One thing that would be easier for me to do at Cork is to schedule classes so I have long weekends. At Edinburgh, apparently the English department is extremely popular so it’s harder to get into some classes. I’m know I should choose a location based on whether I can get long weekends or not, but at Edinburgh it would probably be harder to even get in the classes that I am interested in. </p>

<p>I have the summer to decide. </p>

<p>One thing about Ireland is that I hear it’s more colorful. That might help in the overcast and dull weather in late winter and early spring. I’m only have joking about that, lol. </p>

<p>Can anyone comment on the drinking culture in Edinburgh, Cork, and/or St. Andrews?</p>

<p>I am a pretty sober person. While abroad I wouldn’t be opposed to having one drink here and there, but definitely don’t plan on my social life revolving around it. I am not one of those non-drinkers that is absolutely opposed to going to pubs or hanging around other people who do drink, but I would like to be able to do other things for fun that don’t involve drinking. </p>

<p>I know Ireland and Scotland have a reputation for having drinking cultures, and I am well aware of that heading in, but I read one comment by someone at my school who studied in Cork that said something akin to “the social life revolves around drinking, so if you don’t drink, you may have trouble finding things to do” or something like that. </p>

<p>I am just wondering if there would be a difference between Cork, Edinburgh and/or St. Andrews in these regards. Like I said, I’m not opposed to going to a place where people drink a lot, but if one of the places will offer a lot more alternatives on the weekend, I will take that into consideration.</p>

5

<p>I don’t think there’s much difference in the drinking cultures. Student life in Britain and Ireland revolves around drinking in a way that Americans don’t generally understand.</p>

<p>One thing that hasn’t been mentioned is that Cork will probably be vastly more expensive than either Scottish option.</p>

6

<p>My daughter is a fresher at the University of Edinburgh, a U.S student who has chosen to study there for all four years. (Her choices were U of E, St Andreas, Kings College London and Trinity Coellge Dublin. Edinburgh- Unbelievable city and university. Although a city of one-half million, it a a low rise, very walkable city. The uni is near the medieval core of the ancient city, a UNESCO world heritage site. As to running- you can do it anywhere around the city. On the edge of the university section of the city is Arthur’s Seat- and extinct volcano and large park where you can run to your hearts content- if not through the medieval alleys (called "wynds"or “closes”). As the the University- rated one of the top 20 in the world - alums are several Prime Ministers, many major authors (Robert Lewis Stevenson, J.M Barrie, author of Peter Pan, Arthur Conan Doyle, and JK Rowling also studied there as a post-grad. Philosopher David Hume, Alexander Graham Bell, Charles Darwin, list go on. There are very frequent low cost flights to everywhere in Europe (really low cost) so you can pop over to the continent for a weekend all you want, stay in a hostel for a saturday night somewhere. Choices unlimited and you cant do that from Cork and St A. One other significant difference between U of E and St A - St A is very “preppy” or “posh” - very Tory. Student at U of Ed more varied, and a bit more bohemian or hip, far fewer rich kids. why are you not considering Trinity College Dublin? That’s a really great school and city, too.</p>

7

<p>Part of my dilemma is whether I want to go to a bigger city (Edinburgh), medium/small city (Cork) or St. Andrews (smaller town). Obviously each place has its own perks, so I’m not going purely by size, but in regards to why I am not going to Dublin, I figure that if I wanted a semi-large city, I would rather go to Edinburgh than Dublin. I’ve heard from a few people that Dublin isn’t the best place to go in Ireland, either. </p>

<p>If anyone else could comment on Cork, that’s the place I feel that I don’t know enough about. I mean, I know all the wikipedia-type info, but haven’t heard from too many people who have been there. </p>

<p>I know Cork has an airport and that cheap airlines like Ryanair fly out of there. Would it really be THAT much more expensive to fly out of Cork than Edinburgh?</p>

8

<p>I don’t know. I mean, I still have the summer to decide, but every time I start thinking about the possibility of Cork or St. Andrews or elsewhere in the UK and Ireland, I keep finding myself going back to Edinburgh. </p>

<p>It’s not that I feel that Edinburgh is the for sure choice, but it’s the only one that consistently is in my top choices as I keep looking into options. The others like Cork and St. Andrews seem like great choices at times but then a few days later I change my mind.</p>

<p>So with that said, I’ll probably end up at Edinburgh. It really does seem like a lovely city, and although I’m not crazy about large cities, from what I hear and see on the internet, it feels much smaller than numbers would suggest. </p>

<p>Having that said, I would still love to hear any other suggestions/opinions if anyone has anything to say.</p>

9

<p>I think at this point, I’m going to say: get over it, and make a choice. It’s just a semester, and your choices are very similar to each other.</p>

10

<p>I’m in my third year at St Andrews. It’s a great place, and I think you would enjoy yourself if you came here, but Edinburgh is probably the best choice.</p>

11

<p>My D is also choosing, between Cork and Limerick, and eliminated Edinburgh because she didn’t want a bigger city. The Irish cities also look more colorful, smaller in scale and quite a bit further south. Since she’ll be going in the fall, those days getting shorter and shorter will be quite noticeable and hopefully the darkness won’t get too severe there. </p>

<p>I’m curious why people think it is more expensive. Any recent experience with the two currencies and the cost of average purchases?</p>

12

<p>The darkness will be almost as severe in Ireland. Unless she is from Alaska it is going to seem horribly dark in the winter - think dark by 4pm.</p>

<p>The cost of living is simply higher in Ireland. You will pay New York prices for most things throughout the Republic.</p>

13

<p>I personally like Cork over Limerick or Edinburgh as cities go. It is a more colorful city. Although, I was there in August not spring. Dublin is nice, too, but bigger than Cork. You can always travel to other areas, city to rural areas, to visit.</p>

14

<p>I would disagree about the cost of living being higher in Ireland. Right now the US Dollar is much stronger against the Euro vs the British Pound. Also having just finished booking a trip in June/July to London and Ireland (including Cork), I don’t think the prices in Ireland are any different than London. I’ve been to London twice, toured Scotland twice, and been to Ireland about 5 times. </p>

<p>Having been to all three cities, I would personally take St. Andrews as my top choice. I loved everything about it and the people were just fantastic. Second choice would be Cork followed by Edinburgh. But if you’re looking for size, I’d reverse the order. In any case, they’re all great choices and you’ll find plenty of things to do without drinking.</p>

15

<p>Let us know, after your summer trip, about the cost of things like a cup of coffee and public transportation. I envy you your upcoming trip and all the past ones! They sound wonderful.</p>

<p>I think my D1 has decided on Cork and now D2 is deciding between Florence, Paris and Toronto… She also had Glasgow on the list and wanted to go there but the program would basically be all independent study and that’s not what she’s looking for. Still, they’re all going to have a great time, aren’t they?</p>