Is it worth it to study in the UK instead of the US? Why or why not?

College Search & Selection
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I wrote this on my cell phone,
I didn’t have the energy to go back and double check everything, so please excuse my bad grammar, spelling and formatting.

There are limited public options in my state which are suitable, which means they it’s very likely that I will wind up paying out-of-state fees at another state university, or paying fees at a private college. The money is mostly covered, but I would like to use as little of it as possible so that it can assist me when I finish school. I want to study Sociology primarily, delving into psychology and philosophy when it’s relevant.

I’ve been doing research and it seems to me that the most reasonable option would be to study in the United Kingdom. My dad is British, and I am a British citizen, although since I’ve never lived in the UK I would have to pay full international fees, although I wouldn’t need a visa to enter or use the NHS like other Americans. There are three reasons why I think that studying in the UK would be the more reasonable option, I’ve listed them below:

  1. Receiving a BA/BSc in England (and the rest of the UK excluding Scotland) normally takes three academic years, as opposed to the four that it takes in the United States.
  2. The structure of a degree program(me) in the UK is totally different then in the United States. In British universities, one applies to be accepted into a course, like "Astrophysics" or "Linguistics" or "Medicine" or "Law" (which are both undergraduate disciplines in the UK) and only takes classes, called modules, related to that area of studies. That means that there aren't any so-called General Education requirements, which often entail meaningless wastes of time, like a Biology student required to study English literature.
  3. The yearly costs are roughly the same, with your average fees per annum varying from £17k to £23k, and living costs varying from £9k to £13k depending on how one likes to live, whether you're studying in London or elsewhere, and whether you spend the full year in your accommodations or going home during the Summer, which I would be doing. This means that at the highest estimates, I'll be paying £36k ($46k) and at more realistic estimates I'll be paying £30-31k ($38.85 - $40k) annually, Those figures includes everything but the food in my stomach, leisure activities and mobile phone access. Those numbers are around/a few thousand dollars less than tuition fees and room and board, at most private and out-of-state universities. The biggest difference that makes it significantly less expensive is that studying in the UK means paying for one less year at a university.

In the UK they apply through a centralized database called UCAS, where you can fill out the same application for 5 universities, which is the maximum per applicant, per year. I’ve identified 4 universities/courses in England with good rankings and name recognition in the United States which is obviously very important. Two of them are straight Sociology courses and the other two are what’s called Joint Honours, “Sociology with Philosophy” and “Social Sciences” which is at UCL and allows to study sociology with psychology and and one other social science. The fifth choice will be either Oxford or Cambridge, for some reason it isn’t allowed for a person to apply to both, although I think that I might choose Oxford. As far as requirements go, British universities consider a High School diploma to be equivalent to O-levels or GCSEs, which students complete at age 16, before entering College where they study 3 to 5 subjects of their choice, called A-Levels, that are relevant to the university courses they want. The minimum requirement to get into any decent university in the UK is to have A-Levels, which are considered to be equivalent with AP courses. Of course, my school had an IB program in addition to everything else, so my IB diploma and my SAT scores are considered sufficient for consideration.

So, do you think that it’s more worth it for me or any other American student to study in the UK? My answer is yes due to the less time that it takes to complete a BA/BSc and he lowered overall cost as a result of that, in addition to the opportunity to get a deeper education on one topic that you really love as a opposed to having nearly sixty credits of General Education courses

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It doesn’t really matter whether anybody on CC thinks it is ‘worth it’ for you or anybody else: it matters if YOU think that it is worth it for you. Your points are good ones- 3 years v 4 for a non-language humanities student in England (Scotland is 4), can be a financially reasonable choice, and the ability to study just the subject you love is a huge plus for students who know what they want to study.

The main question that I can see for you in particular is what you want to do after university: employment opportunities in sociology and psychology are slim for people without grad degrees, and the structure for grad school is different in the UK and the US, so it is worth considering that ahead of time.

The other question is which course / which uni, and here you need to do some serious homework, as the course called ‘sociology’ or ‘psychology’ can be strikingly different between universities. You will find detail down to what modules you take each year online, and it is worth looking at that seriously.

A side note on Oxford and Cambridge: it is simply true that the pressure/work required at those two universities is simply an order of magnitude higher than the other UK unis. Be sure of your commitment to doing your subject 100% of the time at a very intense level.

fwiw, I have had collegekids on both sides of the Atlantic, and both approaches have worked out really well for the kids in question.

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Are you sure you parents are going to pay full freight for a degree with low earning potential?
US IB scores are often lower than UK kids. If you are serious about applying to the better UK schools I would say get your APs lined up as that is a way easier option. You also may not be able to mix and match IB/AP scores. Make sure you know the minimum IB scores required if you plan on applying with only your IBD. What kind of IBD scores does your school have? How many APs do you have at this point?
If you get a diploma, you are going to be able to use that to get rid of gen eds in some US schools.
IMO the UK has a lot of great points for dual citizens who have the stats to get into tippy tops in the USA . If you are aiming at Oxbridge then you are a HYPMS candidate. Are you of that caliber?

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@Sybylla I finished High School this summer. My IB score is 41 out of a maximum of 45, my school average is 30. I know the minimum requirements, and although I wouldn’t consider myself HYPMS material, I think that I’m qualified for the next tier down, i.e. Cornell, Berkeley, Penn, Duke, Chapel Hill, Michigan etc. although if I wind up going to school here in America I would rather go to a smaller, private, less fratty type of placed. I’m not expecting to get into Oxford, I’m expecting to get into LSE, Durham or Birmingham, but Oxford would be my top choice.

It’s not my parents choice, the money was put away for me, by someone other than them, I could take it out and blow it on a nice car and an extended trip to St Bart’s if I wanted. As for the degree subject, if I’m not going to study something that actually interests me, I see no point in studying anything at all. If I wanted to work in the business world, I would ask my Dad for a job, not spend three or more years of my life studying. I do plan on going to graduate school.

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Birmingham, Have you ever been there?
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fwiw, HYPMS in general prefer well rounded, not asymmetrical students; Oxbridge in particular and the UK in general expects asymmetrical, not well rounded students, so while some applicants will get into both, quite a lot will get into- and be suited- for one more than the other. It’s horses for courses.

fwiw, LSE is often more exacting (at least of US students) than Oxbridge- anecdotal, but I know quite a few students for whom their LSE offer was harder than their Oxbridge offer.

You might consider adding Bath (or York or Exeter) to your list for your 5th UCAS slot

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@Sybylla The University? No. The city? Yes, my dad is from the West Midlands. It’s really not a bad city, it’s like Chicago (as it’s a post-industrial 2nd city) with lower buildings and instead of lots of Italian, African American and Mexican people, there are lots of Irish, South Asian and West Indian people

@collegemom3717 That’s certainly preferable for me, to be honest. I didn’t really participate in any organized extracurricular activities. Aside from going to school, my job and religion oriented things, I didn’t spend my school years do much but playing video games and hanging out with my friends. I wasn’t in any clubs, didn’t do any volunteering, and aside from things directly related to my grades I didn’t receive any honors. I get the sense that British universities are much less concerned about that, and the question that they’re trying to answer when considering admissions is whether or not the applicant is smart enough to handle the course, not whether or not they’re a well rounded individual who will add something to the “campus community,” which I’m not.

York and Exeter have come up, as has Essex which is especially interesting to me because they (like UCL and Oxford) have a wealth of resources on Freudian Psychoanalysis and Psychoanalytic sociology is an interest of mine.