<p>I just finished up my freshman year at Williams, and I am starting to map out my study abroad plans for junior year. I'm set on studying in London, and I also only want to go for a semester. This knocks out Cambridge and Oxford which are both outside and city and full year programs. I really wanted to go to LSE, but this is also a year long program that goes into July. I've decided I'd like to go to UCL, as the best non-specialty college in the city. Does anyone have any reviews or experience with this school. I've heard that if you have good grades at a U.S. College you'll have no problem getting into these abroad programs. I'm an economics and history major, and I currently have a 3.55 (so will hopefully have a 3.5 or higher when I apply). Do I have a pretty good shot to get in?</p>
<p>My second question is different but related. My long time girlfriend (goes to Carthage College out in Wisconsin) is also planning on studying in London. We've looked at City University London which makes sense for her financially, and it would also be a step-up academically from Carthage. She will likely have a 3.8 or higher, so I don't think she'll have any problem being accepted. Because the main questions for her are all financial, I was hoping someone had some housing experience in London and could give me some suggestions/recommendations as to where to look for inexpensive housing for only a few months. Both of our programs run from late September until December 20th or so. We could probably find housing with family friends until Oct. 1st. For 3 months rent what is a decent estimate of the costs for her (assuming she has her own place, either an apartment or residence hall). We're looking at keeping it around $500/month for her if that is possible? Thank you in advance for the help.</p>
<p>I’m currently a student at LSE, but UCL is ranked quite highly and of the London unis it is one of the most highly regarded in terms of prestige. I don’t know how it works studying abroad (oftentimes your schools do certain study abroad programs if I’m not mistaken?) but you shouldn’t have much of an issue getting in.
As for your girlfriend, I actually live relatively near City University and I can almost guarantee you that you will not be able to keep it around $500/month unless you find somewhere truly amazingly cheap and/or dingy. I live in my uni’s cheapest halls of residence and I pay about £110 a week and that is considered absolute rock bottom. For 4 weeks that’s £440, and at the current exchange rate it translates to about $750. If you are living on your own it’ll probably be even more expensive. There are certain ‘pockets’ of London where it is cheaper than others and if you’re lucky you may be able to find somewhere cheap and central but odds are if you want to live in a safe, non-dodgy area of Zone 1 (central London - look up the zoning system if you aren’t sure about it) you will be paying at least £120-130 a week. If you move further out to Zones 2, 3, etc. rent will go down to maybe £100-£110 a week but there’s no point living that far out if you’re studying abroad for a few months really.</p>
<p>Hope this helps.</p>
<p>Thank you very much, I appreciate it. I’m still looking into LSE, and I would really like to do it if I can. As for her, at this point the options might come down to host family, family friend, or apartment with a couple other girls to get the rent down to an affordable price. Any sites you know of that are good for finding housing?</p>
<p>No problem, glad I can help!</p>
<p>Craigslist and Gumtree (UK’s version of Craigslist) are all very useful. However if I’m not mistaken most unis who have students studying abroad do provide them with housing - perhaps you can check with City beforehand to see if they’ll give your gf a place?</p>
<p>Thank’s again.</p>
<p>From what I remember (just looking at their site) they said that on-campus housing (residence halls) were not readily available for study abroad students, but that they would help students to find apartments/flats.</p>
<p>Are there any programs that would let me stay till I have received a BA, or Masters? And do if I do GE here in the US, would credits transfer over with me, or would i have to re-do them, and vice versa?</p>
<p>no, the whole point of study abroad is just that - study abroad. if you want to stay in london until you have received a BA or masters, you should just apply to that uk uni directly. by GE i’m going to assume you mean gen-eds. no they don’t transfer, there is no such concept. the way it works in the uk is you apply to study a certain subject at a certain uni - and you usually only study that (i.e. if you apply to study economics at lse, you will mostly only study economics related courses, no chemistry/english/etc. other gen-eds) so gen-ed is a null point there.</p>
<p>I went to Queen Mary University of London last semester on a study abroad, out in the East End (Zone 2, Mile End on the Central Line). The East End is a bit cheaper than the city proper, but not as much as you’d expect. As you will soon find out, London is super expensive. Queen Mary has on-campus dorms for first-year students and study abroads, and mine was about £2600, or $4000, for January through June. And that’s just housing, don’t get me started on food. And oh, you wanted to go out to pubs or clubs? Add some more money. Oh, you wanted to use the Tube? More money. My semester there I spent about $3000 on top of housing expenses, just living in London and going out occasionally. London is a very expensive place to live.</p>