Looking for good schools in England

<p>I'm a 3.0-3.5 student. I'm very interested in going to school in england. I want to study history, so a strong history program is a must. I didn't do so well freshman year of high school, but my junior and senior year I got straight As. Any Ideas that you guys may have would be very much appreciated. Thanks!</p>

<p>Queen Mary, Univ of London has a fabulous history program. I don't know very much about the application process, but I'm sure others will chime in.</p>

<p>Yes but if you ask anyone from England about the area the Queen Mary campus is situated in, Tower Hamlets, and they will immediately tell you it's the world centre of crime. It has the worst reputation. A friend of mine did a masters there and he says he was mugged twice in his own street!</p>

<p>To the OP - Do you mean you have graduated from high school and are looking to directly enrol in a UK university? Or are you looking for a study abroad program as part of your US college degree. If the latter, contact your college study abroad office.</p>

<p>If you want to directly enrol in the UK, you need to start doing some research about how the application process works in the UK, because it is completely different from the US. There is one central application form at UCAS</a> Homepage.</p>

<p>Also visit a board like this at
<a href="http://www"&gt;www&lt;/a>. the student room .co .uk
remove the spaces and the link will work.</p>

<p>There are UK univeristy ranking tables on the Times and Guardian newspaper web-sites.</p>

<p>Ok, thanks I know that that the app process is different. I created this thread specifically for ideas for schools.</p>

<p>University</a> Rankings League Table 2008| Good University Guide - Times Online</p>

<p>I personally recommend York, considering your main interest. York is a very rich and historical city, and has been voted European Tourism City of the Year in 2007. Also, as you can see, it has a good history programme. It might be worthwhile to check the website of all highly ranked schools, have a closer look at the courses offered and research interests of profs, and see if they match your own. With your grade average, the most prestiguous schools will likely be an impossible reach, but there are still quite a few colleges in England where you can get a good degree. </p>

<p>I must ask, why not Scotland?</p>

<p>they wont care about his gpa. they will however want very high SAT scores and AP scores. for oxbridge, imperial, lse etc a 3.3 is fine if u have 2200+ and 3-4 ap scores of 5</p>

<p>for york exter bristol etc probably 1900-2000 and 3-4 ap scores of 4 and 5</p>

<p>I know it's not in England, but maybe St. Andrew? It's very reputable worldwide, yet tends to be a bit lenient when admitting American students</p>

<p>Hi!</p>

<p>One of my best friends goes to Queen Mary, she absolutely loves it. In her flat she has 6 students living there (it's coed), and 3 are from the US.</p>

<p>It's in East London though, which is known to be quite dodgy. I visited the place last year and it was like stepping into the Middle East/Bangladesh. Nothing was in English...</p>

<p>St. Andrews is a great school - went there myself :) otherwise you might find som more good schools abroad at Educations.com</a> - Find your education.</p>

<p>I live in England - I teach high school at a US Air Force base here - and was in York yesterday. It is one of my favorite cities in England (I have lived here for eleven years) and would highly recommend York University. Frequent and fairly cheap train service can whisk you to London in a little over two hours. PM me if you want more info.</p>

<p>I'm a law student in the UK.</p>

<p>Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Queen Mary, King's, LSE, St. Andrews Warwick, York and Durham generally have the best reputation for history - a very competitive course (and these universities are among the most difficult to get it for it). Be wary of UK league tables - they bounce around a lot and the criteria is a little arbitrary. Still, there is a more recent table than posted above:
University</a> Rankings League Table 2009 | Good University Guide - Times Online</p>

<p>There was a research assessment exercise in the UK in 2008 which will alter the tables significantly next year. According to the HEFC weightings, Oxbridge did the best, then UCL, QM closely followed by King's and the others I've mentioned. There are other good universities besides these however.</p>

<p>Trawl the websites for more details. Oxbridge are the best; all the others are good. There is no difference in reputation/academic strength between UCL and Durham, for instance.</p>

<p>Which course do you prefer? Do you prefer cities or towns? Warwick is a campus university - 20 minutes away from the nearest city by bus. Durham is more isolated; a small but very beautiful town which has a strong collegiate system. </p>

<p>The differences between those mentioned in London is negligible -London is a fantastic city, especially for internationals, but it's very expensive. What has been said about Queen Mary's location is rubbish - it's a vibrant area only 10/15 minutes from UCL by tube. UCL students move near Queen Mary in their second and third years and commute because it's far too expensive to live any closer. However London is large city and some feel anonymous. That said, UCL, QM, KCL, LSE are part of the University of London - there are some shared facilities in the centre and all students can use all of the different college libraries e.g. LSE's. </p>

<p>UK students can only apply to Oxford or Cambridge - I'm not sure if it's the same in the US. There is little difference between the two but I chose Oxford as it's a city - Cambridge is a large town really - and I've never regretted it.</p>

<p>Best thing you can do is visit the universities when (or if) you get offers.</p>

<p>I don't know how much research you've done on specific courses, but one thing to be aware of is the very low number of teaching hours you will get. I'm a second year history student at Bristol, which is known for low contact hours, but wherever you go in the UK will have significantly less than US schools. In the second term now I have 2 hours a week, last term I had 4. There is quite a lot of work but 95% of it has to be done independently, which can be difficult. I would recommend Bristol anyway as it is a really nice city and the history department is goodl. I also applied to York, Exeter, Durham, St Andrews and Edinburgh.</p>

<p>But also bear in mind that the apparently low number of contact hours is deliberate, and that's not because it's cheaper. It indicates a different philosophy of university education. The UK philosophy is that you are there to be guided in your education and development, but the responsibility is yours in the end because you are now an adult. It is not to sit there and be taught as if you were still in school, which is why we don't talk about univerisities as "schools". At Oxbridge in particular the contact time is very direct and intense: a tutorial in the ratio of 1:1 to 1:3 where the subject is your work and your understanding with nowhere to hide.</p>

<p>Oxbridge!</p>

<p>jk</p>

<p>By the way, your transcript wouldn't be a factor- UK schools don't even see them</p>

<p>Marlowe: Actually, some schools in the UK did ask for my transcript when I applied. St. Andrews was one, and Cambridge was the other. I think Imperial might have as well, but I'm not entirely sure.</p>