need HELP about applying to UK colleges

<p>The situation:
I am an international student living in US who just realized that there may not be a chance for me to go to college thanks to limited financial aid and my parents' financial circumstances. (It is mostly my fault though, I didn't work hard enough I guess)</p>

<p>So I have been looking around for any other possibilities and thought about colleges in UK.
Since they are cheaper in most cases, I'm very intrigued. However, I have some questions that I'm very puzzled so I wish someone could answer these.</p>

<p>1) Is there any website that I can search for colleges according to my preference? (price of tuition, major, difficulty of admission, location, ETC...)</p>

<p>2) All of the college's requirements seem surprisingly low. However, does meeting the requirements guarantee, or at least provide high chance, my admission? </p>

<p>3) Is there any recommended college for mechanical engineering or other engineering majors?</p>

<p>4) and any recommendation for student (me) with
GPA: 3.5
SAT: Math-740 Reading-690 Writing-590
SATII: Math 2 - 730 Physics - 730
AP Psych -4
AP Physics B - probably 4~5
AP Statistics - probably 4~5
AP Micro and macro economics -probably 4~5</p>

<p>p.s should this thread go to international students? I thought the forum is for international students in USA, so I wasn't sure where to go.</p>

<p>I’d recommend ordering the Times’ Good University Guide. It’s like the Fiske’s Guide of UK schools. It lists the top five for mechanical engineering as:

  1. Cambridge
  2. Bath
  3. Bristol
  4. Southampton
  5. Imperial College</p>

<p>thanks day tripper for the information.</p>

<p>I forgot to add this question into the original post,</p>

<p>5) Does the colleges in UK give out scholarships to international students? if so, how much? are they enough to cover considerable amount of tuition and cost of living?</p>

<p>Some do, some don’t. Cambridge and Oxford, for example, give no aid to non-EU internationals. But you can check other schools here: [Study</a> in the UK - Universities that Award Financial Aid](<a href=“http://uk.internationalstudent.com/universities-awarding-aid/]Study”>http://uk.internationalstudent.com/universities-awarding-aid/)</p>

<p>(I think I’m applying to schools in the UK, so I know a fair bit about the process and whatnot.)</p>

<p>oh, cool. Do you happen to know what’s up with the requirements? is it something like
“if you meet it, you are in.” or is it something like “we are about this hard to get it”</p>

<p>Well there isn’t some threshold, where you’d be guaranteed admission for any schools I’ve looked into. But it’s hard to gage because the English school system is so different. Their requirements and statistics are about A-levels, not SATs or anything. But APs are the closest thing we do to A-levels, and I think most universities place the most weight on APs. Also, English schools don’t really care about extracurriculars.</p>

<p>Um actually, most UK schools give zero aid of any kind to North American students or really any overseas applicants - it’s ridiculously cheap to free for UK/EU but for overseas other than that, don’t expect anything either merit or need based because there probably isn’t any, unless through a US based organization for a specific school/major/type of kid.</p>

<p>

</p>

<p>First, UK universities don’t normally give financial aid to international students. International students also have to pay full tuition, which is pretty high. If you also factor in living costs, you are looking at total costs well over 20,000 pounds/year. </p>

<p>Second, some top UK schools like Oxford and Cambridge are notorious for admitting very few US applicants straight out of High School, basically because they consider a US HS education insufficient academic preparation for a British undergraduate degree course. The key for a successful admission (not only in Oxbridge, but also Imperial or LSE) is a good performance in AP Exams. For mechanical engineering, you will need 5’s in Calculus BC and Physics C (both Mechanics and E/M) plus a 5 in at least another science subject (e.g. Chemistry). Note you CANNOT get into an engineering school in the UK without Calculus as all university-level Math classes for engineers assume that you already had the equivalent of US Calculus I and Calculus II in High School.</p>

<p>BTW, here is the latest information on how much it would cost for an overseas (i.e. non-EU) student to attend Imperial College for a Mech Eng degree:</p>

<p>Faculty of Engineering annual tuition fee: 19,750 pounds. </p>

<p>Accodomation fees (college residences): vary from 54.46 pounds/week (triple room) to 168.77 pounds/week (single room) (note: fees likely to increase in 2009-10).</p>

<p>As you can see, you would probably be better off financially going to a in-state public university in the United States.</p>