Hello,
I am an American student interested in transferring to the university of Aberdeen. I see on their website (and on this one) that SAT/ACT scores are very important requirements. Unfortunately, I never took either of these tests. Instead I took a high school equivalency test and graduated early, after my sophomore year. I am currently completing my first year at a college in the states and I have a 4.0 GPA. Will they accept my grades and transcript from my current college or do I need to have SAT/ACT scores to even be considered.
In addition to this I am wondering how current students are enjoying the University of Aberdeen. What is the city like? What are the best things about attending this school? Specifically for transfer students, How are you fitting in as a foreign student? Is it difficult to adapt to cultural differences? How are students finding the academics compared to U.S universities. How are the classes, assignments, and tests different in the UK? Finally, I hate to ask this but I know that generally other countries aren’t always fond of Americans, is this an issue in Aberdeen? I would love to hear about student’s experiences attending the school.
Thanks so much!
Your college marks will be good for admission, but may not transfer. IIRC, Aberdeen does have an “Advanced Entry” where they will look at the work you have done and see if you are eligible for “Direct Entry” to 2nd year. You can get an idea of how likely that is by looking at the required first year classes for the course that you are applying to align with the required classes.
In general Scottish people are quite friendly with Americans, but not uncritically so- you will certainly get an earful on American politics (though if you are going for 2017 at least it will be past this election cycle). Aberdeen itself is a modestly sized city (200K) people, right on the North Sea. Some people find the local accent strong.
Aberdeen also has a very unusual (for the UK) ‘buy 4, get 1 free’ offer for international students: if you do a 4 year course you only pay for 3 of the years. Beyond that, though, you won’t get any financial aid, and you will pay international rates for the 3 years.
“Transfer” is not really a concept in UK schools. I suspect that this advanced entry process is mainly aimed students who have already completed another degree elsewhere (in theory, because students in the rest of the UK have one year longer at high school, they can enter the second year at Scottish unis. In practice no-one does this). It’s very likely you will have to start again in the first year.
There is a UK uni forum similar to this which cannot be linked here but Google thestudent*room.
I strongly suggest you spend some time with Wikipedia. This will answer most of your questions about the UK/Scottish educational system. The is also a page about the City of Aberdeen.
@cupcake, well, I wouldn’t call what the English term “college” a degree. That’s a year where folks take intro courses in certain subjects (kinda like a year of gen ed).
In any case, the OP could conceivably skip a year, but that depends on what the Scots determine what her entering level is.
@PurpleTitan Sorry, I have absolutely no idea what you mean. In the UK the term “college” can refer to any educational institution of any level. That’s why I did not use this word. It’s common for UK high schools to be called “NameOfTown College”. “Sixth form College” is where students age 16-18 study A-levels in 3-5 usually related subjects. There are no general or introduction classes at this stage. In some places there are no 6th form colleges because high schools go up to age 18. It depends on the area.
The term “degree” is used here to mean the qualification obtained on graduation from a university. I have no understanding of any other meaning.
I have never come across a general education year in the UK system (where I have attended from age 16 to graduating with a PhD). It’s all about specialisation here. Less so in Scotland, but I would still take any mention of broad choice of courses with a pinch of salt. It’s still much narrower than the US system, and there are still entry requirements for each course (eg if you want to study Japanese from scratch, it’s still probably necessary to have A-level or higher grades in another language, to prove aptitude. You can’t do science A-levels then suddenly switch to study languages at uni).
Ah yes, I keep forgetting that the English educational system below uni is quite confusing, with HS’s, grammar schools, and various types of colleges. And yes, you may see “college” in the name of various institutions at different levels but I’ve only heard English people use “college” to refer to that span between HS and uni.
BTW, some British unis offer courses like “science+foreign language”. “Biology+French”, etc.
I am trying to apply through the UCAS site and I am running into some confusing areas. Under the education section it is asking for qualifications, is this in reference to a diploma or just grades i’ve received from classes i’ve completed? If it is asking for classes, I have taken quite a few, do I list all of them or only the ones that coincide with the major I intend to study?
Thanks, I appreciate the help.
Qualifications are completed diplomas, AP scores, SAT and SAT II as I understand it. For UK students it is GCSEs and A-levels already completed.
@NicolaElle - when it says qualifications, it means externally examined tests e.g. APs, SATs, etc. etc. You must declare all of your qualifications, even the ones where you got a dodgy grade - it’s the UCAS rules.
If you have yet to complete a qualification (e.g. if you plan to take more APs at the end of senior year) then you would enter them with the grade listed as ‘pending’ and then your guidance counsellor will (after speaking with your subject teachers) include predicted grades with your reference.