<p>Hello,</p>
<p>Im in my Gap Year at the moment and Im from London. I would like to study abroad in America for the second year of my degree. I am also thinking about doing a Masters degree in America.</p>
<p>I currently have offers from universities in England and they are allowing me to study abroad for either a year or a semester in America. I have narrowed down the universities that I would like to study abroad for a year at. I would just like to ask how people would rank these universities in terms reputation. Here is the list:</p>
<p>University of Iowa
North Carolina State University
Miami University
University of Vermont</p>
<p>Would they all be tier one universities? I have applied to do economics and philosophy if that helps.</p>
<p>Best regards,</p>
<p>Lawrence.</p>
<p>None of these schools are considered “tier one universities”, but all are at least good schools. University of Iowa has the strongest graduate econ program of any of the four schools, at least according to the [url=<a href=“http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~jnewton/nrc_rankings/area36.html]NRC[/url”>NRC Rankings in Economics]NRC[/url</a>] Whether you’d be able to detect a difference between the school’s undergrad program, I do not know. However, all of these schools have very different vibes, with UVM being known as a “green” school in every way, while Miami is considered a good deal frattier than many other schools. These are just reputations, and since each school is a flagship, or very well regarded non-flagship public, there will likely be a great variety of students at each university</p>
<p>You should speak with the people at your university who have participated in this exchange, and find out what they think of the places where they ended up. If weather matters to you, spend some time at [National</a> and Local Weather Forecast, Hurricane, Radar and Report](<a href=“http://www.weather.com%5DNational”>http://www.weather.com) Also think about what parts of the country you might like to visit before or after your studies, or during any vacation breaks while you are here. Transportation may be a bigger issue from one of these locations than from another.</p>
<p>Ok thanks for the replies and weather isn’t too important to me. What would you guys say is the best state or area to live in out of those four universities?</p>
<p>Do you know what tier they would be, and can somebody explain the tier system for me, because I just thought the first tier was the top 25%?</p>
<p>Ignore the tiers. They were invented by a magazine in order to sell more copies. All of these universities are fine, or your university would not permit the exchange. </p>
<p>Visit the websites, and look at the courses that would be available to you. Maybe one has offerings that are more interesting to you.</p>
<p>Also, check the instructions for getting there on the “Visit Us” page. That will help you figure out just how challenging it might be to get there from wherever it is your plane will land. The continental part of the USA is big. Like Australia big. If you want to go anywhere or do anything else in the country or in Canada/Mexico/the Caribbean while you are here, you need to take that into account. One inexpensive bus line that might help you get around in the US is [megabus.com</a> | Now serving over 20 million bus customers in North America](<a href=“http://us.megabus.com/]megabus.com”>http://us.megabus.com/)</p>