<p>I'm currently entertaining the thought of studying abroad spring 2013 or fall 2013, but I'm having trouble figuring out where exactly I should go. The five places I have it narrowed down to are: Brussels, London, Newcastle, Florence, and Rome. I have a few questions that I'm hoping a more experienced world traveler can answer for me.
1) I know London is a very expensive city, but does anyone know how expensive the other four cities are? I'm especially interested in the cost of food/groceries, since a lot of the programs I'm looking at don't include meals.
2) How easy is it to get from Newcastle to the European mainland?
3) Would studying abroad be worth taking out a $3,000 loan?
4) Any other general advice or opinions on the five cities/studying abroad?</p>
<p>Brussels is boring.
London is awesome, but very expensive. Especially groceries.
Newcastle rent is less expensive, but groceries are still a fortune. Train fairs are expensive all across England, and especially if we’re talking taking the train to France.
Florence and Rome are quite liveable on a study abroad stipend, though rent can also be a *****. Both are nice, selection would depend on your scholarly interests, though I would recommend Rome only cos I’m biased:) Florence is something of a backwater, in many ways.</p>
<p>*** would you take out a loan? Doesn’t your school pay for it/your tuition money go to it? JS it’s not worth it.</p>
<p>Newcastle will be a lot cheaper than London, even for groceries in my opinion as in the north of England there are more cheaper sueprmarkets like ASDA (part of Walmart) and morrisons. Also we went to farm shops when I lived in Durham, but I am not sure they would be really accessible without a car.</p>
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<p>Dead easy as it has a big airport and also a ferry terminal (overnight ferries to places like Amsterdam). Getting a train all the way to vfrance from Newcastle would just be very expensive and very very slow so I have no idea why anyone would do that. Just use Easyjet. Another option would be flights from Edinburgh as this isn’t very far away. Flying in from the US you could also use Manchester, as I don’t think Newcastle airport has many flights to the US (but I am sure I flew from there to NY once when I first lived in England. 10 years ago though).</p>
<p>Having said all of this, if your main aim of study abroad is to travel round central Europe then Newcastle is the least convenient place on your list.</p>
<p>If you aim is to party every night however, then Newcastle is your place. Go out in the snow wearing hardly any clothes and drink your own bodyweight every night (Google “Geordies” and you will see what I mean). Huge reputation as a party city and LOTS of students.</p>
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Depends how much you’re going to suffer to pay it back. Do you already have huge loans? Are you likely to ever have the oppotunity to travel in the future? Would just a vacation be enough instead?</p>
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Find out how they are going to calculate your GPA/translate foreign grades into US grade BEFORE you sign up. I get PMs from people saying study abroad ruined their GPA all the time. In England it totally might given than 50% is considered just fine, but if this is not “translated” in some way into a US grade, clearly this is going to cause you problems. I have no idea about grades in Italy.</p>
<p>My daughter will be in the UK next fall…it is expensive but there are tips from many sites on making it as cheap as possible. Sometimes past students (who weren’t affluent) also have a lot of information.
My daughter’s school recalculates the GPA and doesn’t count it toward the total GPA although most grad schools do. You should ask about that ahead of time and understand the grading system before getting a surprise.</p>
<p>haha, stay away from the UK. Don’t get me wrong, i like the British people, but unless you are in London, it really is gloomy old england. I’m an international student from Singapore and have lived in London for 4 years. </p>
May I kindly suggest you shut up? Anecdotal advice from someone who’s only lived in the UK for 4 years? Try 22 and counting.</p>
<p>It does vary in the UK but it all depends on what you make of it and what you want from it. If you want academics then depending on the university and course you’ll want the UK because the UK is the strongest country for higher education in Europe.</p>
<p>I think aphalleon is entitled to his/her opinion respectfully put, without being told to shut up. Just because she/he has only been in the UK for 4 years, or 4 weeks, does not make their opinion less valid. It is perhaps more valid in the situation to have an opinion from someone who is a foreign student, exactly as the OP is going to be. It’s very different from the experience of a native student who knows far more what to expect from a univeristy in their own country, and is not dealing with cultural (and possibly language) differences at the same time.</p>
<p>If you come from a tropical country like Singapore very many places are going to have a gloomy climate in comparison. No-one comes to the UK for the weather (unless they have zero capability to do any research, which begs the question why are they in college?)</p>
<p>In response to your last question, here is advice from a young professional who has lived abroad twice and now works in the US. I think tip #4 is a helpful one if the question of where to study abroad really bugs you!</p>