<p>Hello, I'm sort of new to this site...
I'd like to start off by telling you I am extremely anxious to leave the United States and make a new life in London. Being a 15 year-old girl living in a small town with only a violin to get her a job in the city she loves is a very surreal dream; no one believes that I can make it across the pond.
I am currently in the IB (International Baccalaureate) pre-diploma program, and I play the violin quite well, if you ask me... But is that enough?
How well does my ACT and SATs need to be?
Do I even need to take my A-Levels?
I've searched countless times on KCL's website to try to round out the total tuition cost per year, but it seems to always variy a couple thousand pounds and I need to know how exactly much I need to save to be able to live in catered student accomodation, have an Oystercard, and still have some money left over, without the help of my parents or a loan.
Also, if anyone has taken this programme, could you please leave a reply of how your experience was? Was it difficult and grueling, or was it hard work but a lot of fun?
Sorry if that was a lot...
Thanks for your help if you reply; it's very well appreciated! :)</p>
<p>Good heavens, that is a lot!!!</p>
<p>How old will you be when you are planning to start classes in the UK? Some programs simply won’t take folks under 18.</p>
<p>Here is the page with the entry requirements, by country, to the Music BMus course at King’s College London:</p>
<p>[Music</a> BMus - Entry requirements - Undergraduate programmes - King’s College London : Online prospectus](<a href=“http://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/entryrequirements/name/music/alpha/MNO/header_search/]Music”>http://www.kcl.ac.uk/prospectus/undergraduate/entryrequirements/name/music/alpha/MNO/header_search/)</p>
<p>There’s a little box where you choose your country. They do a very good job of listing different requirements for pretty much any country.</p>
<p>For USA it says:</p>
<p>“Advanced Placement Tests and/or SAT/ACT (SAT/ACT acceptable only where stipulated)
Three AP subjects with 555 with Music (Required grade 8 main instrument, grade 5 piano). Or SAT with a total score of 1900 with at least 600 in each section or the ACT with a score of 28 plus 3 SAT-S with a score of 600 in each (music requirements as before)”</p>
<p>I’m not sure if the “grade 8” and “grade 5” are things you will be familiar with, these are British music exams, that start with “grade 1” and work their way up. But you don’t need to take A-levels, like any UK school they will accept AP tests from American applicants instead.</p>
<p>You should be able to get a correct number for the current TUITION at King’s College. But that word “tuition” just means what you pay to take classes, it doesn’t cover living expenses. It does look like King’s has a system of student residences, and the current fees for this are available here:</p>
<p><a href=“Postgraduate taught - King's College London”>Postgraduate taught - King's College London;
<p>The fees are different depending on which residence you would be living in.</p>
<p>I’m just looking at this quickly, but it looks like food would be on top of this.</p>
<p>The price of an oystercard you can find out, but it will depend on which “fare zone” you would be living in, so be sure you know which fare zone your residence would be in. (Look at a London Underground Map).</p>
<p>One saving you will have by becoming a full-time student in the UK is that you will be eligible for the UK’s free medical service, the NHS. So you won’t need to pay for health insurance.</p>
<p>Also remember entertainment expenses, as a music major you will want to go to concerts. And the drinking age in the UK is 18, so most students have “beer money” as a major part of their budget.</p>
<p>Once you have worked it out, add a couple thousand to cover unexpected expenses. It’s always better to estimate your expenses too high than too low.</p>
<p>Also remember that by the time you get there, all of these prices will have gone up. Also, all of these prices are in UK Pounds, and the exchange rate between pounds and dollars will have changed. It might be better, it might be worse, nobody can predict ahead of time.</p>
<p>I also am considering post-grad work in London, so I am looking at similar calculations. Let me know how I can help out further.</p>
<p>KEVP</p>
<p>With regards to living in London, it’s not cheap, to put it mildly. Indeed, it’s one of the most expensive cities to live in worldwide. Add that to the fact that it’s not actually a particularly amazing place to live (stop picturing glamourous Central London, start picturing this sort of thing, which covers a substantial proportion of London <a href=“Blogposts | The Guardian”>Blogposts | The Guardian; ). </p>
<p>I’m going to put it out there that you could have just as good a time in another large city (Bristol, Birmingham, Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Exeter, Sheffield etc.), live on much less money, and still have very easy access to London whenever you want to visit. The UK’s a small island, and public transport is excellent - if you want an idea of how long it would take you to get to London, check out [National</a> Rail Enquiries - Official source for UK train times and timetables<a href=“and%20tell%20it%20that%20you%20have%20a%2016-25%20railcard%20for%20fare%20purposes”>/url</a>. As a point of comparison, you will pay 2-3x as much in rent in London as you will in somewhere like Manchester (sometimes called “The London of the North”) which is a 2 hour train journey away from London. </p>
<p>You may also want to consider attending a conservatoire, which will offer a more practice-orientated degree. You apply for conservatoires through [url=<a href=“http://www.cukas.ac.uk/]CUKAS”>http://www.cukas.ac.uk/]CUKAS</a> - Home](<a href=“http://www.nationalrail.co.uk%5DNational”>http://www.nationalrail.co.uk) Don’t forget that even if you were to apply for a music course at a normal university (e.g. KCL), then you get 5 choices on your UCAS form, so you may as well use all of them. </p>
<p>I’m not trying to say that going to London will be impossible for you, but you should realise that London isn’t everything that’s good about the UK, that it’s comparatively expensive, and that your options outside London may be just as good if not better. </p>
<p>For the sake of giving you a figure to work with, I’m a student at Manchester, and I generally work on the basis of living off £7500-8000 per year. That includes all rent, bills and living costs, but not airfares or tuition fees. Around half of the figure given can be accounted for as rent & bills. At current exchange rates, that’s $11,390 - 12,173. However, that figure could very easily change due to (a) inflation, and (b) exchange rate fluctuations. In addition, it will be substantially more expensive than that figure to live in London.</p>
<p>What boomting says is true, but even if you are living in one of the “ordinary” parts of London, it’s always an easy commute to go and visit the glamorous and amazing part of London!</p>