<p>I've seen a lot of posts on here regarding whether certain British or U.S. programs are "better" than another, but I have been wondering more broadly how the postgraduate learning environments differ between institutions in the two countries. How do they focus on curricula, learning, studying, debate, writing, readying, exams, etc?</p>
<p>I'm getting an MSc in England next year after living in the U.S. my whole life, and any insight would be much appreciated. Thanks!</p>
<p>I've seen varying requirements for taught masters courses so I can't really speak to that...but in regard to research degree (MPhil and PhD) programs in the UK typically involve far fewer classes (if any) and are much shorter. The average PhD student in my field takes 6 years to complete their degree in the US and 3-4 years in the UK.</p>
<p>Where will you be going next year?</p>
<p>LSE for a MSc in Politics and Communication</p>
<p>These are the differences off the top of my head that I can think of:</p>
<ul>
<li>Less busywork</li>
<li>More expectation that you will be independent and able to research independently (the UK undergrad system is oriented in this direction).
-Less class contact time but you must be prepared and have done the reading.</li>
<li>people dress and act more formally in class - jeans are fine, crop tops and beach shorts will raise eyebrows. It's first name terms with the professor but they do not tolerate any dodgy behaviour.</li>
<li>Politics as a discipline - different theoretical approachs and methodological preferences than you tend to get in the US i.e. much less rational choice.</li>
<li>Politics of fellow students - often much more leftwing and with different assumptions than in the US, this can be a bit unnerving.</li>
<li>Debate styles are a bit different. British students are more prone to act as devil's advocate to find weaknesses in an argument.</li>
<li>Different marking system - 70 is very good! Also everything is blindmarked by both the professor and then a random sample to check fairness by a second marker. An external examiner at a different university checks all fails and a sample of others to ensure standards are maintained. In other words grade grubbing is pointless.</li>
<li>An MA will be largely assessed by research papers. If there are exams they tend to be 3 hour 3 essays out of 8 style.</li>
<li>LSE is VERY international. There'll be lots of chances to hear big names lecture at the LSE and at other London universities - try to make the most of it.</li>
<li>If you suffer from vertigo use the lifts in the library - the spiral staircase has a very wierd effect on me at least...</li>
<li>Check out the bookshops round the Brunswick Centre in Bloomsbury for lots of recently remaindered academic books.</li>
</ul>
<p>Hope that helps a bit!</p>
<p>There are two sorts of graduate degree in the UK - taught and by research. A taught course is similar to an undergraduate course. You are taught in lectures and small classes which are examined individually though either exams, coursework or a combination of the two. Most masters courses are taught courses like this. An MPhil is a masters which is a research course not taught. A degree by research basically involves being sent away to research a subject by yourself. Most PhDs are like this. There are no specific classes (though there are sometimes general classes for graduate students that you can attend if you wish. These are not assessed in any way). At the end you write a thesis and this is assessed by one internal and one external examiner. There is usually a 'viva' or oral examination. There are some combination masters (in sciences these are often called MRes) which involve classes but also a mini thesis and thus are a combination of both.</p>
<p>You will find your time is very unstructured. Hugely so if you are doing a PhD by research. Taught masters courses can be quite stressful because so much is crammed into one year, and depending on the university there may be lots of exams. </p>
<p>There is generally a lot more emphasis on writing skills in the UK. Lots of long essays to compose. I haven't been to LSE but I doubt it will be radically different. bewildered123's post is very good.</p>
<p>There's a great meat pie place in the Brunswick Centre as well...Square Pie! I miss it...so yummy.</p>
<p>Studied at Cornell and Christ Church, Oxford. Now in a PhD program at UChicago. As far as overall academic experience is concerned, the UK programs cannot begin to compete with the resources, personal attention, and professional preparation that you will get at an American school. If you want to mess about for a few years only to beg someone to give a cursory read-through of your dissertation, stay in England. If you want a serious education, apply to an American program--even a 2nd tier school will give you a better education than you can find at Oxbridge/UCL/etc...That said, there are wonderful, brilliant, students, and, to a lesser degree, professors in England. Just a pity they are stuck in a system that is, for lack of a better term, "second world." Oh, and in England they put the ""s outside the period. A serious aesthetic blunder. Oh yeah, and the food sucks and the weather is worse than miserable. And if you think I don't know miserable weather, just look at the other schools I've attended.</p>
<p>a little chauvinistic, no?
I would imagine it depends on the professor you are working with at Oxford or Cambridge or wherever else in England -- many a US professor also takes forever to get around to reading your dissertation.
One of the big advantages of the English system is that people are focused early on their dissertations -- they don't spend 4 years or more taking courses and comps before they even begin to focus. The fallout rate is, accordingly, quite high in the US, and many are jaded and faded by the time they finish in their late 20's, early 30's.
In the US, there may be some who think that a PhD from Harvard, Princeton, etc. is more "prestigious" in terms of getting a job here, but your success will depend as much on what you publish and where you give conference papers.</p>
<p>For the undergraduate level its basically:
- if you want a prolonged school life where professors will tell you exactly what you have to do (study guide and the like) and do not want to learn personal responsibility, go to US
- if not, Europe..</p>
<p>i’ve always been curious about this</p>
<p>i don’t think i could ever attend school outside the US - you have to remember that even the high school system is much different. i’d feel like the odd one out.</p>