I am admitted to UCLA and Imperial College London (Physics major). Now I am thinking over which offer to accept. Here are several factors to be considered. My intended major is physics currently. Yet I am probably more interested in studying general engineering because I prefer practical application to theoretical study. But physics is also fine if I do not change my mind, for I believe it could lead me to any engineering field in the future. I am sure I would like to go directly to graduate school in US in the future.
Although both are very good schools, I consider transferring to other US college no matter which one I would choose.The reason is that I hope to get into a smaller school (private school or lac) with intimate community, where I do not have to take large-scale courses with hundreds of students or compete for school resources. I also expect more personal interaction between students and professors. And I would like to apply to colleges with general engineering curriculum.
Accordingly, here are some factors to be considered without ranking.
- The quality of lectures and Professor's teaching ability. (I really care about this. I do not want to rely on self-study and take the course examination. That's a waste of high tuition.)
- About transfer. I consider that UK colleges have a very different scoring system so the translated GPA may be much lower commonly, while the GPA is an important factor in transfer admission.
Also, I could not choose among courses I take. There are all physics and math in Imperial College London, while US college requires the breadth and different structure. I do not know how negative it is in transfer admission.
- Is there any difference considering graduate school application between these two? I wonder how is the reputation of Imperial College London in US.
Any other insights are also highly appreciated. I could not make my mind until now, and also failed to find successful experience for transferring from UK to American college. Thanks very much!!!
In addition, I am an international student. So regardless of my choice I will always be the international applicant to graduate school or international transfer student.
As you probably know, American unis are a lot more flexible in terms of choosing courses and letting you switch majors. There’s also less hand-holding and more emphasis on self-study at British unis even when compared to American publics. You could consider transferring, but the experience of upper-level physics classes at UCLA will likely be very similar to upper-level physics classes at research unis with reputable physics departments elsewhere.
For grad school, both are fine.
In the UK, you’ll have far fewer class hours (probably 9-10 a week) so you’ll be on your own a lot. It also means you can organize your time in any way you want. Professors aren’t there to get to know you, it’s fairly impersonal - you learn, or you don’t. Imperial is highly respected in the EU and it’s much easier to get a work visa in the EU than in the US since they like highly qualified, young immigrants. London is very expensive.
UCLA will have very large classes too, probably even more so than Imperial. LA, while expensive, is less expensive than London, and the weather is frankly not comparable :). It would be easier to transfer from UCLA.
If you want to have personal contact with professors, personal advisers, small classes… neither is a good choice. In addition, for highly selective schools, it’s typically easier to enter as a freshman than as a transfer, so that waiting a year and reapplying to a different list of schools might be a wiser choice. If you need scholarships, be aware that international transfers do not get any financial aid and so you must take a gap year. If financial aid doesn’t matter, as your choice of UCLA (60K) would indicate, it’s really up to you, keeping in mind it’ll be even harder to get into top schools as a transfer, than it was as a freshman.
I think for you UCLA would be better; at ICL you will only be studying physics, and I’m not sure that would be enough for you to go on to graduate study in engineering. UCLA would also set you up better for transfer to another undergrad institution.