<p>Based on what you may have seen on TV, or heard from other yanks who have been here, or just your own thoughts. :)</p>
<p>It is exactly like Hogwarts.</p>
<p>LOL! I was expecting that. </p>
<p>Just like yours is all like that programme called ‘Greek’</p>
<p>Much harder than American universities.</p>
<p>It’s much more focused on the major, with much less time spent on the typical US general requirements.</p>
<p>I’m basing this on my friend who’s currently studying abroad in England:</p>
<p>Less homework/papers/labs, grades are often based on 1-3 exams instead, so more free time
Less expensive! (in general, i know there’s exceptions)
More focus on 1 particular subject as opposed to a liberal arts type education with general requirements
3 years instead of 4, since no annoying general requirements needed
No greek system with frats/sororities
Nicer architecture? Just going by pics :)</p>
<p>also…why is that horrendous tv show on in other countries too? ugh i hate that show and my fake roommate is obsessed with it =/</p>
<p>I know nothing about it, I’ve never seen anything about british schools on tv or anything. I have a friend in England that is currently applying to universities though, so maybe I’ll hear about it from her.</p>
<p>Though she’s been trying to explain what a GCSE and an A level are for about four years and I still only just barely understand it.</p>
<p>ETA: I looooooove Greek. :)</p>
<p>[No greek system with frats/sororities
Nicer architecture? Just going by pics</p>
<p>also…why is that horrendous tv show on in other countries too? ugh i hate that show and my fake roommate is obsessed with it =/]</p>
<p>Yes, that show is/was running here. Though I think it’s finished. What an appalling show. I much prefer CSI, Closer, Smallville. etc :)</p>
<p>Yes, we don’t have any frats, but we tend to have lots of societies, and also sports clubs, mainly football, and rugby.</p>
<p>[ TwistedxKiss - Though she’s been trying to explain what a GCSE and an A level are for about four years and I still only just barely understand it.]</p>
<p>OK, well there I think you have to graduate in each class, correct? and the fact you lot call all educational institutions ‘College’ it gets confusing!</p>
<p>Here we have </p>
<p>NURSERY
SCHOOL<br>
COLLEGE
UNIVERSITY</p>
<p>GCSE = General Certificate of Seconday Education. This enables you do do an A - Level to get into University.</p>
<p>It’s full of stuck-up people who put unnecessary “u’s” in some words.</p>
<p>It gets confusing on Yahoo Answers when people will talk about how they want to drop out of college and the Americans all assume they mean university when in fact they mean, as my understanding goes, the equivalent to our high school. I went to community college, which isn’t technically a university but is university level, boy did it take me a while to explain THAT properly. I turned out to be a few years older than she’d expected. I think her “college” is actually called SomethingorOther Community College.</p>
<p>“exactly like Hogwarts” ROTFLOL! </p>
<p>Okay,
there’s no way I’m going to find a “party school” across the pond? “Uni” isn’t centered around collegiate sports like the holy sport of all, American football. There’s no massive beer kegs, no crazy frat parties, no sororities. </p>
<p>Oh, you Brit’s don’t know what you’re missing out on! LOL! Just kidding. </p>
<p>Actually, I’ve met a few British exchange students here. They’ve told me that their schools at home usually design coursework to be a very independent system. Basically, the student comes to lecture and takes more comprehensive exams. I’d probably like this format since my college experience has been filled with too many quizzes, too many tests, too many papers (too many deadlines!). I’d rather just take one comprehensive final and/or one term paper. </p>
<p>Oh, yeah everyone’s so posh in England right? And everyone’s into either rowing or polo, right?
Nevermind that, I’m not that ignorant. Not everyone is fabulously wealthy or cares for polo. However, I do know a few people from England, specifically, who have event horses (because that’s what I do, and I’ve been there to visit a few horse trials such as Blenheim and Burghley, yet I’ve never seen London, go figure!).</p>
<p>Filled with people who look tall, scary, and deathly skinny like the models on the burberry website. I know it can’t be true but that’s what I think of when I imagine young people in GB lol.</p>
<p>State-run, focused on one subject, full of pale boys with spiky hair (blond guidos), and not nearly as party-heavy as American schools.</p>
<p>Also, wanker.</p>
<p>I actually spent my sophomore year in London, but not at a British school. My university owns a house where we lived and took all our classes, most of which were taught by British professors. Our house was right across the street from Imperial College, and we met and talked to a lot of those students at the nearby church.</p>
<p>I know freshers week is a really big deal. There’s not as much of a party culture, but that’s because of the lower drinking age, so it’s not as big of a deal. They do go hang out at pubs, though.</p>
<p>As far as academics, no GEs, so you have to know what you’re studying right when you start uni. My British professors graded our papers much harder than my professors here do, you really had to go above and beyond to get an A. They also didn’t waste time on the first day going over the syllabus, they just jumped right into lecturing.</p>
<p>@British-Royalty</p>
<p>I keep reading all your posts in a british accent in my mind. XD</p>
<p>Don’t they actually have to know much sooner than when they start uni so they know what A levels (or whatever) to select? I remember when my friend was 16 she was freaking out about that. I felt bad because I was 19 and was still deciding myself, I couldn’t imagine being in her shoes!</p>
<p>ChasinCowboys</p>
<p>We have ‘dorm parties’ here. Dorms are where you reside for a year of the start of uni. And freshers week is quite mad too, pub crawls, doing silly things whilst drunk etc. </p>
<p>smilemyonly</p>
<p>Stuck up? not quite, but we do object to the basdardiSation of our language. (You see the ‘S’ instead of the ‘Z’? yes that’s how it’s spelt!</p>
<p>Collegehelllp</p>
<p>Yes, wanker lol. = Jerk. </p>
<p>We do have a partying side, but most of it is out of our system due to hitting College at 18 and the right to drink, so when we do get to Uni, it’s not that big a deal.</p>
<p>rajincajunfire</p>
<p>Actually I do possess a strong British accent. :)</p>
<p>Here’s what I’ve found different so far this semester in England from my home “uni” :P</p>
<p>Less house parties/more going to bars- Everyone is legal, so everyone can just go to the bars. There aren’t any “keggers,” hardly any beer pong, and while there are still drinking games they’re just for “predrinks” before you go to the bar/club.</p>
<p>More fancy dress- Everyone loves to get dressed up in some theme with the rest of their club/society for a social night out…even when no one else is dressing up. Sometimes it gets ridiculous too, like next week the guys water polo team (which I’m on) is going out in a speedo, cape, and mask for a Halloween social.</p>
<p>Less time in “lecture”- And there’s a lot less overall homework. The syllabus gives you suggestions of what to read to supplement what you learned in class, and you often don’t even have to buy books for classes</p>
<p>You can walk just about anywhere with a beer in hand on campus, walking from campus bar to campus bar, and no one will stop you. People start drinking here a lot earlier too (7-8 PM rather than 10 PM-12 AM in the states for when you start).</p>
<p>Sports here are taken less seriously at the university level. I’m a varsity athlete at home, and over here I practice less, drink more, and just have a more general carefree attitude to my sport. We still practice here a good amount, but not with the same intensity as being an NCAA athlete. Which is nice :)</p>
<p>Oh, and they say “modulus” instead of absolute value, “zed” instead of zee (for Z), and in math natural log is written simply as “log.” This has been driving me up the wall in my math classes.</p>
<p>This all of course is in addition to all the general English/American differences.</p>
<p>Ennaxor- You’re right about freshers week being a huge deal. It was a huge sloshfest here for all, whether you were a fresher or not. But I’d say the party atmosphere at the school I’m at is about average compared to those at American schools. I go to a big party school in the US and I’d rate the binge drinking to be fairly similar. People go out about any night of the week they feel like, Monday nights are really big here with specific drink specials. One difference I’ve noticed though is people are a little less willing to drink multiple nights in a row, and often won’t go to class the next day if they’re hungover (more people in the US would go anyways).</p>