What U.S. uni should I study abroad at for my year abroad from the U.K.?

Student Lounge International Students
1

<p>Hi all,</p>

<p>I am a Brit in my first year of studying American history at a university in the U.K.. As part of my degree I am able to study abroad in the U.S. for my third year and we have to choose 5 study abroad partners we'd be willing to attend by Christmas. There are so many that I cannot decide, but I have knocked a few off the list (e.g. I don't fancy studying in Florida for a year, so I have removed all of the FL unis). Below are my remaining options, and I have written a little about why I have chosen to leave the uni on the list, next to it.</p>

<p>My options are:
University of Alaska, Anchorage. I am unsure whether I'd enjoy Alaska... It seems like it would be a unique experience, but as a history student I need to be in a state rich in history I am interested in, and Alaska's history doesn't seem to excite me that much!</p>

<p>University of Arizona. This seems an awesome university, however, I had the heat. I hate sweaty heat, but don't mind dry heat. Also, Arizona is in a state rich in wild west history (something that I am taking a lot of modules on).</p>

<p>University of California - All Campuses (exc. Merced). I like the look of UCLA but it's ridiculously expensive and I couldn't afford it. UCSB seems a good fit, but the history side of things isn't great. UCSD, same as UCLA, but a good location for my criteria. UCI, UCRiverside, and UCSC don't appeal to me. UC Davis seems a cool location and is my favourite UC but I hear it's more science-focused opposed to artsy.</p>

<p>University of Colorado - Boulder. I think this is in a great location. Not far from Denver, lovely scenery, great for Wild West history, etc., however, I hear it's a big weed school and a massive party school. I am not a big stoner and I like parties occasionally but not every day (which I assume is what is meant by a party school?) </p>

<p>George Mason University. Great location to get into DC, however, it has a big international student population and I was looking to go to a uni that has a very low international presence so I can soak up "real America". Also, it's a commuter campus which = no social life. It does seem to be a great fit aside from what I've said.</p>

<p>Georgetown University. Firstly, I'd love to go here but it has scarce places and the best of the best from my uni get to go here. I would say I am near the top, but not nearly good enough to get accepted here. Still an option, though.</p>

<p>Goucher College. This is one of my favourites. I want a smaller university because my current uni has only 18,000 students and going to a massive school would overwhelm me. I don't know much about this college, academically. But the location is really appealing and the campus looks gorgeous.</p>

<p>Hobart and William Smith Colleges. Same as Goucher aside from me liking the look of Hobart a lot less. Geneva seems pretty boring. But can you convince me otherwise?</p>

<p>Univ. of Illinois - Urbana Champaign. I hate the idea of fratty schools and I heard this is one. Nonetheless, Illinois seems to embody everything I think of when someone say America. You've got Chicago, the all-American city, and then the rest of the state is farmland and the odd city. Home of Lincoln too - great! But the fratty-ness would put me off.</p>

<p>University of Kansas. Despite it's size I love the look of Kansas. I like the look of all of these midwestern state university tbh.</p>

<p>Louisiana State Univ. I nearly knocked this one off the list because I hate the heat and Louisiana seems a foreign state in the U.S. (if that make sense) and it's not really the experience I want. However, the campus looks pretty nice and I've heard it has a fun, outgoing student body and above average arts academics.</p>

<p>University of Maine. I like everything about this school, apart from it being isolated. I want to travel on my YA, so this wouldn't enable me too. Also, it seems like it'd be too cold all year round.</p>

<p>UMass Amherst. Expensive location, but a great one. Rich in history. However, a party school and EXPENSIVE.</p>

<p>Middlebury College. Again, I like LACs, but Vermont doesn't seem a great place to travel around the U.S. from.</p>

<p>Univ. of Minnesota - TC. Minneapolis seems great: One of my favourite bands (The Replacements) is from MPLS, I have a friend who lives there (works at the uni in fact), my favourite Christmas film was filmed there (good ol' Schwarzenegger's Jingle All the Way), and it seems to represent America well. However, I can't think of any interesting historical events that involved/happened in MN aside from the Great Migration.</p>

<p>Ole Miss. Cheapest option, however, someone said it would be too southern for me. Oxford looks a cool place, but I have read that Mississippians dislike outsiders so would a Brit be well received?</p>

<p>Mizzou - Columbia. Near the top of my list. The only downside is the size of the university (student-wise). Can't think of any other negatives apart from the location being awkward to travel from. Missouri is also a state I feel is very all-American. Wild West history here too.</p>

<p>UNew Mexico. As a Breaking Bad fan, living in ABQ for a year would be great. It caters to my Wild West fascination, but is too "foreign" and not very American (IMO). Affordable, though and unique.</p>

<p>UNC Chapel Hill. Probably my third favourite. The size lets it down, but I could probably adjust. NC seems a lovely state. No other negatives.</p>

<p>Notre Dame, South Bend, IN. Pricey, but seems to be the quintessential American college experience with good academics. However, I am not a Catholic (quite the opposite) and I hear it's quite conservative, whereas, I am very liberal.</p>

<p>Occidental College. Despite it being in LA, they help with the costs so I could afford this place. Obama went here for a year, I believe and I love the whole look of the place.</p>

<p>Oklahoma U. Same thoughts as Mizzou, but I am unsure whether Oklahoma would be a nice environment for me.</p>

<p>University of Oregon. WOW! Lovely uni. No negatives apart from the reasonably expensive price, which I can just about afford. Although, not a great location for travelling - but I wouldn't mind travelling around the PacNW, Montana, ID, etc.</p>

<p>Reed College. Same as Oxy, plus I think it's too far out for me - and too academically rigorous.</p>

<p>Univ of Rhode Island. ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC location. Great size, Kingston looks lovely. Can't really fault URI apart from it's party school rep.</p>

<p>University of Richmond. Same thoughts as UIUC.</p>

<p>Roanoke College. Same as Goucher, apart from location which is a major downer.</p>

<p>Rutgers, New Brunswick. NJ - home of the Boss, and it is in a good location. Don't know much more than that :P</p>

<p>St Olaf College. Same as Middlebury.</p>

<p>Temple Univ. Not a big city kind of guy, and Philly doesn't seem "my place". However, it's the Birthplace of America.</p>

<p>Tulane. Same as LSU and UIUC (for fratty side)</p>

<p>Utah University. Great place. Love SLC from what I've seen but it seems to be too mormon and a commuter school.</p>

<p>Westminster College, MO. Don't know much about this place aside from it being in rural MO.</p>

<p>My criteria:
- Reasonable student population size: Under 20,000
- Good travel location.
- Easy to travel around campus without a car (I can't drive)
- Good public transport if it's in a city
- Not too religious
- Not too academically rigorous
- Not too hot
- Rich in the history of: Wild West, colonial, American Revolution, Cold War, slavery, gangsters or civil rights.</p>

<p>I was wondering if you could advise me based on my criteria. Please take my comments on each uni into account.</p>

<p>Cheers :)</p>

2

<p>Without going through your list of schools in detail, I’d say that there are many, many good schools to choose from on that list. Here’s the list of criteria I’d use to pick one, and some advice as well.</p>

<ol>
<li><p>Decide what aspect of American history you’d like to learn the most about and look for a school that puts you in a good location to do that.</p></li>
<li><p>Learn to drive. You’ll have a much better year here if you can do that and get access to a car. There are tons of sites you can visit by car, most are very difficult to get to without a car, and you’ll miss a lot by not having that access. We are also very much a car culture, it’s what makes us different from Europe. To understand this place, drive.</p></li>
<li><p>If you stick to the mid-Atlantic up to the New England region, you’ll have to highest concentration of American history sites to go visit personally. There are plenty of places out West to visit, but it’s HUGE. If you’ve never been to America, you have no idea how huge. Cities are 500 miles apart, with not much in between but desert or grass and prairie dogs. You certainly need to see the West to truly understand this country, but I think you’d get more bang for the buck by staying East for your schooling and visiting the rest on breaks or over the summer.</p></li>
<li><p>Most colleges aren’t religious, at least based on your list. Even Notre Dame, which is highly Catholic, is still pretty liberal from a social life standpoint.</p></li>
</ol>

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<p>Richmond certainly has fraternities, however it isn’t what I’d describe as a fratty school. Richmond is a private college, and it’s the place for the ridiculously wealthy southern gentleman, much in the same vein as W&L. In the fraternities at Richmond, you wouldn’t be finding ******s in polo shirts doing beer bongs, you’d find future CEOs in polo shirts talking about future price-fixing collusion and sailing their father’s yachts. And like I said, the fraternity life there isn’t all encompassing.</p>

<p>UNC Chapel Hill is far more “fratty”, generally all state schools are infinitely more “fratty”. Stay away from Goucher, Baltimore is an absolute s***hole. Georgetown doesn’t allow fraternities, I’d probably make that my top pick. Middlebury is one of the best schools on the list, and it’s easy to travel from Vermont to Boston/NYC/Philly, plus it’s a beautiful drive through Vermont.</p>

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<p>I don’t know too much about most of these schools, but if you can’t drive, I’d definitely recommend staying out of CA. California, especially Los Angeles, requires cars most of the time, since public transportation isn’t that great.
Based on your criteria, I think Goucher would be the best fit. It’s small, not too rigorous and not religiously affiliated, and it’s in Baltimore, which I think is a great location if you want to study History.
I’d also definitely keep Georgetown and UNC Chapel Hill on your list(though they’re both quite rigorous), as well as Arizona, Oregon and Middlebury.</p>

5

<p>This is good advice. Having done American Studies in Boston, I can say that it is as close to heaven as an American historian is going to get. Having a car would be essential however because each weekend you’re going to want to run to a revolutionary site or an old mill town or some literary mecca or the other. Of course, it will be the American version of 18th and 19thc history rather than the European that you will be getting. And it’s about as close to the UK as you can get culturally, so you’ll see and hear a lot that it is familiar to you–they really were Brits, at least the men and women were whom we think of as leaders during the colonial and early national period. I like the idea of saving your summer and holidays for traveling to some other areas of the country, but pick your sites carefully. We are very large. I remember trying to convince a very pretty Dane at the American embassy in Luxembourg that you could drive for 2.5 days straight in America and not be home yet–and she had been here before. Back to you: if you decide to satisfy your western history jones, the University of Colorado is a great place to do so. I also studied there once upon a time, and it has a great deal to offer in terms of western history, including pre-human “history” a la the Annales school. The Anasazi sites in CO are wonderful. And it’s just a beautiful place to live with 300+ days of sunshine, temperate winters, dry summers. Very outdoorsy living that attracts half of southern California during the school year and all of Texas during the ski season. Good luck.</p>

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<p>If you can’t drive and want to travel to historical places easily, I’d pick Goucher - very easy to get to DC and Philadelphia, and there on it’s 1H30 to NYC by train (4h is considered “close” for example for students at college, vs. “local” (1h) and "far " ie, requiring a flight). Lots of historical sites. Not to mention MD was a pro-slavery state that was part of the Union during the Civil War, which makes for an interesting study.
If you want easy travel city to city, you have to stay on the DC-Boston line/the eastern seaboard.
Some cities have excellent public transportation outside of this area but it’ll be harder to get out of the city to go somewhere. In addition, as you may know, American trains are unusually slow compared to their European or Japanese counterparts, and don’t really connect cities efficiently anymore (the fall of the train system from the advance that was the continental railway to… the ?@?! that is today’s train system is another topic to investigate :p) And Greyhound buses don’t offset that. </p>

<p>UArizona is well located for Wild West history and the heat is dry. (“sweaty” heat is concentrated in the South from Texas to Alabama - although most of the country is pretty muggy outside of the Southwest, it’d only be for 2-3 weeks of the school year at most if you avoid the Deep South). Huge school so you’d have to find your niche.
Same thing for Colorado.</p>

<p>UC Davis is very hot part of the school year and is indeed more known for its sciences. What don’t you like about the other campuses though?</p>

<p>Occidental would be very good if one of the professors in the history dept is working on something that interests you - you should email him/her and see whether you’d be able to join a research project of theirs. The LAC experience would be very uniquely American yet you’d be in LA. However, transportation may be a problem. See if the school has shuttles (although most students would have a car, I assume).</p>

<p>Actually, I’d advise checking out professors’ research and contacting those who work in the areas that interest you, for all the colleges on the list. :slight_smile: As an exchange undergrad, you’re much more likely to have access to the professors and their research at a LAC or smaller school (since large universities have grad students for that :p) BTW.
Rutgers and URI: I’d pick them after the others cited above, mostly for location, although Rutgers has terrific programs in Women’s history, African American history, and modern US history.
Westminster is the college where Sir Winston Churchill made his speech about the Iron Curtain and they have lots of papers of his. However, coming from GB to study Churchill, hmmmmmmmm :)</p>

<p>Temple isn’t in a very nice neighbordhood of Philadelphia.</p>

<p>(you can check rankings for history here:
[Best</a> History Programs | Top History Schools | US News Best Graduate Schools](<a href=“http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/history-rankings]Best”>http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-humanities-schools/history-rankings))</p>

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<p>I would go with UNC Chapel Hill. Really beautiful place. I think it would be an ideal place to spend a year, and it seems to fit all your criteria. Don’t underestimate the importance of physical surroundings when you are away from home for an extended period of time. I think your instinct of staying away from the more remote locations is spot on.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the responses :)</p>

<p>I can’t quote for some reason…</p>

<p>@MrMom62: I’d like to study the Old West, however, staying on the East Coast would make things x10 easier for me. So… the American Revolution, Civil War, and the Cold War would be of interest and related to the East Coast.</p>

<p>I can’t afford a car or lessons at the moment. I am the epitome of a poor student and I have no interest in driving currently. I’m gonna stick to places that have good transport (at the very least a train station).</p>

<ul>
<li>-</li>
</ul>

<p>@tegauntt: That’s the kind of fraternity I wouldn’t mind. Goucher isn’t in Baltimore AFAIK, it’s in Towson, which looks really nice. Baltimore does look a bit grim in parts, but from an outsiders’ perspective it looks like it would be amazing (especially to me, someone who has never been to the U.S. before!)</p>

<ul>
<li>-</li>
</ul>

<p>@LayraSparks: I am not that interested in California; I’d like to go there on holiday but spending a year there - no, thanks! I haven’t been before, but it doesn’t really sound my type of state.</p>

<ul>
<li>-</li>
</ul>

<p>@jkeil911: As I have said above, I can’t afford a car at the moment :frowning: I think I’m going to stick with the East Coast and possibly Midwest.</p>

<ul>
<li>-</li>
</ul>

<p>@MYOS1634: Great post :slight_smile: I am going to stick to your advice about picking a school on the DC-Boston line. So that leaves me with:</p>

<p>George Mason University
Georgetown University
Goucher College
University of Massachusetts - Amherst
University of Rhode Island
Rutgers - State University of New Jersey
Temple University</p>

<p>Are there any that I should definitely avoid? I think I’ll be less picky by removing the following criteria:</p>

<ul>
<li>Reasonable student population size: Under 20,000</li>
<li>Not too religious</li>
<li>Not too academically rigorous</li>
</ul>

<p>Rest of the criteria stands.</p>

<ul>
<li>-</li>
</ul>

<p>@HarvestMoon1: Thanks for the suggestion, but see above :)</p>

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<p>NB: I’m not going to rule out University of Oregon or University of Maine, because I like the look of both of these schools despite both not being in a great location.</p>

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<p>As far as a car goes, I don’t believe there is a restriction on an international student learning to drive once here. I’m sure one of your fellow students would be willing to teach you once you got here - many campuses have ZipCars available once you have your license. </p>

<p>You could also plan a road-trip for after the school year that would hit the highlights of what one should see if coming to America to study history. I’ll post a suggested itinerary later that takes what you’re interested in into account.</p>

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<p>Another vote for Goucher.
It ticks all of your boxes, with great interactions with professors, accessible campus
and a really nice student population.
Other than that, don’t rule out Tulane based on frat/party reputation. The historical aspects of the area far outweigh any social perceptions.
It’s true that the UC’s or Occidental will focus on a different side of American history, but it’s certainly a fascinating side. That said, public transportation in LA is notoriously bad and despite what they say on their web site, Oxy is in LA County, rather than LA proper (if there is such a thing…).
What about UC Berkeley? Great public transportation and access to much of historical California.
I also agree with the posters above who say proximity to Boston is an real advantage. Check out a map and you’ll see that it’s easier to get to Boston from U Rhode Island than from U Mass Ahmerst.</p>

12

<p>Keep UNC-CH too. </p>

<p>Rather than U of Maine, if you’re going to be up North, pick Middlebury. It’s a fabulous school and Top 10 (or top 5 even).</p>

<p>Check out how easy it is to get to Boston from UMass. UMass is part of the 5 college consortium, so you would be able to see first hand the variety of American institutions: very lefty women’s college, diverse/moderate women’s college, elite LAC, hippie LAC, and large, public university. At Umass, ask if you’d be allowed to take Honors seminars or grad-level (400 to 500) classes.</p>

<p>Re: driving - there was a restriction after 9/11 due to driver’s licenses serving as identity cards - don’t know if it’s been lifted. Lessons are free or very low-cost at Community Education or Continuing Education, the booklet takes about 1h to memorize, and for well under $100 you would have a driver’s license… which you could convert into a British one once back home. :stuck_out_tongue: win-win !</p>

13

<p>From going on Google Views, I have had a look around the New England areas and they seem too “familiar”. Don’t get me wrong, NE is nice but I am looking for a uniquely American experience and NE seems to similar to the U.K. I still want a university on the East Coast and going down to the unis around D.C. and that is the type of experience I want.</p>

<p>Could anyone with in-depth knowledge tell me more about:
Georgetown
Richmond
Goucher
Roanoke</p>

<p>I am unsure what my 5th choice will be, but I want a smallish university (again, under 20,000) so not UNC-CH… but near D.C.</p>

<p>That said, I am still not ruling out NE colleges…</p>

14

<p>Richmond is very preppy (wealthy kids who went to private school) but has an excellent academic level. It’s 175km from DC and I don’t think you can go by train.
Roanoke is a little isolated too, lower academic level. If you don’t mind isolated, pick Middlebury. I can’t emphasize enough how fabulous that school is. :slight_smile:
Goucher is a very good school, relatively laid back, very nive campus, near Baltimore, about 60km to DC (students go there all the time).
Georgetown of course is a powerhouse. Open-minded Catholic (liberal), preprofessional (a large number of history students plan to go to law school, for example), very prestigious. And: IN DC.
Keep Rutgers - it’s very big, but it’s easy to travel to different places from there.
Re: smaller schools
Occidental if you like smaller schools would be a better choice than Roanoke.
St Olaf is a great school but not well-located for you (only 45mn from the Twin Cities though. And cold from November to April).
George Mason is known as very conservative and you described yourself as fairly liberal so you may have trouble fitting in. Plus it’s still mostly commuter so it may not be the most “integrating into America” as an experience. Commuter schools make it harder for a transient exchange students to meet friends, etc. Of course it depends how sociable you are. :)</p>

<p>New England does NOT look like GB at all. Many clapboard “cape cods” (houses made of painted wood with a specific window/door setting), white church steeples, etc. Type New England Foliage or New England Town in G.Image to see what I mean. Really, really unlike GB.</p>

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<p>@MYOS1634: Yep, you’re right about my NE/GB comparison… Having looked into NE on Google Views more closely you’re right :slight_smile: I hadn’t looked very closely into the streetviews before I made that comment, however, after looking at more views it looks very nice!</p>

<p>I think I still prefer the look of the D.C. area, though.</p>

<p>Going to take Richmond and Roanoke off of the list because off their isolated locations.</p>

<p>Georgetown and Goucher remain.</p>

<p>URI and Rutgers are looking good.</p>

<p>Anything in-depth on URI and Rutgers?</p>

<p>5th choice… no idea! Somewhere on the East Coast that isn’t isolated. UMass Amherst?</p>

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<p>Out of these I would go with Georgetown! Goucher is nice/near Towson but as I have a friend who transferred from goucher I personal feel like Georgetowns the better option. (And go to school in DC) </p>

<p>Powerhouse, open minded for a catholic uni, killer location and so much history opportunity</p>

17

<p>Georgetown is nice, but too hard for me to get into. Only the top 2 students in my class get a place. I am not in the top 2. I would say I am slightly above average: top 20.</p>

<p>Georgetown would be a wasted choice.</p>

<p>So far…</p>

<ol>
<li>University of Rhode Island</li>
<li>Goucher College</li>
<li>?? University of Massachusetts - Amherst ??</li>
<li>University of Maine</li>
<li>?? Rutgers ??</li>
</ol>

18

<p>Rutgers: New Jersey was an important site for the revolutionary war, and you’d be just north of some important american history and halfway to Philadelphia. A little further south is Baltimore which is big in the war and the second war for independence and the early national period. Important site for trade and for movements westward. DC doesn’t become terribly important because it was a swamp. Rutgers: can’t beat the location, come to think of it, for getting up and down by train (not far from a Boston-DC line called northeast “Amtrak”) to the important colonial, revolutionary, and early national sites. Rutgers has and has had some great historians from these periods. 3 hrs west and south of Rutgers is Gettysburg.
Second good choice could be Goucher for its location and many of the same reasons as Rutgers. it’s closer to the revolution and civil war sites in the southern colonies/states and a short jump to Amtrak in Baltimore. Decent LAC. And coming to the east coast and not getting some experience with American slavery, which you can find easily in Virginia and Maryland, would leave a gap.
When you get here you can organize road (car) trips with other history students who aren’t local and haven’t seen the local sites. Gasoline here is cheaper than it is in the UK, and a lot of students will bring cars to campus. You’re going to have fun.</p>

19

<p>If most students have cars then getting around any campus isn’t going to be too difficult. Maybe I could look into some universities outside of the East Coast?</p>

20

<p>You have a lot of options… are you at UEA? I think you may have difficulty finding somewhere which suits your academic interests which also has the right climate, good travel opportunities and is the right size.</p>

<p>Speaking as a Brit, I quite like Middlebury College. It seems to be a nice little international-minded college in a pretty New England town. From what my friend said when she was applying to US colleges, it isn’t too far from Montreal if you fancy escaping to a big city. I also like UMass Amherst for similar reasons. If it were me I would stay in New England, it is historic, pretty and has much better travel connections for a non-driver than anywhere in the West. The down side is it won’t feel that different to Britain, and experiencing a different culture is the best part of studying abroad.</p>