<p>Another thing to bear in mind if money is an issue is the cost of flying back and forth from the UK. I’d check what holidays the dorms are closed for in the college you choose and what the round trip airfare would be. I’m guessing the east coast would be cheaper to fly home from than say Arizona. You might be shocked by the airfares during holiday periods. Google Airfare is a good place to test various scenarios.</p>
<p>Goucher is dumpy & in a terrible location.</p>
<p>UNC Chapel Hill is really nice! Very pretty, mild weather. The bus system in Chapel Hill is free. There are quite a few historical sites in the area.</p>
<p>You won’t have any trouble getting around campus itself. All campuses on your list are self contained - either you’ll walk around, ride a bike, or if they’re really big you’ll take a free campus shuttle. Your concern shouldn’t be getting around campus; most university cities/college towns will have public transportation for the students (or the campus will provide a shuttle if it’s small and near a city), so it’ll be easy to get around town; so, your concern should be being able to go to various places easily.
Yes, most upperclass students (juniors and seniors) will have cars, and some freshmen and sophomores too. In the US, driving lessons can be taken in high school, it’s easy, it’s very cheap, and everyone has a license. Gas is about 1/3 the cost of what it is in the UK, I think. If you’re over 21 you’ll be able to rent a car fairly easily once you have your driving license. Cars are “automatic”, not stick shift. And compared to Europeans, Americans are very good drivers. :)</p>
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<p>Is that a joke? The US has a far, far higher number of traffic related deaths than the UK or any other EU country.</p>
<p>Maybe the US has more traffic fatalities because we spend more time in our cars?</p>
<p>Which is an important point. The USA doesn’t really have the sort of rail passenger network that Europe has. I live in a college town with a railway station, but any 24 hour period will have only two trains, one going east and one going west. The only part of the United States where it would be possible to travel by train the way Europeans do is along the East Coast in the stretch from Boston to Washington D.C.</p>
<p>It may be more important for you to be somewhere that stores the specific historical records you would like to work with. Research the library holdings at the places you are looking at.</p>
<p>University of Richmond is served by Amtrak. It is near Williamsburg &'Jamestown Va as well as Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.</p>
<p>UMass Amherst - the consortium is super, good academics. Temple - Philly is not a big city! And there are lots of unis, and easy trains to DC, NY. & Boston. </p>
<p>Middlebuty is great but is far far far from anything. Richmond is a train ride from DC, but is a lot like Philly in size and lots of run down areas.</p>
<p>Take a look at the website *****.</p>
<p>That web site is UN-I-GO w/out the dashes. Guess CC sees it as competition</p>
<p>Richmond and Philadelphia are the same size? Really?</p>
<p>Philadelphia MSA is #6 in the US with 6 million people. It’s the second largest city on the East Coast.
Richmond MSA is #44 with 1.2 million people. That’s slightly smaller than Oklahoma City and Louisville.</p>
<p>Maine is very isolated. Very pretty, but very remote for what you are trying to do. It’s also kind of it’s own little world and likes it that way. It would be a bit like trying to study British history from the Scottish Highlands.</p>
<p>Umass and Rutgers should definitely be on your list. Rutgers should be high on your list, it’s in an ideal location, and despite it’s non-elite reputation, is really very good for what you’re trying to do. Plus, it is very much a middle class school in the very best sense of the word. And a three hour radius from the school contains a huge swath of American history across all eras. There are so many day trips from that location you’d never be able to do them all in a year even if you went every weekend.</p>
<p>Don’t discount U of Richmond, despite it’s rep as a Southern gentleman’s club. Very good school and an ideal place to work from. It’s 3 hour radius contains a good 400 years of American history. And it’s a totally different place than the Northeast.</p>
<p>UNC is a very good school, but the Carolinas are a backwater for much of American history. Lots of history, yes, and very interesting, but their own history - they really aren’t central to the main American narrative for much of their existence, though they play important peripheral roles. They are probably more the future than the past. Richmond would be a better choice.</p>
<p>I’ll grant you that greater Philly is bigger than greater Richmond, but that’s in good part b/c the ‘metro area’ includes everything from Philly to Camden, NJ to Wilmington, DE! It certainly doesn’t live like such a big city, and purely geographically is the best positioned (with Rutgers a close 2nd). Otherwise, I would agree with your assessments J</p>
<p>Re: American are good drivers.
I stand by that. We stop at intersections. We don’t run to “beat the red light” each opportunity they get. We drive fairly slowly. If you follow the rules, you don’t feel like a fool. Many people actually like driving.
Granted, I’m not talking Beltway/LA rush hour 
but overall, in college communities and surrounding areas, on highways, etc, it doesn’t feel like every driver fantasizes he’s a racecar driver or a Nascar contestant.
Try driving France, or Italy to see what I mean.
Plus: automatic transmission, straight highways, wide roads, clear signs, well-painted road marks… 
And yes I’ve driven in OH, PA, and WV so I know roads can have potholes, etc, etc, but overall it’s a better experience driving in the US than in Europe.
It seems to me that there are lots of accidents because so many people commute (and there aren’t any convenient ways to go places without a car) not to mention people who drive drunk.</p>
<p>One time when my parents went to visit a distant cousin of my father’s in Finland, the relative was driving them to his house, and after watching him drive my mother said “This is very different. In the United States the custom is that when you come to a red light, you stop . . .”</p>
<p>Been researching some more and I have been told by my study abroad organiser that I have been looking at an old list of partners. There are 6 new partners since the list I was looking at:</p>
<ol>
<li>University of Washington, Seattle (5 places)</li>
<li>University of Pittsburgh (2 places)</li>
<li>George Washington University (2 places. Please note: Competition is fierce for these places)</li>
<li>University of Arkansas (8 places)</li>
<li>University of Pennsylvania (1 place available - Awarded to the highest scoring student in AMS01/02/04/05)</li>
<li>University of Texas - Austin (3 places)</li>
</ol>
<p>Seattle is by far the greatest place I have ever seen. Everything I have read about it seems amazing. However, it’s not in a great travelling location.</p>
<p>Pittsburgh seems similar to Seattle but cheaper and more working-class. I like the look of the campus and it seems to have good(ish) public transport.</p>
<p>GWU is too “city” for me. I want a campus that’s just outside of the main city, or in a more secluded area so it feels like an actual campus.</p>
<p>Arkansas looks an interesting state. Lots of history but too hot.</p>
<p>UPenn. I’d never get a place.</p>
<p>Texas. I don’t know what to make of this university. It seems to big and southern, however, it’s in the heartland for Wild West history.</p>
<p>I’d replace Rutgers with UWA then but move Rutgers down your list.
UT Austin is a fantastic school but there’s no way for you to travel outside the city without a car (or taking a plane). Still a good choice for Wild West history.
Pittsburgh has actually become a really nice city and Pitt has a great campus.There’s one train daily going through PA to Philadelphia (7h) and New York City (9h) and in the other direction to Chicago. Lots of interesting history (Frick, Carnegie, all the industrialists, plus Falling Water, Andy Warhol, and postmodern architecture/rejuvenating/rebranding of blighted industrial cities - very successful, too, people who’ve seen Pittsburgh 40 years ago and go back to visit can’t believe it’s the same city).</p>
<p>If you are going to study American history, you are going to need to understand American culture. You can’t reject a school for being “too Southern” in its culture, because you will need to understand Southern culture to understand a great deal of American history.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m a high school senior and since I’ve been doing a lot of college research, I thought I’d give my two cents:
1.George Mason University: Don’t know too much about it, but it is close to Washington DC, where there will be tons of access to stuff related to American History
2. Georgetown University: If you have the credentials, apply. It is right in DC, and the education is really good.
3. Goucher College: Don’t know anything about it.
4. University of Massachusetts - Amherst: Do not, I repeat, do not go here. I live an hour from the school and it’s just not the place international students would get a good use of their time. It is also pretty big and in the middle of nowhere, which is how it got the party school rep. It also not very close to much US History stuff (unless you count Springfield). It’s good for kids who are here, but not so much for international students.
5. University of Rhode Island: Don’t know much, but it’s a good school. It has a pleasant environment, although it’s not gonna have a lot of access to US History stuff
6. Rutgers - State University of New Jersey: Good place to start. and it’s close to major cities. I would apply
7. Temple University: Since it’s in Pennsylvania, you’d have a lot of access to US History stuff. I would apply
8.University of Washington, Seattle: Don’t know much about it.
9. University of Pittsburgh: See Temple
10. George Washington University: See George Mason
11. University of Arkansas: It would be remote, and hard to get access to much. I wouldn’t recommend
12. University of Pennsylvania: LOL, it’s a crapshoot for anyone. You could try, but the place drips of pomposity, I wouldn’t want to go. But it would be close to US History sites, so maybe you should look into it.
13… University of Texas - Austin: Good school. It would also be close to some of that US History stuff you want, especially in regards to US-Mexico stuff. </p>
<p>Hope this helped!</p>