I’m wanting to know in particular about the quality of education you think you were able to receive and about what the campus culture was like. Was it campus-oriented culture, or were people more just on their own? How similar was it to a “traditional American college” experience?
Also, if you have an answer, but you didn’t study political science or IR, please feel free to comment as well.
@KaffeineKitty has a student at Glasgow at the moment, but there won’t be many others with current info.
IME no UK university is similar to a “traditional American College experience”- no matter what you define that as. They are not as campus-centric, there is no ‘Big 10’ or similar rah-rah for the home team, you are expected to be much more independent, there is no culture of socializing with profs (as sometimes happens in the smaller LACs, for example), evaluation is much more exam-based / much less continuing assesment, etc.
Importantly, courses are much more prescriptive. Glasgow does not have IR or PoliSci, but they do have Politics. If you choose that, in your first year you will take 2 classes: Introduction to Liberal Democracy (not the US sense of ‘liberal’); explores the British/Scottish/European political systems) and Comparative Politics (political systems in other countries). In year 2 you will also take 2 classes: History of Political Thought: political theory from (Aristotle, Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Marx, etc). and International Relations (use the theory/practice to understand the international order). In years 3 and 4, though, you get to choose your classes from a list of about 30 politics topics.
FYI, if you want to be in Scotland, Edinburgh & St Andrew are the usual suspects for IR.