Chiana Seeking Help For Overseas Advice

[ChianaWeasley]

Hello all!

I've been interested in the idea of going to school in Europe or Australia, been toying with the idea really.

And Im not quite sure where to look, or how to begin for that matter.

I know some of you attend college in Europe/Australia any advice or info you could give me on good foreign colleges?
:D

I'd be ever so grateful
and thanks for all the help
:p

[Xazinon]

Everybody always wants to go to Australia: must be something to do with me. ;)

Seriously though, Chiana, it probably depends on what kind of subjects you want to study: different universities have leanings in different directions, and the most prestigious colleges might not have much along the line of things that you might want to study. :)

We have some international students at my University, mostly seem to be Canadian or American: I don't really know what they do, but there definitely is some! A lot of people at my university are studying to be teachers (not me), so maybe that's one of the primary focuses there.

I obviously can't give you information about any place outside Australia, or even Melbourne, but there is a few good universities here..
The one I used to go to is Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology: http://www.rmit.edu.au . That has, as the name suggests, somewhat of a technology/ business leaning, not much in the way of arts.

Probably the two major ones in Melbourne are Monash University http://www.monash.edu.au and the University of Melbourne http://www.unimelb.edu.au . Both of them are really pretty huge, and chances are you could study pretty much whatever you want there. :)

I looked up the pages for international applications for ya if you wanted a peek:

http://www.unimelb.edu.au/international/index1.html
http://www.monash.edu.au/international/prospectivestudents/

I don't know if that's what you were after, but yeah. :) If you want to ask me stuff about anything in Melbourne, you can email me or PM me if you like: always happy to promote the city. ;)

In case you were wondering, I don't go to either of those universities.. I go to http://www.deakin.edu.au . So, if you go there, you might see me! ;) :D

[StarGazr]

Originally posted by Xazinon
Everybody always wants to go to Australia: must be something to do with me. ;)

*cough*YouWish*cough*

[Xazinon]

Hmph! :p Well, what else could it possibly be, hmm? The kangaroos? The cute little koalas? The number of deadly predators? The beautiful scenery? I think not! ;)

[DinEdhelwen]

Hey, Xaz, just out of curiosity, have you ever read In a Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson? I think you would definitly appreciate it...;)

[ChianaWeasley]

Wow Xaz, really came through this time with the info and suggestions i needed. My mum and sister went to some college about half an hour away, the have a study abroad to Monash, but i dont want study abroad. I just wanna go to school overseas, stay there ya know.

Parents are going through the 'my babies are going to leave us' phase.

I will definatley check out all of the links though
:cool:

Well, when i do go I could find out where you live, ring your door bell, and appear with a kangaroo and that infamous white t-shirt with the printed words: Down Under ;)

[Xazinon]

Don't think I have read it actually: I've read the poem of a similar name that I presume it is named after, but not the book. Maybe I'll take a look, Din! Thanks! :)

No problem, Chiana: glad that you found that big ramble of mine useful! You could come and visit me if you like, I don't see any problem with that.. you'd be the envy of the Muggle Informer getting to meet me, I'm sure. ;)

[Lanen]

Chiana -

As Xaz said, it all depends on what you want to study - and indeed, on how hard you want to work! Here in the UK the academic standards are really high, and depend on a great deal of self-motivation.

That said, you'd be spending 3-4 years in the most beautiful country in the world, i.e. Scotland! You'd be about 5 hours from London by train, really near the continent of Europe (so you could go touring in the summers and during the holidays - very cheap for students!), and then there is all of Scotland to get to know.

I can recommend, from personal experience, St. Andrews University (yes, it's where Prince William, the heir-apparent to the British Throne, is attending University! :rolleyes: ). The University is scattered throughout the medieval town. There has been a center of learning there since about the 900s. (and yes, that's about 900 AD!) But it all depends on what you want to study. Edinburgh University is also terrific, so are Cambridge and Oxford (though they demand the absolute highest academic standard and - alas - can be quite snooty about excluding Americans socially :p ) - see, Scotland is just SO much friendlier than England! :D You can VISIT England from here, I just wouldn't recommend it as a place to live...

If you want further info, try

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/

Lots of luck! :D

[Moxie]

If you're from the US, you may want to consider Canadian colleges as well. You'd still be going to a foreign country, but thanks to currency exchange rates your family could end up paying less than the cost of a US degree. (Travel cost, of course, varies widely - Canada's Really Big, as the Arrogant Worms put it in music. :))

[ChianaWeasley]

Scotland....ah it would be wonderful if I could attend college in
Scotland. Though what I need is direct quotes for tuiton and international student scholarship information. These sites are tricky to get around in, I'll tell you that. :p

I know this may be a very unintelligent question(you must understand Im weak at figuring pounds to US dollars)
Q: how much is a pound compared to US dollars? :o

Some sites have programs to figure that out for but....ah! so confusing these pounds!

[Lanen]

Chiana -

At the moment, the UK pound is worth $1.59. So £10 = $15.90
Perhaps more to the point for you, $10 = £6.28

The rate changes every day, but it has been hovering around the 1.50-1.60 mark for several years.

for rule-of thumb calculations, think

1) pounds to dollars:
number of pounds x 1.5 and you won't be far off.

2) Dollars to pounds:
number of dollars x two-thirds (about .66) - i.e. take the number of dollars, divide by 3 and multiply by 2

So: 10 dollars, divide by 3 is about 3.30, times 2 is about 6.60 - which is close enough to the above £6.28 to be going on with.

And if you want details of the tuition fees at St. Andrews:

Go to the St. Andrews website, click on "Thinking about St. Andrews". When the next page comes up, click on "International Students". Next page, "Undergraduate Students" (I'm assuming you are talking about going to St. Andrew's straight from high school?). Next page, under "Overseas Students", click on "First Year Entry" - this will land you on a page where you can check out what subjects are available, the degree structure, application and admission requirements, etc., AND there is an e-mail address where you can write with questions, i.e. "how much will this cost?" !

To be honest, I don't think there IS any international student scholarship information. They want to be paid, thank you - but last I checked, it was still less expensive to come over here than to do an equivalent degree in the US at an ivy-league university. Though this might have changed.

Good luck!

Lanen

[DinEdhelwen]

Chiana, dear, you should know better by now than to get your hopes up in this area; we'll never be allowed to go out of state, let alone out of country. :rolleyes: :(
*sigh*

[ChianaWeasley]

Your wrong Din. I will NEVER give up!
Im going and noone can stop me!!!
...well maybe Godzilla...but the odds of that are really slim ;)

[Elfëa]

Okay, I myself am studying abroad in university - UK, Wales is my location, but I'm Finnish. :p

What I've done (of course, it's bit different for me, as I'm European, and from a EU country :p) is that I applied through www.ucas.com - University College Application System. Even if it's only for EU and UK students, it does offer help for students coming from other countries. For Britain, also www.britishcouncil.com offers great deal of help - and I believe, both of these sites provide links to the universities/colleges. :)
There are loads of international students at the university I attend to, and I also know students taking a year of from Bangor (my uni) and going to some university in Ohio :) Most of the foreign students in Bangor, are from China and Japan. Great deal of Greeks too... :)

I could try to look information for you, about Finnish universities, were you interested coming into a weird small, but European country :D

Lanen - Scotland and St.Andrews sounds so great... I do wonder, quite often, how I ended up in Bangor... middle of NoWhere... with sheeps... :rolleyes: ;)

I found it bit difficult to get information only by internet, but still, I got all that I needed or thought I needed and went there. Everything else will have to settle on its own time. :D (at least you don't have huge language barrier, Chiana :p)

edit: I also started this (http://www.khazaddum.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=777) thread over the forum of Khazad-Dum (where I post loads) when I started figuring out which universtity apply for.

[Lanen]

Chiana - managed to get a reply in less than 48 hours from the international office at St. Andrews:

"The tuition fees for 2003/4 are between £9100 and £9800 depending on the classes that are taken. The accommodation fees are between £1500 and £3500 depending on room and board type.

We have a few small entrance bursaries that are means tested and offset against tuition fees. More information would be sent out regarding this in an offer pack."

That makes tuition fees per year = ~ $14,600 - $15,700 and room-and-board between $2400 - $5600, depending on where you are staying and whether you're getting all meals, etc.

Just so you know!

And Elfea - gracious! Bangor :eek: ... well, it takes all kinds! ;)

[qleap]

I wish you all the best so I'm here to tell you, whatever you do, just STAY AWAY FROM ITALIAN UNIVERSITIES ;) :D

[Lanen]

qleap :hug: -

I gotta know why!

[ChianaWeasley]

Chiana runs over to Lanen knocking her over with :hug:

Oh wow, so the most it would be for a year at St. Andrews would be $21,300. Thats far better then I would have imagined! Well thats sounds managable, thank you sooooooo much for delving into all the website information for me! :D :hug:

Bangor eh? Sheep you say?.......interesting

[PhineasNigellus]

what would be a rough quote for an american university?

[ChianaWeasley]

Well...depending on where you wanted to go, you wouldnt pay less then $30,000-$50,000 a year after its all said and done with. But with smaller colleges I'd say...$25-35,000. Thats why Im so suprised about the European prices so far, they are much better then over here. Well at least i think so

[Moxie]

Phineas, US costs vary really widely, and are more affected by whether the school is private or state-run (yes, there are state-run US schools) than by campus size. It's probably possible to go to a school in one's own state for less than Lanen's estimate for St. Andrews... but those lower rates would apply only to residents of the state the college was in, and while many state schools are quite good they're better for some courses of study than others. The state schools where I grew up were originally founded to train teachers, and are great if that's what you want to do - but I wanted to be an engineer, and ended up going to a privately run university. Oddly, thanks to various grants and scholarships, my private tuition ended up costing less than my sibling's bills at the state school; grants and scholarships are a horribly complex part of financing an education in the US, and can be affected by everything from academic ability to family economic situation to how well one can shoot a little orange ball through a hoop. :rolleyes: I knew someone who got a full scholarship based on athletic ability; to hear her tell it, the schools don't care whether their "student athletes" are even literate so long as they bring the school publicity by doing well in their sports. Anyone planning to finance their education in this way, please be very careful to make sure you actually do get an education out of the deal.

[Lanen]

Chiana -

Dear, you are most welcome! but remember, those numbers only account for the fees, not for any spending money for touring or meals or clothes or books or supplies or whatever! Realise also that, often, "board" at a University Hall of Residence includes 3 meals a day for only 5 days a week, on Saturday and Sunday night you have to manage for yourself.

There again, if it hadn't been for that, I'd NEVER have learned to cook! I eventually had a group of friends, and we used to get together and take turns supplying Saturday night dinner. nothing fancy, you know, spaghetti or chili or some other bucket meal, but it was a great chance to just sit around and catch up on the week!

Oh - and at St. Andrews you might well have to purchase an academic gown as well. (heck, that's part of the fun!) It used to be the case that all students had to possess one. If you want to know more, e-mail me and I'll give you the lowdown! :)

[PhineasNigellus]

so i ould be right in thinking that a UK Uni would be on balance cheaper (supposing board is not included)?

[ChianaWeasley]

Lanen yes it doesnt include food and such, but still I think for room and tuiton thats a fair price.

And academic gowns?You mean uniforms?

[Elfëa]

Just considering tuition fees, etc.

In Finland, education is free.

Had I gone to a Finnish university, I wouldn't have to pay anything for it... :rolleyes: And silly me, went to Britain...

I've seriously considered doing my Master degree somehwhere else than Bangor - even if Bangor does have a good Creative Writing course :D

Lanen - I was on self-catered hall, and I still can't cook :p

[Lanen]

Chiana, the St. Andrews academic gown is not a uniform. It's - well, you know those robes the professors wear in old British movies? Kinda like that, only the undergraduate ones at St. Andrews are made of scarlet wool, with a velvet shoulder yoke. It's worn over normal clothes, only has a few hooks on the front so it doesn't blow off of you! The lecturers and Divinity students wear black robes, as do postgraduates. Most gowns in most UK universities (the ones that have them - only the older ones) are black. St. Andrews is alone in having those splendid scarlet gowns.

And Elfea, I still do bucket cooking! Anything else, I'm useless at. Chili, spaghetti, risotto, massive simple casseroles? no problem. Anything that requires a recipe? Forget it! ;)

[ChianaWeasley]

They wear these gowns everyday? How odd...so its a bit like the Hogwarts uniform code, only very different,hmm....

Finland is free? Well that would only be for resident who live in the finland area wouldn't it?

[PhineasNigellus]

Most Uni's have pretty student friendly loan systems and often (or so my masssive pile of prospectus' say) help out students iin that respect. There lots of ways of reducing fees like you can become a teacher afterwards and i think you get some sort of reduction...army scholarships as well - although neither probably apply to you if you are an international student, now i come to think of it.

[Rivenlas]

Where I live, few universities are very expensive. In fact, the one I am attending next year is less than half of what Chiana estimated, because it is a state school, and still pretty good. I am planning on doing some sort of exchange thing (probably when I take a fifth year, though) but for now I'm settling for a school completely paying for a trip for me to Daytona Beach. Yeah, baby!

[Ravenclaw]

You know, Europe and Australia are both beautiful places (never been to Australia, though I can't name a semi-famous country in Europe I haven't at least visited.) Brussles, Belgium, for instance, is one of my fav cities with their lush green environment and forests, and lots of rain. And their warm Belgian waffles on a cold day, not to MENTION the chocolate! And you must try their moules et frites that is, if you like mussles and french fries. Lots of sights and beautiful people in that city, go down to Le Grand Place and walk around and brouse their shops and stuff. And of course, the schools in Belgium are very good, if you want college I might be able to direct you to their web site, if you want K-12, go to www.isb.be. I'll get back to you on the college website. That college also has an exchange program you can do I believe... The only real downside to Brussles is thier traffic...

And then there is London, another fav city of mine in Europe and, well you've heard a lot about that city already I bet. Picadilly circus, plenty of musicals and plays, American food and passtimes (only English style). And I know plenty of fantastic colleges there. And ASL (American School of London) has a high reputation.

I would go on and on about Paris, but I don't know many schools there for you sorry. Madrid, same story. Berlin I could talk about, but I don't really feel like it. If your interested, just ask.

Oh! Florence! Yes, I love Florence. My cousin went to college there.

That's Europe. Can't help you on Australia. But there is a school called AUC in Cairo, Egypt, which is a very interesting-- and believe it or not, pretty secure-- city. *Sigh.* the Khan El Khalili is an animated market full of eager salesmen and brass antiques, as well as bellie dancer costumes and tourist souvenirs. A couple western hangouts as well, such as Bandar, the movie theater/bowling alley/Chillies restaurant. Or Lucielle's, the quaint little American burger house owned by an American. Or Cafe Grecko, the "Starbucks" of Ma'adi, Cairo.

If I've interested you, (which I hope I have) visit www.aucegypt.edu/ for college info or www.cacegypt.org for K-12.

My strongest suggestions I've made clear-- London, Brussles, or Cairo. Believe me, Cairo's not half bad. I love it there. (sorry I gave you more information on the cities and not the schools. If you want details, I can research it for you. I have good sources.)

I'm sorry

[Lanen]

Chiana -

I suspect university in Finland is free if you speak Finnish and come from Finland ... otherwise, no! :D

[Elfëa]

Originally posted by Lanen
Chiana, the St. Andrews academic gown is not a uniform. It's - well, you know those robes the professors wear in old British movies? Kinda like that, only the undergraduate ones at St. Andrews are made of scarlet wool, with a velvet shoulder yoke. It's worn over normal clothes, only has a few hooks on the front so it doesn't blow off of you! The lecturers and Divinity students wear black robes, as do postgraduates. Most gowns in most UK universities (the ones that have them - only the older ones) are black. St. Andrews is alone in having those splendid scarlet gowns.

Why don't we have any in Bangor? *sniff* I want to have gowns!!!!!!! :mad:

Originally posted by ChianaWeasley
Finland is free? Well that would only be for resident who live in the finland area wouldn't it?

Actually, I don't think it's so... I do know it's free for European Union citizens, but I think it might be free for all... :p

http://www.helsinki.fi/uh/1-2003/juttu7.shtml#top

http://www.helsinki.fi/hyy/en/guide/


Originally posted by Lanen
I suspect university in Finland is free if you speak Finnish and come from Finland ... otherwise, no! :D

You can speak English/Swedish and be from any Nordic country and that's free... too... :p And EU's free, but I think you have to do with English/French/German (and I doubt French/German will do only with French/German degree...)

I think this might be the most helpful :p
Center for International Mobility (CIMO) - www.cimo.fi :)

Lanen- I've been in contact with a Finnish girl who's coming to study in Edinburgh for a year... any tips for her? Considering I only know the Welsh... :p

[Lanen]

Elfea -

Wouldn't know what to tell your friend, except that it's a lot warmer here than it is there, and students drink a lot (which is a real bore), and Edinburgh is a fantastic city.

If she would like the name/ number of an emergency contact here, please PM me and I'll pass on my details. She may well have family here, I don't know, but it never hurts to have someone to turn to in case of dire need!

Cheers!

[ChianaWeasley]

LOL, I figured it wouldnt be free.
It's always nice to hope though;)
My friend in Germany will be going to school for free, wouldn't that be great? To have the government pay for your education?
Wow.

[Xazinon]

Originally posted by ChianaWeasley
LOL, I figured it wouldnt be free.
It's always nice to hope though;)
My friend in Germany will be going to school for free, wouldn't that be great? To have the government pay for your education?
Wow.

I have that, to a certain extent...

At the moment I'm paying nothing for my university course, the government is paying it, but when I get a job and start earning enough money (30,000 a year I think) the government takes a percentage from my pay to pay off my fees. I owe over $10,000 so far, but yeah, I think it's a pretty good way to operate things. :)

[ChianaWeasley]

S'not a bad idea really, alot like taking taxes out of your paycheck. Only its actually going to good use, compared to some of the other things taken out of your pay check ;)

[Elfëa]

Lanen - Thanks :) I'll ask her, as soon as I hear from her again. :)
And Drinking Students are a bore... especially if you live in the halls... :rolleyes:

Had I gone to Uni in Finland, I wouldn't have to pay anything, but my books. :p Goverment pays it all, and I can still get a student grant too... and a loan if I want! But alas, living is too expensive here, so I wouldn't make it without working or/and taking the loan.

Like UK much better... even if it does cost me the same or more in the end.

And, I know there's no use of my degree (English and Creative Writing) in Finland really............... (gah. I wonder why? ;))

[Drizella]

Chiana, I studied in England from January through June of this year (right smack in the middle of the war :rolleyes: ) so there's no risk of you not being able to study abroad. I even did some Continental traveling and ran in to virtually no hassle. You'll be perfectly fine.

I studied in England at the University of York and of COURSE would recommend it, but Scotland also appeals to me. St. Andrew's would be a good place to look in to, and it's really in a GORGEOUS country. Out of all the places I visited while in Europe, my favorite was Scotland.

Plus, they give you robes at St Andrew's!

Great Britain is my recommendation, (mostly because I went there and don't know anything else about other schools in Europe or Australia!) But it really is beautiful and the people in GB are just lovely. :)

Elfea, Finland is right-- How nice it would be if education didn't cost an arm and a leg. :rolleyes:

[ChianaWeasley]

I'm really pushing the idea of St. Andrews it really appeals to me. Well...all but the golf course, I'm not big into golf really