Current High-School Senior Considering UK For Undergrad in (International) Politics/Relations

[nyxelestia]

(n00b poster is noob, so forgive any glaring idiocy or posting errors)

I am interested in the general field of law and politics, with a dash of economics and an international emphasis - though admittedly I'm still looking into a career as a politician \o/ *sells soul to the dark side* in America. I would like to study abroad, at least for my

Comments

[rhipowered]

I don't know most of these answers, though looking at the academic requirements for US American undergrads at my postgrad university (Birmingham), you...could really go either way. They really do focus on grades, perhaps moreso than US schools do. I would say that you should narrow down your list and contact the International Students Office at some of the universities you really like. They'd be able to help you a bit more specifically with what they're looking for from someone from the US, or point you to an admissions officer who's specifically focused on international students

[rhipowered]

ETA: And I need to do my research....I see you're located in LA, which would be beneficial towards going to the consulate for a visa in person. It's on the northeast end of Wilshire Boulevard in Brentwood.

[tisiphone]

Transferring from anywhere in the US mid-undergraduate, community college or not, is problematic. At best, you're going to repeat those years, and since what you generally do at a CC is your gen eds and introductory coursework, they're not going to care about that anyhow. If you think you might end up going to community college and then to a four-year university, I'd recommend picking a US university that has a good exchange program, rather than trying to transfer to a UK school directly.

For admissions, grades really are important,and you'll be applying late. One thing you might consider is working your butt off during undergrad in the US, and then going to the UK for grad school. Some universities like LSE have joint programs with international universities, so you do half your program in the UK and half abroad.

[amyww]

That's what I was going to suggest. As a parent, too. Do your undergrad in the US, many of them have good study abroad programs. And then you can do a Masters somewhere else. That's what I did.

[tisiphone]

That's what I'm doing - it's cheaper!

[ashkitty]

I'm at Aberystwyth, and we do have a phenemonally huge InterPol department. In general Aber and St Andrews seem to be the places for that; for IR there are some others but I can't remember them. (It's not my field at all, but seriously InterPol is SO BIG here, it is impossible to escape. *g

[jessenigma26]

in my department (Celtic Studies) all the undergrads spend a year in Ireland or the Netherlands

This is completely unrelated, but...the Netherlands? Really? I will admit that the closest I've come to Celtic Studies was the time I got accidentally enrolled in a lit class taught solely in Irish on my undergrad semester abroad, so I'm hardly familiar with the area, but I didn't realise that any uni in the Netherlands would teach that subject. That's kinda cool.

[tisiphone]

International fees are already unregulated and pretty high, I don't think there's going to be much shift in them.

[rhipowered]

My guess is that UK/EU students will lose it if they're paying the same amount as international students. Likely that will go up, because it's unregulated.

[tisiphone]

"Don't worry, international students still pay a lot more than home/EU students," she says, eying the international-tuition and fee-sized hole in her bank account.

(Even at top proposed rates, mine's still two thirds again and then a bit more than home tuition.)

[x_reggg]

1. I'm not sure about other universities, but in my secondary school our deadlines for UK applications was around October the year before and most of us would get offers by December, so to be honest I think most of the places will have filled up by now. Of course this is only for the really popular universities (eg the London unis) so I'm not sure if it's the same around the whole country