Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 12:53     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Try Canada, it is best and cheap.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 12:49     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous wrote:We're planning to send our kids to college in Canada.


petro-loonie is going to be so low, you are getting a huge bargain.

class sizes are large at mcgill but you get to learn a new language (if you don't know french already) and montreal is one of the top 3 cities in north america.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 12:31     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
We're planning to send our kids to college in Canada.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 12:28     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
The UK system excels at helping students learn a specific topic quite thoroughly. The system also is designed around how to take a specific test (A levels). It also means students need to declare their intended career path by approx. age 15.

The U.S. system allows for more flexibility and exposure to other subjects. Knowledge may not be as deep, but the U.S. system seems help people to think in a more broad-based way and to draw from more disciplines, which can help fuel innovation.

Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 12:22     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
For those who know the british system, are there quotas by race?

Does Oxford, cambridge, LSE, kcl/UCL seek to limit asian or indian students based on a soft-quota system like ivies?
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 12:18     Subject: Re:I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
I am a Brit and some of the raves about education in the UK is out of touch with reality.

I would not send my children to the Britain for college. For a start it is not significantly cheaper for some of the reasons cited by others. I guess what they say about the grass being greener is what we are seeing here to some extent.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 11:55     Subject: Re:I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous



You are forgetting about airfare and what if your kid decides to stay and work in UK.

That would be great! The kid could visit you a few times during the year....they start off with 6 week vacation.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 11:40     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
American universities: I hope you are reading this! Your rip-off tuition prices better start going down!
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 11:32     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous wrote:Why not go to Germany instead? Undergrad is free.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32821678


Not a bad idea...

"At Hunter's university, the Technical University in Munich, 20% of students are non-German. The University president is keen to have every single graduate programme offered in English, and only in English, by the year 2020.
"You can feel sad and think it's a pity that we are losing our own mothers' tongue in the technical disciplines, but that's the development in the world," says Wolfgang Herrmann."
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 10:47     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Why not go to Germany instead? Undergrad is free.

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32821678
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 10:42     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
You are forgetting about airfare and what if your kid decides to stay and work in UK.
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 10:08     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We have a family member entering his third year at University of Glasgow. It is a bargain vs US school. $24k for US students(though he pays less because he has dual US/UK).


Do you know if your family member there went in as a British citizen since (s)he holds dual passports? My kids have a dual passport, so I'm wondering if they could get British tuition rates instead of international, or do they first have to establish residency there to get in-country rates?


+1. The real deal in Europe is to get the local resident rate -- often in the low thousands/ year. Yes, it often requires 1-year prior living there to establish residence: perhaps a nice adventure for the whole family to go abroad last year of high school?


Just looked this up: the UK requires 3 years residence; other countries just one (or even none, as they want to attract international students).
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 10:02     Subject: Re:I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous wrote:
Education is the UK is far superior and less expensive than the us.


And yet you live here now. What does that say? That you prefer to consort with lesser-educated people? Or that you couldn't find good employment and opportunities in the UK? Opportunities that were created in part (gasp!) by the existence of a well-educated workforce here in the US?


There are over 150,000 Americans living in the UK. They live there now. What does that say? That they prefer to consort with better-educated people? Or that they couldn't find good employment and opportunities in the USA? Opportunities that were created in part (gasp!) by the existence of a well-educated workforce in the UK?
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 10:00     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:We have a family member entering his third year at University of Glasgow. It is a bargain vs US school. $24k for US students(though he pays less because he has dual US/UK).


Do you know if your family member there went in as a British citizen since (s)he holds dual passports? My kids have a dual passport, so I'm wondering if they could get British tuition rates instead of international, or do they first have to establish residency there to get in-country rates?


+1. The real deal in Europe is to get the local resident rate -- often in the low thousands/ year. Yes, it often requires 1-year prior living there to establish residence: perhaps a nice adventure for the whole family to go abroad last year of high school?
Anonymous
Post 08/21/2015 09:59     Subject: I'm telling my kids to go to the UK for undergrad
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't want my kid going through the British system. They specialize kids say too early there. They start narrowing kids to a specialty at 16, when they choose a few A levels. Most British kids drop languages then, which is why it:s an area of weakness for the UK. If you are going into the sciences, you'll never take another history course after age 16, and a prospective history major won't take another science course. At university, you take few courses outside your field. You can also loaf until final exams (unless you are at Oxbridge under the tutorial system).

That doesn't really make for a well educated population. I'm consistently floored when I speak.to Europeans,especially scientists. They are often very ignorant of the world outside their own field. My American scientist friends all understand my field of economics and have taken courses in it. The European scientists couldn't define economicd. Say what you like about the multicultural studies requirementd, but at least they have made white kids from the burbs think about tbeir place in society.



Absolute gibberish. I learnt more history by the time I was 16 than Americans have by age 21. Prancing around from bullshit course to bullshit course like undergrads do here does not make you well educated. In the good British Universities you learn how to think. The subject is irrelevant.


Perhaps you do learn how to think at Oxbridge. Their tutorial system is markedly different from the approach used by the rest of the country. Talking to researchers from the EU has not convinced me that that's true in general. I usually hear the kind of casual racism that you get from someone who hadn't been asked to look at the world from any perspective other that their own since age 15.I also hear an inability to know how their work fits into the big picture. That's how Hitler got all of those scientists to do his bidding. They didn't ask questions until it was too late. In thecUK, there is the added problem that the brightest students go into the City, not academia, and s lot of the top professors take the brain drain to the US for higher salaries.

The world of research is rapidly becoming more interdisciplinary. Historians and political scientists are finding that they need graduate level statistics in order to publish. Scientists ignore public policy at their peril, since they are dependent on government funding.

You may call US courses bullshit. That's exactly what I expect from someone with the kind of narrow view of the world that you get by focusing on one subject and thinking that somehow makes you well educated.


+1

I hate to burst everyone's "it's so much better in Europe" thread, but I'm married to a European and I work with/interact with a large number of Europeans (not just from the UK, though) and this has been my experience as well. If there are such advantages to the UK system then why did the British Education Minister suggest a few years ago that the UK needs to look at its system because it's narrow focus from a young age is not helping it's students in the long run?(I'm paraphrasing, but it was something along those lines).

Also, to the PP who kids have dual citizenship you may want to reconsider applying as a UK citizen because the reason that it's getting easier for Americans and other nationalities to get accepted to UK universities is because they want and need the international tutition (not unlike what's happening to US universities). I know someone who applied as a UK citizen a few years ago and was denied admission, but when they re-applied as an international student to the same program (and the same admissions cycle) they were accepted.