Going To College/University
 

I'm in my last year of school and I haven't decided what to do when it's over. I'd like to know your experiences of college wherever you are. I'm thinking of going to college abroad (I live in Ireland), and I basically don't have a clue what I want to do. I'd be especially interested in America-based posters, just a general idea of how you go about going to college , what it's like etc..

You're in Ireland you say? Unless you have the money to spare, I'd advise against coming over to mainland Britain for uni. The fees are astronomical compared to some areas of Europe, and some people here will hate you right now.

Yeah I certainly don't plan on going to Britain, I was thinking more North America. I don't know why, Ireland has a very good third-level education but I just want to get out and live somewhere else, or else I'll probably be stuck here for the rest of my life.

What kind of programs are you interested in? Or will you be taking more general courses (undeclared major) for now?

It's funny that you say you'd like to get out of Ireland to study in another country. I have two friends who are in university there because they wanted to leave North America! One of them is originally from Atlanta but now she's attending NUI Galway, and the other one is from Toronto and attending University of Limerick.

I don't really know, something along the lines of business maybe. It's hard to get information on colleges in America (or at least I'm finding it hard).

As I said Ireland seems to have a great third-level education system, it is just for personal reasons I'd rather move to the US. (I was born in America, so I can sort out passport).

So I'm guessing you are an American citizen, which means that you might get a domestic tuition rate (instead of an international rate), even if you do not have a mailing address in the US. At least that was my experience when I was looking at universities a few years ago - I was born in Detroit but I have Canadian citizenship as well because my mom was born here.

As far as finding information on schools, they all have websites you can visit. I think it may come down to what state or even what city you'd like to study in for 4 years, as well as your budget for tuition and the grades you got in high school (or whatever the equivalent is over there). Keep in mind that the Ivy League schools (like Harvard, Yale, Brown, etc - Ivy League - Wikipedia), although they have outstanding programs in business and such, tend to have very high tuition prices, and stricter guidelines for admittance.

I'm in Canada, so I'm not too sure about what the best schools are for what you'd like to study. But I do know that there are plenty of excellent colleges and universities in the US and it's just a matter of budget and where you'd like to live, like I said before.

The best thing to do is cover those basic answers to the questions that BD asked then you can pretty much find the best business schools through an extensive google search based off of where you would like to live state wise and how much you'd like to owe in student loans basically.

I went to college in the US (and was born and raised there as well). What do you want to know? :)

Although it may sound contrarian, generally speaking it's cheaper to go to school & live in red states. Further, considering the fiscal situation on a national level, and the fiscal divide between traditionally red & blue states.... these differences are likely to heighten.

However, true to stereotype, most college towns - even in red states like Tennessee - tend to be quite liberal. Whether Lawrence in Kansas, Austin in Texas, Atlanta in Georgia or Nashville in Tennessee - all blue towns in red states, all cheap to live in, and all fun. Well, Lawrence is full of hippie run off from Kansas City, but no town in perfect.

But, yeah, my general advice when looking for a place that is cheap & has loads of culture: blue city in a red state.

edit: if you're curious, I attended schools in the following cities: Aberdeen, South Dakota - Chicago, Illinois - Kansas City, Missouri - Billings, Montana. My rent in Chicago was $750 (splitting an apartment, mind you), whereas everywhere else it was around $300-200 to split a place & $500 for a 1 bedroom.

I'm English and was looking into going to Uni in America, I even took the mandatory US exams and was accepted into the University of Illinois, the fees proved to be too much in the end however. You're looking at around $45k annually whereas in the UK you'd be paying that amount for the 3 years of a BA degree (with the tuition fee increase). I really was gutted not to be able to study in America but I'm estimating a debt of £20-30k (I get to avoid the rise in tuition fees) instead of £83k following the end of my studies.