So much great info. I really appreciate it guys. I don't want to be a spammer by making a bunch of different post for each individual reply so I'll try to hit all the points in this one:
It seems to be that nobody in their right mind would settle in Bradford so I've dropped it from the list. I have been a bit surprised to hear that Newcastle, Leeds, and Belfast are pretty good towns as it is contrary to things I've read online but that is the whole reason I asked this on the forum. I came into this not really considering Manchester but it's definitely on my radar now.
As for a car, how do insurance and licenses work in the UK? I imagine that this is a common issue for foreign students so is there some sort of informational or support program that exists to help someone like me navigate my way through it to make sure that I'm 100% legal? Also, is there decent train or bus infrastructure to take someone between cities if they can't or don't want to drive between them or is it just less stressful to get a car?
Very interesting stuff about Belfast and makes sense about the Irish Americans. Luckily I don't have any Irish in me that I know about so I should be good on that front. Is it still the case that the city is more or less segregated down the middle between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Loyalists or does nobody really care very much anymore?
I'm sort of glad that you guys have been talking me out of the small towns. I actually did not know that having a cathedral is what defines a city in the UK. I honestly do not even know what defines a city in the US but I think it is just down to population size. Now that I think about it, a bigger city is probably the smarter choice for me so I do not get too bored.
I am looking at cities first as opposed to universities first because I am going to use the GI Bill, which is a scholarship that you get after serving in the US military (most US military personnel enlist for this reason), and there is a list of approved British schools in the database. That list is over 170 schools long though so I figured I would narrow it by cities that I might enjoy being in for a year or more before I start applying and apply to maybe 10-12 unis. In the US, you have to apply to each uni separately and pay each one's application fee separately as well (they all have their own fee and some are as high as $150-200 - this is not admission, only application). From what I understand, the system is somehow different in the UK but I do not understand how the UK system for applying to unis works yet so I have just been approaching it more or less how I would with American unis.
As for the degree itself, I am planning to do an MA TESOL so the prestige of the school is not that important as most employers and administrative staff at institutions in other language-speaking countries do not know or care about the difference between Bath Spa and U of Birmingham. They just want to see that the degree is accredited and from the UK or another approved English-speaking country. At this time, according to the regulations of most countries where ESL money is decent, those countries are the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The ranking system for universities actually works differently in my experience and observation. I actually never went to uni/college in the US and did all of my bachelor-level university education in Asia (which was absolutely awesome) and I noticed that in most Asian countries the rank of a university domestically usually differs greatly from its rank internationally. For example, if you have a degree from Ateneo de Manila or De la Salle in the Philippines, you will basically never be unemployed in SEA and, if you have a degree from 서울대 (Seoul National) or 연세 (Yonsei), you are basically in Korea's equivalent of the brahmin caste and will always have priority status until you die.
In the US though, nobody knows these schools despite the fact that their application rejection rates are usually higher than the Ivy League's. It's the same deal outside of the Anglosphere for the most part. The only potential employers who are going to have a clue about your school or program are the ones who just happened to have studied there and those people are so exceedingly rare that you will likely never be interviewed by one of them as they tend to be the children of elites who get funneled into high-level government jobs and other positions where they will never have to deal directly with you. The people you will actually have to deal with only want to be able to go onto the global degree mill database and see that your school is real and not listed there after they have made sure that your passport is real and your uni is actually based in the country they think it is as opposed to Westminster University in Tashkent or Stamford University in Bangkok.
Those two schools are both real by the way - and they are actually not bad at all. Check them out. A lot of times, you can even get away with this as they won't bother to check which Westminster you went to or notice that Stanford has an "n" and not an "m" because the Latin alphabet is probably not one that they are very comfortable and familiar with.
I am not sure what is considered "expensive" in the UK as I am from Atlanta (if anyone plans to visit there, feel free to ask me about it) and have never been to Europe yet unless you count the Russian Far East but, if possible, I do not want to need more than $2000-2500 USD (1600 - 2000 GPB) per month on living expenses and the cheaper the better. Saving money within reason is always good as long as it does not land me in the hood or some outskirt area so far away from campus that I lose 2 hours every day in commute.
What is the process for applying to universities in the UK like? I have read that it is different from the system in the US but I do not know much about how to go about it yet.
It seems to be that nobody in their right mind would settle in Bradford so I've dropped it from the list. I have been a bit surprised to hear that Newcastle, Leeds, and Belfast are pretty good towns as it is contrary to things I've read online but that is the whole reason I asked this on the forum. I came into this not really considering Manchester but it's definitely on my radar now.
As for a car, how do insurance and licenses work in the UK? I imagine that this is a common issue for foreign students so is there some sort of informational or support program that exists to help someone like me navigate my way through it to make sure that I'm 100% legal? Also, is there decent train or bus infrastructure to take someone between cities if they can't or don't want to drive between them or is it just less stressful to get a car?
Very interesting stuff about Belfast and makes sense about the Irish Americans. Luckily I don't have any Irish in me that I know about so I should be good on that front. Is it still the case that the city is more or less segregated down the middle between Catholic Republicans and Protestant Loyalists or does nobody really care very much anymore?
I'm sort of glad that you guys have been talking me out of the small towns. I actually did not know that having a cathedral is what defines a city in the UK. I honestly do not even know what defines a city in the US but I think it is just down to population size. Now that I think about it, a bigger city is probably the smarter choice for me so I do not get too bored.
I am looking at cities first as opposed to universities first because I am going to use the GI Bill, which is a scholarship that you get after serving in the US military (most US military personnel enlist for this reason), and there is a list of approved British schools in the database. That list is over 170 schools long though so I figured I would narrow it by cities that I might enjoy being in for a year or more before I start applying and apply to maybe 10-12 unis. In the US, you have to apply to each uni separately and pay each one's application fee separately as well (they all have their own fee and some are as high as $150-200 - this is not admission, only application). From what I understand, the system is somehow different in the UK but I do not understand how the UK system for applying to unis works yet so I have just been approaching it more or less how I would with American unis.
As for the degree itself, I am planning to do an MA TESOL so the prestige of the school is not that important as most employers and administrative staff at institutions in other language-speaking countries do not know or care about the difference between Bath Spa and U of Birmingham. They just want to see that the degree is accredited and from the UK or another approved English-speaking country. At this time, according to the regulations of most countries where ESL money is decent, those countries are the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.
The ranking system for universities actually works differently in my experience and observation. I actually never went to uni/college in the US and did all of my bachelor-level university education in Asia (which was absolutely awesome) and I noticed that in most Asian countries the rank of a university domestically usually differs greatly from its rank internationally. For example, if you have a degree from Ateneo de Manila or De la Salle in the Philippines, you will basically never be unemployed in SEA and, if you have a degree from 서울대 (Seoul National) or 연세 (Yonsei), you are basically in Korea's equivalent of the brahmin caste and will always have priority status until you die.
In the US though, nobody knows these schools despite the fact that their application rejection rates are usually higher than the Ivy League's. It's the same deal outside of the Anglosphere for the most part. The only potential employers who are going to have a clue about your school or program are the ones who just happened to have studied there and those people are so exceedingly rare that you will likely never be interviewed by one of them as they tend to be the children of elites who get funneled into high-level government jobs and other positions where they will never have to deal directly with you. The people you will actually have to deal with only want to be able to go onto the global degree mill database and see that your school is real and not listed there after they have made sure that your passport is real and your uni is actually based in the country they think it is as opposed to Westminster University in Tashkent or Stamford University in Bangkok.
Those two schools are both real by the way - and they are actually not bad at all. Check them out. A lot of times, you can even get away with this as they won't bother to check which Westminster you went to or notice that Stanford has an "n" and not an "m" because the Latin alphabet is probably not one that they are very comfortable and familiar with.
I am not sure what is considered "expensive" in the UK as I am from Atlanta (if anyone plans to visit there, feel free to ask me about it) and have never been to Europe yet unless you count the Russian Far East but, if possible, I do not want to need more than $2000-2500 USD (1600 - 2000 GPB) per month on living expenses and the cheaper the better. Saving money within reason is always good as long as it does not land me in the hood or some outskirt area so far away from campus that I lose 2 hours every day in commute.
What is the process for applying to universities in the UK like? I have read that it is different from the system in the US but I do not know much about how to go about it yet.