Edinburgh: Decent Academics, Plenty of Free Time Past Review
By Elizabeth A (ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE/LETTERS., Barnard College) for
University of Edinburgh: Edinburgh - Direct Enrollment & Exchange
I fell in love with Edinburgh. It is an old and gray and strange city, but I never found it to be depressing, even in the extended winter darkness. It was steeped in history in a way that I found endlessly fascinating. This is a love I'll take with me for the rest of my life. After studying abroad in the UK for one semester, I'm about three-fourths convinced I need to live there, possibly for the rest of my life.
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Personal Information
| How much international exposure did you have prior to this program? | 2 weeks - 1 month |
Review Your Program
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* Overall educational experience
Academic rigor, intensity, resources, etc. |
The university seemed really reluctant to let me take third year classes even though I was a junior. Whether this was due to high demand for higher level courses or due to some sort of mistrust of the visiting student's preparedness, I could never quite figure out. So I ended up only taking one class that was really at my academic level. The workload was laughably sparse most of the time, peppered with bursts of activity when a paper due date was approaching. The lectures were as varied as is to be expected at any university. I was surprised that two of my three classes had rotating lecturers, and the quality varied between them in a way that made both classes seem sort of inconsistent from week to week. But when the strong lecturers were teaching, all of my classes were very interesting. |
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* Host Country Program Administration
On-site administration of your program |
The Visiting Students Office was really helpful and made themselves very much available. There seemed to be tons of us, but I never heard a bad word spoken about them. I didn't really take advantage of their facilities, but it was comforting to know they were there. Also, they gave us free hoodies! |
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* Housing:
How satisfied were you with your living arrangements? |
I had a pretty sizable single in a very nice self-catered dorm called Robertson's Close. The fact that I lived on the 5th floor and there was no elevator made moving in and out a hassle and a half, but elevators were very uncommon in the self-catered flats, so at least I wasn't alone in my struggle. Students were offered a very fair rate for a bedding pack, and it served adequately enough for the 6 months I used it. I had to buy some cups and kitchen supplies, but nothing outside of my (meager) budget. The pound stores in the area are absolute god-sends. As for proximities, Robertson's Close is literally right off the major pub street, Cowgate. There's actually a bar in the basement of the dorm. I never went there, but my window was directly above the entrance, so I heard everything, every night, until at least 1AM. To be honest, I was fine with the noise, but anyone who craves qiet should stay far away. Mostly I was just relieved to be as close to campus as I was. Robertson's Close is one of the closest dorms to the main campus, only 5/6 minutes away, while the catered flats are almost 15 minutes away. |
| * Food: |
TESCO ALL THE WAY. The cost of living in Edinburgh was actually cheaper for me than my home university in New York City. Tesco is a grocery/convenience store chain with almost laughably great pricing and there was a Tesco Express right around the corner from my dorm. They have great bakery options and I definitely put on a few pounds taking advantage of all the cheap pastry on offer. Another good chain is Gregg's, a bakery/deli kind of place that made some of the most heavenly sandwiches I've ever had the pleasure of becoming addicted to. On campus, the cafe in the main library was also well-priced and often delicious, and there's a computer lab so you can check your emails/do work while you eat. |
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* Social & Cultural Integration:
How integrated did you feel with the local culture? |
I am kind of a recluse and I still managed to make friends and take advantage of some social events, so I think the university was pretty successful in that regard. I'd like to specifically recommend the International Student Center and it's weekend trips around Scotland. They were dirt cheap and even when the destinations were anticlimactic, the ability to hop on a bus every other Saturday and see more of the country than just Edinburgh was really nice and a great opportunity to make friends. |
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* Health Care:
How well were health issues addressed during the program? |
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| * Safety: |
Edinburgh is a lovely city, but it can get kind of shady at night when people have been drinking for a while. Women especially shouldn't walk alone on major (football/rugby) match nights, just because the streets get really rowdy. Same goes for city-wide festivals like Hogmanay and Beltane. That being said, I never personally felt unsafe running to convenience stores between 11-12:30. Health-wise, the health services offices on campus seemed really available. I never needed anything from them, but I had a friend who caught the flu and she said they were really nice to her and even explained what kind of over-the-counter medicine brands she should be looking for. |
| If you could do it all over again would you choose the same program? |
Yes
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Finances
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* Money: How easily were you able to live on a student's budget?
(1 = not very easy/$200+ on food & personal expenses/week, 2.5 = $100/week, 5 = very easily/minimal cost) |
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| Not including program expenses, about how much money did you spend on food and other expenses each week? | I spent about 70 pounds a week on food and personal expenses, including entertainment, but I'm not especially good with money, and was really indulgent of my pastry habit, so someone working with a smaller budget could easily get away with less. Also, it was really easy to fit in movie tickets into that budget, since they only cost about 4 pounds at Vue with a student ID and the coupon they gave you every time you bought a ticket. Once I discovered this, movies became a pretty frequent habit for me and my friends. |
| Do you have any general money-saving tips for future study abroad participants? | Never, never, never pay for the TV licensing fee. The people that are in charge of these licenses send out masses of vaguely threatening mail saying that they're about to send investigators to find out who is illicitly watching television (and this includes watching live TV from the BBC website) in your dorm, but these are almost entirely idle, and have about a 1% chance of actually affecting you. The fee is well over 100 pounds and there is absolutely no reason any visiting student should pay it. The licensing ONLY APPLIES to live TV. Just about everyone figures this out eventually, but there were one or two people who I heard paid it because the letters freaked them out. Don't do it. |
Language
| How would you rate your language skills at the beginning of the program? | None |
Direct Enrollment/Exchange
| * Did you study abroad through an exchange program or did you directly enroll in the foreign university? | Direct Enrollment |
Other Program Information
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* Where did you live?
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* Who did you live with?
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* Who did you take classes with?
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A Look Back
| * What do you know now that you wish you knew before going on this program? | Edinburgh is a really flexible university. You don't have to put of time into the academics to do well. A few bursts of honest effort throughout the extremely short semester (10 weeks of classes, a long break, and then finals spread out over a month) will guarantee good grades in your moderately challenging classes. This leaves a lot of leisure time, and the possibilities are endless. The city's cultural offerings are thick on the ground, as are its social options. It's easy to disappear for a weekend into other parts of the country, even onto the continent if you've got a particularly compact schedule. If you're travel options are more limited there are cheap day trips through the International Student Center, and again, plenty to do right in Edinburgh. I was in and out of castles and museums every week, but someone who is more inclined toward social rather than cultural exploration will find the nightlife to be diverse, whether your tastes run to extracurriculars or to clubs and pubs. |
