Freshers, I’m sorry for something that you will be inevitably forced to encounter. Every year they get bombarded with advice on how to maximise time at university. The same cliches get reeled off every year and just because this year you got royally screwed by the government, doesn’t mean you’ll be saved.
As happen to students years before you, you’ll get bombarded with hot-air phrases containing little meaning or use. Gems like, “cherish your moments, you won’t get them back” are the soundbites of your first weeks at University. Expect STYCs to take you aside, and with a stern look explain the wisdom of the world: “learn from your mistakes”. Now, please tell me that was completely obvious to you beforehand…
Good advice is everywhere of course, but this year it’s more valuable than ever. You want suggestions with practical application, and you want something which makes the bewildering figure of £9000 a little more acceptable. Read on:
If you don’t seriously consider doing Study Abroad for your second year (and health or family issues aren’t preventing you from doing it from the start), you are causing a serious injustice to yourself.
York’s Study Abroad opportunities are fantastic. An under-appreciated offering which truly differentiates York’s undergraduate life from other Universities. Almost no where else in the country (only Sussex, that I know of) will allow you to keep on a three year course with a sandwich year in the sun during your second. Most Universities require you to extend your overall course by a year.
Not York, which fosters a truly valuable exchange. Work abroad is translated into York credits, and you return like nothing has changed for your final year.
That’s unique in and of itself, but it’s not the main factor the doomed cohort of £9000 a year might consider. Money is obviously on your mind so let’s move onto numbers, which is where real maximisation of an exchange year lies. Studying at one of York’s International partners or with Erasmus in Europe, means you only pay 35% UK fees inclusive. That’s right: £3150 and nothing else.
Your tuition in second year, which could be of an Ivy League standard (Columbia University in New York, or the University of Pennsylvania) would total £3150. Nothing to the American institution, nothing to the government, who will, in fact, subsidise a couple of return flights for you. Maintenance Support is not only protected, it is increased.
Grants are handed out left right and centre for all students on Study Abroad. If you were to go to California like I have, your only experience of the exorbitant University fees Americans have to pay will be the better facilities they provide. The up-shot of this is even in your year-group, you could end up feeling smug about the cost of University. If you take an exchange year in America, just ask students there how much they are paying.
So why is the deal so good? Why do they seem so desperate to get you out of here? Well, one explanation is that there’s nothing quite like an exchange year to knock you into shape.
Your personal development: living abroad with a totally new range of people; seeing and travelling the world; adapting to a new system of study, makes you far more employable (I mean, isn’t that the point, though?). I know you just got here but you have to start thinking about this opportunity right now, with applications due first week next term. That part is a decision only you can work on.
You chose to come to a £9000 a year institution knowing you had to make it worthwhile, and Study Abroad is still heavily incentivised. Of course, everyone has fair hesitations about leaving and trying something new and I wouldn’t want to undermine them. Working out whether you could handle going abroad for an extended period of time is something you have to do yourself.
But for me it was a fantastic experience, and one that I would recommend to anyone, no matter what degree their doing. If I had to sum it up, I’d say something like this: nothing worthwhile is ever easy. Oops, the clichés just won’t die.