My name is Jessica, I go to UCL and I study Psychology. Yay!
So I go to UCL - University College London, my name is Ethan and I do Arts and Sciences. My
name is Alessia, I do French and Italian and I go to UCL. Name - Jani Santarius, degree - History
bachelors and what was the last question? What uni do you go to? Uni - UCL, yeah, UCL.
My name is Simona, I study History of Art, I go to UCL. I'm Adam, just finished year two Med -
thankfully passed by the skin of your teeth. Hi my name is Neha Tripathi,
I go to Johns Hopkins University and my majors are Molecular and Cellular Biology and Public
Health and I also have a minor in Women Gender and Sexuality Studies. I am Chris Corcoran,
I'm studying Political Science at Ohio State University. My name is Nola and
I'm a History student at UCL. I know a lot of you might be wondering what are some of the
differences between studying in the US versus the UK. Today me and some of my friends are
going to try to answer those questions, go over some of the details kind of just
give information that might help you figure out which university style is a better fit.
UCL is set up in terms, we have three terms one is from like September to before Christmas,
the second is after Christmas like Easter-ish and then we have like a month of break "break"
and then we have a third term which is just exams. My degree program is three years. I
think I have like five classes a year, it's not that many, I only have six contact hours
like in a week. Yeah, well it changes in term like one and two mostly lectures,
we have seminars once a week. I think eight. It's typically of four modules or four times thirty
credits. So if you do eight half modules you can do eight but I do five this year because
I do two fifteen credits. I think in compared especially the stem subject is a lot less ,that
was maybe one day a week of free and then the other four maybe two at most three classes of
the day. This year we had about four modules. Curriculum is super flexible, every major here
has certain like category requirements. We have to take a certain amount of writing intensive
courses a certain amount of science courses that are like qualitative, certain amount that are
quantitative. You never have to take a course that you hate unless it's like one of like your
degree requirement courses. Semester schedule and you take usually five or six classes a semester
which comes out to about 16 to 17 in classroom hours and maybe 30-ish hours of homework a week.
I'm minoring in two different things International Relations and Comparative Religious Studies, both
of which are just kind of tacked on to the major they don't really add too much I think you have
to take like five extra classes for each one. I came in with a good number of credits just because
of AP classes, it's pretty easy to throw on two miners just because you actually need classes to
fill your schedule. Since I do a humanities degree I get to choose basically all of my classes,
which is really nice because you know you could really hone in on what I want to specialise in and
what I'm most interested in. We're allocated classes in kind of like a lottery system,
we fill out a form and you put your like top 10 choices when you just kind of send that and
then pray that you get your first choices. Some modules are like capped so they're based on like
who has the best grades from the previous year. And what kind of modules is that? Statistics.
Med School is structured a little differently to how like the rest of the courses are done because
there's 400 of us we all have the same modules. Depends on the amount of credits you have,
so the more credits you have the earlier you schedule. I'm in the Honours College at Ohio
State so we get priority scheduling. My favourite classroom this year was at Royal Holloway,
I did an inter-collegiate course. I think that was my favourite class,
not because it was at a different university, but just because it's
about food and the Medieval Ages and like that is so cool. But also if we're talking about UCL,
I think my favourite class was my second year research seminar about 1920s China and like the
May 4th Revolution. I kind of liked all towards the end, when we were revising for exams, like
I understood everything properly. I started to gain more knowledge of every module.
I really liked my one module that is like completely unrelated to my degree these are
Utopias and dystopias that was just really interesting. Habsburg successes in a Eastern
Europe and centuries in Europe after the First World War 1918 to 1945. Nice, well those dates
are locked in there. Yeah I like Endocrine Systems and Reproduction that's a pretty good module oh
obviously the the Cancer module was pretty good because I'm doing that next year. All semester I
took orgo lab, I loved applying like the Organic Chemistry skills that I was learning in orgo one
to lab but my favourite Humanities course I took is Bodies in Flux: Medicine, Gender and Sexuality
in the modern Middle East. The intro to just Comparative Religious Studies, it covered like
a wide breadth of information the professor was amazing we watched an episode of South
Park in class. It was about Scientology so we talked about Scientology and like new religions.
In term three we had our exams but we had coursework throughout the year as well, our
lab reports. We have like four or five lab reports depending on the module. It depends on the module
and with a lot of the sciency stem ones like Econ it's an exam but with the humanities one that
tends to be coursework. The assignments I just love the way you have so much Freedom every time
you're supposed to write an essay. How many ways to explore one topic and it's just so beautiful.
I like coursework so I picked more modules that are 100% coursework based. I've got about 40% of
my marks are from exams this year. The first two years were graded pass/fail, so first
first year it's gonna be two written papers two written papers in second year we have one written
paper and two practical exams. It depends on the professor and their syllabus, most classes your
final is the majority of your grade maybe you'll have a few midterms as well but then with like
other courses sometimes at 15% participation 50% final and then the rest is in class work. So maybe
like late February to like late March. Just like time to in general and so many all-nighters in
the Student Centre, it was intense. At the end of March, I was just down the library staring
at the computer. It was going to be crunch time exam season right late April early May. Finals,
specifically fall semester finals. Finals last week of November and then the last week of April
those are the two most stressful weeks of the Year by a mile. For the first term it was like
I don't know three or four we were chilling and then we weren't chilling
yeah then we weren't chilling then it was like a maybe eight or nine during that like time of just
deadlines. Throughout the year, four. The last month, nine. Incredibly stressed and that's normal
with everyone here because everyone's pre-med and they care about their grades but you're also
surrounded by people who constantly outperform you too. In High School if I was stressed I'd be like
this is hard but I know I'm gonna do better than a lot of people still or at least I'll do well okay
but now I'm stressed and I also do bad. Five and a half maybe like I there's
a lot of pressure but it's not like it's nothing that's not manageable.
For History it's very informal, you address your professors just by their first name. We have like
a pub crawl with one of our professors John Chandler, if I'm correct about that. It's nice
because I feel like this is our first time you know talking to our professors or teachers like
adults. We have our seminar leaders but our actual lecturers we don't speak to them. The lecturers
are all generally pretty cool and like I'll talk to them be like oh my God you've actually
lived like a whole life, like some of them write articles for The Times like on a daily and I'm
like wow, like you'll actually semi half clout. Academic clout. And then also the professors
are almost always leading the seminars in that sense we get a lot of contact time,
lectures as well some modules. I know a lot of people who go to office hours consistently
so they'll have very close relationships with professors. I have a few professors that I will
talk to outside of class but most of the time it's just kind of I go see them in class. It's
lecture style so it's it's hard to really have a relationship unless you go to office hours.
I'm an international student which means my tuition is higher. I pay about
£23,000 pounds a year. The UK fees which is around 9k. Okay I think on average,
most people here pay like $60k a year. They meet 100% of demonstrated need, if you qualify for a
certain like income bracket they'll match that either in like loans, financial aid,
or like a work study but if one of your parents or like one of your family members works at Hopkins
you get probably pay about like $30k because I get half tuition. In-state, I think is $25k
ish before any scholarships and then out of state is $49k before scholarship after scholarship and
I'm taking some small student loan I think it's $28,000 a year, that's tuition, room and board.
We won the league, we got to the Premier League which is the highest one, so that was very, very,
very good. One practice a week, one strength conditioning, then games every week. Probably on
Sports, I'm like the co-captain in the Volleyball Team at UCL. Especially with UCL there's so many
people, like we have good talent everywhere, half our team is England National members,
you'll have like who've played well in China. And we don't have a Sports Hall,
like we're in the top league and we only get one training a week. In the US they'll have their own
Sports Halls, they have like training every day, like we can't compete with them at all,
um, in that area. Really big gym, eight basketball courts, six volleyball courts,
an area for hitting golf balls. Two, three floors indoor track, four swimming pools, two saunas,
ten tennis courts three turf fields. Ohio is known for having good Athletics but that's a lot of
people's draw to go there because people want like a football school. The atmosphere of the games
isn't like nothing I've ever experienced, it's a hundred and ten thousand people in one Stadium
screaming in unison - it's crazy! I learned we have a football team, I didn't know that, or is it
basketball? We're good for lacrosse, I don't even remember which one's good is it D1? Yeah we're D1
for lacrosse, like lacrosse has their own practice building thing and other than that it's like okay.
The first year I lived in student housing, student accommodation at Campbell House East that is where
I made all my friends, so thanks Campbell for that. This year I just live in my own flat with
four of my other friends and we live 10-15 minutes away from campus. We don't have roommates in the
UK, that's kind of a win. I live off campus, you need a whole separate video of just me complaining
about everything wrong with my year two accommodation, I mean I'm living with my friends
now which is really fun. I think my top tip is when you're looking for second year housing,
do not live in a basement. It's Intercollegiate accommodation you've got people from UCL, LSE,
Kings, yeah Kings. The Royal Academy of Music as well, it's near Marble Arch as well which is nice.
My accommodation situation this year, I'm renting with two other people one other Medic George and
then a Neuroscientist Yasmin, name drops, yeah little shout. It's a 30 minute walk to uni,
it's £2,665 pounds a month. I literally cannot eat at the dining hall, they also have given a
lot of people stomach issues, that it's not super uncommon at U.S Universities at the
very least is what I've noticed. At Hopkins you have to live in campus housing for the
first two years. I love my roommate, I had her freshman year and sophomore year. I met her a
day before you were allowed request a roommate. I'd say just being in the same proximity as them,
well I imagine American schools to be very like clicky because of High School Musical.
Most my friends have been from my halls, in Gardens, a lot of my friends actually aren't
at UCL. Volleyball is a good place, I think all societies are a good place. And Freshers' week,
I don't know we all just kind of came together but none of us lived in the same accommodation. Okay
it's called Freshers' week and you're supposed to make friends, but I didn't make friends at any
like specific meet and greet places that they want you to find friends. I literally met you
on the street, we were just walking to volleyball try-outs and your whole group that you lived with
was there. Then I have one best, best, best friend on my course. I've done like a 50/50
split through like accommodation and through my course. This school is very small for a U.S
School. You run into the same people you start talking a little bit, I think like the easiest
way to make friends here is just kind of like going to like a club event and then just like
asking someone to dinner. Most of my very close friends were people that I met very early on in
my freshman year dorm, the people that I was kind of stuck with and they just never got rid of me.
K-pop Society, as soon as you join you can't escape they like cheer you on even
if they don't know you in dance classes, for showcases. I already said I'm in Bubble Tea,
oh yeah I'm in Bubble Tea Society we're on the committee, we are the committee. Oh yeah,
I'm in Tree Climbing Society and I didn't go to a single event because I didn't know
when they had the event. Yeah, now it's your time right behind you.
I don't
know how I'm meant to get up this tree. Maybe if you went to the events, you'd know. So true.
I'm the treasurer of UCL United Nations Association, like a model UN. I'm also in the
Czech and Slovak Society because I'm half Czech. Play football as well in 13. Also sometimes Law
Society because I want to be a lawyer. Art Society because they do live drawings every week which
we love, I joined so many. I'm in improv, the Buttered Niblets, we're Hopkins one and only and
best improv group. I'm also part of The Advocates of Reproductive and Sexual Health on campus. I go
to a lot of the South Asian student events. It's called the Alexander Hamilton Society,
it's a foreign policy debate club. You get a taste of whichever societies that you could
think of joining. There's stuff going on campus and everyone just goes clubbing for
like seven days straight. For me personally I was like drunk for like seven nights in a row.
I think previously it used to be very alcohol focused but now I think UCL is actually quite
good or London unis like they're doing stuff that isn't alcohol-based. Clubbing for like Abacus,
which is an Asian-British Society. We went to Scarlet a few times but we went like the
Scarlet regulars. The clubbing culture in the UK is pretty big, nights that people go to which
is a Wednesday night for us. Everyone's always trying to find tickets for that. Me personally
I don't really go clubbing that often, there are lots of other things to do. I like just walking
around UCL it's a nice area being in London is a very big advantage it has like there's just so
much stuff to do around here. And posting TikToks about Jeremy Bentham. People that don't go to UCL
and they're like why do you have this, but if you go to UCL you're like it's Jeremy Bentham,
like it's so normal. So overstuffed, get more libraries. The balance and the vibe I really like,
there's loads of people from loads of different places doing loads of different things - it's got
a great student body. Diverse in every way like type of people, obviously me being so diverse,
but like everyone's doing everything, people coming from everywhere that's probably my
favourite thing. So the Main Library is really nice, we have loads of different
libraries I like SSEES one, other people don't. Controversial opinion, controversial yeah. Yeah
there isn't a lot of school spirit, a lot of people don't like this school,
um no one's ever like oh my God go Hopkins but if someone trash talks Hopkins and they don't go
to Hopkins obviously everyone's very defensive, pull up the stats. You know the top like public
research university in the United States, the culture here is super competitive. It's not a
small school atmosphere but everyone's kind of unified. Football is a perfect example,
everyone together, very positive actually people help each other out. Okay I just want to say thank
you to everybody who's in this video, I really, really appreciate it. I'm sure everybody watching
really appreciates it too. We'll see you in the next one, Bye, goodbye, bye, bye, bye.