Studying Abroad!: University in Scotland vs the US vs Norway
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Ingeborg and Dovah are back for another video! This time we discuss the differences we noticed between studying in Scotland versus the US and Norway. The biggest differences we noticed were with the grading, tuition, the pace, and some others.
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A wild dovah appears? Like the dragons from skyrim?
+Scott MacKenzie That’s what she was named after! 😉
WOO HOO! Almost 4,000 subscribers! Any suggestions for when I hit 5,000?? (I now jinxed it and it’ll never happen haha) ALSO, Sorry for all of the random laughter in the beginning. Ingeborg and I were having way too much fun filming this (^_^)
4.4k now haha including me and very well deserved too, really like you’re presenting technique as well!
+Ansley Whitley Hmm I’ll try to find a bunch if snacks that I haven’t tried before maybe! 😉
Sonnie Travels ooh yes! You should totally do a “trying Japanese foods” video ?
+Ansley Whitley I’m so glad you liked it. I know! It’s been crazy. Hmm I could totally do food. Maybe try natto ??? Since I’ll be in Japan most likely :X
Hey, thanks for the uni video! It was really helpful 🙂
Wow, you’re growing fast. Seems like just yesterday you hit 1,000. As for what you should do…something involving food would be nice lol. *shrug* I really have no idea. Surprise us. 😉
You’ll be surprised how many people study at the last minute in the U.S. and then completely forget about the material afterwards.
I did my 4 year undergrad MA at the U of Edinburgh and I’m doing my PhD at UPenn in the states. I’m a very stressed grad student, for what it’s worth. It’s very interesting to me how, in the US, breadth of education is such a virtue. This is like you were saying about maths and lit in your bachelors, but even at my levels I’m required to take loads and loads of classes. They’re all in my field, but at this point I know my specialties. My professors at UoE said that this kind of US-institution training makes you a more employable academic though. Something that I found to be positive in Scotland, at least at UoE, is there’s very little hand holding. I liked being treated like an adult who was responsible for my own education, and deciding what I needed to attend and what I could just read on my own. I imagine there’s a similar philosophy in a lot of (non-collegiate) UK universities.
Good luck with your thesis!
I agree. In my hons. years at UoE i had about 8 hours of classes a week. The only obligatory classes were the tutorials. However my reading list was immense and the knowledge you are expected to display in essays and exams was high.
+Ruaridh Purse Great points! I hope it does make you more employable 😉 Thanks so much 🙂
Another enjoyable vid. I was about to type furiously, “The education system is different in Scotland” but you corrected yourself at the end 😉 Good recovery!
I did both my BA and MPhil in England and that took me 4 years. In Scotland it would have been 5 years.
Also PhD’s can last for much more than 3 years – that’s the minimum. Certainly in soft subjects (I read theology) it’s not unusual for a doctorate to take 7 or 8 years.
+Alan Mac Hahaha Thanks! For some of my lectures PhDs they said that if their studies went over 3 years they’d no longer be getting paid for it so they had to make it work lol
This dog is adorable ??
I know!!! I love her so much. Her Instagram is the best <3
Note that attendance being part of your grade in the U.S. depends as I’ve had a lot of experiences where the professor did not care at all if you attended or not. In fact, I am not sure if I ever received a percentage of my grade thanks to attending classes where I got my bachelor’s degree – Pacific Lutheran University in the Northwest. But I’m pretty sure that’s not the norm as I believe that most schools in the U.S. do have at least some professors who will give at least some points for attendance.
I’m not sure what I would think of taking a class where I was graded on one or two things the entire year. On the one hand, I’d like the freedom, but, on the other, I could also see myself having skyrocketing anxiety that my grade rides on so few things.
One really cool aspect of my time at PLU was that I took a grand total of one multiple-choice test throughout my time there. I am quite good at multiple-choice tests, but I really wanted to challenge myself by not having a selection of options in front of me and instead having to really learn the material, enough to be able to write out answers without having any prompts. Point being, I believe that it really helped me grow mentally having so few multiple-choice tests, which I am really thankful for.
Unfortunately, I have a LOT of debt as a result of my experiences there. Oh well.
+Matt M. He went to the same University as Ingeborg and I did, but he studied Business IT. So different lecturers, different campus, etc. 🙂
Where did he go to college?
Great point on these types of tests helping people explain things. I had never connected the dots that taking so many essay tests would also help me explain things, although that makes perfect sense in hindsight.
+Matt M. Great points! All of my husband’s tests were essay questions so he could always explain things. Ours were a wide variety of different types depending on what you were studying.
Thanks so much for commenting! I love hearing about different peoples experiences 😀
Omg , what a beautiful staffy ?? I have two, they are fab pets. Great video ?
+DavidRsaid The Japanese government is very welcoming to immigrants. They make the visa process cheap and easy so we can stay there as long as we need. It’s also very easy for native English speakers to get jobs there. Plus, we like the culture, the food and the access to travel around the rest of South East Asia. 🙂
+hazel johnston Oh. I do! Lol but we’re moving to Japan soon so I’ll have to continue loving her from afar sadly.
Sonnie Travels haha, you should just borrow her for walks and cuddles all the time ?
+hazel johnston Thanks so much! 🙂
She is soooo gorgeous and so sweet and fun and loving. Ugh Being around her makes me wants to get a dog again, but we just travel too much right now. I’m addicted to her Instagram haha
I just graduated University of Edinburgh. We never had any attendance whatsoever, except Chemistry labs in first year. Most courses (modules) were 20% coursework, 80% exam. My 4th year had a lot of 100% exam courses, it was terrifying. Scotland has 4 year degrees as standard (honours) whereas England has 3 years. We have an extra year at the start to get drunk and take extra courses. So glad my tuition was free as I’m Scottish 🙂
+ScottishCunt That’s awesome! Thanks for sharing the differences you noticed. Are you still living in Edinburgh? I’m going to miss this city so much!
I love your vlogs
+Nita F Thank you so much!!! (^_^) ???
I start my study abroad experience at Edinburgh Napier University in September! I am so excited, and this video really helped me out.
+Haley Baker That’s so awesome! Good luck! I also made a tour video of Napper Student Housing if you’re interested. If not, I made a video on how to find a flat here since the market is so competitive. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask 😀
If you’ve lived in Scotland for 3 years (I think) higher education is free for 5 years.
+Supercooled Gaming Only 3 years, really? That’s awesome!
Supercooled Gaming As of a few years ago it stood at 5 years minimum habitation in Scotland, but it may well have changed since.
(I remember because we were trying to decide whether it was worth it to have my little – English – sister move to take advantage of it.)
Woohoo, NAPIER!!!
Hi from Kenny, Napier alumni from 1993.
+Kenneth McGeechan Interesting!
Oh and back when I was an undergraduate doing Physics, the pass mark was set at 80%.
+Kenneth McGeechan OH AWESOME!!! YAY! HI! (^_^)
Regarding grading, when I was a t uni in the early 90s you were typically graded not just against your class but those at partner universities, but that was just as a check as the lecturers pointed out that they generally knew what would be a reasonable grade for a report or essay so they would send a unmarked copy for a sample of the reports or essays to a lecturer at a different university on the same type of course to just check they broadly agreed. In one of my subjects the norm was actually for post grad students to do the bulk of the marking and the lecturer to only then cross mark a sample. In my other subject it was patchy, some lecturers preferred to do their own marking, others just left it to their grad students and only dealt with appeals.
I’m surprised to hear you say that an undergraduate course is for years for honours, it was only three when I was at uni. I did a four year course but the first year was a foundation year which most people didn’t do. It also meant that I could fulfil my cross board requirements that year and not have to worry about them during my principal degree course. Each year was worth 30 credits and you had to have, across your whole time, at least 10 credits each from humanities, social science and natural science. Since my principal degree was Biochemistry with Electronics (both natural sciences) I had to do a lot of courses in humanities and social sciences that year. As well as my bachelor’s in Biochemistry, I graduated with a foundation degree in Electronic Engineering; diplomas in Engineering Maths, Economics and Computer Science; a Diploma of Higher Education in General Studies; a Certificate in Workshop Fabrication skills.
+Stephen Booth I wish the lecturers allowed us to help with their markings. They were totally overwhelmed by their amount of work and our markings were then delayed pretty substantially :/
Very cool! Yeah I believe it’s changed (per another comment) from how it was.
50% have a mental breakdown?
Seems to me that system needs fixing
I like Norway
+bus king Unfortunately, that’s why we didn’t make it to Scandinavia and Switzerland because of how expensive they are. When we do go, we’ll be doing a lot of Couchsurfing I believe lol
Take a lot of money with you if you visit
+jamal sbai I haven’t been yet, but I’ve heard it’s beautiful!
In England we pay £9000 no matter where you go. Were as if you are Scottish or from the EU, scottish university is free !
It’s so wonderful compared to the US!
cute dog
+Chloé Laurenss She’s the cutest ???
Thanks for this video – it answered so many questions I had! Does the UK also have an equivalent for junior/community college, by chance?
+Collin C. YAY! I’m so glad you liked it 😀
Kind of! They’re called Further Education (FE). 🙂 Let me know if you have any other questions I can help with!
Thanks for your responses, Sonnie and Ingeborg! I attended a university in the city as an undergrad, but then I attended a rural uni for my graduate degree. Those in the latter were always astonished when I told them I had come from a different state entirely, as so many students had been born and raised in the rural area that the school was surrounded by. Interesting that there’s a bit of a parallel there!
+Collin C. Definitely 🙂
Collin C. So you can take a Certificate of Higher Education (equivalent to first year of uni) or a Higher National Diploma (2 years of a degree) at an FE college and then transfer to a university for the other credits, either a physical university or the Open University (online). But I have never met anyone who did this because I went to a very rural uni. People who choose this route (I believe) often just stay in their home town for both FE and the university part, and there were very few commuting students at my university. I think many students are put off this route because a big part of university culture here is the social life and if you join after everyone already has friends people believe that it will be very hard to meet people.
……where’s the cats?
+greg jones Hahaha cute
……aaaahhhhhh! I used my pet clippers yesterday to give my cat Suki a trim yesterday as she is prone to matting – she’s good as gold while I do it. Bit like shearing a sheep!
+greg jones Haha We filmed this at Ingeborg’s flat so that’s why Dovah is there, but not my babies 🙂