Year Abroad

[ValseTriste]

DS is in Yr 11 so about to sit GCSEs. He doesn't know what he wants to study at degree level yet, which is fine, early days BUT one clear idea that he does have is that he'd like to do a degree with a year abroad (ideally in North America) and I wanted to know if there are any specific resources for me to find out info on this.

I have browsed the UCAS site and found some examples of courses that are 4 year courses, but what I'm not clear on is if a year abroad is an option for other courses, even if they aren't "set up" as a 4 year course with 1 year abroad.

He's planning on studying Economics, Geography and History at A Level

Any tips gratefully received

@LIZS that sounds like it's been challenging for your DD, I hope it's not soured the experience too much

@Delphigirl - yes exactly, a great life experience hopefully, but totally out of one's comfort zone. Hopefully some new skills learned along the way

@Delphigirl great idea! Though I don't think it's lack of confidence, it's lack of time - retirement is keeping him busy!

No she has still made the most of it and taken course modules she would not otherwise have had the opportunity to do. There was a group from her uni, but spread out across the city. One or two took the same course module and she has followed her interests to find a mix of friends. Hopefully she will get the opportunity to travel more before returning too.

I’ve organised SA for my (STEM) School in the past. We offer it to academically qualified Y3 students on most 4 yr degree programmes (we are in England). During the first two yrs our compulsory modules don’t fit well with SA, and it is a requirement everywhere that students spend the final yr at the home institution. Our students do SA for Y3 credits and it mostly works very well.

North America is a wonderful destination and SA really helps students grow up. Our School requires First Class marks of applicants, because it is quite demanding. In North America particularly there is much more coursework than British students are used to. Those who succeed there come back with impressive time management skills and frequently perform better abroad and again in Y4 than they had before departure.

They also have a lot of fun.

PS Again, students pay only the usual tuition fees to their English university. When I was doing SA they actually got a discount, to help with the higher living costs of SA. I don’t know whether that is still in place.

Also,I should have said that before DD went over to the States she(or rather her dad and I)had to provide proof that she had enough funds to last the university year ie,from September until June.We had to cover all her books(DD managed borrow some from the library to use for whatever assignment),health insurance and her day to day living expenses .DD didn't want to live in shared campus dorm type accommodation so she ended up in a house share with 3 lovely ,friendly American girls .The girls made sure DD made the most of her stay and made sure she enjoyed some of the American traditions like thanksgiving and spring break where 6 of them (4 girls and 2 boys) drove through 6 different states for spring break.In return,DD in introduced her housemates to actually cooking meals and not relying on fast foods!

Yes we needed to put $20k in an account in his name to show he could pay he accommodation and support himself for the year.