US student moving to UK for savings.

Gislebertus

Hi, I didn't see an intro section, so I'll post it here since it seems most relevant.

I'm a high school student in the US who is thinking of moving to the UK due to the extremely lower cost of school($15k pounds for international students vs $30k pounds(about, $40-50k USD.) for US schools). Not 100% sure of which uni, but I'm looking at ones mainly in the North of England and Scotland since it's less to live there than in London.

What are your main suggestions for an international student to save money? How do you find housing with other students if you live in the UK? What sort of recipes do you use to save money on food(I do home cooking all the time, it is a requirement for some health issues I have, allergies to flavorings. I'm also mainly a vegetarian, so vegetarian sources of protein that are cheap in the UK would be nice to know!)? What are other things you do to save money as a student?

skintdragon

Hello and welcome.

I was an overseas student many years ago so I will try and remember some tips from my heyday.

First of all, you need to know where you will get your university offers from before you can decide where to live etc. You may want to get into a certain university but remember to have a back- up plan. Will you be studying full time or part time?

Once you have been accepted to commence your studies the university should provide you with information regarding living in halls of residence. These are normally situated near the campus, or may require a short walk/ bus journey to and from the university (that would depend on which uni you go to). Halls of residents are usually allocated to first year students, and overseas students often have higher priority because they have nowhere else to live.

Before your first year ends you'd have to start looking into renting elsewhere, perhaps with your peers. This will all fall into place; you will find that the student population will all be house- hunting and finding people to live with, so just go with the flow and don't stress about this at this early stage.

As for saving money.... my advice to you is not to spend all your money on beers and going out. (I am talking in hindsight, of course). Be frugal with your shopping, only buy what you need, and cut down on luxuries. Also, be weary of any credit card application offers; that is where you'll find most students cannot curb their spending, and leave university in huge debt (besides loans etc).

Good luck.

Voyager2002

Welcome to the discussions.

I must say, I don't think you would save much money by studying in the UK instead of the USA. The figures you quote for the tuition fees for US universities apply to the leading private universities, but you would pay far less to study at a public college, particularly one in your own state. And remember that virtually all US students can get some kind of financial aid, which in many cases can be worth a substantial amount of money.

I suggest that you do some research, but feel free to come back for any more questions about the UK.

giantmutantbroccoli

Gislebertus wrote: »

What are your main suggestions for an international student to save money? How do you find housing with other students if you live in the UK? What sort of recipes do you use to save money on food(I do home cooking all the time, it is a requirement for some health issues I have, allergies to flavorings. I'm also mainly a vegetarian, so vegetarian sources of protein that are cheap in the UK would be nice to know!)? What are other things you do to save money as a student?

Disclaimer - I'm not an international student and I never lived in halls, so I can't advise you on accomadtion. However, I LOVE FOOD!

I'm at Edinburgh uni at the moment and attended Manchester Uni for my undergraduate degree - both have arrangements set in place for finding accomadation for international students. As a fee-paying first year from outside the EU you will most likely be guaranteed a place in student halls for the first year.
Pages about international students from Edinburgh and Manchester Universities:
http://www.international.ed.ac.uk/
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/international/
and here's the manchester uni page for students from the USA:
http://www.manchester.ac.uk/international/country/display/index.htm?id=67550

I'mhugely biased of course but I think Manchester Uni is an awesome place to get an undergraduate degree. They have the largest student population in Europe which means some really brilliant events get organised, and they attract A LOT of funding so you get more money to spend on their students. THis really makes a difference for things like which journals they subscribe to etc - something that becomse important when you're writing essays or your dissertaion.

Regarding food I'm not really sure what differences there will be between food that's cheap in the US and food that's cheap over here. I think it'll depend on which part of the US you're coming from.
Generally speaking cheap protein-rich vegetarian food would consist of lentils, beans and other pulses. Tofu is pretty popular, and you can get soya-mince (although really you might as well not bother, it tastes like cardboard). There's also quorn which is made from mushrooms... somehow - it's also chock-full of additives, and I've never figured out exactly how they get it to taste almost erxactly but not quite like chicken. SO you might want to avoid it!
Health food shops sell all kinds of grains, pulses etc for people on vegetarian, vegan or raw-food vegan diets. HOWEVER, the cheapest (and best) places to get these from are the various Chinese, Indian / Asian* supermarkets. If you go to a uni in a city there will likely be one or two of these nearby, to cater for all the international students Buying in bulk is also cheaper and relatively easy to organise in halls although you may struggle for storage space.

I save money on food by:
cooking large quantities and freezing it in portions to reduce waste
freezing leftovers and using them to make other things
buying from Chinese and Asian supermarkets - even their online ones are cheaper!

Check out the Old Style board on this forum for some good recipe ideas. You could also search the other threads on here, a lot of people have posting asking for advice about cooking.

Cheap veggie meals:
Dahl & rice or Dahl & chaphattis - all you need is lentils, garlic, chilli and corriander, plus rice or flour. Grow your own corriander and it becomes even cheaper!
"Experimental" Paella - the base is rice, which is dirt cheap. Then you add whatever veg you have lying about the place, and whatever protein - could be cheese if you eat cheese, or tofu or nuts or seeds or chickpeas or lentils or fish if you eat fish- you get the idea.
Stew - Take contents of fridge, cook forever in some sort of stock. Used to do a veggie stew with a tomato base, and then add cheese for protein.
Stiry-fry - another thing that uses up whatever is about to go off in the fridge. Use tofu as the protein.
African Pilau - something my parents used to make a lot when we were veggies. I'm not a big fan myself, but it uses rice and vegetables with peanuts for the protein.

If you're curious you can make a bit of a comparison and see what foods are typically available in the UK by looking at some online supermarkets:
http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/groceries/index.jsp
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-estore/index.jsp

Online Chinese supermarkets:
https://shop.waiyeehong.com/
http://www.wingyip.com/

Once you've found a few universities you want to go to you might want to try looking it up on facebook. There'll be some sort of group devoted to the uni, or some of the student societies, or to prosepctive students - that way you'll be able to ask questions of current students and maybe even get to know people before you go. Edinburgh Uni has a freshers group as well as groups for some of their studetn societies.

glider3560

Voyager2002 wrote: »

I must say, I don't think you would save much money by studying in the UK instead of the USA. The figures you quote for the tuition fees for US universities apply to the leading private universities, but you would pay far less to study at a public college, particularly one in your own state. And remember that virtually all US students can get some kind of financial aid, which in many cases can be worth a substantial amount of money.

I have a friend from South America. He was offered places at one of the leading US universities, but decided to come to the UK instead. You get a similar quality university for £13,000 instead of $40,000. Plus their course would have been four years for a BS, whereas it is only three years here for a BSc (same degree). Even with the travel costs, it was still so much cheaper for him to come over here.

Obviously, as Voyager has mentioned, you need to check what sort of financial aid is available from your chosen university and what your state is prepared to offer you if you stay within the state. If you come to the UK, you may not receive such a generous package of support.

atypical

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

There's also quorn which is made from mushrooms... somehow - it's also chock-full of additives, and I've never figured out exactly how they get it to taste almost erxactly but not quite like chicken. SO you might want to avoid it!

It's not made from mushrooms, even though they say it is in their advertising (at least they used to). It's made from fungus.

Mankysteve

i had a freind who came over here nto really to save money but more because he prefered the British teaching method. I have heard out uni system is very differnet.

Plus you'll be able to drink over here as well.

Why he Bangor Uni is another question all together.