The UK is a country that many young people dream of studying abroad. The high-quality education in the UK has always been praised by the world.Interpretation of misunderstandings when applying to study in the UKApply for studying in a high school in the UK, ,Application Tips for Studying in the UK, ,Apply for UK study agency feesThe problem.
Interpretation of misunderstandings when applying to study in the UK
1. Interpretation of misunderstandings when applying to study in the UK
Misunderstanding 1: Blindly pursuing high rankings
Domestic students often regard the QS ranking as a golden rule, and try every means to go to schools ranked in the top 100 or 50 of QS. Some even quibble over the rankings of schools that are almost the same, as if a school ranking one or two places higher would give them an extra layer of gilded gold.
It is understandable that true academic masters pursue high-ranking schools, but some students ignore their own conditions and are blindly confident. They listen to others' lies that the UK is easy to apply for, and think that the doors of British schools are easy to enter. With a few mediocre internships and research opportunities in hand, they think they can beat most of their competitors. When they open their eyes and really look at the backgrounds of their peers, they immediately fall into deep anxiety. After the entire application season, all they have left is regret, except for a pile of rejection letters.
Many students are willing to waste a year studying preparatory courses in order to get into the top 100 schools. It would have been enough to apply to a school ranked around 200, and after finishing their studies, they could apply for a second master's degree and get into the top 100. But they just don't want to. Most of the preparatory courses for master's degrees in the top 100 are run by corporate groups, and the teaching quality is questionable and not high. If you fail to get into the master's program, then this year of study is completely wasted.
Misconception 2: Not caring about professionalism
Blind pursuit of rankings is bound to be accompanied by not caring about majors. The top 100 schools have very high-quality majors, and there are also some low-threshold water majors that care more about revenue. Some students are willing to spend a lot of money to study a water major for a top 100 degree certificate. So we see that many students would rather go to Sheffield to study East Asian Business Studies than to take a look at the offer of Strathclyde Business School. The triple certification brand of the latter is insignificant to these students. This is also related to the ignorance of some companies in the market. HR only looks at the reputation of the school, not the quality of the major, which has led to this trend becoming more and more serious. However, when you really enter the workplace, the work you face is much more difficult than fooling HR. Not to mention making money from this in the future, it is a problem to earn back the tuition fees after graduation.
It doesn't mean that all students who go to the UK for postgraduate studies don't care about their majors. There are some who do, but the general phenomenon is that they will say: I just want to study business, or media. I don't know what specific branches there are or what classes I take, because it's all the same to me. I haven't studied it anyway. I just heard from others that studying this has a future.
So after enrolling, some students couldn't continue and changed their majors midway, which was considered a timely way to stop the loss, although they lost time and money. Even worse, some were tortured and discouraged and had to drop out or drop out of school. The brave warriors who could persist in finishing their studies would constantly warn the later ones: Don't come to XX school to study XX major! But their voices would only be drowned out by the noise.
Misconception 3: Not paying attention to language skills
In the UK, you can make an offer first and then take the IELTS. After the study abroad agency gives students a conditional offer, it is considered a done deal, so they will not emphasize the language test to students. If you are not good at English, they will suggest you study language courses abroad, but if your IELTS score is only 5.5 or even lower, then it will be very difficult to study language courses abroad. You also have to consider the impact of the completely unfamiliar environment and the pressure of living alone on you. The agency does not care whether you can pass the final exam, but for you, if you fail the language course, you can only postpone it for one year, so the safest way is to pass the IELTS in China and then go abroad.
During the pandemic, many offline language tests were cancelled, and students could only choose various online tests, which were difficult or easy. Some students chose less difficult tests in order to get a qualified score, and even tried to find loopholes. The scores obtained in this way obviously do not represent your actual level. When you start classes in the UK, you find that you can't understand the lessons at all, which is also the reason why some students fail the course.
The above three points are the three major misunderstandings of Chinese students when applying to study in the UK. Although everyone thinks that studying in the UK is good, if students fall deeper and deeper into the misunderstanding, coupled with the instigation of some study abroad agencies, then one day, the reputation of studying in the UK will collapse, because more and more people return from the UK without getting what they want. Therefore, I hope that students must establish the correct concept of studying abroad before choosing the path of studying abroad.
2. Requirements for studying in the UK
1. Language requirements
If you want to study in the UK, whether in high school or university, you need to meet certain language requirements.
To study in high school in the UK, you need to have an IELTS score of 5.0 or above. To study in undergraduate courses in the UK,
The IELTS score needs to be above 6.0. To study for a master's degree in the UK, the IELTS score needs to be above 6.5. The requirements for some schools and majors may be higher.
2. Academic requirements
To study in high school in the UK, you need to have graduated from junior high school or be currently studying in high school, and your average score in school must be above 70 points;
To study for an undergraduate degree in the UK, you need to graduate from high school or complete a British university preparatory course, and your average high school score must be above 80 points;
To study as a postgraduate in the UK, you need to graduate from an undergraduate university and obtain a bachelor's degree, with an average university score of 85 or above.
3. Document requirements
To study in the UK, you need to provide a full set of application documents in English, including PS, CV, recommendation letters, and translations of various materials.
Some schools require interviews or entrance exams, and architecture, design, and art majors require the submission of corresponding portfolios.
4. Other conditions
Applying for a master's degree in the UK generally requires GRE and GMAT scores. Some majors will require proof of corresponding work or internship, relevant qualification certificates, etc.
5. Economic conditions
The annual tuition fee for studying in the UK is about 15,000-30,000 pounds, depending on the specific school and major. The living expenses are about 15,000 pounds per year.
The overall annual cost is approximately RMB 350,000 to 500,000, which needs to be prepared in advance.
3. Daily life in the UK
1. Food
The British people eat a lot of fried food, with meat, pasta and rice as the main staples. The daily food prices are not very expensive, and seasonal fruits and vegetables are very fresh. In a whole day's diet, the total cost of meat, staple food, vegetables, milk, etc. will not exceed 30 pounds.
There are many large supermarkets in the UK, which sell all kinds of food. There are also many domestically produced foods in Chinese supermarkets. You don’t have to worry about not being able to get used to British food, nor do you have to worry about not being able to eat delicious Chinese food.
In the UK, the prices of supplies in factory-type supermarkets are relatively cheap, so you can go to the supermarket on weekends to buy food and supplies for the week, which can save a lot of money and time.
In the UK, people drink a lot of tea and coffee, but usually drink cold drinks with meals. Unlike Chinese culture, British people do not think that drinking hot water or hot drinks is necessarily good for health. Therefore, there is no place to fill hot water on university campuses, and you can only see taps that dispense cold water.
Even though there are authentic Chinese restaurants run by Chinese people all over the UK, when your British friends say they have eaten Chinese food, they are probably talking about "British Chinese takeaway", such as fried shrimp chips and lemon chicken. There are Chinese supermarkets in big cities where you can buy all the cooking ingredients, condiments and pots and pans you need. From hot pots to rice cookers, everything is available. But if you live in a more rural area, don't forget to bring some of your favorite foods from China, but British customs have strict regulations on passengers bringing certain foods into the country, so pay attention to the latest regulations.
Another thing to pay attention to is the time and amount of meals. In the UK, dinner is usually more formal than lunch and is larger. Students' lunch is usually a cold sandwich, which is very different from the hot lunch that most Chinese students are used to.
2. Clothes
The climate in the UK is relatively mild, and the British people dress for comfort and warmth. They require classic and elegant styles and cuts, and mainly focus on comfort. Clothes in the UK are relatively expensive, but the quality is very good and comfortable, and they are all genuine. When you first go to the UK, you will definitely take the opportunity to go shopping.
There are many large shopping malls and markets in the UK, and there are many convenient places to shop. After going to the UK, you will find that many British clothes are not easy to buy because of their body shape and size. If you want to buy good-looking and well-fitting clothes, you need to do more homework.
3. Accommodation
There are usually three types of accommodation for studying in the UK: on-campus accommodation, off-campus rental, and host family accommodation.
On-campus accommodation is more convenient and can help international students become independent, integrate into the learning environment as quickly as possible, and make good friends. The accommodation environment of the school is very good for international students in the UK. The 2-4-person room has a separate bed, wardrobe, separate bathroom, air conditioning and washing machine. The cost of accommodation is included in the tuition fee, and the fee for one semester is about 3,500-6,000 pounds.
Renting a house off campus is more flexible, with no time restrictions, and you can cook your own meals, which is more economical. However, the housing prices in different cities vary. The price of a single room in London and Manchester is 600-800 pounds per month, in other second-tier cities it is 500-650 pounds, and in the rest of the cities it is less than 500 pounds per month.
The host family can take good care of you, learn the local language, and integrate into local life as soon as possible. The fees for the host family are also affected by various factors, and fluctuate between 350-700 pounds per month.
4. Action
The traffic rules in the UK are very different from those in China. When you go to the UK, you must first understand the local traffic rules.
Common modes of transportation in the UK include buses, subways, taxis, private cars, trains, airplanes, ships, etc. Buses and subways are relatively cheap, and you can also apply for a student card, which can get you a lot of discounts. The starting price of a taxi is relatively high, but it is still safe. The transportation in the UK is well developed, and it is relatively convenient to basically go to every city.
In the UK, you drive on the left. It's easy to forget this when you first arrive and look in the wrong direction, only to find a car coming towards you.
Although jay walking is legal in the UK, people usually wait for the pedestrian crossing light to turn green before crossing the road. Unlike in China, drivers in the UK usually don't think of crossing the road in the middle of the busy traffic.
Summary of misunderstandings in applying to study in the UK
After understanding the misunderstandings about applying to study in the UK, you will also need to prepare a VPN tool to bypass the firewall and return to China when studying in the United States.For many Chinese who go to the US to study and work, they still like to watch some Chinese TV series and programs in China, and they are more accustomed to use some domestic native apps to listen to music, watch videos, play games and so on. However, due to copyright reasons, most of the popular programs are only allowed to be accessed by mainland IPs. In such a big background, theVPN back over the wallQuickFox is an accelerator for overseas Chinese who want to return to China by circumventing the firewall. It mainly supports circumventing the firewall to return to mainland China, and has a Beta function for circumventing the firewall to return to Taiwan. Unlike other VPNs for returning to China, QuickFox uses "intelligent acceleration mode" and "global return line".
