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 Studying in the UK V3

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corad
post Aug 27 2010, 05:03 PM

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for VFS in KL , best to go around 4:30 - 5pm . wait time won't be longer than 1 hour.

as for airlines, go for Thai or Royal Brunei. Their fares are around the same as AirAsia X but you get food and baggage allowance smile.gif

Good luck to all starting their studies in the UK !

corad
post Sep 13 2010, 05:48 AM

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QUOTE(cherriedpie @ Sep 10 2010, 07:20 PM)
Anybody know how's the internet in UK?
My college uses JANET, and I know they don't allow P2P activity, so how do you guys survive without Bittorent? Is PPS considered a no-no as well?

What's the use of hi-speed internet if you can't use it to the max. ;_;
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JANET is the network all UK university connects to. no problems for any kind of downloads as long as you keep it in check , ie: try not to go over 50GB in a day tongue.gif

QUOTE(Agent 47 @ Sep 13 2010, 05:38 AM)
I want to watch football here in UK but I don't have TV license, so I plan to watch online from sites like this, will there be any problem?
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don't worry about the tv license. fill in the form on the website stating you don't have a TV , or just ignore any of the "warning" letters they send... usually they don't amount to anything. but of course don't go and subscribe for things like Sky or Virgin TV otherwise you'd get a nice fat fine like my friend !
corad
post Sep 14 2010, 08:45 AM

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QUOTE(alvinz @ Sep 14 2010, 01:11 AM)
wats the basic internet speed over there? surely way faster then here .. lol
curious to know about the price also ...
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3MB + ... some people may have gotten the 50Mb Virgin package, but not many are willing to pay the price. Speed increase is only noticeable to US sites, otherwise if you're loading pages hosted in M'sia ... still same as TM Nut.


QUOTE(hsienhsien @ Sep 14 2010, 01:34 AM)
if i want to pursue my master in civil engineering, which uni is the best choice for tight budget with good reputation?
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Uni fee's for Science subject are nearly the same at 14k GBP per year for all UK institutions . Only exception is Imperial College London .if I were you , I'd avoid that place...
corad
post Sep 19 2010, 01:49 AM

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QUOTE(limeuu @ Sep 18 2010, 01:17 AM)
i am asking what precisely does the border agency and/or the uni student health services want......

it looks like only the chest xray may be needed, on a random basis at immigration control......
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yes, a chest x-ray (to screen for TB) and a blood test report (for any blood transmitted illnesses). And it is not random, those with a new visa will have to go through this on arrival.


corad
post Oct 27 2010, 02:28 AM

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QUOTE(sebsebsebas @ Oct 26 2010, 11:19 AM)
Hi guys, 

I would like to ask something about scholarships to study in the UK.
Actually I googled and found some scholarships offered by the British Council, Commonwealth etc.

But I just wish to know more.  I'm still a secondary school student so might as well plan to study in the UK
with scholarship.  May I know is there any company which provide students to study degree abroad?
Should I study A levels local or over there in the UK?

Thanks to all the seniors  tongue.gif
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in Malaysia, it really depends on what your race is or what your parents do. The most generous are MARA (90% Melay) , Petronas or Shell.

JPA is not really worth it , unless you're really keen to be bonded for 10 years. With a capped salary of 3-5k.

if your parents don't work for either company, and you're not Melay .. then I would suggest applying to Singaporean Scholarships. Sad to say, but they sponsor half the Malaysians at Cambridge & Oxford doh.gif Only catch is you'll have to work in S'pore for a couple of years , but the pay is so good, not many will leave.
corad
post Nov 29 2010, 09:42 PM

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QUOTE(LightningFist @ Nov 29 2010, 04:07 AM)
If you don't already know, home students pay only ~3000 pounds per year, and those who can't afford this are either given bursaries or zero/low interest loans. International students pay anywhere from 9000 to 15000 pounds (and even more for medicine/dentistry and Oxbridge colleges[cool.gif) each year.

Fees increase every year (for us they can go up 1000 pounds, easily). The "fees increase" you're talking about is the raising of the fees cap for home students, so that they no longer pay from 0 to 4000 pounds. It's hard to say how much this will affect international students' fees.

Admissions could become affected by a number of factors:
- Major increase in home students' fees means more home students are admitted (relatively)
- Tighter immigrations rules and caps means fewer places for international students (coupled with strict quotas)
- Heavy budget cuts means fewer resources available to schools, and hence fewer places and/or pricier tuition fees
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Umm ? I know my fee's are the same as most universities. Only Imperial charge higher fees than everyone else.


As for the local fee increase, critical courses will still be subsidized for local students. So engineers,doctors,mathmo's will face no change.






corad
post Dec 3 2010, 06:49 AM

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QUOTE(LightningFist @ Nov 29 2010, 10:10 PM)
Since you attend Cambridge, don't you pay more (in comparison to other schools) because of the collegiate fees? How much is your annual tuition fee?

Critical courses are subsidised, but to an extent. If they (the tuition fees) are to increase (by as much as threefold), how can you be certain that engineering and medicine courses' tuition fees will face no change?

Also, how is mathematics a critical course? As far as I'm concerned the British government is prioritising funding for science, and though mathematics applies in both the physical sciences and social sciences, mathematics alone is not considered part of the better funded science category.
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QUOTE(Phonzy @ Dec 2 2010, 01:35 AM)
The fella that throw the shoe at Obama also hardly gotten anything la, prolly just a week's arrest. Chris Rock and all other 284392384923483 comedians in USA makes fun of their President every day in front of multitudes, and they all just laugh about it.

You try tell a joke to 5 people about our ruling government to a crowd of 10 in a public area and see...
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Apologies for the delayed reply. A break down of my fees are 14k for my course (Engineering) and 5k for college fees.

However for the college fee, I'm getting a weekly room cleaning, college formals (weekend dinner + wine) and free access to sports facilities. I pass these off as being fair since it would probably cost the same amount at other universities.

The British Parliment hasn't tabled the fee motion yet, but it's the consensus here that any subject under the science fee will continued to be subsidized.
corad
post May 23 2011, 06:53 AM

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QUOTE(LightningFist @ May 8 2011, 04:55 PM)
This varies according to the individual prestige and reputation of the university how your potential employer perceives this. It varies by industry as well.

Some will care, some won't. Those who will care may not always be prejudiced - it's just how they work. Those from English-speaking countries would care more (as they are likely to have heard of/know of such schools). In general, the better the school, the better your chances, obviously - not least because some are completely unheard of, and the fact that many of the top schools in the UK are not well known outside of it at all.

You've got your Golden Triangle, and your Warwick, St Andrews, SOAS, Durham, Bristol, and your schools made famous by football (Manchester, Southampton, Liverpool), but that's about it. Your Liverpool, Nottingham, Reading, Leeds, Sheffield etc may be heard of, perhaps even be better known than Warwick outside the UK, but in reality Warwick or St Andrews would be better. Of course everyone would know Oxbridge.
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I would say the classification of your degree is the 1st thing employers look at.

Second would be your CV ie: any internships, societies or representations.

Unless you're going to some kiasu company like Temasek, university rank is practically meaningless after the 1st round of interviews.
corad
post Aug 15 2011, 05:16 PM

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QUOTE(strategist @ Aug 13 2011, 07:56 PM)
nah I'm just doing a cost estimation here to see whether London can suit my budget. UCL and Imperial is good but I want to see if it is worth the investment. Of course I won't like to spend that much of money.  tongue.gif
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1000 quid is quite alright for a comfortable life in London. ie: proper restaurant meal once a week.

Imperial fees are notoriously high and I would seriously look at other options before committing.


QUOTE(LightningFist @ Aug 15 2011, 04:55 PM)
I agree that you should only buy such clothes when you get there...

1. Most are cheaper (for the same things) even after the exchange rate

2. Products at least equal to or superior to those you could get in Malaysia

3. Reduces the amount of stuff you need to bring along when you travel

4. You'll only buy it if you need it (as of now you probably don't know what you may or may not need, and stocking thick clothing when you might actually be able to handle a wee bit of cold is quite a waste)
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+1

Also look for outlet villages or shops like TK Max. Saves you loads without looking shabby tongue.gif
corad
post Sep 2 2011, 04:48 PM

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» Click to show Spoiler - click again to hide... «


Guys, university is only another stepping stone. What use is there of going to UCL and ending up just sticking to your bunch of M'sian friends, streaming videos or emo in your room. What makes the university experience worthwhile is not the rank, but what you achieve there. Join societies, play sports seriously and study smart.

When I did my internship at Airbus, university rank was worthless. We had people from Hertfordshire all the way to MIT and I have to admit I could not tell the difference. Everyone was equally passionate and brilliant.

IMHO the only time uni rank has been useful is during dinner with relatives tongue.gif And if anyone really wants to be kiasu, just go take those 6 month management courses from Harvard and you can call yourself an alumni wink.gif
corad
post Sep 7 2011, 01:54 AM

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Apologies for raising an old discussion, haven't been on here much. Since LightningFist has pulled in quite a few uni names, it further shows the rankings are quite useless. Say we take the top 50 uni's now and each has a graduating class of 200 in a particular field. So every single year, we get 10000 "top" people from "top" universities applying for that dream job. Don't think uni ranks will help that much anymore.

Personally I would stay away from any employer that actually takes these rankings seriously. Like limeuu said, "there are exceptions, but exceptions cannot be extrapolated to the general" . Even with good uni's, people can still fail after graduating from Cambridge. So knowing that, are employers really going to overlook people just because they come from some other university ?

Just my 2cents smile.gif

QUOTE(chungdavi @ Sep 5 2011, 11:25 AM)
Hi guys,
I'm going to Bristol to complete my bachelor degree final year in mid-September. So I would like to ask a few questions:
For the UK border landing card, what should I fill in for the length of stay in UK? 9 months? 1 year? My visa is from September to August next year.  hmm.gif
Another question is, have anyone of you got held by customs before? for things like luggage check, and even for checking the contents in your laptop? Just to know what I should be expecting when I'm going through the customs.

Thanks in advance.
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1) I usually fill 8 months since I go back for the summer.
2) Stopped by customs because I packed myself a nice box of food. Nothing quarantined, but it's a hassle them checking every item and then repacking it. Never got stopped when using a normal bag tongue.gif

one more tip is to NOT buy winter jackets in Malaysia. Get them in the UK, since they're higher quality and about the same price as M'sia.
corad
post Sep 13 2011, 02:14 AM

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QUOTE(xXLoveMeNotXx @ Sep 12 2011, 05:38 PM)
university of aberdeen is not that good? planning to take subsea engineering and very limited university offer this course.  they r aberdeen, newcastle, strahclyde, and cranfield.  u think which one is the best?
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Academically, definitely Cranfield for MSc smile.gif

but then Aberdeen Uni is really rich in tradition & history so you'll probably experience more things over there which is a real plus too
corad
post Sep 24 2011, 09:13 AM

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QUOTE(LightningFist @ Sep 24 2011, 01:46 AM)
Way to break it down to the best six...

Since you have 5 choices I assume there shouldn't be restrictions... which means you should consider Cambridge or Imperial if you really want the top.

Why are you even looking at Bath or Sheffield?

That list isn't quite what people call "top" but my five here would be:

Cambridge (pretty sure they have Mechanical Engineering, and that it is awesome there)
Imperial
Bristol
Edinburgh
Southampton

Other schools have Engineering too (UCL, Warwick), might want to check those out.
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seriously disagree. I'm in Mech Eng myself and Bath is regularly considered among the top 3.

And Imperial as a choice is very debatable. It probably only appeals to most Asian students but outside of that circle it does not have that high a reputation. The British consider Durham the Oxbridge alternative instead of Imperial which to them is just an "outsider". And UCL for engineering is almost like Kings (which closed their Eng Dept in 2009)

This post has been edited by corad: Sep 24 2011, 09:15 AM
corad
post Dec 5 2011, 10:42 AM

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QUOTE(M@Y @ Nov 2 2011, 02:35 AM)
Thank u for your concern, guys. I'm siting for my 1st year exam end of this month. If i can get through to 2nd year, i want to get done with the degree asap and see what happens. Who knows, in my 3rd year in UK, i will register a design course behind my parents' back. Who knows?
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Personally I feel you're wasting your parents and your own time. Obviously they are the typical Asian strict kind. But I think it is worth talking to them about your choices . I have friends who come from very influential families and they actually have the guts to let their parents know the future is theirs to decide.

It's no use moaning about your situation if you're just going with it. The main reason your parents have decided the degree for you is probably because you haven't shown enough initiative to proof what you want. Like culinary ? Then take up an internship in a restaurant ... and cook some meals when you're home !

QUOTE(strategist @ Nov 12 2011, 09:46 PM)
thanks for the insight guys.=) Am pondering on what universities to fill in my remaining choices. Currently considering University of Manchester/Warwick/Bath/UCL... can't really decide which so I'm trying to compare their locations and course structures.

Any comments on Bristol and Bath also?  blush.gif
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Well Bath is very specialised so if your course is offered then it's likely to be very highly rated. It certainly ranks better than Cambridge in Engineering & Architecture anyway (much to the dismay of my coursemates)


QUOTE(Fawkes @ Dec 2 2011, 01:21 AM)
How are these uni for E&E degree?

Cambridge
Imperial
UCL
Manchester
Nottingham
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Really ? I might be biased but I would say a Cambridge education would give you loads more than any other smile.gif The rest may rank higher but you get the tradition and culture that is one of kind.
corad
post Jan 1 2012, 09:37 AM

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QUOTE(maximR @ Dec 5 2011, 02:36 PM)
Are you from Cambridge ?

Added on December 5, 2011, 2:42 pmHow do you decide on a UK university ? Based on QS Rankings ?

Because in the rankings section , Bath is ranked 168 in the world, and even their engineering degree is placed in the 100th+ position . Can anyone explain this ?
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Yes, Downing to be exact.

Look at local UK rankings such as from the Guardian, Times or Good University Guide. All of them place Bath in the top 3 for their engineering courses. But I'd say this is only important if you're looking to work for a British company who are more privy of these ranks.

QUOTE(yellowpika @ Dec 30 2011, 09:50 PM)
I thought it's not that important even if you have a Cambridge education(in M'sia, your pay will still be the same as graduates from other uni), according to my father.. hmm.gif

If not, prove me wrong. blush.gif
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Where you come from is not important. It's what you can do for your employer that interests them. I would not be given a promotion just because my resume has "Canteb" on it , I will still have to prove my worth.

Getting into Oxbridge is not as impossible as people make them out to be. I'd say most people who make it show a maturity possessedby people 2-3 years their age ... so talk to someone in their 3rd/4th year and get to know the course from their perspective, really helps with the personal statement !


corad
post Jan 6 2012, 10:50 AM

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QUOTE(strategist @ Jan 6 2012, 12:39 AM)
has anyone gotten their offers from Cambridge? some of my friends got it mostly are rejection but one got in for medicine with conditions A* A* A*. mine's really late.... am getting really nervous right now ohmy.gif
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Don't want to get your hopes up .. but there is a "pool" process for Oxbridge candidates. This is when the college you applied to doesn't take you, but still think you are Oxbridge material and puts your application up to other colleges in case they have yet to fill their quota of students.

hang in there ! smile.gif
corad
post Apr 22 2012, 01:05 AM

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QUOTE(podrunner @ Apr 21 2012, 11:43 PM)
If you look at the plans from voda etc, it's cheaper to get phone + plan in the UK.
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I disagree, each network offers different perks. For people who like visiting cinemas and eating pizza, Orange should be your network since it gives 2 for 1 every Wed. O2 is more international, as it has the best international rates for sms/calls. Voda is the middle ground. I use voda only because their contracts are cheaper than other networks but only good if you're going to call/SMS UK nums.

Avoid things like Lebara, much better using 3G on skype / whatsapp.

As for getting phones in M'sia. It really depends on how long your course is. If it's longer than 2 years and the network holds the phone you want, then UK is definitely the place to get it !
corad
post Jun 24 2012, 09:16 PM

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QUOTE(cckkpr @ Jun 22 2012, 05:34 PM)
Then, maybe you could look at the Russell Group of universities which are research based.
There are 20 now, with addtional 4 in August.
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Interesting how people tend to regard the Russell Group as the equivalent of the US Ivy League.

They are good and average universities within the RG. And even then each uni has their own "good" and "bad" courses. eg: UCL asks for BBC for Engineering compared to AAA in Southampton.

I would instead look at the ranking table for an individual subject and go from there instead of relying on what affiliations the university has.


corad
post Jun 25 2012, 12:20 AM

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QUOTE(cckkpr @ Jun 24 2012, 09:34 PM)
Never said RG equivalent to Ivy league though some are equal to if not better than ivys.
Generally, I think rg should be the starting point. But many students prefer UCL for engineering and lse for economics, though they are better ones around providing such courses.
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Yes, but both UCL & Southampton are in the Russell Group wink.gif

(sorry for being crafty!)

Goes to show how only certain uni's within the RG are given preference. These are usually in the "Golden Triangle" .

Just need to remember that university education only helps if you're looking for employment. And the employer would be based in reality, not perception. They know which uni provides good courses / grads.




corad
post Aug 16 2012, 03:46 PM

Hard to see, the dark side is.
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QUOTE(Sky.Live @ Aug 14 2012, 01:21 PM)
I bought my ticket under Malaysia Airline, it was a promo ticket, only 1.8k one way.
But then now I come into this question, only 20kg baggage allowance.. It might be insufficient.. Anyway I can get more stuff over there? courier? or is there option to purchase extra baggage allowance?
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20kg is actually alright. Which part of the UK are you going to ? Asian groceries / maggi are easily found in most cities. Clothes prices are on par with M'sian prices and much cheaper during sales (when they say sale, it really is a sale unlike M'sia shakehead.gif )

Just bring enough clothes to last you a week. Or perhaps I'm just lazy and don;'t want to pack/unpack so much tongue.gif what you bring to your room there will need to come out again anyway

QUOTE(Djinn1982 @ Aug 14 2012, 06:13 PM)
9 hours is insane. I've got a friggin' 12 hrs wait at KLIA for my departure. Anyone have ideas on what to do at KLIA for 12 hrs? (Sudoku marathon not acceptable suggestion)
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I used to have that since my domestic flight is from S'wak. Just redeem a golden lounge voucher with cash or Enrich miles. That way you get all the free food/booze/drinks/Wifi and comfy seats.
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