IMO, USA is the better place for engineering. Top US universities are much harder to get into than top UK universities for engineering. That may tell you something.

Some universities might still have places because I reckon it's UCAS clearing time now. And some universities start end-Sept or early-Oct. So you might have 1 month to get everything done. The British are very understanding people and if you have an genuine explanation, they are able to rush things for you at lightning speed. If that's what you really wanted, so yes, it's possible.

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Added on August 21, 2008, 11:06 pmI know for a fact someone easily got into Imperial but got rejected from several of the top US universities he applied for engineering.

This post has been edited by hhkonghh: Aug 21 2008, 11:06 PM

Yes, you are right. Top US universities you mentioned looks for higher caliber students than UK's. Hence more likely to producer better engineers.

This post has been edited by hhkonghh: Aug 21 2008, 11:28 PM

I wouldn't want to do that if I were you. I did some checking and this is what I found.

Based on international money market wholesale exchange rate or inter-bank rates. http://www.xe.com/ucc/

Credit Card
1. Mastercard/Visa will charge you 1% minimum.
2. Bank administrative charges. Some bank will charge while others don't. Range from 0 to 2%. So go read your cc's small print. It's written there.
3. Cash advance overseas using CC. If bank treat it as cash advance, probably charge you another 1%, unless your credit card is somewhat linked to your other account with money with auto-transfer.

So potentially, using CC will incur a cost of between 1 to 4%. That is a LOT of money.

ATM
Withdrawal overseas will incur a charge of RM5 to RM12 per transaction, depending on which bank. Cheapest RM5 is using Malaysian HSBC ATM card at overseas HSBC ATM machines.

Only ATM with the Cirrus or PLUS sign could be used overseas. For example, RHB and PBB do not so can't be used.


Conclusion on money transfer:
1. Credit Card is the most expensive, ranging from 1 to 4%
2. Bank draft is the cheapest at ~0.45%
3. ATM is the fastest. It's instantaneous.
4. Bank draft is the slowest. It takes 1 week to reach UK and another week to clear.

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Added on September 5, 2008, 9:59 pmI checked. Many will charge monthly fee (GBP 6 to 12) for international students for opening account.

HSBC
Basic account is free.
PASSPORT account you have to pay.

Barclays
You have to pay or
You put GBP2000 (no interest) and never touch these, then it's free---You can open with RHB here and they link up with UK Barclays so account is ready even before you reach UK.

Lloyds.
Free

NATWEST
Student Account you have to pay.
Very basic account is free.

Royal Bank of Scotland
Student account is free. And they pay you 2% interest on your money. Others bank is 0 or 0.1%.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong.

This post has been edited by hhkonghh: Sep 5 2008, 09:59 PM

Please elaborate more on this.

1. I don't think you can change the name on the bank draft.
2. Do they also charge you GBP 12 for a bank draft drawn on a UK bank?