College?
 

So the deal is, starting fall of 2008 I'll be attending University of Hawaii to complete a master's degree (or I suppose 2 bachelors, still not sure). While I will be able to continue the piecemeal transcription and translation jobs I have for extra income (combined with uncle sam's chunk of cash), my soon-to-be wife will basically be supporting me. So as a deal with her, I'm going to be doing the same for her. The catch being, of course, that we're considering doing this somewhere... well somewhere not in the states.

I will be able to get a job with a respectable wage anywhere I go, but we won't have money coming out of our ears. So the question is, where does one go for a fair education that doesn't cost a small fortune for students from abroad? We've looked into a few UK colleges (no language barrier is a plus, eh?), and AUB, but it's still very much up in the air. I suppose the good thing is we have 3 years or so to consider options. So...

Suggestions?

Depends where you go , but the UK is fairly cheap compared with many places. Don't know if there are any financial assistance programmes for foreign students, but worth checking out. If you do, I'd suggest going for something in the North of the country(possibly even Scotland, though thinking abotu it Wales is also very good as an option): even though the weather's usually worse, the cost of living is significantly less (the difference in rent alone is vast).

If you are considering the UK, then you could do a lot worse than checking out the Times Online league tables. My own university is the University of Leeds in West Yorkshire. They have a lot of foerign studens, including quite a few Americans.

Manchester, Leeds, York, Newcastle. All of these Northern cities have excellent universities. A word of advice though: any university with the word 'Metropolitan' in it's name is an old polytechnic college which has been converted into a university in the education shake up. Genernally speaking, they are better at things like inclusion policies and catering to less traditonal groups of studens and are often quite good on some of the more modern disciplines (like computer sciences) but for the more traditional academic subjects they are not as good. Now, that's just an opinion, but it's held by a lot of people and a lot of employers. A 1st from the University of Leeds gains more points with an employer than a 1st from Leeds Metropolitian University.

Depending on where you go overseas, whatever government money you're eligible for here will apply there.

I leave in about 3 weeks to get my MSc. from Newcastle University in England. I'll let you know what I think as my experience progresses.

I'll put Durham University out there in addition to the schools that Dana suggested. Their programs actually look as good or better than the other schools I looked at (York/Leeds/Newcastle).

Oww, you're right, I forgot Durham. Beautiful place by the way, Durham. Has an absolutely gorgeous cathedral.

Sounds like northern england is the place to be...

For sure. We get there a week before classes start (first time international students get to participate in fresher's week activities). I'm going to take a trip to Scotland for haggis within the first couple days.

Ooooh. I love Haggis. Haggis is delicious!