A Grand (University) Tour of the British Isles: 10 Universities in 8 Days

How was your February break?!? Our’s was wonderful but very, very busy. We decided to hop on a plane across the pond to look at universities in England, Scotland, and Ireland. It may come as a surprise to some of you who have been reading the blog for a while but little Conor is no longer little. He’s actually quite a grown up young man. I don’t often share posts about him because he likes his privacy but I got his okay to share this trip as I thought it might help some other families with teens interested in studying abroad or doing their full degree there.

Luke is English and we met during my Junior Year Abroad at the University of Bristol in Bristol, England. After finishing my degree in the US, I went back and did my Master’s at the University of Bristol in Film and TV Production. I loved it. Those two years studying in England completely changed my life in the best possible way.

We have taken trips to England and Europe, since the boys were young, to visit family and Conor did an exchange with Cork last year. He loved Skibbereen and his host family. Over the last year and half we explored American campuses and Conor hasn’t really found just the right fit and he really wanted to study abroad so we decided to look at a bunch of schools during his break. We thought it was important for him to see schools with students on campus for him to get the best feel.

Why Go to University Abroad?

The main reason is Conor really, really loves the UK and Ireland. He loves the culture there but there are a few more reasons too. Here’s a list:

• The culture
• Length – an undergraduate degree in the UK is 3 years vs 4 in US, a Master’s Degree is 1 year in UK vs 2 years in US. Ireland is slightly different with a general year prior to beginning more defined study.
• Focus – instead of a liberal arts education, UK universities focus on one thing. Conor is interested in Civil Engineering.
• Price – UK schools have three price options: UK, EU, and International. Prices vary from university to university but we found for International for engineering it ranges from £25K to £36K for the ones we looked at. That doesn’t include accommodation.
• Campus Living- Accommodation seems much nicer in the UK and Ireland in general. There are choices of shared or single rooms and most are single and most have en suite bathrooms. Some universities offer catered but most are self catering where students have a communal kitchen and cook for themselves. Conor loves to cook so is excited about that.
• Access to travel – Conor loves to travel and is excited he could use the UK or Ireland as a jumping off point to travel affordably. Ryanair flights are cheap and the interrail and the Channel Tunnel is a great way to access Europe or Paris for a long weekend.
• Work Placement – many of the courses offered a placement in the industry ranging from 6 months to a year so students have some real world experience upon graduation.
• A support network of family – we have family and friends across England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Planning Our Trip

We made a list of universities and cities we thought might be a good fit for Conor in October. He doesn’t like big cities so that took London off the table. At this point he wasn’t sure if he wanted a campus or city university. Our itinerary included a mix of both – some in the same city like Dublin and Bristol so it was good for him to compare pros and cons of campus vs city campus.

It seems like universities in the UK have Open Days and that’s when most students visit. Our trip wasn’t falling on an Open Day so I emailed schools to set up tours or visits. Some schools were wonderful and very receptive whilst others we didn’t hear back from at all. We did some self-guided tours but really he got a better feel when we were able to have a proper tour and could ask people questions.

We planned a rough route but that had to become more flexible and fluid as we started hearing back from universities. I tracked everything on a spreadsheet. Once we had all the tours booked we made hotel reservations. We stayed at Luke’s mom’s home for two nights but other than that we stayed in hotels. We also rented a car in both UK and Ireland to have more flexibility.

Touring Universities in England

Ready to take a peek at what we saw in England? Our trip got off to a rough start when we found out the day before our flight was cancelled. Luke scrambled and managed to get us 6am flights the next morning which worked out better in the end. We were able to stay at a London Heathrow hotel before driving to Portsmouth (our first stop).

Portsmouth

Our first stop was Porstmouth and the University of Portsmouth. We spent the morning strolling around the city. We visited some Army Surplus stores (Conor loves them) and an historic fort that belonged to Henry the VIII.

This was our first time in Portsmouth and we really liked it. The university has a great sailing program, rugby, and his known for engineering. The university spent a lot of time with us – we had a meet and greet with admissions, a talk with the Head of Renewable Energy Engineering, and a two hour tour of the university and city with a student. After we sat at a pub with amazing six nation themed covered chips and chatted about everything we learned about the university.

Then it was time to drive to Bath!

Bath

Our second stop was Bath. We stayed at the beautiful Apex Hotel. It was lovely! Luke and I have been to Bath a number of times as students and when we were first married. This was Conor’s first time visiting. We had a lovely breakfast and strolled around in the sunshine. The city is known for the Roman Baths, a place Jane Austen called home, and for the lovely architecture and also being a very safe city. We love Bath. Conor thought it was beautiful too.

We took a very informative group tour of the University of Bath, a campus university outside of the city. We were impressed by the accommodation, the well maintained campus, the beautiful athletic facilities (the English Olympic team trains there). Bath is nice because it’s close to Bristol, and two hours from Cornwall and London.

Exeter

Our third stop (later that day) was Exeter. We talked to an admissions counselor from the University of Exeter a week prior and had a list of places she recommended us checking out. We spent about an hour touring the campus. We found it hard to get a real sense of the university through a self guided tour. We were also getting tired… So we got back in the car and headed to Cornwall for a quick visit with family.

Delabole

This wasn’t a Uni stop but a stop to visit Luke’s mom and more family. We had Fish & Chips on Saturday night and a lovely visit with family on Sunday. We went for a lovely roast dinner lunch at the White Hart.

The Eaton Mess Sundae was amazing:

We wish we had more time but alas, on to the next school tour.

Bristol

We got up early and drove to Bristol for a 9am tour at the University of Bristol. This is the university both Luke and I went to so we were very careful not to try and convince Conor to like it. We had a lovely tour and it brought back loads of great memories for us. It was fun to see the new student union building with the global center.

After the tour we walked Conor around Clifton Village, up to White Ladies’ Road and down to the City Center. I think we walked 12 miles. Then it was time for dinner in Clifton for an amazing Indian dinner.

The next morning we got up early and headed to UWE Bristol. We have some friends and family who went here. UWE is a campus university, we were very impressed with the campus and facilities. We had a lovely tour with an admissions counselor and also got to meet with a current civil engineering student who took us on a tour of the facilities.

After our visit it was time to get back in the car and drive 8 hours to Edinburgh. (Our friend recommended an amazing service station on the way up there. It was very much Farm to Table and super fresh food with gorgeous views).

Hadrian’s Wall

Luke and Conor are history lovers and we drove an hour out of our way so they could see Hadrian’s Wall. It was fun to see it at Golden Hour but it meant we go to Edinburgh in the dark….

Touring Universities in Scotland

Edinburgh

We only toured one university in Scotland and that was University of Edinburgh, although a friend’s daughter is studying at Glasgow and loves it. We arrived after dark but the city was so gorgeous. Very medieval and it really looks like something out of a storybook with winding streets, turrets, and gothic architecture. The city was very clean and and felt very safe. It just was really, really cold. We explored the city at night and went to a great pub – The Last Drop.

The next morning we had two tours. One tour was a central campus tour and the other tour was King’s Building Campus Tour which was about 30 minutes away from the main campus. We really enjoyed the city and the university.

Touring Universities in Ireland

As soon as the tour ended we headed to the airport and flew to Shannon in Ireland. We planned on looking at four universities in Ireland. Both Luke and Conor have been to Ireland prior but this was my first time visiting and I was so excited. My maiden name is O’Connell and my dad’s family was from Cork so I really wanted to see it. I know my dad would have loved to be on this part of the trip with us. He never visited Ireland but dreamed of it.

Galway

We arrived in the evening to Galway and went out for dinner after checking in to the hotel. We had dinner at the Brasserie on the Corner and it was phenomenal. The monk fish was delicious.

In the morning we walked around the city and along the river over to the University of Galway. We had a guided tour booked for the morning. The oldest part of the university is gorgeous. We enjoyed learning more about the university. I wish we had more time in Galway. I would have loved to see more.

Cork

Time for our next stop. We drove up to UCC (University College Cork) and met Eoin and his mom, Karen. Eoin was our Irish exchange student and the boys were so excited to be reunited. We did a historic tour of UCC and loved learning about the history of the university but also more about Irish history.

The campus was very impressive with a church, an observatory, and historic buildings. I loved the plantings and the architecture and how they melded old and new.

After the tour we drove to Skibbereen where Eoin’s family lives. We checked into our hotel and then met up with Eion’s family for a lovely dinner at The Church, a phenomenal restaurant in an old Methodist Church. The Pad Thai and Sticky Toffee Pudding were out of this world!

We then went to the pub but couldn’t stay out too late as we had to get up at 5:15am to head to Dublin.

I really wish we got to spend more time in Cork and Skibbereen. Conor had a fantastic 10 days there. Cork is how I imagined Ireland – the rolling hills, the gorgeous countryside, little cottages, roaming livestock. It was so beautiful and we plan on going back.

Dublin

Poor Luke it was a long drive to Dublin in the rain. Our first stop was Trinity College. Trinity is the oldest university in Ireland and rated number 1 in the country. It’s right in the city. The buildings are so beautiful and the facilities are lovely. It was very busy on the campus between students, prospective students, and tourists. They do historic tours of the university and also have the Book of Kells on view in the museum.

After our tour finished there we walked back to the car and drove to UCD (University College Dublin). This is a campus university in Dublin and it is really beautiful. It’s more modern and they seem to be building more on the campus. We had a tour for this university but it was cancelled prior to our trip so we did a self guided tour. We had lunch on campus and walked around and saw the engineering building.

After both tours and lots of walking we were so tired. We ended up just eating dinner at the hotel and going to bed early. The salmon and gnocchi was amazing!

Our last day was a “free day” we walked all over Dublin. We got Conor a suit and Marks and Spencers and new rugby boots for this year. Then we walked to the National Botanical Gardens. They were gorgeous.

Headed to a pub to watch the Six Nations.

Walked lots and lots more.

Then had a great Indian meal at Doolally! Yum!

Just like that – 10 schools in 8 days.

Tips and Thoughts About Our Trip

First I have to say a huge thank you to everyone we met – tour guides, students, admissions, teachers, and just general people. Everyone was so lovely and genuinely excited to hear why we were looking in each place and what Conor was interested in.

Britain and Ireland are ahead of us weatherwise – we are burried under feet of snow but it’s spring there – crocus, daffodils, snow drops – they’re all popping up!

Seeing this many universitites back to back was a lot of information and a lot of driving. I would recommend getting a notebook and taking notes right after the tour. We did this and also did a little debrief on what we liked and didn’t like. What stood out about each place.

It’s so hard to get a gut feeling from virtual tours some schools Conor knew instantly weren’t for him but others he fell in love with. He has a bunch he’s interested in and is going to do more research online to see if there’s anywhere else he’d like to apply.

We were under the impression he was going to have to apply through UCAS but found out he can apply directly to the schools or can apply via the Common App. It’s worth discussing with admissions entry requirements because UK students specialize for A Levels (at 18) whilst US students do more subjects, APs, and SATs.

Let’s Stay in Touch

I hope this was helpful if you’re thinking about looking abroad at universities. Let me know if you have any questions. Be sure to pin this for a reference:

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