Ledgies in the US
 

Hi Guys!

Some of you may know me but for those of you who don't I'm Matt :wavey: I love the Ledge for it's info discussion and most of all humour.

Basically, I've been considering going on Exchange to the US for Semester 1 2012, and I'm having difficulty selecting a partner university in the US to study at.

I'm doing a Bachelor of Psychology here in Australia,

These are the Universities that I can choose from:

University of Arizona

University of Arkansas

California State University San Marcos

Clarkson University

Clemson University

Iowa State University

Juniata College

University of Kansas

New Mexico State

University of New Mexico

University of North Carolina at Wilmington

Ohio University

University of South Carolina

Virginia Tech

University of Wisconsin at Platteville

Western Washington University

Any Advice guys?

Thanks

This is really a personality question more than anything. Those schools are all so radically varied. Do you like cold or warm weather? Do you care to be around the mountains, desert, or ocean? Would you prefer to be in a small town or a big city? Smaller school or larger one? Do you consider yourself to be conservative or liberal? Answer some of these questions, and we might be able to help you some more :)

I went to Ohio University for one quarter. I loved my classes but it just wasn't for me. I'm from a small town (and though Athens is small) the school is huge. If you're really outgoing and don't find a school with 20,000+ people intimidating, then I wouldn't have anything negative to say about it. The classes were great, the dorms were comfortable and the food is awesome.

It's known as a party school but you can totally avoid that stuff if it's not your thing. But if you're into Halloween, OU throws one of the biggest Halloween parties in the U.S. People come from all over to go to this party.

The campus itself is beautiful. It's southern Ohio where there are hills everywhere and huge trees. In the fall, it's so pretty.

A little interesting thing about the school: They bought the old insane asylum and it's now part of the campus. That was always really interesting to me.

I'm just kind of jotting things off the top of my head. If you have any other questions about the school, just let me know :)

Western Washington is about a half hour from the Canadian border, if that It's 2 or so hours from Seattle, and it's in a really cold place (Bellingham, WA) but it's beautiful. I have a lot of friends who go there from the Seattle area.

Well, I suppose I'd prefer warmer rather than really cold, Mountains or Ocean, the desert is too hot.

The university that I go to over here is kinda small town, but I definitely prefer bigger towns or cities, there's more variety and generally more culture. I'd like to be in a place with plenty of public transport so I can get around.

I'm more left wing than right, but I prefer a healthy balance. In Australia our politics is far more boring than yours in the US because there aren't really extremes of opinion. There's hardly a strong conservative or liberal presence. But I wouldn't mind experiencing that kind of difference of opinion.

Thanks for taking the time to help me out, It's really overwhelming to try and narrow the list down to just 3 to lodge expressions of interest to.

It's sounds interesting. Now that you tell me that I wish I was going to be in the US for Halloween! Halloween in Australia is catching on, but very slowly, It would be so awesome to experience that.

The asylum sounds a bit creepy :lol: do they use it for anything in particular?

I love the huge trees and hills, But how far away is it from Columbus? (which I'm assuming is the nearest city?) Is Columbus interesting?

Thanks for answering all these queries :D

I'm not sure about the cold, I would have to buy heaps of winter clothing since semester 1 starts in January - and then I wouldn't have any need for it back home, the coldest it gets here is about -4 Degrees Celsius which is about 24 Fahrenheit.

Thanks for the insight! You guys are so helpful :D

If any of them are in or near NYC, put those on the 'yes' list.

As for UW-Platteville, that's a big 'no.' lol

Have fun on your exchange trip! I really don't know anything specfic about those schools. You can of course find basic info like the size and surroundings on the school's website. But I love the foreign exchange students. :) My school has a specific building that houses them and American students who want to live with them, and I'm really hoping to get into that residence building next semester. :)

If it were me, I would personally chose California State. Mainly because of the location... it's centered in between Los Angeles and San Diego, it's nestled in the mountains, it's near the Pacific, and that area is known to have the most perfect climate in the US. Southern California just has a really laid back culture that you'd probably most be at home with since you're an Aussie. I don't think you'd enjoy going to one of the schools in Kansas or Iowa, for instance.

I think they use some of the old asylum buildings for science classes? I'm not really sure. When I was there a few years ago, most of the buildings were unoccupied and still in their original state. The main building where the patients stayed had been turned into an art museum, but only the first and second floors. The rest of the floors hadn't been touched.

Athens is about an hour and half away from Columbus. And interesting how? It's a big city with lots of things to do but it's not amazing or anything.

:lol: Thanks :D

Thanks, yeah I've been trawling all these Uni websites over the past couple of weeks to find something that really stands out. I heard about international housing where other exchange students stay, so that sounds pretty cool! Thanks for the info :thumbsup:

Yeah I think I'm definitely going to put California on the list, It's a great opportunity to even study in another country so I don't want to seem too picky. But I think that your right that I wouldn't like Iowa or Kansas, I would prefer either east or west coast I think. Thanks again for all your help! It's much appreciated :D

That's really interesting, Science seems appropriate in an old mental asylum, I definitely considering Ohio, It's not really important that Columbus is amazing or anything, It's more about the on campus experience anyhow. Thank you for all your info, It's really helpful to get others perspectives :)