THE COLLEGE SAGE CROSSES THE POND FOR SPRING BREAK
During last year’s spring break, The College Sage scoured Southern California for great college ideas. That trip to the West Coast produced so much excitement – College Sage Class of 2023 clients have received acceptances to UCLA, Berkeley, UC San Diego, University of San Francisco and Loyola Marymount. One College Sage student has already accepted to study in Los Angeles, with a merit scholarship! So this year The College Sage headed east and across the pond to find more uncovered gems for our adventurous students. Follow our journey to Ireland, Wales, and Sweden and check out these unique opportunities to study outside of the USA!
Trinity College: Dublin offers Students the Luck of the Irish and So Much More
Trinity College is the perfect blend of history, academics, and excitement. Ireland’s top university that dates back to 1592 is set in the center of Dublin, a truly European Union cosmopolitan city with almost one million population. If you want a vibrant user-friendly city setting for your four years in college, this is your place!
With 18,000 students, Trinity offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. Approximately 11,000 undergraduates grace this historic campus, studying everything from the hard sciences to philosophy to business (a new state-of-the-art dedicated business building opens next fall). Approximately 26% of the students are international. First year students are housed in “The Halls” off-campus and afterwards students find apartments in Dublin.
The cost of education abroad is surprisingly affordable. The overall cost of attending Trinity College is pretty similar to studying at a public out-of-state college in the US, but the experience is so much more. Just in our short time on campus we took in an exciting rugby game, poured over the Book of Kells, and had a few pints of Guinness with a Trinity College graduate.
For more insights on the tremendous academic options at Trinity College in Dublin, contact thecollegesage.com.
Cardiff University: Read Why This Student Decided to Study in the Capital City of Wales
Cardiff University is a public research university with just over 20,000 undergraduates in the capital city of Wales. Cardiff was ranked as the third best capital city in Europe (along with Copenhagen and Stockholm) a few years ago. Voted the 10th most beautiful college campus in the UK, Cardiff University is an inspiring place to study right in the city center that stretches from Cardiff Castle to Cardiff Bay. If you love Film & Media studies, Medicine, running, hiking, history, researching, a great Student Union, famous alumni, rugby, and adventure than Cardiff University might just be the place for you. Get out of your comfort zone for your college years and experience something truly unique. The College Sage met up with Jody, a sophomore at Cardiff, to hear some of her thoughts on her university choice.
College Sage: Why did you choose Cardiff University?
Jody: I chose Cardiff because they offered the opportunity to complete a semester abroad and a placement as part of the degree, which is more than any other Russell Group university was offering at the time. Moreover, I wanted to experience living in a city as I grew up in a very small town.
College Sage: What do you love about your university?
Jody: My favorite thing about this uni is the people. Since being here I’ve had the opportunity to meet some incredible people from all over the globe (Americans included!) which has taught me so much and consequently enabled me to grow so much as a person.
College Sage: Your favorite university memory to date?
Jody: My favorite memory has to be varsity- an event we host each year in which Cardiff University and Swansea University compete in a variety of sports throughout the day, finishing with everyone going to the stadium to watch a legitimate rugby match! There’s a lot of (healthy) competition between the two universities and it is a fantastic way to see the talent of the students aside from their studies.
College Sage: What are you studying?
Jody: It’s not exactly majors here. Most people choose just one subject and that’s all they study throughout their time at university. For example, my degree is psychology. Having said this, you can have joint honors in which you study a 50/50 divide of two subjects or a major/minor in which you do 75% in one subject and 25% of another subject, but joint honors and major/minor courses are much rarer.
College Sage: Do you have a favorite professor?
Jody: Although unorthodox, my favorite lecturer is either Job Van Der Schalk or Peter White. Job Van Der Schalk specializes in social psychology and was always so passionate about whatever he lectured. Peter White specializes in emotion, but he doesn’t use PowerPoint slides which makes the lectures much easier to understand, despite the fact that he’s the only lecturer I’ve ever had do that.
For more insights into Cardiff University, contact thecollegesage.com.
Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan (KTH Royal Institute of Technology): Sweden is a Royally Great Place for IT
Sweden is known for inventions – everything from the seatbelt to the pacemaker, Spotify to Skype began in Sweden. Alfred Nobel leads the long list of notable inventors with his early invention of dynamite! So if you’re looking for a cool place to invent yourself, KTH with its five campuses in and around Stockholm, might be for you! KTH is the largest, oldest, and most prestigious science and engineering school in Sweden and noted for the high number of Swedish CEOs it produces as alumni. Gaining admission into the 12,000 undergraduates who constitute this top national, European, and world ranked technology institute requires top marks.
Origins of this university date back to 1697 with Sweden’s “Father of Mechanics” Christopher Poelhem and his Laboratorium Mechanicum. KTH evolved into a technical institution in 1827 and has been at the center of the country’s technological advancements ever since. While KTH offers programs in Architecture and a multitude of engineering degrees, KTH offers only one Bachelors program taught in English with the study of Information and Communication Technology. In this program, you will be in the midst of excellent research with notable professors from around the world. The ICT program covers mathematics, programming, electronics and computer engineering, and networking while allowing substantial electives so the student can customize their studies to their interests.
