liberal arts vs. university

[prospectiveme]

SO i have heard and heard and heard that in the UK going to a university is a trillion times more specialized than in the US and that you have to KNOW what you want to pursue the minute you start college and that there is no room to mess around beforehand like in the liberal arts system over here...is this true? do i have any room for DABBLING? thank you for any guidance...

[kats]

I would agree that a normal ENGLISH university is quite like this - you go in knowing exactly what you want to do. But most universities in Scotland (notablly St Andrews) tries to be different and more like the american system in that sense. First of all, you have 4 years here instead of the 3 in english university. This means that for your first year and part of your second, you can try different subjects to find you way. for example, I took French, Social Anthropology, Psychology, Economics and Geography in my first year. Decided Economics, french and SA were not for me - pursued Geography and Psychology, after my second year, I dropped psychology and pursued Geography into honours and came out the other end with an M.A in Geography

Quoting prospectiveme from 06:16, 16th Mar 2007
SO i have heard and heard and heard that in the UK going to a university is a trillion times more specialized than in the US and that you have to KNOW what you want to pursue the minute you start college and that there is no room to mess around beforehand like in the liberal arts system over here...is this true? do i have any room for DABBLING? thank you for any guidance...

[househunter]

It's actually derived from a European system. When St Andrews was founded, it wanted to use a system different to the English system. So it copied the European system.

They're are some more interesting tit bits about all this that I can't remember, one of these is the reason why St Andrews offers the M.A. alongside the B.Sc, unfortunately I cannot remember it.

[[James]]

Quoting prospectiveme from 06:16, 16th Mar 2007
SO i have heard and heard and heard that in the UK going to a university is a trillion times more specialized than in the US and that you have to KNOW what you want to pursue the minute you start college and that there is no room to mess around beforehand like in the liberal arts system over here...is this true? do i have any room for DABBLING? thank you for any guidance...

This is what you're looking for:
http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/admissions/ ... tructures/

There is plenty of room for "DABBLING", although I'd be worried for whatever degree you take if you can't research simple information about the University's degree structure.

[box_of_delights]

I would agree that a normal ENGLISH university is quite like this

And the Welsh and Northern Irish unis [img]littleicons/yellowtounge.gif[/img]

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