plenty of sheep.
Re. the weather comments, at present I would kill for cold and wet and a need to wear wet weather clothing. 
But maybe that is just me.
So, then, I am not at all familiar with Aberdeen, but I am glad to see we have at least one native Aberdonian here.
Mght I suggest a site where you will find a few from Aberdeen and its environs?
I liked the look of Aberdeen last I saw it - but that was several years ago 
, so I cannot offer advice, really. I was there for a job interview.
And congrats on your choice - Maybe this is a very foolish bias on my part, but I’d hazard a guess that Aberdeen Univ. might be slightly better thought of than Coleraine.
(And I really do not want to offend anyone by saying that: I will readily admit it is years since I darkened the door of any university.)
Use the Moving forum - that might be best.
I am glad you are looking forward to the whole thing! SO- why do you so much enjoy getting kicked out of museums?
It’s not so much that I enjoy getting kicked out…it just happens.
So far it’s:
Chagall Museum- Nice, France- accused of feet on bench
National Gallery- Washington, DC- brother got too close to painting
National History Museum- Dublin, Ireland- drawing exhibit/showing up every day, guard sick of me
almost got kicked out of the Franklin Institute in Philly for the SweetTart ™ Incident.
Actually, one of the profs who wrote my letters of recommendation used to teach at Coleraine. It just seemed intriguing. As it is, I’ll prolly stop off in NI to see some things…Giant’s Causeway and so on. Study Irish History long enough and you get pretty darned curious about “Up North”
The real reason is the sheep, you know. That’s why I’m going.
AL
I’m not too sure on this, as the University of Ulster is fairly good rep. around these parts. Nothing like Queens has, but it’s not a bad place.
(Nowhere near as good as Strathclyde though (as you know, all the best people go there! ;))
Coleraine is a bit of a small town though, but the nightlife around it and Portrush / Portstewart and the North Coast is pretty damn good.
But I guess you shouldn’t pick a university just for that reason. 
Never heard it called that before… :dubious:
My advice: Try not to sound English, unless you enjoy racist abuse (random violence an occasional extra). On the two occasions I visited (in the 1990s), I never felt less welcome anywhere in my life and I came away hating the place. The national character seems 20% rooted in historic pride and at least 80% in bitter loathing of their southern neighbour.
This is a nation that has taken small-mindedness to unprecedented heights : if the England football team play any other nation in the world, the Edinburgh pubs will be packed with Scots yelling and praying for England to lose. Needless to say, the converse situation never arises; the English seem to generally wish the Scots well.
One great thing about Scotland though : for some inexplicable reason their pubs are open much later than ours. I can only imagine there’d be street riots if they weren’t.
That phenomenon is common with all our near neighbours, and even those on the other side of the world. I think maybe it says something about our country’s past behaviour…
Wait 'till you watch an Old Firm match in somewhere like Boston:
Americans shouting for a Scottish team by waving Irish flags and cursing about dutch players on another Scottish team they hate because of what the English did many years ago in Ireland.
Confused? You will be.
You must be kidding, right? You must only frequent the nice, polite, quiet pubs in England. 
That’s sort of true. I am something of a connoisseur of pubs, and am a leading expert in detecting and avoiding those with high arsehole quotients. So if there is any general anti-Scots feeling in English pubs when the footie’s on, then I’ll probably not be around to see it.
My main pub btw is an Irish one, and now I think of it, whenever they’re having a pop at the English - which is often - it’s invariably in a friendly, jocular way. The Scots version always seems borne of nothing but malevolence and spite. Obviously this is nothing more than personal experience, yet it seems to mirror that of many other people.
Maybe this would be best for another thread, but the more I learn of British history the more this notion is, for me, becoming a red rag to a bull. Leaving aside the appalling notion of racial guilt (I guess we should be unpleasant to any Jews we meet, because they killed Christ, right?), what exactly is there for us to feel guilty about? Actually, hold that thought: I think I will start another thread.
More advice for the OP based on more pleasant Highland recollections: The academic year starts in September doesn’t it? IIRC that’s high midge season… so take gallons and gallons of midge spray.
If you go temporarily insane and decide to take a dip in a loch, for God’s sake mind the billions of jellyfish! Nasty, poisonous creatures. If you walk barefoot on the shore, watch for treading on dead and dried-out ones there. Even dead, you can still get a nasty reaction from them.
I wasn’t saying it’s right - just the reason for its existence.
I have no quibble with your annoyance. It pisses me off royally too. During the '98 World Cup in Dublin, I was in a cab, rushing home to catch the Argentina/England match, and passed a pub to hear a huge cheer coming from the door. “Ah, that’s nice,” I thought, “the hatchet’s been buried”. Then the cabbie turned on the radio: “Argentina just scored!” I was a little peeved. When I moved over I felt a little “guilty” for a few weeks, and then I went “for fuck’s sake, it wasn’t me sending people to Hell or to Connacht”.
Unfortunately, this kind of feeling is part of the background radiation of some people’s upbringing: in my experience of the Republic of Ireland, and in Scotland and Wales too, some people learn knee-jerk opposition to anything English from the year dot. Usually it’s in jest, but sometimes it gets just that little too serious.
with regards to the OP and midges, they arent a problem in aberdeen but if you venture further afield, Royal Deeside, or the north/west coast then they really are a nightmare, i dont know about the jellyfish though, this is the first time ive ever heard of them.
As for racism, obviously weve got our fair share of dicks in Scotland, but no better or worse than anywhere else. Talking from personal experience, i can honestly say ive never seen or heard anyone being abused for being English unless it has been light-hearted banter between friends, (Aberdeen has large English and American populations due to the oil companies) it might be worse in glasgow or edinburgh, but saying
is like saying every English person hates the Germans, obviously its bollocks but its the impression you get when you read the Sun before England play Germany.
They’ve got freshwater jellyfish in Scotland?
I am SO not going there!
Yeah, I know the Scots use loch sometimes to mean bay as well as lake, but still, it threw me for a little …
Clearly not; otherwise, it would be a national dish.
I’m going to hijack my own thread.
Well, to make this whole mess harder, UCD decides to get back to me. Today. The day I send out my yes to Aberdeen. And tells me that the faculty has “reservations” about my GPA (I recieved unconditional acceptances to Coleraine and Aberdeen) but the director of the program wants to instruct them to admit me. They were my first choice. They are the less expensive option.
BUT, they also tell me “school doesn’t start here until the end of September, there’s plenty of time. Hold tight.”
I don’t exactly see a little over a month as being a lot of time to get ready to leave the country for a year. I submitted their application back in May. May first. I subbed my apps to Coleraine and Aberdeen July 2 and was admitted to both by July 25th.
I’m not sure I did the right thing.
AL
UK universities tend to start later than US schools, and make admissions decisions much, much closer to the start date. I don’t know if the same is true for Irish schools.
What aren’t you sure you did right? If you really want to go to UCD, then you need to push them to give you a definitive yes or no in sufficient time that, if the answer turns out to be no, you won’t lose the option to go to Aberdeen. Some constructive pestering may be in order. Or you can ask some of the Dublin Dopers to go around to the uni and menace the relevant people into accepting you immediately. I bet they’d even enjoy it, right jjimm?
But don’t let UCD’s faffing cause you to lose other opportunities.
UCD was my first choice, but Scotland’s really got my heart right now. They’ve been kind, courteous, and always ready to answer my questions. UCD told me they’d tell me in July, and now tell me I won’t have a yes until at least next Monday. I’m already a bit late in my Aberdeen application- and they’ve given me nothing but help getting my things sorted out. Does it seem like I’d be saying no to UCD solely out of spite?
Not that I don’t ever want to go to UCD- someday, I’d love to attend. But right now, I think Scotland is the right choice. But I still feel guilty, for some reason. Doubt, maybe.
AL