Louis is studying for a Bachelor’s degree in International Management at the University of Bath in the UK.. Originally from France, he completed his International Baccalaureate (IB) at an international high school in Germany. Read on to find out more about his experience at the University of Bath !
Profile
FIRST NAME : LouisNATIONALITY : Frenchçaise
RACE NAME : Licence en gestion internationale
UNIVERSITY NAME : University of Bath
BACCALAUREATE TYPE : International Baccalaureate (IB)
A FUN DETAIL ABOUT YOU: I’ve lived in 8 countries
Why did you decide to study in the UK?
I’ve lived in about 8 different countries in my life, but I’ve always been taught in English in international schools. So even though I’m French, I actually speak and write better English than French, since I spoke English most of the time with my friends at school. I think a lot of students decide to go to the UK, or even the USA, for this reason, not to mention the fact that the UK is renowned for offering quality university education. All these factors combined led me to the decision to apply to study in the UK .
Have you applied to other universities abroad?
Yes, I also applied to Canada, so the UK wasn’t the only option. If I hadn’t had the grades required to get into Bath, I would have gone to Canada, but fortunately I had the results to be able to come here!
What was the admissions process like for you?
What courses and universities did you apply for in England? I applied to Business and Management courses at Bath, Loughborough, Birmingham, Edinburgh, and…one last university I can’t remember. The last one was a bit for show, because I already knew what my first choices were. When it came to applying, I paid close attention to the courses, the city and the sporting activities, because as I do a lot of sport, that was an important criterion for me. Loughborough, for example, is very well known for its sports clubs and I have many friends who went there as much for this reason as for the university’s very high ranking. I applied for courses such as International Management or Business Management, depending on the different names of the universities, as they don’t all offer the same thing, but always with a link to business anyway.
Why did you choose this particular university?
How did the application process go? Did you receive any help from your school? As my high school’s careers and university advice service was English, they were very helpful with our applications to British universities, as they were already familiar with the system. I think I was lucky to have a guidance counselor who was so involved in helping us (for example, he proofread the draft of my cover letter about 5 times) and supporting us, when other high schools might not offer as much help. If I remember the admissions process correctly, there was a lot of attention paid to extracurricular activities, which is common to universities I think – they like to see that the person, as well as having good grades, has a real personality. Have many other students from your school chosen to study in the UK? Yes, I’d say that out of the 70 students in my class, easily 20 to 25 of them have gone to the UK, which is still a significant ratio. I think it helps a lot that in international high schools the careers advisory service is English, because they push students to go and study in the UK. I have a few friends now who are based in Loughborough, who I’m lucky enough to be able to visit, and I know a few people who have gone to Warwick, which I think is also a popular choice. What extracurricular activities did you do in high school? Personally, I did a lot of sport, because that’s what I’m interested in, and in preparing for the International Baccalaureate in high school, we all had to do extracurricular activities like community work, service, etc. So I also found myself doing things like teaching music to younger students. So I also found myself doing things like teaching music to younger students. I was also a PE teacher’s assistant and did a bit of soccer coaching during the summer vacations, which was also an opportunity to earn a bit of money. 
Did you have any extracurricular activities related to business? As for anything specific to business, I didn’t really do that when I was in high school. I don’t think universities expect students to have a lot of experience in the academic field they choose, so it’s mostly about making the most of what you’ve done before to relate it to the subject. For my part, I had done a 2-week internship with a local company that sold watches. It was unpaid, and rather informal, but in the end it showed that I was really interested in the subject, and that’s always useful. Did you have an interview, and if so, how did you prepare? I didn’t have to interview for Bath, but a few friends who were applying for other courses at other British universities did. For example, I know that at Imperial College, they sometimes ask to see the student for an interview. As far as I was concerned, I just had to send in my application via UCAS and then when I got my offers, I got a conditional offer with required grades and that was it. Why did you choose Bath in particular? I was really interested in the satisfaction ratings given by students, and Bath appeared at number 1. It was also very well ranked for the course I had chosen (Bath is ranked 2nd in the UK by the Complete University Guide for business degrees, and 4th by the Guardian rankings). The city also seemed to be beautiful, and I had a family friend who had been there before and really liked it. These criteria also came into play. When the offer from Bath came in, it was pretty much a no-brainer for me. It’s really nice here, and it’s a great place to study. 
What’s your student accommodation like? Do you live on campus? I lived on campus for the 1st year. You can only live on campus for that 1st year, and then you have to find a student house, so now I live with 4 other friends in a house, which is very nice. I still think it’s pretty expensive here. Other cities are more expensive, and if you go to London it’s even worse. But most universities organize themselves like this: they offer one year’s accommodation on campus, and then for the other years you move to the city. But getting to the campus isn’t a problem, as there’s a bus that runs every 4-5 minutes and takes you straight there. You’ll never need a car here, for example. And Bath really is a beautiful city, and a very touristy one at that. It’s obviously quite different from cities like, say, Manchester, London, Leeds and so on. But it’s a really nice place to live and study. Could you describe your experience on campus? It’s like the campus has its own little world, because it’s full of young students and there’s a lot going on all the time. The campus is like a little town in itself: there’s a bar, a supermarket, even banks if you need them. There’s a gym, sports equipment, so the experience is great; you have everything you need here. The only problem is that once you’re living off-campus, you have to go off-campus to take advantage of it all. But with the courses you go on campus anyway and then you just spend the day there. It’s nice, I really like it. What’s the workload like? And are you involved in any student associations at your university? The workload really depends on the course. In engineering, for example, you have to work hard to get to the next level. In my course, in Business Management, you have to work hard to get a very good grade, but to just “pass”, it’s relatively simple. Of course, it’s not “easy” either, there’s always a lot of work to do, homework, but you don’t have to work intensely all the time, to be honest. On average, I probably don’t spend more than 2 hours a day working. That said, of course at this time of year (at the end of the year), I still have some homework to do and I work a bit harder, but it’s definitely doable. So if you’re studying business, political science, languages, those kinds of subjects, it’s not too difficult. But I think if you want to go into engineering, maybe accounting, finance, economics, the workload becomes a bit heavier. In terms of associations, there are tons here in Bath, but I don’t take part in many of them because sport already takes up a lot of my time. So I’m in the soccer club and I travel to different universities in the UK to take part in matches. But Bath really has almost everything you could think of to get involved in: there’s a poker association, a wine tasting association; lots of different things covering a wide variety of interests. How are the exams organized in your curriculum? Exams take place twice a year, once in January and once at the end of the year in May, and I generally have 3 to 5 exams. Most universities here operate in such a way that the grade you get in your first year doesn’t count, you just have to “pass”, so I advise students to above all enjoy this year and have fun. In my case, the grade I got in 2nd year counts for 30%, and the final year grade counts for 70%. But of course, these ratios can change depending on the different courses. My degree also included an internship year, which makes it a 4-year degree, and you spend the 3rd year doing internships. As I’m doing International Management, I had to do my internships abroad, so last year I did two internships in Germany, in two different cities: one at BMW, and one at Adidas. How was your internship year? It was a great experience. There are a lot of Brits who aren’t used to traveling and working abroad, maybe they’ve never even left the town where they were born, and for them going to university was obviously a big change, and changing countries even more so. But everyone had very positive feedback on the experience. As for me, I’d lived in Germany before, but I went to towns I’d never lived in before, so for me it was all about meeting new people and settling in. Joining a few local sports clubs helped me when I was there, I met local people, who also helped me improve my German. But I was also lucky to find a small community of students from my university who were in the same towns or nearby for their internships, so I was lucky to get to know people like that too, and I also shared an apartment with some of them during one of my internships. Is there anything you don’t like about the British school system? I’d say it’s relatively expensive for what you get. Well, of course I know that everyone pays £9,000. And there are some courses that really have a lot of lecture hours that the university invests a lot in, like engineering and science, which is understandable because, in comparison, business students don’t need as many lecture hours, and obviously we don’t have labs like they do. So it basically means that you’re paying £9,000 a year for, say, 2 hours of lectures a week, which personally I don’t mind very much because I think it’s all about getting the most out of university and not just working a lot and doing nothing else. But a lot of people think otherwise. On the whole, though, I honestly think the school system here is pretty good, so I can’t really complain. Any final advice for students applying to Bath or any other UK university? The first piece of advice would be to show interest: show that you like university and the curriculum, and you’ll have a much better chance of getting in. Second – and this is something all teachers say all the time -: really work hard in high school, because the final grades you get in high school are actually much more important than the grades you get in college. I know I worked pretty hard in high school, and I’m really glad I did, because it got me into the University of Bath, which is very reputable, and in itself offers me opportunities. Very recently, for example, I was offered a position as a recent graduate, which I’ll start when I’ve finished my degree. So, I would advise students who are still in high school to really work hard to get into a relatively good university, because once you get there, the pressure on grades will drop because studying at a good university already opens up opportunities. And that brings me in a way to my final piece of advice, which would be to really invest yourself in your university once you get there. Get involved in lots of new things, do as many associations and sports activities as you can. Just get involved and enjoy it.
