British Boarding School and Transferring to Where I Studied Abroad

June 2022 - The Dining Hall, Hugh Stewart Hall. This is where I ate breakfast and dinner each day from January to June 2022. 

I went to British boarding school. Well, not quite.

Choosing to Study Abroad

I am a procrastinator and chose Nottingham with not much thought.

I originally wanted to study in France. But, I knew my French was pretty rusty and it wasn’t part of my degree.

So, I decided on England. From there, I knew I didn’t want to study in London, and Nottingham was one of the few unis that The College of Charleston had a program with.

I saw a picture of the Trent Building and was sold.

Arriving in Nottingham

Hugh Stewart Hall is a Grade II listed Gothic Manor House, formerly known as Lenton Hall in the 19th century. This was my dorm during my study abroad. I was the only American in the dorm, so I had a very immersive experience.

As for Hugh Stewart Hall, I didn’t select it. I was randomly assigned it.

Hugh Stewart Hall was arranged by blocks. For my American readers, a block is a set of approximately 10-12 rooms with roughly 4 rooms on each floors. Your block is the first people you meet and interact with the most before meeting your friends.

I got placed in L Block, and my block mates really welcomed me and took great care of me.

On my first day, I locked myself out of my room and had to walk across the dorm in my pink, long-sleeve pyjamas. Eek!

Living in Hugh Stewart Hall

We had 26 blocks in Hugh Stewart Hall, A-Z, and each block had a little bit of their own reputation.There were also no RAs (resident advisors), so it was a bit of a free-for-all.

With roughly 350 people in Hugh Stewart, it felt like a high school. You knew almost everyone’s first name, who they were friends with, who they were seeing, and what they had gotten up to over the weekend.

We all ate dinner together in the dining hall, and about a quarter of us made it down for breakfast each morning. There, I met some of my best friends: Lizzy, Maddie, Hannah, and Arohi.

March 2022 - Me (20), Maddie (19) and Lizzy (19) on The Downs.

It had a bar called Latitude, (yes, a bar in the dorm) and an ivy-covered laundry centre you could only reach from entering the basement outside.

My friends and I went out multiple times a week, were constantly together and just had the best time. It is such a nostalgic time in my life.

Leaving Charleston

My time in Charleston (August 2020 - January 2021) was dampened by Covid. We couldn’t have friends in our rooms. We couldn’t go to class in-person, and we had to social distance everywhere from meals to studying at the library.

If you were caught at a party, you risked being expelled. And because we were 18/19, we couldn’t go to the bars or clubs. I could maybe name 30 people on campus, and I definitely didn’t know their personal business - bor-ing!

I loved the city of Charleston itself, my modules and my good friends Caroline and Adi. But besides that, it felt isolating and depressing due to the pandemic.

My American friends and I often spoke about how due to Instagram, there is this huge pressure when you first go to uni that you need to have the time of your life. You are also watching everyone else seemingly have “the time of their lives.”

It is hard when you definitely aren’t having the time of your life.

When I arrived to Nottingham, I felt like I was finally in uni.

The Process of Transferring

So, starting in April, I began the process of transferring. I wrote about 101 emails, officially applied on UCAS (which I learned is U-CAS, not U-C-A-S) and had it all sorted by July.

I like to think there is nothing you can’t accomplish if you can write a good email, ha! They probably just let me in so I would stop annoying them.

My major in Charleston was Hospitality and Tourism Management and my minor was Historic Preservation and Urban Planning. They didn’t have either of those at Nottingham.

So, I thought, “Oh, I should try to join the business school.” Well, the business school did not accept transfer students.

But, my advisor told me that they could throw me in Liberal Arts. So alas, that is now my bachelors degree for the rest of time.

My Final Year and Beyond

Now, whenever people ask me where I went to college, the conversation is quite predictable. It goes something like this:

“Where did you go to university?”

“The University of Nottingham in England”

“Oh, how interesting! How did you end up there?”

“I originally was at The College of Charleston and then I studied abroad in Nottingham. I ended up liking it so much I transferred.”

“Oh, I had no idea you could do that.”

July 2023 - My graduation day in Nottingham.

I came back to Nottingham that September, and moved into a flat with three girls I met online: Lizzy, Hazel and Beth, who I am all still friends with. After another memorable year, I graduated that July (2023).

Lessons Learned:

• It sounds cliché, but you do have to make your own path. I am the only person I know who transferred to where they studied abroad. It was risky to move countries, change majors, and graduate a year early, shaving off a year of my “figure shit out time.” But it also changed my life trajectory and I am so happy with my decision.

• Studying abroad, or living abroad, gives you confidence in your own abilities and in your identity. That first semester, I often thought, “Oh, I am never going to see these people again so it doesn’t really matter what each individual person thinks of me.” Then, I transferred and I did see those people again, ha! But the mindset and confidence has stuck with me.