Just opened my acceptance letter for UCL!

What school you should go to is largely down to your subject.  But UCL is an awesome school (especially for my subject, archaeology, but I'm not applying there because I'd never want to live in London!), congrats!!

I never really missed home too much.  It thought it was so exciting to settle in, and get to know everything that's new around me. There's tons of info floating around that you can read about different stages of culture shock,...but I had a much bigger problem with "reverse culture shock".   But as long as you are prepared, and know what you can expect, you will be fine.  It is great that you've decided to do this, and I'm happy that you were accepted to all these schools.

As for deciding which school to choose--that's something only you can do.  You probably know which program you're most interested in...but I had a friend who went to Queen Mary and loved it.  I've visited UCL and King's, but it pretty much depends on what the individual departments are like, and which you think would be the best fit.

Someone else said that there's generally a 3 week break in March/April, so what you decide to do during that time is up to you. I used it to travel all around Europe, and loved every minute of it

Also, if you're looking for a place to live, I remember getting a whole booklet on student housing from an open day at either UCL or Imperial...but if you wanted to live in a houseshare or something like that, you could also check out  spareroom.co.uk

As for all the financial questions--I have no idea! But i do know that US student loans are accepted at UK Uni's, so you might be able to contact the individual schools to see what you need to do. 

Congrats and Good luck!!

Okay, this is total weirdness. I just got my BA from UCL. It's a long weird story, but I started at GCC and then was at ASU only to study abroad at UCL (meaning, I was a student at ASU but I never took a class as my year there was at UCL). My second year I transferred directly into UCL to finish my BA in History of Art.

The weirdest part may be that my username is PickledCabbage and yours is PickledSakura (Edited, just realized that was the person who commented before me, not you! haha!).

If you have ANY questions, don't hesitate to ask me. Especially if you're looking for locations to live, places to buy peanut butter and pumpkin pie mix (Waitrose at Brunswick), or good places for lunch nearby UCL main.

My funding was through FAFSA and Sallie Mae. Get on it now because my second year, they screwed it up so much at Sallie Mae that I had to overnight for my student visa (it was an extra $200!) and literally it arrived in Phoenix at my door at noon the same day my flight left at 4PM for London. It was a small nightmare, and it would have never happened had I not called them CONSTANTLY.

And lastly, a big huge congrats! Make sure you go visit Jeremy Bentham (UCL's zombie mascot) in the cloisters and say hello for me

Make sure you go visit Jeremy Bentham (UCL's zombie mascot) in the cloisters and say hello for me

I was waitressing last summer, and two of my regulars told me I <i> had</i> to go see Jeremy Benthum at UCL.  While I was on an open day, I accidentally stumbled into the area where he's kept.  It was cool   But his head is no longer there! Apparently they moved it because it kept getting stolen!?!  hehehe

and yes PickledCabbage, it is crazy that our usernames are so similar! 

Yeah apparently our rival school (Kings College) used to steal it as a prank. Apparently you can still see his head, which is kept in the UCL vaults) if you have a proper reason to see it. I'd love to hear what a proper reason is. Haha!