One of the great things about Aberdeen is it's size. It's a city the size of Cork, with two universities - the University of Aberdeen and Robert Gordon University - and a student population of 30,000. Robert Gordon is right in the centre of town and everyone lives within walking distance. It's a young, vibrant place, with lots going on.
I went the UCAS route to Robert Gordon from Castlegregory, Co Kerry. I had applied to TCD to do pharmacy and as a precaution sent applications to four universities in Britain. I missed getting into Trinity by five points, but felt that repeating would be a waste. I'd be moving away from home anyway, so going to Scotland didn't bother me. When I got there I discovered that 45 of the 140 people in first year were Irish and 35 of them were from the Republic.
The biggest club in the university is the Gaelic football club. In Scotland, there are 11 universities with Gaelic football teams and we have a league and a championship. We also have a Scottish Gaelic football team. Playing Gaelic is a good way of meeting people. We have a lot of parties and have roped a lot of Scots into playing. In my first week I got to know 100 people.
Aberdeen University also has a large contingent of Irish people. Scottish people have a very similar mentality to Irish people and we have no difficulty settling in.
I'm enjoying the course. The broad range of subjects we studied at Leaving Cert proved to be an advantage. I think Leaving Cert is of a higher standard than Scottish Highers. A-Level people have specialised in a few areas, but those who hadn't done maths had great difficulty in first year. For me, first year maths was easier than maths at Leaving Cert.
On our first day at college, we were assigned personal tutors. It's their job to sort out personal and academic problems. It's a good back-up system.
In Britain, you're means-tested for fees up to £1,000, but some of my friends are paying nothing. Even if I'd gone to TCD, I would have to have paid a few hundred pounds registration fee.
Aberdeen is quite an expensive city. Campus accommodation costs about £54 sterling per week, gas and electricity included, which works out at about £65 punts, but the cost of living is about the same as home.
It's very multi-cultural. There are eight of us in my flat - two Scots, an Israeli, a Malaysian, and people from Germany, Holland and Thailand. Before I went away, I had met very few foreigners, but in Aberdeen I have been exposed to a huge range of cultures.
I get home about two or three times a year. The most direct way is to fly from Kerry to London to Aberdeen but I usually fly Edinburgh/Glasgow to Dublin and take buses and trains at either end. The whole trip costs me about £100 return. Some people fly back for the weekend.
Kevin Lyons spoke to Yvonne Healy
