One of the main reasons I wanted to go to university abroad was to get away from home for a while, be more independent, and meet new people. Aberdeen is great like that, hardly anyone in the college is from the town, so everyone is in the same boat. There are lots of Irish people in Aberdeen, many of them doing courses like pharmacy.

My course is five years long because I had to go to France for a year. I didn't feel at any disadvantage having done Leaving Cert French. My Scottish friends who had done French at "Highers" did not seem to have been above my standard, and I have always done well enough in my continual assessment to be given exemptions from French exams.

The main advantage English A-Level students had was that they had studied French literature.

Aberdeen is almost 500 years old - the second oldest university in Scotland - and is older than Trinity. It has its own cathedral and is set in the middle of old Aberdeen with cobbled streets all round it. You can get back to Dublin for about £100. There are no flights directly to Aberdeen, so you have to go via Belfast or London or else get a train from Glasgow.

The social aspect of life at Aberdeen is so different to what it would be here - I was in halls in first year and to stay in for more than one night a week was rare. There was always someone going out to something.

The union in the university has two clubs, six bars and pound-a-pint nights are common. There were free buses from my halls to all the big clubs and back again. Even if you do get marooned in town you can take a taxi and the union will pay for it - you just pay them back when you have the money. In Dublin, even if you could get a taxi you would have to pay £10 for it.

You still have to work for your degree but it is a four or even five-year course. I think they take the attitude at the start that they are training you to study and training you to be able to combine it with a social life and to have self discipline as much as giving you information.

Even though I love going to Aberdeen, the only place I can see myself living is Dublin. There are more opportunities and, at the end of the day, I have too many attachments there to leave for good.