Any tips on changing currencies (esp. into GBP?). The universities demand payment in the local currency, GBP, which I don't have. I know enough not to make the exchange at the airport (ha!) but beyond that I'm clueless. Open an account in the GBP at home? Wait until I arrive and use a UK bank? A combination of both? Where can I find good rates/low fees? Your help is appreciated.

What I'd recommend is to take sufficient cash in your new currency with you to last the first week (unless you want to use credit cards or something), open a local bank account as soon as you arrive and transfer your whole budget to your new account in a lump sum. I've found that wiring money over in big lump sums works out to be cheapest. It's almost always cheaper and easier to have a local bank account. As an international student in the UK, I didn't have any trouble setting it up once I had an address and a certificate of enrollment here.

Where will you be attending next year?

opening a bank account is not that easy, it will take up to 2 or sometimes 3 weeks, before the bank opens it. So you should take money with you at least for one month.

I don't know if you've got HSBC in your country, but they have services that can help you open a current account in the UK even before you get here. And if you meet the requirements to be a premier customer, it's even easier. That's what I did.

If I go, I'll go to Cambridge.

I spent a number of hours researching this and it looks like Beicon is right.

Premier seems the way to go, if you have sufficient funds to qualify for the account. As you say, you can set up the UK bank account before you leave your country. There is no currency exchange fee, as stated, for premier customers. What I worry about is the underlying exchange rate---it's hidden unless you are a customer. Judging the underlying exchange rate across banks is difficult. Beicon, were you happy with the exchange rates HSBC offered for premier customers? They say the premier rate is "preferential."

On another note, for the HSBC credit card, the credit card waives the 1% mastercard foreign exchange fee for US customers, and, as of yesterday, mastercard was giving better rates than visa. But I've heard the opposite in previous years.

good luck with your decision. do u know which college in cambridge you'd go to?

No. That's still up in the air.

Indeed, my camsis page still says "papers with degree committee" a month after I was admitted.

Although I do see a cool new camsis logo on the entry page. It has a sideways exclamation point. But maybe it was there before and I missed it.