Courses at the university were fantastic at all levels I attended. I spent a semester as an exchange student and had no trouble finding friends and colleagues in spite of coming in after most of my classmates had already started their programs. The administration ensured that we were all able transition properly to a British program, particularly understanding how the marking scheme works.
As a master’s student, I had fantastic seminars with wonderful professors and outstanding classmates. Most professors were wonderful with respect to feedback and willing to offer advice on term paper topics and drafts. However, communication was often lacking in my language courses (I was taking ancient Greek), which led to a great deal of difficulty with determining the expectations of postgrads compared to the expectations of undergrads in the same class.
Overall, the experience both times was wonderful. Even coming from a small undergraduate university, I found the atmosphere at Edinburgh welcoming, quite contrary to my expectations. Even with the trouble my classmates and I had with communication in one course, the rest of the department worked to ensure that we knew what was expected of us.
As far as the city itself is concerned, Edinburgh cannot be beat. The city has a fantastic history of its own, and the university offers ample opportunity to attend events both on and off campus. The cultural opportunities range across interests, and the organizations on campus provide a place for everyone to find a like-minded social group.