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UCL vs. X official question thread

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10 applicants all together?! Wow that is definitely more exclusive than I thought! Has anyone heard of someone who has been rejected from the DUAL program because around here everybody seems to have gotten in there :P

Thank you for the information that the recommendation-for-an-offer-procedure is common - the English system is still very foreign to me..

At some of the science po campuses they have a full English curriculum (which is why Columbia University sends students there too - but they offer only the campuses that you cannot go to with UCL) - and at least all of them offer English lectures... Beyond that lectures in the language which is spoken in the region you focus on - that is how I understood it.

For the first two years I assume that we will be normal students at science po having our exams based there on the curriculum there -and as I understood in my interview we can choose a lot by ourselves with courses in English as well as in French - During the interview I was told that nobody would look after me and that nobody would care :biggrin:

Do you think they would offer a place at another campus if my french was not good enough for paris in the interview (it was really bad :biggrin:)? My second choice war Poitiers but I found out in the interview the moment they said that they would now test my spanish that one must speak Spanish for Poitiers...

Sorry Fini*Flambee that I forgot that you were on the sunny side already! :wink: Ok again and again I need to tell myself that I just have to be patient and to wait...

How did you experience the interview? Was it all positive? I had quite a few tense moments :P

@ Fini: And I find it strange that they want you to be 2 points better at the TOEFL! 109 is such a random score!! I did not know that they would look that closely! Maybe they will ask me to do a DELF test :P
University College London, University of London
University College London
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Reply 61
Original post by MissPellings
10 applicants all together?! Wow that is definitely more exclusive than I thought! Has anyone heard of someone who has been rejected from the DUAL program because around here everybody seems to have gotten in there :P

Thank you for the information that the recommendation-for-an-offer-procedure is common - the English system is still very foreign to me..

At some of the science po campuses they have a full English curriculum (which is why Columbia University sends students there too - but they offer only the campuses that you cannot go to with UCL) - and at least all of them offer English lectures... Beyond that lectures in the language which is spoken in the region you focus on - that is how I understood it.

For the first two years I assume that we will be normal students at science po having our exams based there on the curriculum there -and as I understood in my interview we can choose a lot by ourselves with courses in English as well as in French - During the interview I was told that nobody would look after me and that nobody would care :biggrin:

Do you think they would offer a place at another campus if my french was not good enough for paris in the interview (it was really bad :biggrin:)? My second choice war Poitiers but I found out in the interview the moment they said that they would now test my spanish that one must speak Spanish for Poitiers...

Sorry Fini*Flambee that I forgot that you were on the sunny side already! :wink: Ok again and again I need to tell myself that I just have to be patient and to wait...

How did you experience the interview? Was it all positive? I had quite a few tense moments :P

@ Fini: And I find it strange that they want you to be 2 points better at the TOEFL! 109 is such a random score!! I did not know that they would look that closely! Maybe they will ask me to do a DELF test :P


I do know a couple of people who have been rejected, while I only know another person who made it in apart from us.

I had also picked Poitiers as my second choice, and when the interviewers said that they wanted to check my Spanish, I pointed out that I had never studied Spanish before as the UCL ESPS dual degree page did not specify that I may need to. So I guess if you've picked French and don't know any other foreign languages you're likely to be assigned to Paris, as it's the only campus with no regional specialisation.

What does it mean that "nobody would look after us and nobody would care"? They didn't tell me anything about the course structure during the interview so I'm definitely interested whether you know more about it :biggrin: (you can send me a private message if it's fine!)

My interview was not easy at all to be honest... I could hardly finish my presentation and they asked me very specific questions concerning French politics. How about you?
My interview was difficult, too! I couldn't really finish my presentation either. Although I was happy with the main part, my conclusion was not brilliant^^
My text was about Islamophobia in European countries and the underrepresentation of Islam in Western instituation. In this case, I was quite lucky because this is a topic which interests me anyway. Afterwards I was talking with the interviewers about patriotism and multiculturalism which was really quite an interesting discussion. However, when I had to explain my motivation for the Dual BA in French, I realised that my French had already seen better times :wink: However, the overall feeling was rather positive than negative..

By the way, do you have an idea whether we'll get the TSA results? I'd be really interested in that :wink: Did you find it difficult?

I also know one further person apart from us who got accepted but on Feb 8 there were so many Dual Degree applicants (faaaaar more than 10 people). So there must have been some rejections.

@MissPellings
Haha maybe I should ask them whether I can substitute the DELF for the TOEFL^^
I wonder if they found the interview or the test more importantly - do you know anything about that? What I found striking when having the interview was that I did not meet a single boy who was going for the DUAL degree.

My interviewers were quite tough but impressive young ladies (the first French people I met without a French accent when talking English)! I found my interview difficult but enjoyed it in a way because it was very interesting and somehow went well on the whole.

@ Roses: I was not told something about the structure but only that it would be very hard, like no one would care if I did not understand the French lectures and how it would be a lot of work ... So basically they just said that it was a difficult course and they wanted to see my attitude towards a challenging course was.

I am excited to find out if they want to me to do any extra-stuff before I am accepted :wink: - Have you all done DELF? They do not state entry requirements on the website, do they?

The science po website says applicants that are not accepted to the DUAL Degree might me offered a normal enrollment at science po - some DUAL applicants might still be offered a place then :smile:
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 64
General consensus is I should firm LSE over UCL?
Reply 65
Yes, you should.
LSE is the institution that sets the standards in the field of economics, finance, etc...
Go for it. :smile:
So I got an offer from LSE for Geography with Economics and UCL for Economics and Geography. I love both courses and I'm really torn in between the two. I'd appreciate any advice on the matter.

I'm really interested in human geography esp development and geopolitics, so maybe lse would b more focused since it only does human geography. But should I study a bit of physical geo as well jst to b more all-rounded n then choose human geo modules later on in my course? (is lse better for human geo? I no ucl is better for geo in general but i'm not sure bout human geo)

I would prob study a master later on, sth to do with development or economic/social policy. Should i go for a major-minor or half-half or pure economics on that front? (I got an offer for UCL pure economics as well). I'm reaaallyyy confused :confused: helpp????

Thanks x
Reply 67
how did you write a statement for geog and econ and straight econ? thats amazing. i'd go for pure economics personally unless you really love geography. you can always choose extra modules in economics / other courses such sociology (if ucl do it) so basically majoring in econ and minoring in whatever else.
Original post by Tigger2010
how did you write a statement for geog and econ and straight econ? thats amazing. i'd go for pure economics personally unless you really love geography. you can always choose extra modules in economics / other courses such sociology (if ucl do it) so basically majoring in econ and minoring in whatever else.


Lol thanks, I focused my ps on human geog n econ. The idea behind it was i wanna understand bout the interrelation between economic policy n social context, how one affects the other and vice versa. That was my idea of it anyways, now reading back i'm not really sure if that came thru at all :colondollar:. I'm still surprised i got pure econ tbh cause fr the intro i talked blatantly about geog as well. I think a lot of factors affected my application, ps was only a part of it. N it wasnt as if that was the most brilliant ps u've ever read. I know a lot more ppl in my school whose ps was specifically for pure econ. Mostly I got lucky that other factors were strong enough to compensate my not-so-focused ps :smile:

I do like geog but mainly the part about development cause i like how the 2 subjects overlap but gives me different perspectives, that's y i've been so keen on applying there. But now i have all these choices i jst suddenly got confused n indecisive. After all, ur masters would prob have the most weight. Is it more advantageous if u studied undergrad in the school u want to do postgrad?

Thanks for the advice, it'd def making me think more seriously bout the pure econ offer n not b too fixated on geog :smile:
Original post by fromtheeast
So I got an offer from LSE for Geography with Economics and UCL for Economics and Geography. I love both courses and I'm really torn in between the two. I'd appreciate any advice on the matter.

I'm really interested in human geography esp development and geopolitics, so maybe lse would b more focused since it only does human geography. But should I study a bit of physical geo as well jst to b more all-rounded n then choose human geo modules later on in my course? (is lse better for human geo? I no ucl is better for geo in general but i'm not sure bout human geo)

I would prob study a master later on, sth to do with development or economic/social policy. Should i go for a major-minor or half-half or pure economics on that front? (I got an offer for UCL pure economics as well). I'm reaaallyyy confused :confused: helpp????

Thanks x


I don't understand why human a physical geography are even brought under the same subject, they seem entirely different things all together and I cant see one helping you with the other very much. With the Masters programmes you are looking at, physical geography is no more releavent than any other subject. If you are interested in human geography then study that. My advice is look very closely at the module choices and decide using those.

I would choose straight econ but I am biased because that is my subject. Im not sure about ucl so look into it but I'll tell you about LSE because it might be similar. At LSE you study economics, maths, stats and econometrics and then you can do whatever you want. If you want to do further academic study then it is good idea to do the most advanced economics and stats courses available which you can't do mixing econ with geog. In your first year you could do one of:
GV100 Introduction to Political Theory (1.0)
GV101 Introduction to Political Science (1.0)
GY100 Environment, Economy and Society (1.0)
GY103 Contemporary Europe (1.0)
GY120 Environmental Change: Past, Present and Future (1.0)
GY121 Sustainable Development (1.0)

In your second year you could pick any appropriate level course in the uni and in your third year you get to pick all your modules you have to pick 3 econ modules and one outside option but for the econ modules you can do things like development economics so you can really taylor it to your interests.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 70
Haha, I'm so happy to have found more people who have offers for the Dual Degree? Are you all at the Paris campus as well? We should like form anglophone study group for exams.

By the way, I'm an international student from the States. I'm not originally American: my parents are from Cameroon and my mum's dad is French, but I've lived in the States for 11 years.

I'm trying to decide whether to firm LSE IR over ESPS or vice versa :/
Reply 71
For all those who attended the 8th February assessment day, when did you get the conditions?
Reply 72
I got the offer on 16th February and the conditions on 29th Feb. Did you attend the 29th Feb Open Day? You'll get them soon enough. UCL seem way slower at updating Track than other unis. Track updated LSE the same day that I got their email.
UCL has finally updated my track today! Unconditional offer for the ESPS dual degree :party:

But I still have no idea which campus I got, hope I'll find out soon. What about the others from the 29th Feb Open Day?
I bet that today is a collective track-update-day for UCL :biggrin:
YES! For me too! Finally update with unconditional ticket to ESPS DUAL!!!! :thumbsup:

So its seems as if it was a collective-track-update indeed! :smile:

Well it does not say anything about the campus for me either but for now it does not matter at all! :biggrin:

The next for years of my life are set in an amazing direction! It will be so exciting!!! :smile:
Reply 75
Original post by c1k1449
I got the offer on 16th February and the conditions on 29th Feb. Did you attend the 29th Feb Open Day? You'll get them soon enough. UCL seem way slower at updating Track than other unis. Track updated LSE the same day that I got their email.


Yeah, I attended the 29th Feb one and got my offer on Track today... Can't wait to know my conditions though! Are yours the same as listed on their website (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/esps/dual-degree/entry-requirements-dd.htm ) or are they harder?
Reply 76
guys join the UCL ESPS offer holders 2012 group on facebook :smile:
Original post by toto2103
guys join the UCL ESPS offer holders 2012 group on facebook :smile:


done :smile:
Reply 78
Hi other ESPS Dual offer holders :smile: We spoke about it briefly in the other UCL thread, but I don't think we "decided" anything... But would any of you be interested in going to the Sciences Po open day in Paris on Saturday this week? I will attend, at least a part of the day, and if you would like to meet up, please let me know :smile:
I am going to attend the open day as well and I would love to meet up!
I was planning to go to all the stuff at the rue Saint-Guillaume first (at about 10h30/11h) in order to attend the events in the different Amphithéâtres and to visit the library.
And afterwards a short visit to the rue des Saint-Pères. What do you think? :smile:

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