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The Edinburgh FAQ and 'Ask a Student' thread

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Original post by cathkidston
Thanks, it's really helpful to know I'll still be able to use the facilities :smile: Are evening classes free within the university or are they private?
Is the year abroad definitely in 3rd year at st andrews? I've just been trying to find out but I can't seem to find the information anywhere!!
Thank you :smile:


Evening classes cost, but are discounted if you're current student. If memory serves, they're not particularly expensive.

I'm fairly certain St Andrews sends its students away in third year rather than fourth.
Student at University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
Thank you! :smile:
Reply 202
Original post by GentlemanOfTheRoad
I'm hoping to apply to law at Edinburgh for 2013 entry
So my GCSE grades this summer came out like:

A*-History
A*-ICT (2010)
A*A*A* BTEC Level 2 in Public Services - done in spare time.
AA-Dual Science (IGCSE)
A-English Literature,
A-English Language,
A-Geography (IGCSE)
A-Classical Civilisation,
A-French
C-Maths (retake 2012, predicted A*-sat wrong paper by mistake. CLERICAL ERRORS FTW)(IGCSE)

And yes I realise they're more likely to look at Higher/AS grades but I do the IB which is examined at the end of the 2 years so I have no fall back. I also have s**t loads of work experience in law in many high end firms and spear head the law society at school. Will I possibly get an offer?

GCSE means bugger all really so ask again when you have Higher/AS grades
Thanks everyone :smile:
Original post by qno2
An idea would be if your school will not let you do higher maths, pick another higher that they will let you do.

If only I could do that... Maths is compulsory at my school in S5 (ironic thing is that last year it wasn't). But If they won't let me do Higher Maths, I'll ask them if I can maybe drop it anyway.

Edin. is my 1st choice atm. and I would be very disappointed If I couldn't apply there :frown:
Reply 204
Not an expert on Edinburgh University, but, surely to do VetMed, you should be pretty academic and 'up there'?
Reply 205
Email Victoria Doggett back and say your school refuses to let you sit 5 Highers and in those circumstances is there anything at all you can do in 6th year which will make it up. If there is something it will be more than the AAABB/BB and they might not be keen to spell out exactly what you'd need- it'd be undermining the idea of required grades to give an alternative

I didn't get the required grades for my course. I needed a B in Higher English but got a C (so got AABC) but I got in because I crashed an Advanced Higher in 5th year and got an A and had a year's full time experience in a related job. Which is to say I'd done a fair bit to make up for the missing B by showing my ability to get good grades and handle a high work load as well as interest in the subject. But the possibility of that will depend on the course.
Reply 206
Hello all. I am an American undergraduate student applying to study abroad in psychology next fall for a single semester. As I understand it, the normal course load is 60 credits, or 3 classes. I need year 3 classes, and I've noticed that all of the year 3 psychology classes offered next fall are only worth 10 credits each. So my question is: do students still only typically take three classes if they're only worth 10 credits each? Or should I plan to take 4 or 5 classes?

This is all pretty confusing for me because here in the States the normal class load is 5 classes worth 3 hours each (15 hours total), but a normal Edinburgh class worth 20 credits is the equivalent of 5 hours credit here. So normally American students abroad take three, 20 credit classes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I just want to make sure I don't load up on 10 credit classes thinking they're much less work than 20 credit classes, only to find out that I've bitten off more than I can chew. At the same time, I don't want my schedule to be so light that I have a bunch of idle time on my hands :u:
(edited 11 years ago)
Original post by dcregg
Hello all. I am an American undergraduate student applying to study abroad in psychology next fall for a single semester. As I understand it, the normal course load is 60 credits, or 3 classes. I need year 3 classes, and I've noticed that all of the year 3 psychology classes offered next fall are only worth 10 credits each. So my question is: do students still only typically take three classes if they're only worth 10 credits each? Or should I plan to take 4 or 5 classes?

This is all pretty confusing for me because here in the States the normal class load is 5 classes worth 3 hours each (15 hours total), but a normal Edinburgh class worth 20 credits is the equivalent of 5 hours credit here. So normally American students abroad take three, 20 credit classes.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I just want to make sure I don't load up on 10 credit classes thinking they're much less work than 20 credit classes, only to find out that I've bitten off more than I can chew. At the same time, I don't want my schedule to be so light that I have a bunch of idle time on my hands :u:


Well, clearly if you're expected to take 1 semester's worth of courses you need to take 60 credits worth. That said, you've been pretty vague about what your homer institution expects you to return with. How many credits are they expecting you to do (bearing in mind that class hours are NOT comparable)? What do you mean by third year courses? A lot of exchange students take first and second year courses while in Edinburgh, and I'm uncertain about how exchange students would be received on what are essentially honours courses.
Reply 208
I am thinking about studying French and German at Edinburgh in 2013.
But I am very worried about my GCSE's

AS Predictions: AAAA (French, German, English Lit and History)

GCSE's: English Lit A*
English Lang A*
French A
History A
German B
Geography B
Maths B
Additional Science B
Core Science B
P.E C
R.E (Short Course) B
ICT (Short Course) Pass

What do you think?
Reply 209
Original post by nearlyheadlessian
Well, clearly if you're expected to take 1 semester's worth of courses you need to take 60 credits worth. That said, you've been pretty vague about what your homer institution expects you to return with. How many credits are they expecting you to do (bearing in mind that class hours are NOT comparable)? What do you mean by third year courses? A lot of exchange students take first and second year courses while in Edinburgh, and I'm uncertain about how exchange students would be received on what are essentially honours courses.


My home institution has not given me any specific quota. I am expected to take a "normal course load" for an Edinburgh student, which as I said usually equates to three, 20 credit classes. However, I will be going abroad during my junior year so all of my psychology courses need to be advanced, or "SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)" classes according to the Edinburgh course finder. The problem is all of them for psychology are only 10 credits, so I am unsure what is expected of a typical Edinburgh student? Do they still typically only take 3 classes, or enough to get to 60 credits (which would mean I'd have to enroll in 4 to 6 classes total depending on what electives I take)? I find it hard to believe that the more advanced classes would be less demanding than their 20 credit lower division counterparts, and so I don't want to overdo it by taking enough classes to get to 60 if that's not the norm for students taking year 3 courses.
Original post by dcregg
I am expected to take a "normal course load" for an Edinburgh student, which as I said usually equates to three, 20 credit classes.


Well lets stop confusing things by talking about 'classes' worth a certain amount. An Edinburgh courseload = 120 credits. 1 semester = 60 credits.

Original post by dcregg
However, I will be going abroad during my junior year so all of my psychology courses need to be advanced, or "SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate)" classes according to the Edinburgh course finder.


Your home institution says this? My comments above are based on Americans who come in their 3rd or 4th years and still only take 1st and 2nd year courses. So if your home institution mandates you take 3rd year courses then that's fine - just worth being sure.

Original post by dcregg
The problem is all of them for psychology are only 10 credits, so I am unsure what is expected of a typical Edinburgh student? Do they still typically only take 3 classes, or enough to get to 60 credits (which would mean I'd have to enroll in 4 to 6 classes total depending on what electives I take)?


Exactly. They need 120 credits, so they take enough courses to get that. You need 60, so you take enough courses to get that.

Is your home institution happy for you to take electives? Because a third year in Edinburgh wouldn't take outside courses.

Original post by dcregg
I find it hard to believe that the more advanced classes would be less demanding than their 20 credit lower division counterparts, and so I don't want to overdo it by taking enough classes to get to 60 if that's not the norm for students taking year 3 courses.


Well they're clearly more "demanding", because they're level 10 courses rather than level 8 courses. However, the amount of contact time and work should be half that of a 20 credit course, because if it was the same then it would be a 20 credit course...
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 211
Original post by PudPud
I am thinking about studying French and German at Edinburgh in 2013.
But I am very worried about my GCSE's


Your GCSEs aren't bad so if you get 4 As at AS I can't see it hugely mattering. My impression is that if you have good AS grades then the next thing they judge based upon is your personal statement rather than GCSEs
Reply 212
Original post by BKS
Your GCSEs aren't bad so if you get 4 As at AS I can't see it hugely mattering. My impression is that if you have good AS grades then the next thing they judge based upon is your personal statement rather than GCSEs


Ok, thank you :smile:
I'm looking at a postgrad program at the University of Edinburgh, which starts in Sept 2013. Applications are issued from Sept 2012 and deadline for home/EU students is in February 2013, while deadline for international students is in July 2013.

Why is this? Are international students at a disadvantage if they apply later than February? July seems awfully late for September entry.
Reply 214
Original post by Marlena002
I'm looking at a postgrad program at the University of Edinburgh, which starts in Sept 2013. Applications are issued from Sept 2012 and deadline for home/EU students is in February 2013, while deadline for international students is in July 2013.

Why is this? Are international students at a disadvantage if they apply later than February? July seems awfully late for September entry.


I don't know why but they couldn't disadvantage international students by allowing them to apply later. If it were a disadvantage then they'd have to make both deadlines the same. Otherwise it'd be a form of discrimination really and I'm fairly sure the uni know better than that. If I had to guess I'd go with it's because of some admin practicality.
Original post by Marlena002
I'm looking at a postgrad program at the University of Edinburgh, which starts in Sept 2013. Applications are issued from Sept 2012 and deadline for home/EU students is in February 2013, while deadline for international students is in July 2013.

Why is this? Are international students at a disadvantage if they apply later than February? July seems awfully late for September entry.


Which degree? The vast majority of PG stuff at Edinburgh has no official deadline for application.
Original post by nearlyheadlessian
Which degree? The vast majority of PG stuff at Edinburgh has no official deadline for application.


I'm actually looking at two programs, one psychology related and one social work and I can't remember which had the deadline - I think it was for the psychology PG course. I sent an e-mail to the course director and was told international students (ie me) could apply as late as July, which would be ideal in my situation but applying in July for entry in September seems crazy and I can't help but assume they'd probably already have all their spots filled up?
Reply 217
But why would they tell you to apply if they knew their spots would be filled up? They want to be getting the best students and they need to allow fair competition for spots. Perhaps it's a course which never really fills up
Reply 218
Hi! I am an international student who has received an unconditional offer from the University of Edinburgh for Philosophy & Politics and I am really considering the University. (At this moment, it is between the University of Edinburgh and Columbia University in the United States.) I don't have the chance to visit Edinburgh post-offer, so I want to know a few things which will factor in for my decision. (Preferably from current students.)

=> How easy is it to get internships for internationals? Is Edinburgh too far behind New York City in terms of internships?

=> What's the workload like? What about social life and the general atmosphere?

=> Around what percent of undergraduates are involved in extracurricular activities?

Also, I am thinking about progressing to law after my undergraduate. (Taking a conversion course, a master's in England, the training etc. etc. ) Would you recommend me doing this in the States or in the UK? Also, can you apply for law school in the States if you have an undergraduate degree elsewhere?

I have no idea where I'm going next year and I have only a month to make my decision and it is seriously killing me. Any feedback would be truly appeciated.

Thanks.
Original post by Marlena002
I'm actually looking at two programs, one psychology related and one social work and I can't remember which had the deadline - I think it was for the psychology PG course. I sent an e-mail to the course director and was told international students (ie me) could apply as late as July, which would be ideal in my situation but applying in July for entry in September seems crazy and I can't help but assume they'd probably already have all their spots filled up?


It's hard to see what the requirements are without the course name, but as a general rule applications can come in pretty late for most taught PG courses. This is simply because there is generally no cap on participants - that said courses are never particularly overfull. If it's a particularly popular course there might be a cap for domestic applicants who pay lower fees, or it might be an artificial deadline to ensure all domestic applicants get a crack at funding.

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