UCL or KCL?

Hi I'm in the lucky position to have both an offer from KCL and UCL for BA philosophy for 2012 entry. I re-applied this year and already had my grades, so both are unconditional. This has left me in a pickle however, as I was only expecting to get an offer from one if at all. Whilst I am extremely grateful to be given these options, I genuinely cannot decide for the life of me. I've compared accommodation costs, course structure, teaching methods etc etc yet I cannot decide. I was wondering if there were any UCL or KCL philosophy undergrad's who could tell me why I should come to their uni in particular?

Thank you!

Reply 1

Stéphane

Personally I applied for both of them too, and only got a conditional offer from King's for the moment (my acceptance is subject to certain results at some English test), but I know that even if UCL offered me a place, I would probably pick KCL, for a few reasons :

1) There are good partnerships with other universities for your second year (Singapore, U of Cal, Chicago...). It's definitely worth the try.

2) Even if you don't go abroad during your second year, the courses that KCL proposes look more interesting than UCL ones ("Leibniz and Spinoza" for example is quite promising if you enjoy philosophy the way I do : HARD, but eye-opening.)

3) Sorry for UCL students but KCL seems to offer a nicer environment... It's only a matter of taste but Strand Campus seems to be such an amazing place to study... I can already see myself wandering in the halls in search for absolute knowledge (just kidding).

The Philosophical Gourmet (which I regard as the most trustworthy philosophical university ranking) placed both UCL and KCL as fourth in the UK (you can check it there : http://www.philosophicalgourmet.com/overall.asp), but my choice is already made. :smile:

Hope I have provided you some useful elements to make your choice.

I re-read myself a dozen times so I'm sorry for the possible mistakes that may be left in this post.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 2

Schlegel

I deliberated a lot between KCL and UCL before application. In terms of size I believe King's have a larger department, which can be a pro as well as a con. Have you looked at the options available in the second and third years at the two unis? If not take a look here: Kings UCL My feeling is that King's has a more classical structure, breaking down the full spectrum of westerm philosophy-ah, not exactly, they even have indian philosophy taught as an option. UCL is more topic-centered and have an emphasis on political and social philosophy. But both being colleges of the UoL the course won't differ drastically, and in UCL you can take courses from KCL in the 2nd and 3rd yrs. You must consider the location. The Senate House library, SOAS, birkbeck are all located in Bloomsbury which means vicinity to most of the academic resources you will need... and UCL's got their own theatre. :cool:

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 3

lou_100

Original post by CiaranCummins

I'm not an undergrad, but I went to look at KCL the other week. I'd e-mailed the Philosophy department and a man replied saying he could give me a quick tour around the department, although there wasn't much to see. He was right, he showed me the little undergrad common room and one of the classrooms, as well as his office where he said people come if they have any queries about anything. There didn't seem to be too much to it, unless he just didn't show me, and I don't have UCL to compare it to as I haven't seen that yet, so I don't know how relatively small or large their department is.

Anyway, we stopped on the corridor to talk. I'd told him I was still looking around and was also considering UCL. I asked him what he thought the main differences were. He replied basically saying that he thought KCL had a friendlier atmosphere. He described UCL as "slick" but said he thought KCL achieved very similar results and had a very similar teaching standard, they just perhaps didn't look as slick due to trying to maintain a friendlier environment.

He was basically trying to say they are very similar, KCL is just friendlier, whatever that means exactly. Although he was biased, just passing on the knowledge :biggrin:

UCL or KCL?

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