[babes1112]

heya is there anyway that u can live with 2nd years instead of in halls? as if i dont get my first choice halls dont want to live in any others

[sophia5892]

(Original post by babes1112)
heya is there anyway that u can live with 2nd years instead of in halls? as if i dont get my first choice halls dont want to live in any others

You could but I'm not sure what would be the best way to go about this.
You can try looking at other private halls type accomodation:
Mansion Student, Unite, Student Castle, Liberty Living (i think they're the main ones).
Plus side is these places tend to be pretty luxurious as far as student accomm goes, all nice and modern. Downside is naturally the price!

Or you could try Newcastle's accommodation services. I know they have a service to help second years find accommodation so they could maybe put you in touch with people who need an extra housemate.

Or try google! Not very helpful I know, but there are a fair few websites where students advertise if they have rooms going free.

Fingers crossed you find somewhere x

[babes1112]

okay thaaank you for your help. x

[aeyurttaser13]

hello,
i was wondering which one of these do u guys recommend as both sociable and friendly:
castle leazes
windsor terrace
marris house
castle court
help wud be appreciated
ooh and i prefer self catered and en suite.. they all got that except for marris house that doesnt have en suite

[PurpleJazzHands]

I'm really worried about meeting my conditional offer
I applied with ABC at A2 and I'm doing an art foundation at the moment. my conditional offer is a distinction, but I really don't know if I'm going to get it I don't know what my predicted grade is because at my college they told us that we had no right to ask..they're a bit lame in that way...
I'm retaking my A level art and I'm pretty confident that I'll get an A* in that so i'll have A*AC overall at A2, but that's not part of my offer.
If I only get a merit, so you think I've still got a pretty strong chance of getting in?

[sophia5892]

(Original post by PurpleJazzHands)
I'm really worried about meeting my conditional offer
I applied with ABC at A2 and I'm doing an art foundation at the moment. my conditional offer is a distinction, but I really don't know if I'm going to get it I don't know what my predicted grade is because at my college they told us that we had no right to ask..they're a bit lame in that way...
I'm retaking my A level art and I'm pretty confident that I'll get an A* in that so i'll have A*AC overall at A2, but that's not part of my offer.
If I only get a merit, so you think I've still got a pretty strong chance of getting in?

I'd hope so. If you did get an A* in the resit that would give you a pretty strong case i guess. Plus I'm presuming you'll have showed a portfolio as part of your application? So they must like your work to give you an offer. Fingers crossed!

[sophia5892]

(Original post by aeyurttaser13)
hello,
i was wondering which one of these do u guys recommend as both sociable and friendly:
castle leazes
windsor terrace
marris house
castle court
help wud be appreciated
ooh and i prefer self catered and en suite.. they all got that except for marris house that doesnt have en suite

I think all halls vary really. Depends on the students who live there each year and who you make friends with I guess. I did very little socialising in halls. On the other hand my flatmates did a lot of socialising in halls, and had a fair few parties too
But from what I've heard...
I've heard Marris House is fairly quiet - but it is right next to Ricky Road which is the party halls :P
Castle Leazes is supposed to have a good community feel to it because you're on floors all sharing so you meet people very easily and it has common areas/facilities where people hang out and socialise. Plus it does some of it's own events - the castle leazes ball for example.
Personally i didn't like the look of it when i visited but I guess that's personal taste. It just felt a bit school-y. On the other hand castle court is right across from it and has similar facilities i believe. I think they share with Leazes when they want to. Plus its all pretty much brand new, so fairly luxurious for a student
Windsor i know very little about i'm afraid.

I guess the biggest halls are the safer bets. But i'm sure you'll be fine wherever you end up. Everyone's friendly/sociable during freshers cos you're all in the same boat

[aeyurttaser13]

(Original post by sophia5892)
I think all halls vary really. Depends on the students who live there each year and who you make friends with I guess. I did very little socialising in halls. On the other hand my flatmates did a lot of socialising in halls, and had a fair few parties too
But from what I've heard...
I've heard Marris House is fairly quiet - but it is right next to Ricky Road which is the party halls :P
Castle Leazes is supposed to have a good community feel to it because you're on floors all sharing so you meet people very easily and it has common areas/facilities where people hang out and socialise. Plus it does some of it's own events - the castle leazes ball for example.
Personally i didn't like the look of it when i visited but I guess that's personal taste. It just felt a bit school-y. On the other hand castle court is right across from it and has similar facilities i believe. I think they share with Leazes when they want to. Plus its all pretty much brand new, so fairly luxurious for a student
Windsor i know very little about i'm afraid.

I guess the biggest halls are the safer bets. But i'm sure you'll be fine wherever you end up. Everyone's friendly/sociable during freshers cos you're all in the same boat

haha thanks a lot the information was very helpful i already applied to those but didn't know if i did the right thing since i live outside the uk and dont really know how each are, so thanks

[sophia5892]

(Original post by aeyurttaser13)
haha thanks a lot the information was very helpful i already applied to those but didn't know if i did the right thing since i live outside the uk and dont really know how each are, so thanks

Well i hope you like wherever you end up
Another important thing to check is the societies. There's a few aimed at international students from different areas etc, as well as the ones you'd expect for religion, sport, interests etc. So it's dead easy to meet people who like similar stuff

[aeyurttaser13]

(Original post by sophia5892)
Well i hope you like wherever you end up
Another important thing to check is the societies. There's a few aimed at international students from different areas etc, as well as the ones you'd expect for religion, sport, interests etc. So it's dead easy to meet people who like similar stuff

haha me too ill check it all out thx, gd to know

[alicek27]

(Original post by sophia5892)
Hey

I'm a second year at Newcastle studying French, German and Japanese so I thought I'd start a thread for any applicants to ask questions.

This could be about anything Newcastle related - accommodation, finance, student life, why you should study here etc

or more specifically about the School of Modern Languages!

Sophie x

I've had an offer from Newcastle to study German & Spanish in September and i'm torn between Newcastle and Edinburgh for my firm choice. What was it about Newcastle that made you want to study languages there?
Also... is the Spanish department heavily Latin American orientated?

[PurpleJazzHands]

(Original post by sophia5892)
I'd hope so. If you did get an A* in the resit that would give you a pretty strong case i guess. Plus I'm presuming you'll have showed a portfolio as part of your application? So they must like your work to give you an offer. Fingers crossed!

Actually they didn't want a portfolio! It was just ucas application they didn't even want an interview!
I just resat the exam. I need a D in that module to get an A* overall (long story why I didn't get one in the first place ) I guess I'm just going to have to work extra hard and advise anyone doing an art foundation for architecture to do it at uni rather than college! XD

[sophia5892]

(Original post by PurpleJazzHands)
Actually they didn't want a portfolio! It was just ucas application they didn't even want an interview!
I just resat the exam. I need a D in that module to get an A* overall (long story why I didn't get one in the first place ) I guess I'm just going to have to work extra hard and advise anyone doing an art foundation for architecture to do it at uni rather than college! XD

fingers crossed!

[sophia5892]

(Original post by alicek27)
I've had an offer from Newcastle to study German & Spanish in September and i'm torn between Newcastle and Edinburgh for my firm choice. What was it about Newcastle that made you want to study languages there?
Also... is the Spanish department heavily Latin American orientated?

why Newcastle?
It's a relatively small languages department so you get to know the staff really well. Everything feels personal and there's plenty of support available.
Despite being small they still offer a huge variety in modules so you shouldn't be stuck for choice.
The city centre is quite compact but still has everything you might want - the gate, metrocentre 10 mins away, clubs for every type of music etc etc. And you're only a metro away from the beach. Plus - lovely friendly locals.
and i guess above all, flexibility. You can split your languages how you want, you can drop a language quite easily if you change your mind because it's all one degree programme.

Spanish vs. Latin America....

There is some emphasis on Latin American Studies as I believe there's funding available for it and is it offered as a separate degree. However you don't have to do anything Latin America based if you don't want to.
In first year most of the modules are quite general "intro to linguistics", "intro to literature" etc. Plus you have a German history module, an into to latin america and an intro to the history, culture and society of the iberian peninsula.

In second year there's around 5 modules for German, including Dutch language.
For Spanish you can pick up Catalan or Quechua and then there's 2 Latin American based modules i think, and and 3 that are coded SPA (although i think two of these also look at Latin America.)

Then in 4th year you again have around 5 German modules and i think 4 Latin American modules and then a module on Spanish and Mexican cinema.

So i guess if you want to do a 50-50 split you'd probably have to do a module or 2 that included study of Latin America, but you wouldnt have to do loads!

Post A Level language modules count for 20 credits. So you'd do 4 cultural modules a year. A Beginners language counts for 40 so you'd do 3 cultural modules.

Hope that helps! Any more questions, feel free x

[alicek27]

(Original post by sophia5892)
why Newcastle?
It's a relatively small languages department so you get to know the staff really well. Everything feels personal and there's plenty of support available.
Despite being small they still offer a huge variety in modules so you shouldn't be stuck for choice.
The city centre is quite compact but still has everything you might want - the gate, metrocentre 10 mins away, clubs for every type of music etc etc. And you're only a metro away from the beach. Plus - lovely friendly locals.
and i guess above all, flexibility. You can split your languages how you want, you can drop a language quite easily if you change your mind because it's all one degree programme.

Spanish vs. Latin America....

There is some emphasis on Latin American Studies as I believe there's funding available for it and is it offered as a separate degree. However you don't have to do anything Latin America based if you don't want to.
In first year most of the modules are quite general "intro to linguistics", "intro to literature" etc. Plus you have a German history module, an into to latin america and an intro to the history, culture and society of the iberian peninsula.

In second year there's around 5 modules for German, including Dutch language.
For Spanish you can pick up Catalan or Quechua and then there's 2 Latin American based modules i think, and and 3 that are coded SPA (although i think two of these also look at Latin America.)

Then in 4th year you again have around 5 German modules and i think 4 Latin American modules and then a module on Spanish and Mexican cinema.

So i guess if you want to do a 50-50 split you'd probably have to do a module or 2 that included study of Latin America, but you wouldnt have to do loads!

Post A Level language modules count for 20 credits. So you'd do 4 cultural modules a year. A Beginners language counts for 40 so you'd do 3 cultural modules.

Hope that helps! Any more questions, feel free x

So if I were to do German, Spanish and French.. would that be 6060 split in the first year?
And would that mean that I did 1 core language module (20) and 2 cultural modules in each one? Or would I be doing more French language modules as it would be from beginners

[sophia5892]

(Original post by alicek27)
So if I were to do German, Spanish and French.. would that be 6060 split in the first year?
And would that mean that I did 1 core language module (20) and 2 cultural modules in each one? Or would I be doing more French language modules as it would be from beginners

You study 120 credits each year.

In first year you'd do 20 credits German lang, 20 Spanish lang and 40 French lang.
Then you'd do 2 cultural modules of your choice.

In second year you'd do 20 credits of each language and 3 cultural modules.

It's up to you how you split it. You could do 3 German cultural modules, 2 Spanish and 1 French etc etc.

However the weightings you choose in 2nd and 4th year impact on the way your degree is labelled

[alicek27]

(Original post by sophia5892)
You study 120 credits each year.

In first year you'd do 20 credits German lang, 20 Spanish lang and 40 French lang.
Then you'd do 2 cultural modules of your choice.

In second year you'd do 20 credits of each language and 3 cultural modules.

It's up to you how you split it. You could do 3 German cultural modules, 2 Spanish and 1 French etc etc.

However the weightings you choose in 2nd and 4th year impact on the way your degree is labelled

Ahh ok... Thanks for your help! x

[alicek27]

(Original post by sophia5892)
You study 120 credits each year.

In first year you'd do 20 credits German lang, 20 Spanish lang and 40 French lang.
Then you'd do 2 cultural modules of your choice.

In second year you'd do 20 credits of each language and 3 cultural modules.

It's up to you how you split it. You could do 3 German cultural modules, 2 Spanish and 1 French etc etc.

However the weightings you choose in 2nd and 4th year impact on the way your degree is labelled

Can I also ask how much Speaking practice you get per week at Newcastle in years 1 and 2? And if so, is it with a native speaker?

[Alina2793]

Is is a good uni? Im not even out of high school and I'm already thinking about my MA. Right now I have Newcastle as an insurance and I know I can get the grades they asked me too(I'm european so I'm not sure what the equivalent is, 80% overall and 80% is 2 out of 3 subjects). Anyways, the point is I chose Westminster as a firm choice and it was probably because I had an interview there and I fell in love with London, also because I got a scholarship there(which is just my rent for 4 months). And right now I'm not sure which one to choose. I read a lot about Newcastle and it sounds like a great uni. What are the costs there? Rent especially. And can you get a part time job easily? If you had to choose between these 2, where would you go? Thanks

[PVisitors]

(Original post by Alina2793)
Is is a good uni? Im not even out of high school and I'm already thinking about my MA. Right now I have Newcastle as an insurance and I know I can get the grades they asked me too(I'm european so I'm not sure what the equivalent is, 80% overall and 80% is 2 out of 3 subjects). Anyways, the point is I chose Westminster as a firm choice and it was probably because I had an interview there and I fell in love with London, also because I got a scholarship there(which is just my rent for 4 months). And right now I'm not sure which one to choose. I read a lot about Newcastle and it sounds like a great uni. What are the costs there? Rent especially. And can you get a part time job easily? If you had to choose between these 2, where would you go? Thanks

Well for a start Newcastle is vastly better than Westminster. Newcastle is a top 20 university in the UK. Truth be told, if I had the choice I wouldn't have even put Westminster on my radar in comparison to Newcastle.

Newcastle is the cheapest major city to live in. However I wouldn't expect to walk into a part-time job during a recession and especially in the North-East. But if you look hard enough you will find one. And even with London, there is no guarantee you are going to be able to find easy part time work.

And I'm not exactly sure you can choose between your Insurance and Firm choice once you have made these decisions. I was under the impression if you get your firm grades, you have to go to your firm choice. If you want to be released by your firm choice on results day your insurance place is lost and you need to go into clearing.

I'm not 100% sure, so you would need to read up on some of the articles on TSR or hopefully someone else can clarify it.