[Ainoaino]

Hi. I'm not completely sure if this is the right place for my question, but I hope someone can help me out. In January I decided to apply to study in UK, my reason being that I can't study 'Creative Writing & English Literature' in Finland, my home country.

Obviously being late with my applications I went for Kilroy Education for help and found London Met & Anglia Ruskin from their website and decided to apply to both. I've gotten conditional offer from Anglia Ruskin, as they want me to do the IELTS language test first. London Met asked me to send in two pieces of my writing and after that I got an unconditional offer from there.

Well, now that I basically got two choices (I don't think the language test will be much of a problem for me) I've looked more into the schools. I knew neither of them had the best reputation, but now that I've been searching more information I've found out a lot of people only having bad things to say about them. I haven't really found anything from people actually studying there.

My question being, should I wait another year and apply to other schools, or do you have any knowledge about the Writing & English literature courses in these two unis.

Thanks.

[Azland]

Paying international fees to London Met - really? . I dont know about the english department in general but its well known that London Met's reputation is the worst in the UK. Dont think you want that to stay on your CV.

[Phantom Lord]

Anglia Ruskin is slightly better than London Met so I'd recommend that, not London Met. But it's your choice.

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by Azland)
Paying international fees to London Met - really? . I dont know about the english department in general but its well known that London Met's reputation is the worst in the UK. Dont think you want that to stay on your CV.

UK and EU students have the same fees though, so it wouldn't be "that much". Although a lot, considering the education I'd be receiving probably wouldn't meet my expectations.

I'm also thinking about the option of staying a year in London Met or Anglia Ruskin and applying somewhere else next spring. But I guess that'd be waste of money as well.

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
Hi. I'm not completely sure if this is the right place for my question, but I hope someone can help me out. In January I decided to apply to study in UK, my reason being that I can't study 'Creative Writing & English Literature' in Finland, my home country.

Obviously being late with my applications I went for Kilroy Education for help and found London Met & Anglia Ruskin from their website and decided to apply to both. I've gotten conditional offer from Anglia Ruskin, as they want me to do the IELTS language test first. London Met asked me to send in two pieces of my writing and after that I got an unconditional offer from there.

Well, now that I basically got two choices (I don't think the language test will be much of a problem for me) I've looked more into the schools. I knew neither of them had the best reputation, but now that I've been searching more information I've found out a lot of people only having bad things to say about them. I haven't really found anything from people actually studying there.

My question being, should I wait another year and apply to other schools, or do you have any knowledge about the Writing & English literature courses in these two unis.

Thanks.

If you're not happy with your courses then you can still apply to 3 more UK universities for 2012, do not accept something that you're not sure about or where you're considering going there then reapplying. At the moment you have only missed the equal consideration deadline and the actual deadline for having 5 choices isn't until June.

Go onto the UCAS course search on their website and type "English and creative writing" into the course search. There are plenty of universities who are still accepting applications however, as the listings are not always up to date you need to contact each university first (via email) and ask if they are still accepting applications. If you like the university and meet their entry requirements then you can just add upto 3 more choices onto your application. You don't have to pay anything more money and everything can be done via track, you don't need to involve an applications agency.

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by oxymoronic)
If you're not happy with your courses then you can still apply to 3 more UK universities for 2012, do not accept something that you're not sure about or where you're considering going there then reapplying. At the moment you have only missed the equal consideration deadline and the actual deadline for having 5 choices isn't until June.

Go onto the UCAS course search on their website and type "English and creative writing" into the course search. There are plenty of universities who are still accepting applications however, as the listings are not always up to date you need to contact each university first (via email) and ask if they are still accepting applications. If you like the university and meet their entry requirements then you can just add upto 3 more choices onto your application. You don't have to pay anything more money and everything can be done via track, you don't need to involve an applications agency.

Thank you!! I will definitely do that. Funny how no one at the organization I applied with told me this, since I went there asking what should I do when I'm not happy with the universities.

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
Thank you!! I will definitely do that. Funny how no one at the organization I applied with told me this, since I went there asking what should I do when I'm not happy with the universities.

This is what I find scary with the levels of support available to international students. You do not need to go via an agency or organisation at all (we can help you all of the way through on this site) but if you do, then I would expect that they would be able to appropriately advise you and have detailed knowledge of the UCAS process.

As I said, you must contact the universities to check that the listing is correct before adding them as a choice. You won't need to make any decisions on your offers until you have received all of your replies, so you will be able to keep the choices for Anglia Ruskin and London Met until you are in a position to decide from 5 decisions.

[carnationlilyrose]

When you say you've applied directly, have you actually gone through Ucas?

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by carnationlilyrose)
When you say you've applied directly, have you actually gone through Ucas?

Yes ! What I meant was that I was late and I got the whole idea in January. In Finland we apply for unis in March, so I didn't realize how little time I had!

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by oxymoronic)
This is what I find scary with the levels of support available to international students. You do not need to go via an agency or organisation at all (we can help you all of the way through on this site) but if you do, then I would expect that they would be able to appropriately advise you and have detailed knowledge of the UCAS process.

As I said, you must contact the universities to check that the listing is correct before adding them as a choice. You won't need to make any decisions on your offers until you have received all of your replies, so you will be able to keep the choices for Anglia Ruskin and London Met until you are in a position to decide from 5 decisions.

I checked, but couldn't find any courses available anymore. I officially am clueless about what I am going to do. I don't know if I should apply to something else (even though my motivation letter is clearly wrote about Creative writing & English lit) or what. Thank you for your help so much. If I had only known about this site last January, things might be a lot different for me right now.

[Iqbal007]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
Hi. I'm not completely sure if this is the right place for my question, but I hope someone can help me out. In January I decided to apply to study in UK, my reason being that I can't study 'Creative Writing & English Literature' in Finland, my home country.

Obviously being late with my applications I went for Kilroy Education for help and found London Met & Anglia Ruskin from their website and decided to apply to both. I've gotten conditional offer from Anglia Ruskin, as they want me to do the IELTS language test first. London Met asked me to send in two pieces of my writing and after that I got an unconditional offer from there.

Well, now that I basically got two choices (I don't think the language test will be much of a problem for me) I've looked more into the schools. I knew neither of them had the best reputation, but now that I've been searching more information I've found out a lot of people only having bad things to say about them. I haven't really found anything from people actually studying there.

My question being, should I wait another year and apply to other schools, or do you have any knowledge about the Writing & English literature courses in these two unis.

Thanks.

You could try clearing, many good uni's show up randomly.

[IlliteratePedant]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
I checked, but couldn't find any courses available anymore. I officially am clueless about what I am going to do. I don't know if I should apply to something else (even though my motivation letter is clearly wrote about Creative writing & English lit) or what. Thank you for your help so much. If I had only known about this site last January, things might be a lot different for me right now.

There are loads left!

http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/cours.../2012searcheu/

Follow the link, click "search by subject", select "e", select "english", select "english literature", and then there are several universities listed as having places available to study english literature and creative writing.

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
I checked, but couldn't find any courses available anymore. I officially am clueless about what I am going to do. I don't know if I should apply to something else (even though my motivation letter is clearly wrote about Creative writing & English lit) or what. Thank you for your help so much. If I had only known about this site last January, things might be a lot different for me right now.

As has been said, there are loads of choices showing on UCAS as still accepting applications. You do need to contact them before you apply but there will definitely be at least 3 decent places still accepting students. Use the UCAS course search that the person above has given you. In your case it will be easier to chose c for creative writing as this will show up all of the English and creative writing courses, whereas English will show up everything related to English generally.

UEA (University of East Anglia) have a strong reputation for creative writing. On UCAS it says they're still open for applications so I'd certainly contact them if you meet their entry requirements. They're a very good university generally and as I said, they excel in creative writing.

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by oxymoronic)
As has been said, there are loads of choices showing on UCAS as still accepting applications. You do need to contact them before you apply but there will definitely be at least 3 decent places still accepting students. Use the UCAS course search that the person above has given you. In your case it will be easier to chose c for creative writing as this will show up all of the English and creative writing courses, whereas English will show up everything related to English generally.

UEA (University of East Anglia) have a strong reputation for creative writing. On UCAS it says they're still open for applications so I'd certainly contact them if you meet their entry requirements. They're a very good university generally and as I said, they excel in creative writing.

Ah, found it now. Thank you so much! I will definately do that!

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
Ah, found it now. Thank you so much! I will definately do that!

great - let us know how you get on

[saki_88]

London Met may not have the best reputation. However as a final year student at this uni, i strongly believe it really doesnt deserve this. The lecturers are great all very aproachable, the facilities are good and the location is perfect!

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by saki_88)
London Met may not have the best reputation. However as a final year student at this uni, i strongly believe it really doesnt deserve this. The lecturers are great all very aproachable, the facilities are good and the location is perfect!

Do you know anything about the English lit & creative writing course?

[Ainoaino]

(Original post by oxymoronic)
great - let us know how you get on

The school you mentioned University of East Anglia, are still taking applications. My problem being, my grades aren't good enough for the school. Do you think I should still submit my application or just leave it at that?

[Philemon]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
The school you mentioned University of East Anglia, are still taking applications. My problem being, my grades aren't good enough for the school. Do you think I should still submit my application or just leave it at that?

Are your grades predicted or do you have them already?

UEA is asking AAA so unless youve got something really close (like AAB) and can show them youre an amazing writer they probably wont lower their offer.

There are loads of other places though, youre lucky my friend whos looking into Crea Writing is obsessive and made a list (Ive deleted the ones thats not in Extra).
Have a look and see what matches your grades and then, very important, call them to hear if theyve still got places as the UCAS site is not up to date!

You got into London Met who I think has a 260 point entry, so you should have a good shot at many other unis.

Any other questions Ill be happy to help (a fellow Scandi)

Other English Lit w. Creative Writing courses in extra:

University of Birmingham: AAA-AAB
Lancaster University: AAA-AAB
University of Kent: AAB
University of Surrey: AAB
Kingston University: 280-360
Northumbria University: 320
University of Hertfordshire: 300
University of Huddersfield: 300
Roehampton University: 300
Bath Spa University: 240-300
Middlesex University: 200-300

University of Westminster: BBC
Nottingham Trent University: 280
Edge Hill University: 280
Teesside University: 280
University of Northampton: 260-280
Manchester Metropolitan University: 240-280
Coventry University: BCC
University of Wales, Newport: 260
De Montfort University: 260
York St John University: 220-260
Livepool John Moores University: 260

Leeds Trinity University College: 240
University of Bolton: 240
University of East London: 240
London South Bank University: 240
St Mary's University College, Twickenham: 240
Exeter College: 220
University College Plymouth St Mark & St John: 220
University of Cumbria: 200

[oxymoronic]

(Original post by Ainoaino)
The school you mentioned University of East Anglia, are still taking applications. My problem being, my grades aren't good enough for the school. Do you think I should still submit my application or just leave it at that?

Speak to UEA and see what they say. I don't know what they'll say but if you already have your qualifications then you may as well contact them and ask. Do you miss their ylioppilastutkinto requirements by a long way or do you only narrowly miss them?