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politics in the UK

Hi, I'm an Italian high school student. I would like to study Politics in the UK, so I am assessing several universities. :smile:
The ones I like the most are Oxford, King's College, Warwick, SOAS, St Andrews and Bath. I'm planning to visit them this summer to see how they are like and possibly talk to someone. After that I suppose that deciding which ones applying for should be easier (at least I hope so!).

Being Italian before doing some deep research I just knew a couple of the most famous ones like Oxbridge and now even after reading up lots of web sites I still feel pretty confused
Does anyone have suggestions about other universities? Did I choose good universities?
Reply 1
Original post by oceanchild
Hi, I'm an Italian high school student. I would like to study Politics in the UK, so I am assessing several universities. :smile:
The ones I like the most are Oxford, King's College, Warwick, SOAS, St Andrews and Bath. I'm planning to visit them this summer to see how they are like and possibly talk to someone. After that I suppose that deciding which ones applying for should be easier (at least I hope so!).

Being Italian before doing some deep research I just knew a couple of the most famous ones like Oxbridge and now even after reading up lots of web sites I still feel pretty confused
Does anyone have suggestions about other universities? Did I choose good universities?


They are all excellent universities you have chosen. Just remember that Oxford is super competitive for entry and you need top top grades to get in. The others will probally ask for good grades as well.

You've made a good decision in agreeing to visit. In order to decide your top 5 you need to consider
1) entry requirements- do you meet or exceed them? this is important because if your grades are likely to be below the asking grades you could well be rejected (especially by the top unis you've chosen)
2) the course- each uni should have the details on its website of what you study and some unis specialise in the poltiics of a particular area e.g. SOAS in the Middle East and Africa
3) the location- do you want to be in the middle of a big city like at KCL and SOAS, a smaller city like Oxford or somewhere more rural and remote like St Andrews or Warwick
4) facilities incl accomodation- do you like the accomodation on offer, how much does it cost? especially considering you need to finance this yourself as you arent eligible for a maintenance loan
Reply 2
If you are considering Oxford you also need to be aware that it doesn't offer politics as a single subject. It offers to my knowledge three courses which contain politics, 'History and Politics', 'Modern History and Politics' and 'Politics, Philosophy and Economics', so you would need to think about whether you would be happy with that.
Reply 3
Original post by jelly1000
They are all excellent universities you have chosen. Just remember that Oxford is super competitive for entry and you need top top grades to get in. The others will probally ask for good grades as well.

You've made a good decision in agreeing to visit. In order to decide your top 5 you need to consider
1) entry requirements- do you meet or exceed them? this is important because if your grades are likely to be below the asking grades you could well be rejected (especially by the top unis you've chosen)
2) the course- each uni should have the details on its website of what you study and some unis specialise in the poltiics of a particular area e.g. SOAS in the Middle East and Africa
3) the location- do you want to be in the middle of a big city like at KCL and SOAS, a smaller city like Oxford or somewhere more rural and remote like St Andrews or Warwick
4) facilities incl accomodation- do you like the accomodation on offer, how much does it cost? especially considering you need to finance this yourself as you arent eligible for a maintenance loan


Thanks a lot! :smile:
Well about the requirements I meet them so far. Although I was wondering if my forthcoming report is going to be decisive for the admission process or the marks I'll get in the first report that I'll receive the next year and the prevision of the final exams result will be more relevant.

I'm thinking about a specific subject - Math - in which I'm not likely to get an excellent mark in this year final report, not bad but not stunning...
I know that Oxford does not require a specific mark in Math for PPE and so it goes also for the courses at the other universities I'm interested in. But still I'm not sure that they won't have a look at it, as in each course that I like there're economic modules... Maybe if the next year I improve my mark in Math I'm going to have a chance...?
Reply 4
Original post by RowanL
If you are considering Oxford you also need to be aware that it doesn't offer politics as a single subject. It offers to my knowledge three courses which contain politics, 'History and Politics', 'Modern History and Politics' and 'Politics, Philosophy and Economics', so you would need to think about whether you would be happy with that.


Well I know that even though I didn't mention each course I'm interested in at each university. Thank you anyway :smile:
Reply 5
Original post by oceanchild
Thanks a lot! :smile:
Well about the requirements I meet them so far. Although I was wondering if my forthcoming report is going to be decisive for the admission process or the marks I'll get in the first report that I'll receive the next year and the prevision of the final exams result will be more relevant.

I'm thinking about a specific subject - Math - in which I'm not likely to get an excellent mark in this year final report, not bad but not stunning...
I know that Oxford does not require a specific mark in Math for PPE and so it goes also for the courses at the other universities I'm interested in. But still I'm not sure that they won't have a look at it, as in each course that I like there're economic modules... Maybe if the next year I improve my mark in Math I'm going to have a chance...?


normally the most important results are the ones from your final year of schooling or predicted grades of these results if you wont have them when you apply. then it kinda works backwards, with results from your penultimate year of schooling still being important but slighly less so and then any formal results before that still being important but a bit less than the others.
Reply 6
Original post by jelly1000
normally the most important results are the ones from your final year of schooling or predicted grades of these results if you wont have them when you apply. then it kinda works backwards, with results from your penultimate year of schooling still being important but slighly less so and then any formal results before that still being important but a bit less than the others.


Thank you!! I'm relieved :smile:

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