International relations uni students and 2015 applicants

Hi,
Just got a load of questions on my mind about this course that i have wanted to study my whole life (no exaggeration) !

To 2015 applicants;
what uni's are you considering and why ?
what a levels have you taken?
Are you going to take 4 subjects in year 13 or are you dropping one ?
and what are you most worried about (e.g getting the grades, the personal statement) ?

To IR uni students;
what uni do/did you go to ?
what a level subjects did you take?
did you undertake any work experience relevant to IR? because its SO hard to find a placement relevant !
are you enjoying the course?
what books would you recommend to year 12/13 to increase their knowledge about the subject?
did you have to have an interview for the uni?
and what did you do to show the uni that you were interested in this course?!

So many questions so sorry but it would be great to a few answered. would be extremely helpful !

Thanks !

Just finished at UEA
Took History, Politics, RS to A2 and Psychology AS
No, I did spend a week with a local MP though
Yes I loved it for the most part
There isn't anything I can really think of, most people come in having not studied any IR before, it isn't a problem. I'd just read the Economist and the New Statesmen before I started
No, no-where interviews for IR normally
Talked about my biggest areas of interest (the EU and the Cold War), talked about how my subjects helped prepare me, talked about the magazines I'd read

Is International Relations an elitist degree? People seem to not take me seriously when I say I'll be doing it at St. A's...

Hi,
Just got a load of questions on my mind about this course that i have wanted to study my whole life (no exaggeration) !

To 2015 applicants;
what uni's are you considering and why ?
what a levels have you taken?
Are you going to take 4 subjects in year 13 or are you dropping one ?
and what are you most worried about (e.g getting the grades, the personal statement) ?

To IR uni students;
what uni do/did you go to ?
what a level subjects did you take?
did you undertake any work experience relevant to IR? because its SO hard to find a placement relevant !
are you enjoying the course?
what books would you recommend to year 12/13 to increase their knowledge about the subject?
did you have to have an interview for the uni?
and what did you do to show the uni that you were interested in this course?!

So many questions so sorry but it would be great to a few answered. would be extremely helpful !

Thanks !

Hi, I'm applying for 2015 entry and am currently looking at Exeter, Reading (IR and also the War, conflict and IR course), York, Swansea and Plymouth. Exeter and York are quite well regarded for IR, I love Reading and know the city as I have family there so there's also someone to contact in case of an emergency but the IR course has high student satisfaction and Plymouth and Swansea as I just like the unis and location and the grades aren't that high to get in.

For AS levels I took English Language (I got an A), psychology (A), history (C) and maths (E). I'm dropping maths as I hated it and honestly don't know why I took it in the first place.

I'm really worried about grades especially history - nobody in my year at my sixth form got higher than a C in their AS exam and I need a B at the very least. I was planning to study history with international relations but due to my history grade I'm looking at a straight IR degree now. More generally, I'm also worried about how the hell I'm going to afford uni!

Also when people say it isn't a good/useful degree, it depends what you want to do. I want to work for the ministry of defence security services or go into the military so hopefully it'll help me with this.

Hope this helped - I'm glad there's someone who has the same questions as me too haha

Hi,
Just got a load of questions on my mind about this course that i have wanted to study my whole life (no exaggeration) !

To 2015 applicants;
what uni's are you considering and why ?
what a levels have you taken?
Are you going to take 4 subjects in year 13 or are you dropping one ?
and what are you most worried about (e.g getting the grades, the personal statement) ?

Hi,
I've dropped history, however I'm now quite worried as apparently most universities expect politics and international relations applicants to have studied History at A2 level. If anyone can help me out or try calming my nerves, that would be great! (Fyi, I'm taking literature, geography and spanish as my A2 subjects)

It should be fine. I didn't even do History GCSE and from speaking to staff at open days they all said that it's more important to have good grades and a good personal statement than any specific subjects.

I'm just about to start IR at Durham. I was drawn there mainly by the course. The compulsory first year modules offer far more interesting topics than other IR courses imo. The three are;
-International security, interdependence and organisation
- Global Regions in IR
- Theory and history in IR

I took History, Geography and Latin at A level, and took an EPQ as well. I actually missed my AAA offer and got AAB (thanks to a ridiculously hard Latin paper), but luckily I was let in anyway. I got the impression that if you only just missed your offer, Durham genuinely wanted to still keep you if at all possible (everything is subject to quotas etc). Something to maybe bear in mind.


Didn't have any work experience mentioned in my personal statement. I read a few books to put on my personal statement. I read Sandstorm by Lindsey Hilsum about Libya, one by George Mitchell about chairing the peace talks in Northern Ireland, and a global politics textbook by Andrew Heywood (a teacher managed to lend me that one). The books don't really matter though, just take a book about a region that you are interested in, read it and talk about it coherently in your personal statement.

If at all possible, take an EPQ. It gives you loads to talk about in your personal statement not just from a knowledge point of view, but the independent learning aspect is also greatly valued.

No interview.

I'm applying for Politics and international relations but i'm really confused abut where to apply.
I've been predicted an AAA and I have a fairly strong personal statement.

I'm planning on applying to Bath, Exeter, York, Birmingham and either Sheffield or Bristol.

The reason why I cant decide between Sheffield and Bristol is because I think that I should play it safe and apply to 3 unis with an aab-abb offer but I really want to go to bristol but its an AAA.

Please help!

If you're predicted those grades and have got a good personal statement, then you might as well go for Bristol. Personally, I'd swap Bristol for either York or Exeter as those ask for fairly high entry requirements, and it gives you the chance to also apply to Sheffield. I loved Bristol when I visited it and it's definitely worth applying to, as is Sheffield.

Thanks! Surprisingly, Yorks entry requirements are AAB!(yay!)
Exeter has an AAA offer which is why Im going to have to decide between bristol and exeter as I have been advised to only apply for 2 AAA courses so that I 'play it safe'. Im just so confused because I really want to apply to 3 unis that have AAA as their entry requirement instead of 2