Geoscience & Geology 2016

Yes, same here! If there's one thing I've learned over the past two years, it's that I don't have enough energy to engage in politics. It's just too frustrating. I've sent many letters to members of parliament, I either get ignored or possibly even worse, get a two page response that basically condenses down to "Shut up". I used to be very politically involved but getting angry about it just makes me too tired now and it's not worth it, so I'm just trying to stick to what I know is right and to do the right thing. I'll try to remember the name, I guess he'll be in the year above me (which is actually a very small group of about 27-ish if I recall correctly).

I think I read about your passion for golf earlier. It's a big shame that the English government doesn't appreciate the value of Higher Education like the Scottish (and rest of Europe) do but I think you should direct your anger at Westminster rather than the Scottish students! St. Andrew's looks like a lovely place, there were several places in Scotland I wanted to apply to (but didn't because of the distance). I like the idea of living in a small quiet town though.

Don't think I could get into the correct mindset in a large city, I'm not interested in "clubbing" in the slightest and i'm from the suburbs of Nottingham so the countryside is close but not quite close enough to call my area quiet. I am also blighted with being a sucker for old architecture too, can't stand modern university buildings, it's a pain because Imperial sounds so good on paper but the surrounding area is just a loud , congested, tourist filled mess.

Do you know which modules you will be studying? I expect the oxford course to differ from those of other Universities.

I'm from London and I want to get out of here! The course at Imperial looks amazing but honestly, even though I applied there, there's no way I could have gone there because I really hate South Kensington (and of course it's insanely expensive there too). Obviously Oxford isn't "quiet" (I actually prefer Cambridge as a town) but it's a heck of a lot better than London!

At Oxford, there's no choices at all in the first two years. In years 3-4 there's a bit more choice (you sit four papers out of 8-10) but not as much as at other places. For second year, the ones that look best at the moment are The Oceans, Paleoclimate and Sea Level, Volcanoes and Environment and Mathematical and Geophysical Methods in third year and Major Environmental Change, Oceanography, Volcanology and Planetary Chemistry in fourth year (and of course the MSci project). I think the main difference between Oxford and other courses it that Oxford's course is extremely broad. There aren't many other places where you're forced to study basically all branches of Geosciences for as long, which is a good or a bad thing depending on who you are (for me, it sounds great).

Planetary Chemistry just made my mouth water. Manchester has a geology and planetary geoscience course that also had my eyes widening but , alas, physics isn't on my list of A levels. Volcanology would get me excited too, lucky me yet again, I have been to Lanzarote and Tenerife and there is so much there, you can find little bits of olivine in the sand and get nie rounded lumps of basalt tot ake home and use as doorstops

Oh lovely! I went to Santorini a few weeks ago, it was absolutely beautiful although it felt like such a waste because I know so little about geology (all of my knowledge is climate related) so I was looking at all this stunning geology and couldn't understand any of it! I brought some pumice and red rock (no idea what it is!) back home though.

I think Santorini is formed form the results of a repeated cycle of shield volcano formation and caldera collapse. There will probably be tilted strata away from the blast and there should be layers of tuff, ash , agglomerate and silicic rocks showing previous eruptions, Dacite I think.
Pumice is fun, you'll have to ask your professor about this red rock!

I know the basics of how Santorini was formed, but that's it. There were indeed many layers, they mainly seemed to be alternating between a grey-ish rock (which I'm guessing is ash or something) and red rock (which I'm guessing has iron in it?) with some narrow white and black layers.

There's an island in the middle which was made from recent volcanic eruptions and I think that's probably a bit how Lanzarote looks like, lots of black volcanic rock (basalt?). I'm not sure I liked it though... it was so featureless. Apart from a few little sulphur vents, it was just completely bland with no plants, I much preferred mainland Santorini with its beautiful cliffs. There are some stunning walks around the island and to the various archaeological sites, some of which predate the Minoan eruption. Oxford actually currently do a field trip to Santorini, although it's for people specialising in Volcanology and there's another field trip for those interested in Climatology and I'm not sure I can do both.

I will definitely be bringing my rocks with me for comfort! I finally got some Labradorite as a birthday present which is my favorite mineral...

It should be an entrance requirement that geology students have a modest mineral / fossil collection My favorite mineral would have to be fluorite, generic i know but I just love the perfect cubes it forms.

Yeah the rock of Lanzarote is predominantly black basalt but it does have streaks of bright orange and red around the cinder cones. There's a fair amount of agriculture on Lanzarote but none of it is natural. I'd say the most interesting things on the island are ( aside form the volcanoes, obviously) the works of César Manrique ,Mirador del rio, a clifftop cafe / bar place overlooking a neighboring island on the edge of a cliff, Jameos del agua which is an amazing venue situated inside a cave but also has a natural pool of water fileld with white crabs endemic to lanzarote.

Fluorite is lovely. I once had the idea of starting a proper mineral collection (rather than the sad little collection of rocks I've gathered from beaches and a mica that I got from the Natural History Museum) and I found some proper mineral dealers but in the end I just decided that there were better uses of my money. Oxford's teaching rock collection is open 24/7 though which is awesome and they even have two cabinets of precious and semi-precious stones in the foyer! UCL also has its famous "Rock Room" which is a little old room completely surrounded by geological specimens. Have you considered UCL as an option?

I haven't really looked at UCL at all, Imperial is on my shortlist , I'll take a look at the website and google maps the campus now.

Hi! I'm really looking forward to pursue geology in Imperial or UCL or natural sciences in Cambridge. For my AS result, I got 90% above for maths, biology and chemistry. As for physics, it is 89%. My teachers insisted of not changing my predicted grades from AAA to at A*AA. I had working experiences in Geology Museum before this and other relevant experiences. Do you think I will have high chances to get into those unis?

The problem here is Cambridge. Imperial and UCL both have minimum offers that are at or below AAA so you should have a very reasonable shot at those universities. The issue is that Cambridge's standard offer is A*A*A and they're almost certainly not going to give you an offer unless you're predicted that. Are you absolutely certain that you can't get predicted A*AA or better, i.e. have you explained that an application to Cambridge is potentially pointless without it? If you genuinely can't get a higher prediction, you might want to consider trying to get your UMS into your reference to show the universities you're applying to that your predicted grades are harsh. By the way, what is your UMS in those three subjects, how close to 90% are we talking about?

Have you considered Oxford's Earth Sciences course? Again, their standard offer is higher than AAA (it's AAAA or A*AA) so it would still help if you got predicted a grade higher but they're going to be less grade-obsessed than Cambridge and are probably going to put a bigger emphasis on your interview.

Oh...I've never really considered applying to Oxford's Earth Sciences. Thank you for the heads-up I guess the reason my lecturers do not give me higher predicted grades because I only got low 90s. For instance, bio-92%, chem-93% and maths-91%. I think for A2 I can get 90 and above for bio and chem because I tend to do better in structure questions compared to MCQ.

Well I wish you the best of luck with your application! I suppose I understand where your teachers are coming from (they're being cautious, whereas a lot of teachers would rather be unrealistically optimistic). Do consider Oxford, because I think an offer is theoretically possible there whereas it's highly unlikely at Cambridge unless you manage to get predicted their standard offer. Having said that, the rest of the places you're applying to are all really great, UCL and Imperial have lovely Earth Sciences departments.

Hi there, I was just wondering what's the difference between the earth science course and the geology course at UCL, I have asked this to the department but it's been a week and they haven't got back to me yet? I did check the course content for both and they seemed almost exactly the same. Thank you

Their Earth Science course is more flexible as you select a range of modules from environmental geoscience, geology and geophysics. Whereas the Geology course will include fewer geophysics/environmental geoscience options, and will be more focused on just geology.

This is similar to the set up at Imperial. I graduated with an Earth Science degree rather than a Geology degree because the combination of modules I chose did not fit into any of the main streams (environmental geoscience, geology, geophysics, dual honours geology & geophysics), and instead were a mix. At Imperial it seemed to be quite common for people to move to the Earth Science stream instead if they were less keen on the fieldwork component of the geology course, and instead opted for lab projects or desk based studies.

Ahh thank you so much!! And also, does it matter if I have only put geology and not earth science in my personal statement as I am applying to both earth science and just geology courses?

Hi there, I was just wondering what's the difference between the earth science course and the geology course at UCL, I have asked this to the department but it's been a week and they haven't got back to me yet? I did check the course content for both and they seemed almost exactly the same. Thank you