SOAS University of London Applicant Thread 2016

My application is in! I got the email to let me know they received it, any idea when I'll hear about an offer? >.<

Is there a course that has to do with Japanese that does take fictional skills? I have taken any languages at all in GCSE or above I have only self taught. Would there be any chance of getting to the uni?

Original post by SOAS Student Helper

Hi @lammy07

Welcome to the conversation!

We don't take functional skills level 2. For the courses you're interested in, we do look that you have some sort of language in your BTEC levels. If you haven't taken a language, then we look for a recommendation for any languages you might have taken in GCSE or as an outside course. In your personal statement it is crucial that you state your aptitude in any language that you have taken. It would be a case by case scenario to see if you meet the requirements of our programme. If you have any more questions, please feel free to PM me!

~Mike

OP

Original post by lammy07

Is there a course that has to do with Japanese that does take fictional skills? I have taken any languages at all in GCSE or above I have only self taught. Would there be any chance of getting to the uni?

@lammy07

A course that has fictional skills - not that I am aware of. This may or may not appear within your 3 years as an elective.

Once again, it would be a case by case scenario. The admission office if they believe your grades are good enough, they might invite you in for an assessment or an interview, once again, that depends on the team and the professors on the course.

~Mike

OP

Original post by bellalalaxo

My application is in! I got the email to let me know they received it, any idea when I'll hear about an offer? >.<

@bellalalaxo

I'm nervous but I'm so excited for you! They try and get back to you in between 4-6 weeks. It goes through the admission office and then to the head of the department for them to get a read of your application.

As soon as you get the good news, make sure you come back and tell us all about it so we can celebrate with you :bumps:

Where else have you applied to?

~Mike

Reply 44

bellalalaxo

11

Original post by SOAS Student Helper

@bellalalaxo

I'm nervous but I'm so excited for you! They try and get back to you in between 4-6 weeks. It goes through the admission office and then to the head of the department for them to get a read of your application.

As soon as you get the good news, make sure you come back and tell us all about it so we can celebrate with you :bumps:

Where else have you applied to?

~Mike

I have applied to SOAS, Sheffield and UCLan! These are the only places in the country that do Korean so I really hope I get into one!

Thank you so much I will keep you updated as soon as I hear back from them c:

Reply 45

sghad

1

What are you applying for? International Relations and Persian BA
What A levels are you studying? French, History and English Literature
What are you most looking forward to? Studying my two favourite topics! (and living in London)
What are you looking to do after uni? Hopefully work for an NGO and help victims who have suffered from human rights violations in Iran

SOAS Student Helper, I have just sent off my application and waiting for my school to send it off. I am only applying for a joint honours at SOAS so I could not include a lot about wanting to study Persian in my actual statement, will this still be accepted or will I be able to provide you with another statement on wanting to study Persian?

Thank you.

Reply 46

NormaNormaNorm

Original post by SOAS Student Helper

Thinking about SOAS? We are too! Ask us a question, leave a comment, or just chat to other applicants. Starter for 10...

What are you applying for?
What A levels are you studying?
What are you most looking forward to?
What are you looking to do after uni?

Any questions, tag us at @SOAS Student Helper We are here to help you out! :h:

Hi @SOAS Student Helper I am applying for the Study of religion course and Social Anthropology + Study of Religion course. I have sent in my applications, and for my other Universities I have received an email saying that they've received it... However, I have yet to receive a confirmation email from SOAS? Has anyone else received theirs?

(edited 8 years ago)

OP

Original post by NormaNormaNorm

Hi @SOAS Student Helper I am applying for the Study of religion course and Social Anthropology + Study of Religion course. I have sent in my applications, and for my other Universities I have received an email saying that they've received it... However, I have yet to receive a confirmation email from SOAS? Has anyone else received theirs?

Hellloooo!

Apologies for the delay. We just upgraded to a new application processor system and we had to get all the kinks out. We received the first lot of applications from UCAS and as we processed them we sent out a few hundred confirmation emails yesterday, so hopefully the rest will be sent out within the next two weeks. It depends on when UCAS decides to drop them off in our inbox. As long as you received a confirmation email from UCAS then don't worry, we will eventually get them!

Nice choices! Do you have an area / region that you want to specialise in? Or is it a 'apply now, decide later' type of philosophy lol. Hey...it worked out for me!

~Mike

OP

Original post by sghad

What are you applying for? International Relations and Persian BA
What A levels are you studying? French, History and English Literature
What are you most looking forward to? Studying my two favourite topics! (and living in London)
What are you looking to do after uni? Hopefully work for an NGO and help victims who have suffered from human rights violations in Iran

SOAS Student Helper, I have just sent off my application and waiting for my school to send it off. I am only applying for a joint honours at SOAS so I could not include a lot about wanting to study Persian in my actual statement, will this still be accepted or will I be able to provide you with another statement on wanting to study Persian?

Thank you.

Hey @sghad

Yup! You can send a supplement personal statement to [email protected] as soon as you received your confirmation email from SOAS or between 7-10 days after submitting your application to UCAS. Make sure in the email you say its a supplement (secondary) personal statement, your full name, what you intend to study, your UCAS application number, and then attach the document. Don't forget email etiqutte! Dear SOAS Admission team ... Many thanks in advance... Sincerely... etc.

The same rules you had to abide to on the UCAS statement, applies for the supplement (secondary) personal statement. Please don't exceed the word limit, or mention any other programme not specified on your application, as this may disqualify your application. It's a supplement statement, so remember, if you go on about IR when most of your original personal statement via UCAS was about IR, then it's generally not a good look. Try to speak about Persian as much as possible. If you have taken a language at A levels or GCSEs, here's your chance to brag about those. If you can show us that you have the ability to learn another language, then we use that to judge to see if you can succeed in learning Persian.

It's Personal Statement week at UCAS. Use the hashtag #ucasps on twitter and facebook to get tips and hints on how to perfect it.

I hope this helps!

~Mike

Reply 49

sghad

1

Original post by SOAS Student Helper

Hey @sghad

Yup! You can send a supplement personal statement to [email protected] as soon as you received your confirmation email from SOAS or between 7-10 days after submitting your application to UCAS. Make sure in the email you say its a supplement (secondary) personal statement, your full name, what you intend to study, your UCAS application number, and then attach the document. Don't forget email etiqutte! Dear SOAS Admission team ... Many thanks in advance... Sincerely... etc.

The same rules you had to abide to on the UCAS statement, applies for the supplement (secondary) personal statement. Please don't exceed the word limit, or mention any other programme not specified on your application, as this may disqualify your application. It's a supplement statement, so remember, if you go on about IR when most of your original personal statement via UCAS was about IR, then it's generally not a good look. Try to speak about Persian as much as possible. If you have taken a language at A levels or GCSEs, here's your chance to brag about those. If you can show us that you have the ability to learn another language, then we use that to judge to see if you can succeed in learning Persian.

It's Personal Statement week at UCAS. Use the hashtag #ucasps on twitter and facebook to get tips and hints on how to perfect it.

I hope this helps!

~Mike

Thank you, so the supplementary statement is also 4000 characters but has to be tailored around my desire to study Persian?

OP

Original post by sghad

Thank you, so the supplementary statement is also 4000 characters but has to be tailored around my desire to study Persian?

@sghad

Percisely. It has to be less than 4000 characters. There's no penalty if you speak about IR and Persian. Since you wrote mainly about IR in your UCAS Personal Statement, I would hope you would want to spend as much time explaining why you want to do Persian. If you can provide other insight and good points about IR go for it! But if you feel as if your UCAS application supports IR well enough, then I wouldn't spend too many characters writing about it.

Does that make sense?

~Mike

Reply 51

timelizard

14

What are you applying for? International Relations and Arabic BA
What A levels are you studying? Spanish, Maths and Biology
What are you most looking forward to? Studying IR!! I'm in love with it! And I like learning languages and I think arabic will be very interesting.
What are you looking to do after uni? Either work for NGOs/ in development and aid or go into international law. I actually wanted to apply to do IR and Law at SOAS but I chose arabic instead because it would have meant I was applying to a wide range of courses and my personal statement was already out of hand! (my other courses are either just IR or IR with Spanish and Arabic)

Reply 52

Chrissy.98

11

Original post by timelizard

What are you applying for? International Relations and Arabic BA
What A levels are you studying? Spanish, Maths and Biology
What are you most looking forward to? Studying IR!! I'm in love with it! And I like learning languages and I think arabic will be very interesting.
What are you looking to do after uni? Either work for NGOs/ in development and aid or go into international law. I actually wanted to apply to do IR and Law at SOAS but I chose arabic instead because it would have meant I was applying to a wide range of courses and my personal statement was already out of hand! (my other courses are either just IR or IR with Spanish and Arabic)

Arabic is a brilliant language to learn. I've been teaching myself for about a year now and although it is hard, it's very fun. I'm sure you'll very much enjoy learning it! and in addition it opens up loads of opportunities, particularly in the field you want to go into.

Reply 53

A Square

3

What are you applying for?
What A levels are you studying?
What are you most looking forward to?
What are you looking to do after uni?

Social Anthropology and Economics :nyan:

International Baccalaureate - Economics, English and History :work:

I don't even know haha - Just getting stuck in? :biggrin:

What I suspect most people on my course want to do - work in an NGO after doing a Masters. :h:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 54

MackTheKnife

1

What are you applying for? Study of Religion and Politics
What A levels are you studying? (IB) HL: History, Theatre, Literature SL: Biology, Dutch B, Math Studies
What are you most looking forward to? Definitely the International environment. People from all corners of the world debating about issues from far off lands and discussing types of food foreign to mine own tongue. I was walking by SOAS the other day to visit another uni, and the vibrancy that emits from the diverse student body... it's so cool.
What are you looking to do after uni? Not entirely sure. I'm hoping to find out exactly what I want to do through as I study and find out exactly what I'm interested in. But I'm doing Public Speaking now and perhaps I could apply that in the future (somehow)

My main course that I'm applying to for all uni's is Politics, however the new Study of Religions course really drew me in, so I decided to apply for a combination of both in SOAS. This means that in my personal statement I'm only talking about Politics. Is this okay, or considering Religion is half of it I also have to mention that (even though I'm not applying for it in any other universities)?

OP

Original post by MackTheKnife

What are you applying for? Study of Religion and Politics
What A levels are you studying? (IB) HL: History, Theatre, Literature SL: Biology, Dutch B, Math Studies
What are you most looking forward to? Definitely the International environment. People from all corners of the world debating about issues from far off lands and discussing types of food foreign to mine own tongue. I was walking by SOAS the other day to visit another uni, and the vibrancy that emits from the diverse student body... it's so cool.
What are you looking to do after uni? Not entirely sure. I'm hoping to find out exactly what I want to do through as I study and find out exactly what I'm interested in. But I'm doing Public Speaking now and perhaps I could apply that in the future (somehow)

My main course that I'm applying to for all uni's is Politics, however the new Study of Religions course really drew me in, so I decided to apply for a combination of both in SOAS. This means that in my personal statement I'm only talking about Politics. Is this okay, or considering Religion is half of it I also have to mention that (even though I'm not applying for it in any other universities)?

@MackTheKnife I took a public speaking course and fell in love with it. That was part of a series of courses I took in uni which drew my attention to the public limelight. That fear of standing in front of thousands, but that gratification of nailing it in the end is something I loved! I haven't looked back yet. Of course, it does help that I do love hearing myself speak too lol. It all builds on each other and even by taking courses or doing internships which you end up hating, is much more valuable and helps you figure out life and your career!

In your personal statement on your UCAS application. Talk about Politics. Between 7-10 days after you submit your UCAS Application, follow that up with an email to us with another personal statement (called a supplementary statement) talking about our Study of Religion programme. This supplementary statement is simply another personal statement. Meaning, it must follow the same UCAS rules i.e. less than 4000 characters etc.

Talk about why you're applying for Religions and what makes you suitable for it. You can mention Politics again in your supplementary statement, but please try not to duplicate anything you put in your first personal statement about Politics again in your supplementary.

P.S. Make sure you send that email to [email protected] and make sure you put your full name, what you're planning on studying, and your UCAS ID number.

~Mike

OP

Original post by A Square

What are you applying for?
What A levels are you studying?
What are you most looking forward to?
What are you looking to do after uni?

Social Anthropology and Economics :nyan:

International Baccalaureate - Economics, English and History :work:

I don't even know haha - Just getting stuck in? :biggrin:

What I suspect most people on my course want to do - work in an NGO after doing a Masters. :h:

@A Square

Nice try but my use of emojis are better :bunny:

But if want an emoji war then emoji war is what you'll get! (insert evil laugh here) :mwuaha:

Lol.

I did a masters and I loved every moment of it. My personal advice, get a year of work experience first before going straight into your masters. You'll appreciate it more, you'll have some more money in your pocket (trust me, after four years of eating popcorn, poptarts and cereal 3x a day, you'll appreciate having money to go on midnight Mcdonald's runs ), but most importantly, you'll be able to connect the dots between what you learned on the job and what you're learning in the classroom. That real world experience is invaluable. :party2:

If you rather just go straight through, definitely volunteer and intern every year during the summer or during the year if you can. You'll be way ahead of the curb and the people in your class and across the nation. Make sure our careers service is your bff!

~Mike

Reply 57

A Square

3

Original post by SOAS Student Helper

@A Square

Nice try but my use of emojis are better :bunny:

But if want an emoji war then emoji war is what you'll get! (insert evil laugh here) :mwuaha:

Lol.

I did a masters and I loved every moment of it. My personal advice, get a year of work experience first before going straight into your masters. You'll appreciate it more, you'll have some more money in your pocket (trust me, after four years of eating popcorn, poptarts and cereal 3x a day, you'll appreciate having money to go on midnight Mcdonald's runs ), but most importantly, you'll be able to connect the dots between what you learned on the job and what you're learning in the classroom. That real world experience is invaluable. :party2:

If you rather just go straight through, definitely volunteer and intern every year during the summer or during the year if you can. You'll be way ahead of the curb and the people in your class and across the nation. Make sure our careers service is your bff!

~Mike

Haha

Thanks for the advice! I'll keep it in mind. :smile:

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 58

timelizard

14

Original post by SOAS Student Helper

~Mike

Hi, i sent off my application a few weeks ago (for International Relations and Arabic) and i got an email a few minutes ago saying They want a persona statement about my interest in Arabic. how long does this have to be? my main interest is IR and i havent done much w regards to arabic. Can i just change my course to IR only if it makes it easier?

OP

Original post by timelizard

Hi, i sent off my application a few weeks ago (for International Relations and Arabic) and i got an email a few minutes ago saying They want a persona statement about my interest in Arabic. how long does this have to be? my main interest is IR and i havent done much w regards to arabic. Can i just change my course to IR only if it makes it easier?

@timelizard

I just talked to the admission team, and they said you just have to write another one explaining why you're interested in arabic, why you think it'll help you, your qualifications etc. pretty much the same thing you did for IR but for arabic. It doesn't have to be as long as your personal statement for IR. When in doubt, just follow the same rules you did for the UCAS Personal Statement.

If you have taken an A level or a GCSE language course then this will help make your application much strong. If you haven't then if you have any outside training, I would mention it. A language is a great thing to have and would help progress your career! Don't worry if you haven't done much with Arabic. All of our courses teaches you the basics, so by time you leave in 3-4 years, you'll be a pro at it!

~Mike

SOAS University of London Applicant Thread 2016

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