Scandinavian Studies

With those subjects I would maybe try to incorporate the work of a Scandinavian philosopher or a geographical point of interest which has a link to Scandinavia in your personal statement, so that the Scandinavian link is clear for the courses which incorporate Scandinavian Studies but also relevant for other courses at other universities. For example in my application (I applied for lots of different language combinations), I included Scandinavia by referencing my interest in different cultures and used my Scandinavian EPQ as evidence of my interest. In only a couple of words, I made clear my specific interest in Scandinavia within a point that would be relevant to all of the courses I applied for. Hopefully that helps a bit? Feel free to message me if you have anymore questions

I linked philosophy by mentioning Kierkegaard Also you could talk about transferable skills that a specific subject taught you (Critical analysis, developed sensitivity to cultures and view points etc.)

If you're applying for a joint degree then you don't have to write about both subject in equal length and you can have one as your main point of focus (that's what I did for mine)

Hope that helps

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When applying on UCAS and writing their personal statements, how is it commonly written? Obviously Scandinavian studies is rather limited as a degree choice, so what would be the best way of integrating it into a good personal statement, say with another subject (e.g. philosophy or geography) ?

It is usually a bad idea to talk about more than one subject in your personal statement unless you're applying for a combined degree. It is definitely a bad idea to apply for the Scandinavian Studies BA and a Geography BA, you'd probably be rejected by both. It is possible to combine geography with Norwegian but it's a little complicated. I won't bother explaining it unless it's something you actually want to know?

It would be easier to write a PS for philosophy because both UCL and Edinburgh offer joint Scandinavian Studies and Philosophy degrees. I don't agree with LamantChenille, admissions tutors want you to be honest and talk about your interests, not invent reasons like pretending to admire a philosopher just because of where he was born. My advice would be to make a clear distinction between the subjects, one paragraph for Scandinavian-related stuff and another for philosophy

There is a lot of information on writing and structuring your personal statement here, as well as examples of old statements.

Of course yes I wasn;t anticipating writing about 2 completely unrelated degrees, that would over complicate with little detail to impress or show particular attributes. Yes please if you wouldn't mind explaining? Geography is my favourite A Level so if it is possible to combine, that would be great,

Okay thank you, so by doing one paragraph on each, would that not limit my word count unless I keep it rather short - or bulk the main topic with referencing to S.S?

Just thought I'd mention it here that I've firmed UCL for French and Danish (Modern Languages) now! I am so so excited!!

Yay. Congrats! Also. Yay We'll have a Danish fresher! ^.^

Thanks
Do you do Danish? How do you like it? Also, sadly I won't be around until next year, I'm doing deferred entry..

Yep! I really enjoy it. Bits of it are tricky in a way that other Scandi languages aren't (pronunciation can get a bit of getting used to for example) but it's not a major deal. Just something you work on until you crack it. We've been having a few lessons with the Norwegian students this year too as the languages are so similar, which has been really useful and, well, just a lot of fun, tbh. Hopefully they'll carry on with it. The current teacher is very good but he's leaving at the end of this year so I can't really comment on that but I'm sure they'll get a good replacement. It's deffo a good choice of language. I know a few people in other years doing the French and Danish combination too so I guess that also works well. Okay I'll stop rambling now xD

Ah right. Well I'm buggering off on my year abroad next year so I'll be back for 4th year in 2017/18

Wow, it sounds fantastic!
Where are you going for your year abroad?

University of Copenhagen It's exciting...kinda scary though

Hey all! Anyone else applied this year?

I've been given an offer already so I'm really happy!

Nice! What language you doing?

I'm hoping to do norwegian but for a while now I've wanted to go to Iceland, but perhaps two languages from scratch is a bit much!

Are you a current student?

Hey all! Anyone else applied this year?

I've been given an offer already so I'm really happy!

Hi Scandy Studies folks,

Hope nobody minds me posting in this thread - sorry for the necro. I'm going to be applying to UCL for a place on the Icelandic BA next year and since that course is, shall we say, 'niche interest' I've had no luck finding anybody who knows anything about it elsewhere! Since there's bound to be a certain amount of crossover in terms of interest and association between Icelandic and SS, I'm wondering - does anyone here know what the usual intake size is? I'm guessing quite small, but then I'm also guessing there's a fair amount of international interest too, given that only about 5 unis on the planet teach any Icelandic at all. Does anyone have any idea of how competitive it is, entry-wise? Does it attract mature students, that you know of? (I'm asking because I'm pretty ancient and wondering if that's likely to count against me.)

I think the SELCS admissions officer is probably sick of my emails and phonecalls at this point, hence this post. Apologies again for jumping in.

It's nice to see this thread revived. Why do you want to return to study now, and why Icelandic?

I applied for SS (Norwegian) some years ago but had to defer due to health reasons. Still hoping to apply again one day, but I have done a lot of research about the dept in the meantime so perhaps I can help.

Although this article is a little dated (2013), and it refers to Scandinavian Studies rather than Icelandic, it does give an indication of the number of applicants the department gets. I doubt Icelandic gets more than 20 applicants a year, so if you meet (or are projected to meet) the course entry requirements then you have a very good chance of getting in.

I understand that the department does admit quite a lot of mature students, it certainly will not count against you (universities aren't allowed to discriminate against older students anyway). I know that in the last 10 years there have been a number of students in their 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s.

Thanks so much for the reply and the link, Snufkin! I've been reading my way through this entire thread over the last few weeks and your contributions have been very informative!

I've wanted to get back into formal study for years, but I didn't know exactly what I wanted to do until I discovered the existence of the UCL Icelandic BA! I had my first brush with the language at college 20 years ago, courtesy of an exchange student from Reykjavík, and was fascinated but at that time I wasn't able to take my interest further for a number of reasons. Over the intervening years I fell in love with the Germanic language family and became especially intrigued by its history and roots, which led me back around to Icelandic (by way of Old Norse) as a language of special interest.

I'm also a fan of Norwegian and have been self-teaching a little bit - if I'm lucky enough to qualify for a place, I'd love to take Norwegian alongside Icelandic.

Thanks again for responding - finding out anything at all about the programme (other than from SELCS directly) has proven difficult, so this has been a big help! I hope you're able to reapply for SS and get your teeth into study soon!