Scandinavian Studies

Meg_Lili

Corrected

Oh, and I died a little bit inside when I saw in the 'language space' that they use Moodle. :frown:

My college uses it and it's awful. Biggest crock of **** I've ever come across...

The girl who was doing the tour I went on said afterwards she'd never seen so many parents at an open day/interview thing. I'd have banned mine from going if they had wanted to!

C-

I'd pretend to be hurt and appalled if it wasn't true. However, as all my mates say when introducing me to new people, "you'll get used to [me]."

Never been in this language thingy, don't think it'd work too well for my chosen language but there we go.

Reply 22

tieni

my interview was so bad, haha..
she was like 'so you speak danish? how about i speak swedish and you answer in danish?' so we did that for a while then she goes 'can you speak swedish?' and clearly i was like 'um, no?' then she suddenly goes 'oh im so sorry this is really unfair nobody else has to do this'.
it was fun though, felt a bit on the spot when she started asking me about a book i read about a year ago, but i think i managed to somehow sound like i knew what i was doing..
now i just really hope i get an offer, i really liked it there.

WOW at the library!

Reply 23

Got a letter today saying something along the lines of

"Thank you for turning up....blah blah blah....as you know, UCAS takes ages to update (cos it's crap)...so you won't know anything officially til then...blah blah blah...
BUT, unofficially, I'm happy to tell you we've recommended that the University offer you a place on the SS course...blah blah blah...though we can't guarantee this 100% until you get it on UCAS due to spaces on the course...blah blah blah"

Paraphrased slightly as I don't have the letter and am at work...but anyways.
:biggrin:

Weight off my shoulders condsidering I thought the interview wasn't that great (letter even said 'We were impressed by your interview...etc', which although is the generic letter, is still nice!)
Anyone else heard anything yet?

C-

Reply 24

Meg_Lili

Got a letter today saying something along the lines of

"Thank you for turning up....blah blah blah....as you know, UCAS takes ages to update (cos it's crap)...so you won't know anything officially til then...blah blah blah...
BUT, unofficially, I'm happy to tell you we've recommended that the University offer you a place on the SS course...blah blah blah...though we can't guarantee this 100% until you get it on UCAS due to spaces on the course...blah blah blah"

Paraphrased slightly as I don't have the letter and am at work...but anyways.
:biggrin:

Weight off my shoulders condsidering I thought the interview wasn't that great (letter even said 'We were impressed by your interview...etc', which although is the generic letter, is still nice!)
Anyone else heard anything yet?

C-

**** yeah! Now I can ~~terrorise~~ meet you! Congratulations! :biggrin:

tieni

stuffs

Yea, they often speak the language in the interview if the applicant is able to speak it already. Sounds like you will be one of the few with prior experience.

Reply 25

Mumintroll

Wow, congratulations Meg_Lili!! That was fast! Must feel good. Did you talk to them about the chance of doing some Finnish during your interview?

... I didn't get any post today :frown:

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Reply 26

Mumintroll

Wow, congratulations Meg_Lili!! That was fast! Must feel good. Did you talk to them about the chance of doing some Finnish during your interview?

... I didn't get any post today :frown:

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Finnish is offered to students in the second year and fourth year in conjunction with SSEES. However, it counts as your module outside the department, meaning the rest of your unit allocation must be used up within the department itself.

Reply 27

Mumintroll

Wow, congratulations Meg_Lili!! That was fast! Must feel good. Did you talk to them about the chance of doing some Finnish during your interview?

... I didn't get any post today :frown:

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Danke, I'm still waiting for it to come through on track and be official! And still haven't heard from Edinburgh, so what I'm gonna do is still v. much up in the air...

I did, and yeah, pretty much what Hylean said. My interviewer also said they were trying to pull the Scand Studies dept and the Finnish Guy (I'm assuming that she meant Dr. TH) closer together so they can collaborate more etc. Does make keeping up my Italian a bit more difficult, but I'm sure I'd be able to find a way.
The interviewer lady seemed quite excited when I mentioned seeing Åbo Akademi on the YA universities list on the website and we talked about it quite a bit. :smile:

Apparantly there's only 1 person out there this year, and she hasn't heard from them, but assumes they're enjoying it, and said that normally there isn't much competition for the YA unis, and she can only remember once - when a virtually a whole class decided they wanted to go to Uppsala - when someone didn't get what they wanted. Though she said if 5 people all decided they wanted to go to Åbo, there might be some problems!

Meh, tis the Royal Mail for you, since when have they delivered stuff when expected?! I'm sure you'll have a similar letter dropping through your letterbox soon! (Also, my letter was from (though signed by someone else) my interviewer, so different interviewers might take longer I guess, who did your interview?)

C-

Reply 28

Meg_Lili

The interviewer lady seemed quite excited when I mentioned seeing Åbo Akademi on the YA universities list on the website and we talked about it quite a bit. :smile:

Apparantly there's only 1 person out there this year, and she hasn't heard from them, but assumes they're enjoying it, and said that normally there isn't much competition for the YA unis, and she can only remember once - when a virtually a whole class decided they wanted to go to Uppsala - when someone didn't get what they wanted. Though she said if 5 people all decided they wanted to go to Åbo, there might be some problems!

That might have been my year actually. Most of my class wanted Uppsala and we had to say no to one or two, who then went somewhere else.

The girl at Åbo is enjoying it immensely and is improving her finnish at the same time. If you want, i might be able to convince her to email you or something bout Åbo. She's a good mate of mine.

Reply 29

Mumintroll

Meg_Lili

Danke, I'm still waiting for it to come through on track and be official! And still haven't heard from Edinburgh, so what I'm gonna do is still v. much up in the air...

I did, and yeah, pretty much what Hylean said. My interviewer also said they were trying to pull the Scand Studies dept and the Finnish Guy (I'm assuming that she meant Dr. TH) closer together so they can collaborate more etc. Does make keeping up my Italian a bit more difficult, but I'm sure I'd be able to find a way.
The interviewer lady seemed quite excited when I mentioned seeing Åbo Akademi on the YA universities list on the website and we talked about it quite a bit. :smile:

Apparantly there's only 1 person out there this year, and she hasn't heard from them, but assumes they're enjoying it, and said that normally there isn't much competition for the YA unis, and she can only remember once - when a virtually a whole class decided they wanted to go to Uppsala - when someone didn't get what they wanted. Though she said if 5 people all decided they wanted to go to Åbo, there might be some problems!

Meh, tis the Royal Mail for you, since when have they delivered stuff when expected?! I'm sure you'll have a similar letter dropping through your letterbox soon! (Also, my letter was from (though signed by someone else) my interviewer, so different interviewers might take longer I guess, who did your interview?)

C-

I really hope so. I've sent you a PM.

Yes, I heard the same about the cooperation between SS and Dr TH getting closer, which is good. I had a really nice interviewer. I got the faculty member I would have chosen to interview me if I had been able to choose myself (going by the profiles on the SS website).

It's good to hear what Hylean says about the girl in Åbo. I know at Helsinki university (which is bilingual, but overwhelmingly Finnish language students) they have some separate accommodation reserved just for Swedish-speakers. Hylean, do you know if they have that in Åbo too? Because I know that Åbo akademi (Swedish-speaking uni) operates its accommodation department jointly with Turku (Finnish-speaking) University. I know that prob sounds a really random question, but the town itself is really Finnish-speaking, so I think it would be a massive benefit to be able to live with Swedish-speakers if possible.

Reply 30

Mumintroll

I really hope so. I've sent you a PM.

Yes, I heard the same about the cooperation between SS and Dr TH getting closer, which is good. I had a really nice interviewer. I got the faculty member I would have chosen to interview me if I had been able to choose myself (going by the profiles on the SS website).

It's good to hear what Hylean says about the girl in Åbo. I know at Helsinki university (which is bilingual, but overwhelmingly Finnish language students) they have some separate accommodation reserved just for Swedish-speakers. Hylean, do you know if they have that in Åbo too? Because I know that Åbo akademi (Swedish-speaking uni) operates its accommodation department jointly with Turku (Finnish-speaking) University. I know that prob sounds a really random question, but the town itself is really Finnish-speaking, so I think it would be a massive benefit to be able to live with Swedish-speakers if possible.

What was your interviewers name, was it Chris Abram by any chance? He a really nice guy, can't really think of any other male teachers there, except maybe Tom Lunskær Nielson.

I will chat to the girl in Åbo for you. I don't know much about it myself, considering I'm in Iceland and all that, heh. I reckoned they'd probably put the Swedish speakers in together though, especially if they are exchange students. That's what it's like elsewhere, all the international students end up in a similar area and stuff, which actually sucks from a language point of view. I really hate that I am not living with Icelanders because it means a lot of the day I have to speak English cause my flatmates here won't understand me otherwise. Ah well, ****e happens.

Reply 31

Mumintroll

Nope, I didn't have a male teacher.

Would be cool to get the inside info from your friend at Åbo. Should I get in (jag håller fortfarande tummarna...), I guess I'll be able to hear about all the year abroad destinations from those there now. That seemed one of the great things about SS, seemed a really close/friendly department.

Reply 32

tieni

Ohh I haven't had any post, I feel rejected :frown:

Early days though, hopefully it will all be OK.. There wasn't that many of us on Wednesday so unless there were a lot of rescheduled interviews I reckon we all have a pretty good chance

Reply 33

tieni

Ohh I haven't had any post, I feel rejected :frown:

Early days though, hopefully it will all be OK.. There wasn't that many of us on Wednesday so unless there were a lot of rescheduled interviews I reckon we all have a pretty good chance

Still loads of time yet :smile:

I think my letter just came through abnormally early, and my track hasn't updated.
Who did you get interviewing you?

I agree with you about the numbers of people, I think there must have been 8-9 of us tops last week, and assuming they only have two or so other interview days, about 30 people would be interviewed, so considering they give out more offers than they have places (I think someone said 15 places in the dept?), we must all have had a fairly good chance...
(Having said that, I've just dug myself a pretty big hole if someone doesn't get an offer! But I'm just assuming we're all amazing and they'll give us all offers :biggrin:

)

Anyways, keeping my fingers crossed!

C-

Reply 34

On average, 40 people apply for the department. Not all take the offer of interviews, some can only have phone ones and then the rest go to the two or three interview days. There are, overall, 20 places, but some of these are reserved for exchange students, apparently.

Reply 35

klika89

OP

5

so what about your offers? any news?

Reply 36

Got my offer through track today (coincidentally whilst I was at UCL for another interview for a different course). Slightly mixed feelings about it. They want:
History - A
Psychology - B
Law - B

C-

Reply 37

Meg_Lili

Got my offer through track today (coincidentally whilst I was at UCL for another interview for a different course). Slightly mixed feelings about it. They want:
History - A
Psychology - B
Law - B

C-

The offers are lower than last years, it seems. They offered a few people AAB. Why mixed feelings? You'll easily get that, you smart wench, you.

Reply 38

Hylean

The offers are lower than last years, it seems. They offered a few people AAB. Why mixed feelings? You'll easily get that, you smart wench, you.

Cos History's my weak subject (and my teachers are ****). I'm interested in it and all, but I'm dubious as to whether I can pull off an A.
Ah well, A-level module result back for a history exam a month today, we'll see.

C-

Reply 39