Scandinavian Studies

Haha, Rony, you've certainly had an interesting experience here in Iceland this past year if you think that. I wouldn't say any of them is more stuck up than the others. What have you been doing? I never see you at the uni or anything.




Claire's also a ****ing idiot who's destroying the department. Just my take on her, I might add, unaffiliated to the department, UCL or HÍ.

Edinburgh, whilst an amazing university, is also constantly beaten by UCL in any league table, so I've no idea where you got the idea that Edinburgh is "academically a higher achiever". I wouldn't dare suggest UCL was better academically, despite what the league tables want to say. Neither would I say Edinburgh is genteel or anything like that. UCL is exceptionally class ridden, it's ridiculous. Edinburgh also has a high ratio of international students, as most universities do.




Not often I agree with this guy, but yeah, I agree with him on everything here.

I am not sure I can comment on individual teachers especially because I appear to be a common household name here with my identity well-known. Perhaps I ought to resign up with a different pseudo-this one kind of gives it away. I do not know how things have changed after the change of heads at the department because I also took a year out in between year abroad. Ok I know many see UCL as elitist but I somewhat thought Edinburgh was much more so. It is quite possible that it is the other way round. The guy you agree with is not right however, he needs to check with his University and I am pretty sure they will confirm that Tom Lundskaer -Nielsen is a well known academic at Edinburgh through his time there -teaching. He is based at UCL which apparently has the largest numbers of profs of any UK uni, and it would make sense that they go round-otherwise it would be unfair on others- We had a Cambridge lecturer-teacher, teaching us in our first year certainly, so it is quite normal and a good thing. Of course he may be right about other aspects of Edinburgh.. I am not sure where all UCL people have hidden themselves either but I suppose, as they say quote 'Nordic Noir', you can literally 'disappear in Iceland'..shame because the year has almost come to an end.

Hi, just wanted to say that I had my skype (!) interview yesterday, at 7 in the morning with Claire Thomson. It went pretty well, not fantastic but I think a bit better than okay. She said she would be recommending me for an offer! So I was quite pleased by that. She asked a couple of questions about literature I wasn't expecting, but I was able to give adequate replies so it was fine.

And while I might be jumping the gun, I guess it's now up to me to choose between Edinburgh and UCL. Can any of you give your opinions?

Have you decided yet?

Hi all, sorry it took me so long to reply. For some reason I kept putting it off, but yes! I have decided to go with Edinburgh.

What careers can you have after completing the degree?

Congratulations

I am also going to Edinburgh, well as long as I meet the conditions of my offer. What is your chosen language? I am planning to take Swedish.

Take a look two pages back at page 78, starting from post 1547.

Ahh okay, so Scandinavian Studies is about the history, geography and languages of Scandinavia?

Ahh okay, so Scandinavian Studies is about the history, geography and languages of Scandinavia?

Well yeah, loosely speaking. The point is there aren't specific careers the degree leads to like most areas of study in the arts and humanities, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't help.

Unrelated, but I saw in the ML forum that you're doing the Translation Masters at Ed. next year, can I be nosy and ask why you chose Edinburgh? (Trying to sort my own life out post-next year)

Heh, well if I do do it (still not 100% - but I needed to make clear in that thread with that joker that I wasn't just some chancer, I did have some understanding of the issue) I'll probably stay here yes. I haven't had a response from UCL or Surrey yet - so they're not officially in the picture. While there is almost zero funding for these courses, my best options for applying for money lie in Edinburgh. The cost of the course is a little less than UCL and I don't have to live in London to do it. While it might be healthy to go elsewhere, I happen to like the department I'm in and reasonably like the university as a whole. It seems to be a strongish course in Edinburgh. The prospect of a two year masters in Sweden was a little much - I'd like to think that I'm slightly above the level of a Swede who's just finished a 3 year programme and wants to be a translator (me being a snob). Equally, while there were parts of my year abroad I like, and I love Sweden, the prospect of 2 more years of study there isn't overwhelming me with you. A bunch of muddled up reasons there for Edinburgh as you can see. I'm not totally convinced I'll go ahead - have to see how I feel about the money aspect ... but yeah. I see it as bankable qualification that will always be useful, even if I go on to do other stuff.

Well yeah, loosely speaking. The point is there aren't specific careers the degree leads to like most areas of study in the arts and humanities, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't help.

It's a modern languages degree, like any other. Just the 3 different languages are grouped together under the same degree programme title to make it more viable to the university.

Hi all, sorry it took me so long to reply. For some reason I kept putting it off, but yes! I have decided to go with Edinburgh.

It was based on my impressions when I visited the two cities. Unfortunately, due to poor weather and a 9 hour train ride with lots of coldfeet and no heating but lovely snow to look at, I wasn't able to see UCL before I had to return to Texas. I was unable to get a good feel of the university and city, whereas I loved Edinburgh and the University. I realize that UCL is ranked higher on charts etc etc, but I'd rather be sure (as sure as I can be) that I'll be happy studying.

And yes, I did turn down Berkeley. It's more expensive, and I'd basically already decided on attending university in the UK by the time they accepted me. Additionally, I had no real desire to live there, as beautiful as it is. Maybe for grad school or something, I'll see when I get there.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement! I'm very excited for next yearrr fdjisoa;jgkfsidoj;f, also now I don't have to worry about exams at all.

It's currently snowing fairly heavily in Stockholm. I was out having a picnic in the sun in Åbo on Sunday =(
Just thought I'd share that, since this thread has gone a bit dead.