Ask a Current UCL Student: The Official Thread

So perhaps this is a bit awkward, but could any current female UCL students tell me what the process of getting birth control is? Is it relatively easy? Does UCL have its own health services that write prescriptions or do I have to go to a separate clinic? And if you know approximately how much it costs, that would be great!

Thanks in advance!

I'm not sure what your situation would be if you aren't British. If you get NHS healthcare while a student, you can go to a family planning clinic and they'll give you birth control for free. My GP used to prescribe it for me (and at UCL, the health centre acts as a GP afaik) but generally I find the family planning clinic more efficient. But that just might be my awful doctor, I've never used the health centre at UCL!

If you're not eligible for NHS treatment while you're here, can you not get a supply at home and bring it with you? When I moved from the UK to France, I wasn't eligible for French healthcare/it wasn't practical to try for it, and so the local family planning clinic gave me six months supply to take with me. Either that, or consider more long term contraception (the implant lasts three years, coils last quite a while too I think?).

By "UCL Health Centre" do you mean the Gower Place Practice?

So perhaps this is a bit awkward, but could any current female UCL students tell me what the process of getting birth control is? Is it relatively easy? Does UCL have its own health services that write prescriptions or do I have to go to a separate clinic? And if you know approximately how much it costs, that would be great!

Thanks in advance!

Contraception through the NHS is free in the UK. So very easy. And you can get them from the GP or other clinics too.

I mean whatever your health centre type place is called. I'm not at UCL yet, I just came into the thread to read the latest posts and happened to see one I knew the answer to in general.

Contraception through the NHS is free in the UK. So very easy. And you can get them from the GP or other clinics too.

Hi, I was asked to send in proof of my qualifications. As I have to send them the original do I have to enclose sth like an international reply coupon or will they send it back to me anyway? tia.

Is anyone here a UCL Math 2nd year student (going into 3rd). If so do you have any information about what the hell referrals are?

All I know is you do some "written" work and then take an "oral" exam. I have no idea what that actually means..

It can vary but often you'll have to complete the exam you failed from home and the oral exam will be an informal interview on the module to make sure the lecturer is happy that you've a sufficient grasp of the material.
I hope you haven't failed one of Johnson's courses or you'll be in for an ass-kicking

Thanks unkreativ, that sounds good, the only problem is that I can't get certified transcripts anymore (school's already closed for the summer...) What would happen if I delayed sending them my qualifications until September?

wait just a point of clarification. when you guys say "contraception" do you just mean condoms or do you mean the pill/the ring as well?

haha..i love how most people have innocent questions about time tables and grades and here I am asking about birth control....ah well...

I have a slight accommodation problem. Namely that my accommodation application never reached UCL (I know that you are supposed to receive an acknowledgment letter, but I e-mail the accommodation office concerning my application and they told me that I'd get more info by mid-August and therefore did not think more of it)

I visited UCL last week and was enquiring about my application and that is when I was told that they never got my application. I am a first year undergraduate currently living in Sweden. I know that it no longer matters if I actually posted my application in time or not since it never arrived to its destination.

Now my question, should I look for my own accommodation on my own or wait and hope that I actually do get a roof over my head? They told me that at worst I'd be homeless for about a month, and I have been thinking sleeping by the main building wouldn't be that bad :P

Eitherway, any suggestions over what I should actually do?

The ring? Am I being dense here, because I don't know what that is. But yes, all contraception is free on the NHS. If you qualify for NHS treatment, then you're garanteed it for free. If you don't qualify, then the health-whatever would probably still give you condoms, just not anything more.