Ask a Current UCL Student: The Official Thread

amjb91

How competitive are SSEES courses? History and Russian in particular...I'm on my gap year but have a place on a HJS course, want to switch to SSEES (partly because I got higher grades than expected - AAB.) The admissions tutor has said they can do a new application without me giving up the place I already have...but not really sure of the likelihood of me getting onto the course I want (and obviously I cannot apply to other unis if I do this.) Would it be easier/less risky to try and switch once I'm actually at UCL?

don't leave HJS, we're VERY lovely!

Reply 1381

Kaskade

3

How close are any sporting facilities? Also, what would be a sort of minimum set of gcse's for something as competitive as Law? thanks.

Reply 1382

jamz0770

15

Kaskade

How close are any sporting facilities? Also, what would be a sort of minimum set of gcse's for something as competitive as Law? thanks.

Afraid I know nothing of Law but as for sporting facilities it depends what you mean. There are 2 pretty good Gyms (UCLU and ULU) within a 3 minute walk of UCL. There is also a swimming pool at ULU. Astor college is used for some sports stuff which is 5-10 minutes away along with Sommerstown sports center which is about 15-20 minutes walk away. Of course if your talking about football pitches and boat houses you'll have to travel a little further but all in all its not half as bad as it was made out to be before I came :smile:

Reply 1383

-beads-

Do UCL send Acknowledgements?

When do they interview - dates?

Thanks. :smile:

Reply 1384

PJ991

17

-beads-

Do UCL send Acknowledgements?

When do they interview - dates?

Thanks. :smile:

I got an email acknowledgement about 2 days after I applied (in November) and then got an email asking me to go to an interview in January to take place in February.

Obviously interview dates will vary and there are more than one interview days.

Reply 1385

-beads-

PJ991

I got an email acknowledgement about 2 days after I applied (in November) and then got an email asking me to go to an interview in January to take place in February.

Obviously interview dates will vary and there are more than one interview days.

Thank you? For which course? :smile:

Reply 1386

Gresa

Hi I'm applying for Philosophy and History of Art at UCL this year and according to the website all I need is a pass and grade B in english language at GCSE.

Is this too good to be true or am I reading it wrong? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prosp-students/prospectus/arts-and-humanities/philosophy/
I got ACCD at AS (RS, ENGLISH LIT, ICT AND HISTORY), and dropped ICT.
I got an A* at english language at gcse too.

Will they consider me even if I don't have ABB or whatever? I'm just too cynical about the entry requirement :s-smilie:

Also I'm retaking english lit and history, will they consider that?
thanks

Reply 1387

Gresa

Hi I'm applying for Philosophy and History of Art at UCL this year and according to the website all I need is a pass and grade B in english language at GCSE.

Is this too good to be true or am I reading it wrong? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prosp-students/prospectus/arts-and-humanities/philosophy/
I got ACCD at AS (RS, ENGLISH LIT, ICT AND HISTORY), and dropped ICT.
I got an A* at english language at gcse too.

Will they consider me even if I don't have ABB or whatever? I'm just too cynical about the entry requirement :s-smilie:

Also I'm retaking english lit and history, will they consider that?
thanks

Reply 1388

Lizia

2

Gresa

Hi I'm applying for Philosophy and History of Art at UCL this year and according to the website all I need is a pass and grade B in english language at GCSE.

Is this too good to be true or am I reading it wrong? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prosp-students/prospectus/arts-and-humanities/philosophy/
I got ACCD at AS (RS, ENGLISH LIT, ICT AND HISTORY), and dropped ICT.
I got an A* at english language at gcse too.

Will they consider me even if I don't have ABB or whatever? I'm just too cynical about the entry requirement :s-smilie:

thanks

It quite clearly says on the site:

VV53: AAB, GCSE in a foreign language preferred.
A pass in a further subject at AS level and GCSE English language at minimum grade B are required for all programmes.

I don't know where you got the idea that you didn't need ABB, you need at least AAB and the qualifications you mentioned.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1389

Smeh

14

Gresa

Hi I'm applying for Philosophy and History of Art at UCL this year and according to the website all I need is a pass and grade B in english language at GCSE.

Is this too good to be true or am I reading it wrong? http://www.ucl.ac.uk/prosp-students/prospectus/arts-and-humanities/philosophy/
I got ACCD at AS (RS, ENGLISH LIT, ICT AND HISTORY), and dropped ICT.
I got an A* at english language at gcse too.

Will they consider me even if I don't have ABB or whatever? I'm just too cynical about the entry requirement :s-smilie:

Also I'm retaking english lit and history, will they consider that?
thanks

You need AAB.

VV53-Philosophy and History of Art BA 3 years
VV53: AAB, GCSE in a foreign language preferred.

Reply 1390

blahblah16

Does anyone study French alone at UCL and what do you think of it? Is the teaching good? I have just applied and while I don't think i'll get in, i really loved UCL when I looked at it.

Reply 1391

icy-snowflake

I read on the UCL site that for psychology, there are about 1600 applicants for 110 places. Is that true, or did I misread something?

Reply 1392

goldlock

8

Hey guys, UCL want A* in maths for economics, but what if your school doesn't predict A*? Cos I'm just down for straight A's :frown:

will I just be written off?

Reply 1393

username129099

15

goldlock

Hey guys, UCL want A* in maths for economics, but what if your school doesn't predict A*? Cos I'm just down for straight A's :frown:

will I just be written off?

You could mention your module scores in your PS just say you are on course for an A*. If not you may have to bring the issue up with your UCAS admissions tutor, and see if an exception can be made.

Reply 1394

username129099

15

blahblah16

Does anyone study French alone at UCL and what do you think of it? Is the teaching good? I have just applied and while I don't think i'll get in, i really loved UCL when I looked at it.

The teaching across UCL is very good relative to many other universities, however I don't think languages are a contact intensive subject so much of your study will be down to you, in your own time.

Reply 1395

rachel12793

Hi,

I'm applying to UCL to study German but I'd like to have the option to pick up a second language once I get there if my application is successful. I don't want to apply directly because I'm not 100% sure that I want to do a second language; I'm not sure what language I would choose; and not all of the universities I'm applying for offer joint honour language degrees so I don't want to take up space in my personal statement addressing a second language when this wouldn't be applicable for all the courses I'm applying for. I was just wondering if you could let me know if it would be at all possible for me to switch to a joint honour modern languages course if I'm accepted for single honours German at UCL?

Thanks very much,
Rachel x.

Reply 1396

Lizia

2

I highly doubt it. Pretty much every course at UCL is oversubscribed, so I don't think they'd allow you to pick up another language when you arrived. The faculties tend to look down on people who get to uni and then decide they want to do something else. They're harsh enough on people who want to drop half their JH course to focus on a subject they've experience of studying, nevermind someone seemingly randomly deciding to take up a new language on impulse.

You'd have a slightly better chance of switching from German to Mod Langs if you emailed them between receiving your offer, and results day. However, Single Honours are a lot less competitive than Modern Languages, so just because you're accepted for Single German, doesn't mean they'd think you suitable for Joint Honours.

Your best bet is to give some real thought before you apply. You'd have a hard job convincing UCL that you really want to study an ab initio language as part of your degree at a later date if you did originally apply for Single Hons. The choice of ab initio modern languages is also fairly limited: Italian, Russian, Scandinavian and East European languages are all I can think of from the top of my head. People manage to write personal statements when they're applying for more than one subject, so I'm sure you could manage the difference between sing Hons/mod langs.

You could always take classes on the outside of your course at the language centre, but you'd most likely have to pay to do so, and they wouldn't count towards your degree classification.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 1397

PJ991

17

You can do a 0.5 credit language course in the language centre though (someone told me about it today) but the range isn't huge. I think it's something like French, Spanish, Arabic, Italian and German.

Reply 1398

Lizia

2

PJ991

You can do a 0.5 credit language course in the language centre though (someone told me about it today) but the range isn't huge. I think it's something like French, Spanish, Arabic, Italian and German.

Only if your department consents, and most don't. I can't speak for certain for German, but I know the French department absolutely forbid outside options for first years (and second years, possibly finalists too). Italian are also not keen on it really, unless you can either prove you have timetabling issues. They don't really like you doing language centre modules even if they do approve an outside option.

Reply 1399

PJ991

17

Lizia

Only if your department consents, and most don't. I can't speak for certain for German, but I know the French department absolutely forbid outside options for first years (and second years, possibly finalists too). Italian are also not keen on it really, unless you can either prove you have timetabling issues. They don't really like you doing language centre modules even if they do approve an outside option.

This is just what happened to me, but on my Portico I had to pick 4 units. Obviously 1 in language is compulsory, I then had to pick up to 3 units in total in Italian, so I was left with 1 to make it to 4.

I went to see them about the 4th unit and I was told I had to pick something outside the dept. and it was 'preferred' that I do at least 0.5 in a language in the Language Centre and then 0.5 elsewhere.

But it just confuses me anyway. It makes no sense.

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