Applicant Days and Picking a Firm/Insurance
After getting your offers, most unis will invite you to an applicant day where you can visit them again and get to know your specific department a bit better. The main purpose is to help you pick which uni you want to put as your firm choice, so there will be a fair bit of persuading on their part and a final opportunity to ask questions and look around for you. If you’re applying for Korean, it’s also when the big Sheffield v SOAS debate comes in!
If you’ve gone to any open days, you should already have an idea of what your priorities are in a university, whether that’s the accommodation, distance from home, teachers etc. Use the applicant days to properly evaluate each of your choices now you know exactly what you’re looking for. Personally, I made a table for the ones I visited looking at these criteria:
> Accommodation
> Staff
> Students
> Facilities
> Reputation
> Diversity
> Transport
> The city
> Student satisfaction
> Year abroad
> Employment
> Contact hours
and then ranked my unis out of 10 for each of them. At the end, I worked out an average and used this to help me make my decision. Of course, it’s important that the criteria you choose are specific to what you want so make sure you’ve thought it out before you start going to applicant days.
The Sheffield v SOAS Debate
Picking between these two unis is particularly difficult since the courses are almost identical and they’re both well-respected but they are completely different in pretty much every way other than that, making it so hard to pick which one to firm. This is my personal verdict on them based on the criteria I mentioned above:
Accommodation
Sheffield wins. Newly built with sizeable communal areas within the flats, en suite bathrooms, number of people per flat has a good maximum, located a short distance from the uni (about 20mins), affordable.
Staff
SOAS wins. Professors at both unis were knowledgable and approachable, however SOAS professors seemed slightly more experienced and I got the impression that they would be more supportive if I needed help. The language professor in particular left a good impression.
Students
Sheffield wins. They were all very enthusiastic about both the uni and the course but didn’t feel as though they were trying to force it or purposefully sell it to me (despite the glowing reviews!). SOAS students also sounded like they loved the course and had a lot of good things to say about the department as a whole but not quite as enthusiastic about the uni itself.
Facilities
Tie. Sheffield lacked in facilities for SEAS students since they make up such a small proportion of the student population but they do have the tandem learning (being paired with a native Korean student who's on their year abroad in the UK for language exchange) which is a huge bonus. SOAS has more facilities for Korean students but doesn’t have the same tandem system in the UK. As far as I could tell, they have a similar system during the year abroad, though.
Reputation
SOAS wins. Although both seem to have an equally good reputation in the UK, SOAS is world-renowned for specialist courses such as Korean, and have the departments to support that.
Diversity
SOAS wins. A huge range of ethnicities, religions, a lot of international students, and a good split of genders. I suppose that’s something that comes with London unis but it was quite different from Sheffield.
Transport
SOAS wins. Sheffield does have good transportation in comparison to other cities with the tram system being especially good and affordable, but nothing can really compare with the tube in London. It is expensive but so well connected that it’s worth it in my opinion. Since London is much closer to my hometown too, I’ll be saving money in that aspect.
The city
SOAS wins. This is purely down to personal preference, but I’ve always loved London and wanted to live there at some point in my life. Since it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to afford it in the future, it feels like the best time to do it. It is, however, worth noting that it's expensive and definitely not a student city so might be a little harder to socialise.
Student satisfaction
Sheffield wins. It’s one of the highest ranked unis for satisfaction in the UK, so whilst SOAS’s rating isn’t bad, it can’t compare to Sheffield.
Year abroad
Sheffield wins. Pretty much the same in terms of content and living arrangements, but Sheffield has a slight edge over SOAS since you can apply to six Korean unis (Korea Uni, Yonsei, Sogang, Hanyang, Sookmyung Women’s Uni, Sungkyungkwan) whereas SOAS only has partnerships with three (Korea Uni, Sogang, SNU **EDIT: SOAS now also offers Hankuk University of Foreign Studies**). There are downsides to that of course, so it depends how you look at it.
Employment
SOAS wins. The connections that come with being in London and being the top uni in the UK (and arguably Europe) for Korean gives SOAS the upper hand, especially when it comes to jobs overseas.
Contact hours
Tie. About 10hrs a week at both.
Final scores Sheffield: 8.2/10 SOAS: 8.8/10
So that’s my rather extensive run-down of my opinions of the two unis! I’d highly recommend that you do the same for each of the unis you visit - you’d be surprised how much you can forget between visits and it’s a good way to help you make your final decision. I have put SOAS as my firm and Sheffield as my insurance so now it’s all about working to meet my entry requirements.
I’m planning on writing a post or two about my EPQ and then I probably won’t be posting until after exams, but if you have any questions at all or want advice (I realise it’s almost time for starting personal statements!) then don’t hesitate to send me a PM. The EPQ posts should be out in a week or two but at the moment it’s taking me about three days just to write one post since I have to revise as well so please be patient, and I hope everyone’s exam prep is going well!