Geology & Earth Sciences 2015

Congrats, see, nothing to worry about . Imperial, UCL, Leicester, Liverpool and Southampton

Thank you, really hope I get an offer from Liverpool or Leicester have you got any offers?

You will I'm sure yeah
Liverpool - ABB
Leicester - Unconditional
UCL - AAB
and interviews from Southampton and imperial

Congrats all the best with your interviews! (I feel like I've said this already or maybe I'm going crazy)

Sent my application 4 weeks ago and no offers yer (well, 2 interviews from Royal Holloway and Manchester Uni)... I am starting to think that i going to be rejected by them...

Oh great. Was that an official email? Because I've got nothing. Where do we meet? The Earth Sciences corridor thingy in South Wing?

Have you received the Info regarding dep. open day?

I'm sure you'll hear something soon. Where else have you applied?

Well, i think that this is an offer...!! http://prntscr.com/5ejrd9 If so, it will be my first uni offer since i sent my application about a month ago!

Tomorrow department open day in UCL! I am setting off from Manchester at 3AM (and am already geared up with five hours of documentaries); anyone else going?

Well, i think that this is an offer...!! http://prntscr.com/5ejrd9 If so, it will be my first uni offer since i sent my application about a month ago!

I visited UCL department open day (review of the event- overall and field specific)


If university department open days were created to repulse students, UCL would pass with flying colours. Initially it was my firmest choice, well-located, professional world leading- it seemed; but upon an arrival things started looked close to hideous (and I've been to 6 Universities, good and bad, so far). Located on busy road (OK, its London) small square is the only greenery close to the main "campus"; the structure might've looked imperial if not neglected- but main face can be deceiving- the rest of the campus is a crowded, cramped set of not interlinked structures with shady corners and scraping pain. Very low for a global University. The hall is also a mismatch of things: students, exhibitions, random chairs etc. There's no clear sense of place; no wonder when I search for "UCL interior" I find little matches.
Upon arriving we were left on our own- no escort students, no markings regarding where to go. And if that wasn't bad enough, when finding the allocated room we were treated with less attention than hospital patients- just name and half of hour a wait (I expected short talk with teacher>student), the staff was indifferent to us as well- as if we haven't existed. I felt alienated.
The food served is hard to be called what it was called- poor choice, poor taste. The department was small, it accommodates sixty people- but the lecture halls are far from decent, uncomfortable and stuffy. On the plus side, my course- Msci Earth Sciences- looked promising. Due to good links with major companies, its location, and reputation there are good chances of finding a decent work field; the resources are outstanding- edge breaking experiments and laboratories- but this is a thing we probably won't use in fist three years. For my direction Paleobiology, we did little (due to bus timings I didn't to get to see Grad Museum) . I didn't even know how does a first year lesson feels like, we only looked at the things we can do on your 4th year and welcomed with a knowledge exceeding our current A Levels. It was good, but for a beginner, I want to see where my story begins, not ends. But now, it might be worlds first- I don't care- nail in the coffin was the accommodation. Designed worse than working class Victorian buildings, with awful toilets and terrible interior- derelict beds, cupboards and stools (if you are lucky), painted in hideous colours and poorly looked after. If I am to spend at least a day in this thing I would've gone crazy, but a year- a year for £149/w!
While on the reports it was high rates, of good grades, of resources, of money- I always wondered why, out of many universities, its student satisfaction is on rock bottom >70- now I know.
Regarding London; I am good with maps and locations, and my anxiety makes me a quick walker- I don't fear it- it is exciting. But upon my previous visits, on which I had fell in love with the culture, the cleanliness, the aesthetics, the surprisingly small crowd- today my views turned by 180. I still like it- it is a big city, not a nice city- centre of everything- good or bad. I can survive London, but I don't think I would survive this "world leading" university.
I was never repulsed by an open day- this was my first one! Well done!
While previously my mind was chanting "University, exciting", now I look at it with mixed expression, chewing on poor aftertaste and destroyed expectations.

and what did you think?

I really would like to come to UCL's defence here. First of all, I really can't see how you can claim that UCL isn't in a nice area. Bloomsbury is a very nice area as far as London goes and there are actually quite a number of parks very near by. Of course there isn't a lot of greenery on-site - it's a massive university in a small site in central London! The fact that they even have grassy parts on campus is impressive - Imperial, by comparison, is basically a big slab of concrete. If you expected some spacious, modern campus university then I'm really sorry but that just isn't realistic - you're not going to get that in an old university in the middle of a massive city. So I do think that it's a bit unfair that you're attacking UCL for being a bit cramped and not being 100% modern in terms of the architecture - that's what UCL is. You'll see the exact same thing in most other oldish UK universities. And also, they gave directions in the email they sent out and there were signs pointing to the rock room, I really didn't think it was that hard to find. On top of that, the email clearly stated that the event would start at 12:00 but you could arrive as early as 11:30 - nobody forced you to wait around for half an hour. And come on... it's a free admissions day, you can't seriously be expecting 5 star food...

The lecture theatre isn't the prettiest but is that really the most important thing in a university? Would you rather go to a lesser university just because it has sparkly new facilities? And anyway, our tour guide told us the Earth Sciences would be relocated to the KLB which is going to be renovated anyway. And regarding accommodation, that's just London. London is very expensive, I honestly don't understand how that can come as a surprise to you. Imperial's accommodation is even more expensive.

I really don't want this to sound like an attack and obviously everyone is entitled to their own opinions but it really does seem to me that you didn't really do enough research about UCL. Most of the things you seemed to be disappointed by, you could have found out about on their website. I am more than happy to admit that the setting of the Earth Sciences department isn't as flashy as the setting of places like Royal Holloway, but there are so many other advantages. Firstly, the staff there are absolutely lovely. Having spent a week there doing work experience, I can honestly say that I've not visited a friendlier department. All of the students I spoke to were really happy and none of them understood UCL's student satisfaction ratings (which apparently mean nothing, anyway). And particularly talking about the open day, I was pleasantly surprised. The tour was really interesting and we had some very interesting discussions. UCL's courses look great and it's absolutely obvious that the staff really care about giving you an excellent education. The number of field trips is also really impressive. Whilst I probably won't end up going to UCL, it will definitely be the place I'll feel the saddest to turn down because I really, really like their department. So whilst I think you're totally entitled not to like UCL and obviously it's not the university for you, I'm not convinced that your expectations were entirely reasonable.

Everybody has their own opinion- I personally liked Leeds/Manchester/Cambridge much more- albeit also being in center of an enormous cities (not Cam); maybe because they were headed more in my direction? With hour taster-lesson based on their current research, one on mass extinctions second about dating archaeopteryx fossils. There's plenty of calm, green parks in London, I cannot disagree with that- I have enormous fancy to Hyde park (something that Manchester and Leeds miss definitely).
For the accommodation- its interior could at least be passable- I've looked into nearby hotels, and buildings with such specific architecture can be rearranged into more righteous fashion. Entrance on a poor condition toilets was astounding; I understand location is expensive, but toiletries could have been more sophisticated. UCL might have better accommodations- but assignation is a lottery- so I shouldn't look at it. I presume other Uni's are located in busier places (King's on side of Thames)(Imperial is close to Hyde park and Albert Hall, areas much quieter than outskirts of West End); I have nothing against London; I can live with the traffic and crowd, which will also accompany me if I go to Manchester (campus is cut by a major road).
The staff were friendly- I cannot say that they weren't. The University had its own quirky environment that has some history pinned to it. Which is lovely.

I know I should not judge University by its aesthetics- but standard of learning, sense of safety, and job opportunities. (thing that UCL scores very high for).
Yet- four years spent on course (for which I am still unsure, how a normal lecture looks like) in appalling conditions (It's as expensive as other city, even less so with high grants) on a campus that lost a sense of place, forcing you to spent free time out on streets rather than in its limiting interior.
Everyone has different tastes- I know that London is a hard place to find a cheap spot or ability to expand its reaches.

I did not like it. And I would not pick an university for factors that are just on paper (reputation and connections), while physically they score minuses. I know I should look at my future initially, but four years in Uni are the closest to future I'll have nevertheless.

The opinions can be divided- I am not here to argue.