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Exeter / SOAS / Leeds / Goldsmiths for politics undergrad?

Hey,

So basically these are my UCAS offers:

- Exeter, politics & IR w/year abroad, A*AB
- Leeds, chinese & international development, ABB
- Goldsmiths, chinese & international studies, ABB
- SOAS, chinese & IR, AAA

plus I'm waiting for SOAS (law & chinese) but i doubt i'll get that one

Goldsmiths is objectively "the worst" out of the 4 but the course is nice. you can spend a second year abroad in china (bringing the total years up to 5) and get an additional BA in chinese from CNU beijing, which is cool. SOAS is SOAS is SOAS, and i like it - I'd go without a second thought but the tales of horrible admin / crap certificates with pixellated signatures etc scare me. Leeds is cool, but I don't want to live there. Exeter is the most prestigious (both generally and for politics, as far as I'm aware), and the study abroad opportunities are AMAZING (new zealand, australia, the US, fudan/peking/tsinghua universities, etc), but I've heard it's got a very 'rah' reputation and that exeter is basically a dead town and everyone there is a walking jack wills advert, basically.

Any insight / outside opinion etc would be INCREDIBLY appreciated.
:smile:
Original post by молодой гений
Hey,

So basically these are my UCAS offers:

- Exeter, politics & IR w/year abroad, A*AB
- Leeds, chinese & international development, ABB
- Goldsmiths, chinese & international studies, ABB
- SOAS, chinese & IR, AAA

plus I'm waiting for SOAS (law & chinese) but i doubt i'll get that one

Goldsmiths is objectively "the worst" out of the 4 but the course is nice. you can spend a second year abroad in china (bringing the total years up to 5) and get an additional BA in chinese from CNU beijing, which is cool. SOAS is SOAS is SOAS, and i like it - I'd go without a second thought but the tales of horrible admin / crap certificates with pixellated signatures etc scare me. Leeds is cool, but I don't want to live there. Exeter is the most prestigious (both generally and for politics, as far as I'm aware), and the study abroad opportunities are AMAZING (new zealand, australia, the US, fudan/peking/tsinghua universities, etc), but I've heard it's got a very 'rah' reputation and that exeter is basically a dead town and everyone there is a walking jack wills advert, basically.

Any insight / outside opinion etc would be INCREDIBLY appreciated.
:smile:

My sons at Exeter don't believe a word of the crap you hear. It is extremely beautiful. it does have a large public school intake but the majority of students are not. the answer is to visit and decide for yourself. obviously it is a smaller city than London or Leeds and it depends on where you feel most comfortable
Original post by swanseajack1
My sons at Exeter don't believe a word of the crap you hear. It is extremely beautiful. it does have a large public school intake but the majority of students are not. the answer is to visit and decide for yourself. obviously it is a smaller city than London or Leeds and it depends on where you feel most comfortable


Thank you, that's such a relief to hear! Because Exeter honestly is my favourite course and it seems like a beautiful city, but I worry that it's basically an extension of a "classic" public school (Eton, Harrow, what have you).
Original post by молодой гений
Thank you, that's such a relief to hear! Because Exeter honestly is my favourite course and it seems like a beautiful city, but I worry that it's basically an extension of a "classic" public school (Eton, Harrow, what have you).


the latest figures show 69% are from state schools so there is large public school intake but they are a minority. we come from a housing association estate and I know another student locally from a similar background so I would go and visit and draw your own conclusion.
Original post by swanseajack1
My sons at Exeter don't believe a word of the crap you hear. It is extremely beautiful. it does have a large public school intake but the majority of students are not. the answer is to visit and decide for yourself. obviously it is a smaller city than London or Leeds and it depends on where you feel most comfortable


Original post by swanseajack1
the latest figures show 69% are from state schools so there is large public school intake but they are a minority. we come from a housing association estate and I know another student locally from a similar background so I would go and visit and draw your own conclusion.


OP - my son also went to Exeter and I would echo everything swanseajack1 says.
Original post by ageshallnot
OP - my son also went to Exeter and I would echo everything swanseajack1 says.


Thank you, honestly, that's massively helpful. I'm now 90% sure I'm going to firm Exeter, but I'll go down there for the offer holder open day and take another look just to make sure.

The problem now, though, is that I feel like I "should" make Goldsmiths my insurance offer (as it's my lowest one), but I don't really see myself going there. Leeds, maybe? Ugh.

Is it stupid to just have a firm and, if A-levels go tits up, take a shot at Clearing? My predicted grades are A*A*B, and I'm fairly sure I can hit that Exeter offer, but meh.
I don't think anyone can really help you with this as it is down to personal choice other than to say if you are not going to be happy at leeds or goldsmiths then is pointless putting down an insurance otherwise you will end up unhappy somewhere. the other issue is that not many places are available for chinese and politics. the question is if you were to end up in clearing would you be prepared to just do say politics on its own or with something else like economics or law as this would open up your choices. if you decide on an option like that scour ucas course search or what uni for unis offering ABB or BBB. Make a list so that when clearing does come around you can check if any of them hold places and apply there if you do not get accepted by your chosen uni. hopefully this will be proved unnecessary and you will get into your chosen uni but it might be worth considering anyway
Anyone else? I'm sorry, I'm just desperate for opinions :frown:
Why would you go to Exeter if you want to study Chinese? If you want to study Chinese as well as study politics/IR at a world class university, go to SOAS. If you don't want to study Chinese, go to Exeter. If you don't want to study Chinese why on earth did you apply to do it?
Original post by Snufkin
Why would you go to Exeter if you want to study Chinese? If you want to study Chinese as well as study politics/IR at a world class university, go to SOAS. If you don't want to study Chinese, go to Exeter. If you don't want to study Chinese why on earth did you apply to do it?


I do want to study Chinese. My original Exeter offer was for IR & Chinese, but I asked to change to straight politics and IR so that they'd lower my offer (A*A*B was a bit of a stretch), and they did. I'm not... I dunno. I keep changing my mind all the time.

I'd go to SOAS without a second thought, but I've heard so many complaints about stuff that I'm starting to lean towards Leeds / Goldsmiths.
Reputation wise for IR and Chinese SOAS is very good, as is Exeter. I would go for SOAS or Exeter on the basis of reputation and the former for the advantage of being in London.
Original post by SmaugTheTerrible
Reputation wise for IR and Chinese SOAS is very good, as is Exeter. I would go for SOAS or Exeter on the basis of reputation and the former for the advantage of being in London.


Whenever I tell people I'm considering going to SOAS I get one of two reactions:

"....sorry, where?"
"oh wow, yeah, SOAS is really good, congrats"

With the ratio being 75:35. Basically, I'm scared that no one (employers included, both abroad and in the UK) will have heard of it.

Exeter is nice, but I really want to learn Chinese, and they barely offer anything beyond beginner-intermediate language modules. So I'm only half-considering it.

The Goldsmiths course I like most of all because it offers the chance to take a fifth year abroad and get an additional BA in Chinese from Capital Normal University in Beijing... but Goldsmiths has a terrible academic reputation for politics, both domestic and worldwide. :frown:

I've fiddled around with my course choice at Leeds and now my offer is AAB for Chinese and Economics. Which sounds like the most solid of the lot, basically, and feels like the most employment-secure option too. But I'm not into economics at all. I mean, I enjoy reading softer economics books (Ha-Joon Chang, say), but I tried studying it at A-level and IB (long story) and it was just so, so soul-crushingly dull.

I kinda wanna go to SOAS but their admin scares me. I've read some reviews of it online and I keep hearing that it takes up to 10 months to receive your degree certificate after graduation, which isn't even signed properly... people's names misspelled correctly, module marks getting mixed up, coursework submissions getting lost and people getting 0 for those modules, etc. I don't know what to do. :frown:
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by молодой гений
I kinda wanna go to SOAS but their admin scares me. I've read some reviews of it online and I keep hearing that it takes up to 10 months to receive your degree certificate after graduation, which isn't even signed properly... people's names misspelled correctly, module marks getting mixed up, coursework submissions getting lost and people getting 0 for those modules, etc. I don't know what to do. :frown:


Why don't you phone SOAS and ask them directly if this is true rather than believing a few scare stories on the internet. It seems to me that you have your priorities messed up. You are seriously considering going to Leeds to study a subject you don't even like just because Goldsmiths isn't as well-known as you want it to be, or because SOAS' admin is a bit slow? Ridiculous.
Original post by Snufkin
Why don't you phone SOAS and ask them directly if this is true rather than believing a few scare stories on the internet. It seems to me that you have your priorities messed up. You are seriously considering going to Leeds to study a subject you don't even like just because Goldsmiths isn't as well-known as you want it to be, or because SOAS' admin is a bit slow? Ridiculous.


I know, I'm sorry. I'm just panicking at the moment. I'll calm down eventually.
Original post by молодой гений
Whenever I tell people I'm considering going to SOAS I get one of two reactions:

"....sorry, where?"
"oh wow, yeah, SOAS is really good, congrats"

With the ratio being 75:35. Basically, I'm scared that no one (employers included, both abroad and in the UK) will have heard of it.

Exeter is nice, but I really want to learn Chinese, and they barely offer anything beyond beginner-intermediate language modules. So I'm only half-considering it.

The Goldsmiths course I like most of all because it offers the chance to take a fifth year abroad and get an additional BA in Chinese from Capital Normal University in Beijing... but Goldsmiths has a terrible academic reputation for politics, both domestic and worldwide. :frown:

I've fiddled around with my course choice at Leeds and now my offer is AAB for Chinese and Economics. Which sounds like the most solid of the lot, basically, and feels like the most employment-secure option too. But I'm not into economics at all. I mean, I enjoy reading softer economics books (Ha-Joon Chang, say), but I tried studying it at A-level and IB (long story) and it was just so, so soul-crushingly dull.

I kinda wanna go to SOAS but their admin scares me. I've read some reviews of it online and I keep hearing that it takes up to 10 months to receive your degree certificate after graduation, which isn't even signed properly... people's names misspelled correctly, module marks getting mixed up, coursework submissions getting lost and people getting 0 for those modules, etc. I don't know what to do. :frown:


Anyone employer thats worth looking at will most definitely know what SOAS is. A lot of SOAS grads go on to work for firms like PwC and Magic Circle law firms. I wouldn't be too worried about the average person not knowing what it is since its quite small after all.

As for the admin, I can't really speak that side of things since I have no experience of it. I do know that pretty much every SOAS student I've spoken to is very happy about their course.

It seems your leaning towards SOAS anyway and to be fair if you want to study Chinese, there really isn't a better place.

Exeter is the only other University that you've listed that stands out to me as having a good reputation. You have to make an informed decision with respect to the course structure of Exeter and see if its something that interests you.
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Avatar for flanham
flanham
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For Chinese, SOAS is a no brainer!

If you don't want anything to do with Chinese, I would still choose SOAS personally, but can definitely see why Exeter might be your choice.

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