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University College London

London

What do you like about UCL?

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Reply 20

ilickbatteries

Original post by Madmax

Not as pretentious as other top ten universities. Not a walk in the park when it comes to the degree courses either. I turned down a postgraduate place at Cambridge to remain at UCL.

Certainly living up to your username there! :eek:

University College London

London

Reply 21

Madmax

Not really. I achieved a First at UCL, plus name entered on the Dean's List. I have 1 + 3 ESRC funding for my Masters & PhD and most my research material is in London. The tutor at Cambridge said I could visit Cambridge as a visiting academic for as long as I needed for my research. Other than prestige there is no material difference at postgraduate level between Cambridge & UCL...certainly not in my field.

Reply 22

Connhk

Original post by Madmax

Every graduate student has told me this. At an undergraduate level reputation of the university is highly considered and though some universities have stronger departments etc. there is the undeniable fact that employers take people on from many different degree courses and it is the better universities that have the opportunities that bolster CVs. However, at a graduate level, the employers all know exactly which universities have the best departments and the value of a 'name' is diluted.

Reply 23

nunno

Original post by Madmax

Well I got a First and made it to Dean's list from UCL as well. But I accepted Cambridge offer and went there. I still have no preference wutsoever haha.

Reply 24

Lizia

Original post by logic123

the only problem with UCL is they burn you like a bitch in first year

Hardly. If you can't hack first year, I'd question how you're ever going to cope with the following ones.

Reply 25

Dizzycop

Thanks very much that's all really helpful, and for the record I'm not going to pick Kings over UCL :smile:

Going back to the job thing, i know Oxford don't like students to work and I'm wondering if anyone knows what UCL are like about this? For anyone who works/has friends that do etc do you/they find it relatively ok to balance a job with all your work?

And..sorry for all the questions... I've heard that a lot of students in London go home at the weekends because they live nearby so I'm wondering if people who live further away can find this to be a bit of a problem? or not...

Thank you :biggrin:

Reply 26

Lizia

UCL don't care if you have a job during term time. I wouldn't imagine many people would have trouble keeping up with a part time job alongside their studies either, unless they were seriously struggling with the course content. I don't think I know anyone aside from medics who do more than about 15 hours a week in uni.

As for people going home- I guess it depends who your friends are. Out of my group of friends, only one girl went home regularly, despite nearly all of my friends being from London or the surrounding counties. During the holidays, most people seem to spend them at home, with people from in or around London popping back and forth whenever.

Reply 27

Dizzycop

Thanks very much.

How did you all find settling in at the beginning? Is it easy to meet people and make friends?

And rougly how much spare time do you get when you're not in lectures etc or doing 'homework'?

What are your contact hours like?

:biggrin:

Secular.

Original post by Dizzycop

How did you all find settling in at the beginning? Is it easy to meet people and make friends?

It's incredibly easy. There are so many different places to make friends that even if you don't like your flatmates, you'll still have opportunities to meet people on your course, in clubs and societies. Almost everyone goes to uni alone, and everyone wants to make friends. I think for most people, it's easier to make friends from halls initially, although by the end of first term most people seem to have mixed in more with their coursemates. The lack of contact hours means that, compared to halls friends who you see every single day, it takes longer to develop course friendships. Unless you're a medic or a lawyer, since they're in lectures for so long, they tend to stick together.

I'd recommend finding maybe one other person to be 'best friends for freshers' with. Even if you don't end up really being friends with that person after the first few days, as it gives you more confidence to approach people. I think that's one of the good things about freshers ending up in shared rooms in a lot of places- it means less outgoing people can find someone to explore UCL with. A 'best friend for freshers' also gives you someone to go with to do all the paperwork and stuff, to make sure that you don't forget to do something important.

And rougly how much spare time do you get when you're not in lectures etc or doing 'homework'? What are your contact hours like?

For my course, I only have ten hours a week of contact hours. I spend basically no time doing 'homework', unless we're specifically given some reading to do. For my course, the bulk of your work is done in the holidays; either because you're expected to read the novels before you start the lessons, or because your course is essay based and the time allowed is the holiday break. I'd imagine it would be similar for a lot of arts courses.

Reply 30

Dizzycop

That's awesome :smile:

thanks for putting up with so many questions! :colondollar:

I'd be interested to know your views on catering and self-catering...

Would you mind telling me a little bit about the different halls if you know much about them? Eg: Nice rooms, best facilities, friendly etc.. And is it quite easy to swap rooms if you don't think you'll be able to get along with your roommate? :redface:

Also, how do/did you find living as a student in London money-wise? Compared to friends in other places does it seem to be significantly more expensive..?

Thanks again :smile:

Reply 31

orca92

Original post by Dizzycop

That's awesome :smile:

thanks for putting up with so many questions! :colondollar:

Also, how do/did you find living as a student in London money-wise? Compared to friends in other places does it seem to be significantly more expensive..?

Thanks again :smile:

Go for self catered. Me and my friend here are both catered and literally we miss something like 50% of our meals between us. Simply you won't be up everyday by 9am to have breakfast, and you won't be back by 7pm everyday for dinner etc. I'm in ifor evans in camden and it's a decent hall campus, there's around 800-1000 students on this campus and we're near camden which is amazing. Plus we're quite far away, which keeps you fit through walking more and means it's cheaper. I would personally go for max rayne, the large self catered hall in camden. Decent social life, cheap, large kitchens, decent number of people to meet, decent size hallways, good area.

If you want to pay more and be closer then i would go for Schafer or Astor College. And if you're rich enough to pay 135 quid a week for very nice self catered accommodation then go for Ian Baker; it was new about 2 years ago and is very close to UCL.

It's not so easy to swap rooms, i mean, unless you find someone who wants to swap you only really have the option at the end of terms.

It's not really more expensive living wise after accommodation costs. The union has cheap drink and tesco, sainsburys etc are always fairly cheap wherever you are. If you want a decent night out lots of clubs have specific student nights where you can get in for like £1 to £7 depending on the club; drink is more expensive here though.

Reply 32

logic123

orca have you revised yet for the biochem exam on metabolism?

Reply 33

Lizia

Original post by Dizzycop

That's awesome :smile:

thanks for putting up with so many questions! :colondollar:

Also, how do/did you find living as a student in London money-wise? Compared to friends in other places does it seem to be significantly more expensive..?

Thanks again :smile:

No problem, I'm happy to help :smile:

And it means I can put off doing my essays...

I don't really have much of a view on catered accommodation, because I don't know many people who lived in it. I know that personally it would be a waste of money for me, because I never eat breakfast anyway, and having restricted meal times for dinner doesn't appeal to me. I've heard some complaints about the food in Ramsey, but can't really comment myself.

I was two minutes walk from the Bloomsbury and Foster Court, where my lectures were. Rooms were nice enough, although it's converted townhouses so there are wildly different room sizes. Most are kind of 'standard' size: perfectly acceptable. Then you get massive ones which are almost double the size of standards, and small ones which are quite claustrophobic. The small rooms in were single rooms, but in CH East I saw a few shared rooms which were a bit too small. Bathrooms and stuff were fine, I never had to wait for them even though it was 4 showers between 16 people. Kitchens were a decent size, and amazingly big if you were in the basement.

A couple of my friends were in John Dodgson, which seemed nice. Big kitchens, all single rooms with ensuite. I wouldn't say it was worth the money (was ~£150 compared to normal singles at £120) but if you crave an ensuite, it's good.

To be honest, I don't know anyone who swapped rooms. Pretty much all my halls friends were sharing rooms, and they all got on with their room-mates to at least a tolerable level. Me and my room-mate annoyed each other towards the end, and a pair of my friends who were roommates never liked each other that much, but never to the point where changing rooms was worth the hassle. People just learn to get along, and stick to bitching about their room-mates to their friends, rather than starting arguments. If you had a proper reason like you were actually being bullied or abused by your room-mate, then you'd probably be fairly high priority for a swap.

Moneywise, the only expensive thing is rent. Most people drink before they go out, and the supermarkets are the same price in London as anywhere else. Clubbing can be expesive if you go out in Mayfair/Leicester Square or Camden on a weekend, but generally most places have student nights with cheap entry and cheapish drinks. Compared to my friends at other unis, I pay average £5-7 to get into a club here compared to £3-5 there. So not much difference. Transport is pretty cheap with an oyster card, and travel passes aren't that expensive if you use them enough.

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 34

orca92

Original post by logic123

orca have you revised yet for the biochem exam on metabolism?

I'll probably start doing a few hours next week; my timetables not too bad then, average of about 2 hours a day i think.

How about you?

Reply 35

logic123

Yeh pretty much trying to keep up with some revision. Going back through the proteins/enzymes and DNA stuff just to recap.

Reply 36

Dizzycop

Wow, I wasn't expecting so much advice! Thank you so much that all really helps and thinking about everything is making me so excited for October! I'm going on a post-offer modern languages open day this month so looking forward to seeing the university again. Haha, yeah same this is a good distraction from A-level revision :biggrin:

I think you've answered all of my questions for now but I'll be sure to pop back on here if I can think of anything else. Thanks again and good luck with those essays :wink:

Reply 37

Nichrome

Original post by Madmax

Not as pretentious as other top ten universities. Not a walk in the park when it comes to the degree courses either. I turned down a postgraduate place at Cambridge to remain at UCL.

I came to UCL from Cambridge and much prefer it =) Much less pretentious atmosphere, department and staff are very friendly and supportive, courses and lecturers are fantastic and find the method of teaching and learning suits me much more. Will hopefully stay here for PhD :smile:

Reply 38

londonloves65

Original post by Madmax

what do you have to achieve to get onto this list?

Reply 39

sweetascandy

Which would you choose for economics out of UCL and LSE? I suspect the latter is best for economics, but I feel that UCL may be a better uni in terms of the learning atmosphere and sense of community? (judging from what I've heard).