University College London

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UCL vs Kings

Hey everyone

This is my first post (i've posted this in the kings thread too).

Basically I'm really confused as to what I should choose.

I have an offer from both ucl and kings:

UCL: BA Politics and East European Studies - Offer: ABB
KCL: BA War Studies - Offer: AAB

I'm fairly certain I'll be able to make both offers so the grades arent an issue for me.

Did any of you get into the same two courses?

I'm tending to lean towards UCL but am still undecided at the moment

Any one here accepted a firm offer from SSEES in BA Politics and East European Studies?

Let me know what you think,

Thanks a lot.

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Reply 1

Onearmedbandit

I'm afraid I don't know a lot about those specific courses, but I can imagine it to be a hard decision.

Have you visited both unis? If not, check them out. Get a feel for them and see which you prefer. I didn't apply to Kings so it didn't really matter, but when I did visit the KCL campus I didn't take to it as well as the UCL one (although maybe I was biased lol!)

Anyway, god luck deciding! :smile:

University College London

London

Reply 2

Pinguin

well, I had the same same problem, though it was for law, so I flew to london and visited both unis, and it really helped, decision's made, it'll be ucl...! :biggrin:

Reply 3

CrystaLite

Although both are excellent institutions, UCL has a slight edge in terms of academic reputation. It is also a part of the 'elite' group of five including Oxbridge, LSE and Imperial.

I dont know what your future career plans are, but wouldn't Politics and East European Studies be more favourably looked upon than War Studies? Ofcourse, you should choose which subject you think you would enjoy better I guess...

But anyway, good luck with your decision. I would suggest visitng both KCL and UCL if you havn't already done so. This usually helps people to make their mind up fairly quicklky :smile:

Reply 4

pharmakos

1. Nope, KCL isn't in the so-called "G5" elite group, otherwise it would be G6. G5: UCL, LSE, IC, Ox, and Cam.

2. Check each world unis rankings, you'll find UCL's academic reputation is "much" (not "slightly") higher than KCL's.

Reply 5

Pinguin

and besides, as my (very personal) impression was, UCL seemed to be a lot more professional, well-structured and organized (at least in the law department and while the self guided tour) than king's which gave me the feeling of an easy-going uni (a bit like "laisser-faire"); though everyone was very kind, too, King's gave me the feeling of being more fun and chaotic.
as I said, my personal opinion...

Reply 6

-x- Lici -x-

Personal opinion...

KCL war studies is interesting...but not as fantastic as Politics with east european studies...i did look at war studies and consider applying for it instead of SSEESS...but then decided not to as UCL is a far superior university in that i feel it is much better,higher ranked, more serious etc. Plus SSEESS u get to do a language ...and a range of subjects, war studies was more than a little limited.

Also SSEESS offer is better : )

Reply 7

CrystaLite

pharmakos

oopsie >.< I meant "they" not including KCL. (otherwise what I just said about UCL being better would sound slightly out of context wouldn't it -.-;; )

And I dont think you should trust in the uni rankings too much. The rankings differ each year, may depend on factors which others may think is unimportant and does not neccessarily reflect on how the university is viewed by most. Also, it depends on which one you are looking at. I.e. The Guardian puts KCL before UCL, whereas The Times puts UCL before KCL.

Reply 8

pharmakos

ChoCo^

I expect this would come. Those world unis rankings are much more based on research quality or academic reputation than the Times and Guardian rankings, which are heavily based on teaching quality. But you were talking about "academic reputation," aren't you?

I don't buy into league tables too much, but they're "one of the things" one may refer to when comparing unis.

Reply 9

TommehR

I was under the impression that the KCL War Studies course was one of their most respected courses and is among the best in the world for that particular area.

Reply 10

thecooldude

Yeah there are some interesting points to be made about either one.

As for university standings, I don't think theres any significant difference between the two - i.e. UCL and KCL are both good unis

The War Department at King's is one of their better degree programs and one of the most well known departments at KCL

SSEES tends to be more specialised, but is also one of the leading institutes in the world for East European Studies

------------------------------------------

This is from their website: ssees.ac.uk (the text in bold is done by me)

The School of Slavonic and East European Studies is one of the world's leading specialist institutions, and the largest national centre in the UK, for the study of Central, Eastern and South-East Europe and Russia; it possesses one of the most important research libraries in its field.

When it was founded in 1915, the School was a department of King's College. One of the first members of its staff was Professor Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, later President of the Czechoslovak Republic. In 1932, it became an autonomous university institute within the federal University of London, and in August 1999 it merged with University College London.

---------------------------------------------

(The SSEES used to be part of KCL!)

Both are fairly unique in the UK - only a couple of unis have War/Peace departments in the UK and a couple have eastern european courses

What attracts me to the UCL course is that I would have the opportunity to explore different areas - economics, politics and even sociology. Additionally not all of this is geared directly at Eastern Europe. But I also find Eastern Europe really interesting and wouldn't mind studing that region. I would also be able to learn a language ab inito (should I wish to).

War Studies is fairly concentrated in that respect (although there are a couple of modules you can choose from)

What put me off at the interview at KCL is that most people were interested in the Ministry of Defence (MoD). Some were already in regiments and the army was paying for their undergraduate course. Others were planning to join after they graduated (not as in infantry but in other areas - e.g. intelligence).

This is from talking to current 2nd years at KCL in the War Department and not the prospective students that were there at the interview stage.

This is not to say that EVERYONE on the course in interested in joining the MoD but a significant number are (or atleast that's the impression I got). This is something that I don't find appealing. Personally, I am not interested in joining the MoD in any form.

I find it quite a tough decision.... :confused:

Plus I found the UCL campus better

Both KCL and UCL had great atmospheres when I visited

:questionm

Reply 11

thecooldude

-x- Lici -x- did you get an offer from SSEES? Is that your firm choice? I think I'm probably going to accept UCL as my firm choice :smile:

Reply 12

TwickleC

I agree. I applied to both UCL and KCL and theyre both pretty good. World rankings alone cant really be used as the basis to say KCL is a LOT beter than UCL because theyre both good.

Fortunately, I didnt have to make the difficult decision of where to go because I got rejected from Kings anyway.

Reply 13

-x- Lici -x-

Hey CoolDude...

Im not going to put it as my firm...i did get an offer ABB...thing is Cambridge made me a AA6 offer so putting that as firm....UCL will be my insurance either SSEES or ESPS as i have offers for both

Reply 14

thecooldude

oh ok cool :smile:

what's AA6?

I'm 99% sure I'm going to accept UCL's offer as my firm :smile:

p.s. TwickleC i think you meant world rankings alone cant prove that UCL is better than KCL :P ucl is consistently ranked higher than kcl (but rankings don't mean that much in the end)

Reply 15

President_Ben

I seriously don't rate any SSEES degree unless it is very focused on what SSEES is good at. Which isn't much.

(ie. not economics, you don't get taught by the Economics department, not politics - UCL just doesn't 'do it' etc. there's a certain snobbery towards SSEES from some UCL students who feel the thing devalues UCL more than it add values with it being largely so separate from the rest of UCL it may as well be another federalised college of UoL)

Reply 16

evilheat

It's official, SSEES isn't good at Economics, don't bother going there.

:rolleyes:

Reply 17

President_Ben

evilheat

It's official, SSEES isn't good at Economics, don't bother going there.

:rolleyes:

SSEES is a backdoor into UCL in my opinion. By grade requirement, it certainly looks llike it...

Reply 18

Ludivine

President_Ben

I seriously don't rate any SSEES degree unless it is very focused on what SSEES is good at. Which isn't much.

How about teaching Russian, are they supposedly good at that? Ah well, I could always learn Swedish instead. :wink:

Reply 19

President_Ben

Ludivine

How about teaching Russian, are they supposedly good at that? Ah well, I could always learn Swedish instead. :wink:

Go learn Swedish :p:

They are good at Russian. But then, in general, the linguistics side of SSEES is coming under-fire a bit for losing diversity. Unsurprisingly, most people want to learn Russian from SSEES more than anything and so a few other things have been cutback/culled. I think Russian is one of the few things that SSEES offers that really makes a (good) difference.

But learn Swedish with your loverboy :p: