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Ask a UCL Arts & Sciences (BASc) student
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Original post by nugiboy
Is it true that If I choose the Sciences and Engineering major then Mathematics has to be one of my subject choices?
Original post by JasperGold
Hi, I am writing my BASc personal statement and I am not sure how long it has to be.. Can you tell me? Also, when were you told about your exam/asked for your statement?
Thanks
Thanks
Sorry for the late reply to these questions guys I only just saw them now.
Nugiboy - yep Mathematics is a compulsory option (but only if Sci&Eng is your major) so you technically only have two science & engineering options. It is essential for any science course you take so you would have to have taken it even if you had an option. But we have a specific class just for us BASc students and the guy running it is amazing, he is really enthusiastic, very helpful and plus makes loads of maths jokes
Jaspergold - This is probably too late for you now but it should be about one page of A4 (font 12) and the exam should come a month or earlier after you sent your application, they are reasonably prompt. Things may have changed since I did it last year.
Good luck to all of those still waiting for offers and congratulations on those who did get them, if you're interested in coming to visit us just post on the thread ^_^
University College London
London
Original post by Torvus
I don't think they are, at least I don't remember going to one. But if there isn't one and there is interest we can always arrange one
Okay well I'm definitely interested in one!
Also, was the standard offer last year ABB because I heard that somewhere...
Posted from TSR Mobile
I have the open day this Thursday too! I can't really tell you anything about the Skype interview though as not many people have them. All I know is that you have a good chance, and your interview (or exam) along with your PS and grades etc all play a part in determining whether you get an offer. Good luck.
Original post by Flax
Hi! I have got an invitation for the BASc Arts and Sciences Open Day! Yay! What does this mean, exactly? Am I close to getting an offer? I might have a Skype interview since I'm not from the UK. Anyone who has had one and can tell me more?
Not quite, having the interview is obviously a good sign as it shows they are interested and think you have what it takes. Skype interview is like any other university interview, but the people who run it are really friendly and nice. Be sure to be prepared, but don't worry yourself too much. Loads of people who are on this course now believed that they had a bad interview and they still got in.
Original post by nugiboy
I have the open day this Thursday too! I can't really tell you anything about the Skype interview though as not many people have them. All I know is that you have a good chance, and your interview (or exam) along with your PS and grades etc all play a part in determining whether you get an offer. Good luck.
Oh and good luck nugiboy!
Original post by Torvus
Oh and good luck nugiboy!
Thanks Dude
Original post by Prii21
Heyy! Well, when i came across this course, I fell in love with it :P , because it's what I have been looking for since forever! . However, I was just wondering if you had any idea of what kind of job is designated to someone who has graduated with this course?
. However, I was just wondering if you had any idea of what kind of job is designated to someone who has graduated with this course?No job and every job Prii21. Now what I am about to say is my opinion so please take it with a pinch of salt.
The degree system in the UK is somewhat flawed in that it encourages almost every student to specialise the moment they enter university. One of the problems is that many people don't necessarily want to do a pure degree or realise one year into there degree that they don't want to do it anymore and are too afraid to switch (this happens ALOT, I am an example of this ^^). Therefore some (and I mean some, not many, in case somebody tries to twist this) end up studying a degree they only realise later is not suited to me.
Now it may have sounded like I have got off topic from your question here, but the fact that people's idea of what they enjoy studying changes as they progress through their degree affects what they do when they leave. Do you think many people graduating with a chemistry, history, geography, physic degrees actually go into their specific fields? Noooooooo. Besides career specific/targeted fields such as Law, Medicine and Engineering many people do something completely different than from what they initially studied.
You do get transferable skills from your general degree. But why do a degree focused on one subject just to do that? BASc teaches you those vital transferable skills in its core modules such as in Interdisciplinary Research Methods, Quantitative Methods etc etc. But it also gives you the choice to study modules which you are interested in, and to change those choices (to a certain extent) if you realise that you want to do something different.
So let's say you enjoy Chemistry, but also have an interest for Anthropology. You then realise that a few months into your degree you prefer Anthropology more so than Chemistry so you could start to focus on that area instead. Therefore you customize your degree to your interests, and therefore have a focused, but diverse, degree which you can present to your future employers, whom could well be looking for Anthropologists/Chemists, with general transferable skills such as research and quantitative analysis.
Basically to finish off this way-to-long answer, you tailor your degree to target what you want your ideal job or career path to be. But, this degree also gives you strong transferable skills which tick all the boxes in an employers checklist. For example, I was applying to an internship for the Wellcome Trust a few weeks ago and I found that ALL of the required skills that they wanted I could demonstrate through what I am doing in the first year of the course. Pretty handy ^_^
Also check out the BASc web site FAQ for a better worded explanation
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/basc/faq/careers
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/basc/faq/careers
Hi, I'm Carl Gombrich, the Arts and Sciences Director. Thanks to Torvus for alerting me to this interesting thread. I agree with all that Torvus has said.
The whole area of employment is currently very interesting, so we think about it a lot on the BASc. The link between school, higher education and employment is changing along with much else as a result of the 'knowledge revolution' caused by technology and globalisation, and we want to reflect that in the most relevant and rigorous way possible in a university degree.
The honest truth is that most academic disciplines when studied in isolation have increasingly little relevance to white collar, professional work across a very wide area. This has been the case for quite some time - it's why the whole notion of 'transferrable skills' got to be talked about, as people were interested in the links between the academic subjects of, say, history, english, maths etc and the world of work. But it has now moved to another level. This is not to disrespect those disciplines or any others - I have studied a few of them myself! - but it is to point out that the question really needs to be asked the other way round: what sort of higher education degree do you need to do the large majority of graduate jobs that are out there?
In the literature of management journals or in the research by some of the big professional services companies like McKinseys you will see lots of talk of 'learning agility', 'adaptability', 'interaction careers', 'sense-making' 'intercultural competence' etc etc. You will see very little talk about academic subjects. Also if you look at the recruitment procedures for such companies you will find very little evidence that they are looking for any particular specialist academic knowledge. They need you to 'problem solve', 'write well', 'be a team player', 'understand the origin and use of data', 'speak a foreign language' etc - again, little of what we think of as 'an academic subject' is mentioned. I think some of the current Arts and Sciences students can corroborate this already as even as first years they have been seeking, and have been successful in gaining, internships - and there will be much more corroboration of this sort of thing as they progress through the degree.
Sometimes when I give talks about the degree I prefer to focus on what you could NOT do after the degree rather than what you could do. This is because the 'not' list is much shorter than the 'can do' list! So, upon graduation from BASc you could not be a doctor or dentist or similar, you could not be a chartered engineer (although you could convert to that status with a 2-year graduate diploma) and you could not directly work as a lawyer (but of course you could take the law conversion course as many humanities and social sciences students currently do). But all other careers in journalism, media, civil service, foreign office, social entrepreneurships, charity sector, NGOs, business, finance, PR, education, international development, policy etc will be available to you, provided you take broadly the right sort of modules - as Torvus suggests - and get good grades.
O
The whole area of employment is currently very interesting, so we think about it a lot on the BASc. The link between school, higher education and employment is changing along with much else as a result of the 'knowledge revolution' caused by technology and globalisation, and we want to reflect that in the most relevant and rigorous way possible in a university degree.
The honest truth is that most academic disciplines when studied in isolation have increasingly little relevance to white collar, professional work across a very wide area. This has been the case for quite some time - it's why the whole notion of 'transferrable skills' got to be talked about, as people were interested in the links between the academic subjects of, say, history, english, maths etc and the world of work. But it has now moved to another level. This is not to disrespect those disciplines or any others - I have studied a few of them myself! - but it is to point out that the question really needs to be asked the other way round: what sort of higher education degree do you need to do the large majority of graduate jobs that are out there?
In the literature of management journals or in the research by some of the big professional services companies like McKinseys you will see lots of talk of 'learning agility', 'adaptability', 'interaction careers', 'sense-making' 'intercultural competence' etc etc. You will see very little talk about academic subjects. Also if you look at the recruitment procedures for such companies you will find very little evidence that they are looking for any particular specialist academic knowledge. They need you to 'problem solve', 'write well', 'be a team player', 'understand the origin and use of data', 'speak a foreign language' etc - again, little of what we think of as 'an academic subject' is mentioned. I think some of the current Arts and Sciences students can corroborate this already as even as first years they have been seeking, and have been successful in gaining, internships - and there will be much more corroboration of this sort of thing as they progress through the degree.
Sometimes when I give talks about the degree I prefer to focus on what you could NOT do after the degree rather than what you could do. This is because the 'not' list is much shorter than the 'can do' list! So, upon graduation from BASc you could not be a doctor or dentist or similar, you could not be a chartered engineer (although you could convert to that status with a 2-year graduate diploma) and you could not directly work as a lawyer (but of course you could take the law conversion course as many humanities and social sciences students currently do). But all other careers in journalism, media, civil service, foreign office, social entrepreneurships, charity sector, NGOs, business, finance, PR, education, international development, policy etc will be available to you, provided you take broadly the right sort of modules - as Torvus suggests - and get good grades.
O
Original post by Torvus
No job and every job Prii21. Now what I am about to say is my opinion so please take it with a pinch of salt.
The degree system in the UK is somewhat flawed in that it encourages almost every student to specialise the moment they enter university. One of the problems is that many people don't necessarily want to do a pure degree or realise one year into there degree that they don't want to do it anymore and are too afraid to switch (this happens ALOT, I am an example of this ^^). Therefore some (and I mean some, not many, in case somebody tries to twist this) end up studying a degree they only realise later is not suited to me.
Now it may have sounded like I have got off topic from your question here, but the fact that people's idea of what they enjoy studying changes as they progress through their degree affects what they do when they leave. Do you think many people graduating with a chemistry, history, geography, physic degrees actually go into their specific fields? Noooooooo. Besides career specific/targeted fields such as Law, Medicine and Engineering many people do something completely different than from what they initially studied.
You do get transferable skills from your general degree. But why do a degree focused on one subject just to do that? BASc teaches you those vital transferable skills in its core modules such as in Interdisciplinary Research Methods, Quantitative Methods etc etc. But it also gives you the choice to study modules which you are interested in, and to change those choices (to a certain extent) if you realise that you want to do something different.
So let's say you enjoy Chemistry, but also have an interest for Anthropology. You then realise that a few months into your degree you prefer Anthropology more so than Chemistry so you could start to focus on that area instead. Therefore you customize your degree to your interests, and therefore have a focused, but diverse, degree which you can present to your future employers, whom could well be looking for Anthropologists/Chemists, with general transferable skills such as research and quantitative analysis.
Basically to finish off this way-to-long answer, you tailor your degree to target what you want your ideal job or career path to be. But, this degree also gives you strong transferable skills which tick all the boxes in an employers checklist. For example, I was applying to an internship for the Wellcome Trust a few weeks ago and I found that ALL of the required skills that they wanted I could demonstrate through what I am doing in the first year of the course. Pretty handy ^_^
The degree system in the UK is somewhat flawed in that it encourages almost every student to specialise the moment they enter university. One of the problems is that many people don't necessarily want to do a pure degree or realise one year into there degree that they don't want to do it anymore and are too afraid to switch (this happens ALOT, I am an example of this ^^). Therefore some (and I mean some, not many, in case somebody tries to twist this) end up studying a degree they only realise later is not suited to me.
Now it may have sounded like I have got off topic from your question here, but the fact that people's idea of what they enjoy studying changes as they progress through their degree affects what they do when they leave. Do you think many people graduating with a chemistry, history, geography, physic degrees actually go into their specific fields? Noooooooo. Besides career specific/targeted fields such as Law, Medicine and Engineering many people do something completely different than from what they initially studied.
You do get transferable skills from your general degree. But why do a degree focused on one subject just to do that? BASc teaches you those vital transferable skills in its core modules such as in Interdisciplinary Research Methods, Quantitative Methods etc etc. But it also gives you the choice to study modules which you are interested in, and to change those choices (to a certain extent) if you realise that you want to do something different.
So let's say you enjoy Chemistry, but also have an interest for Anthropology. You then realise that a few months into your degree you prefer Anthropology more so than Chemistry so you could start to focus on that area instead. Therefore you customize your degree to your interests, and therefore have a focused, but diverse, degree which you can present to your future employers, whom could well be looking for Anthropologists/Chemists, with general transferable skills such as research and quantitative analysis.
Basically to finish off this way-to-long answer, you tailor your degree to target what you want your ideal job or career path to be. But, this degree also gives you strong transferable skills which tick all the boxes in an employers checklist. For example, I was applying to an internship for the Wellcome Trust a few weeks ago and I found that ALL of the required skills that they wanted I could demonstrate through what I am doing in the first year of the course. Pretty handy ^_^
hello) I'm currently an arts and sciences offer holder and I'm seriously thinking about firming it. the concept seems to be very interesting and I like the idea of studying something new. nevertheless, I'm a little worried that it might not meet my expectations. therefore, I would like to know how difficult it would be to change courses within UCL if I didn't like it?
) I'm currently an arts and sciences offer holder and I'm seriously thinking about firming it. the concept seems to be very interesting and I like the idea of studying something new. nevertheless, I'm a little worried that it might not meet my expectations. therefore, I would like to know how difficult it would be to change courses within UCL if I didn't like it?Original post by chocolatechip05
hello) I'm currently an arts and sciences offer holder and I'm seriously thinking about firming it. the concept seems to be very interesting and I like the idea of studying something new. nevertheless, I'm a little worried that it might not meet my expectations. therefore, I would like to know how difficult it would be to change courses within UCL if I didn't like it?
) I'm currently an arts and sciences offer holder and I'm seriously thinking about firming it. the concept seems to be very interesting and I like the idea of studying something new. nevertheless, I'm a little worried that it might not meet my expectations. therefore, I would like to know how difficult it would be to change courses within UCL if I didn't like it?It shouldn't be too difficult, as we had someone who was on this course at the beginning of this academic year who then switched. If you give do it within the first few weeks (first month if you are really pushing it) and have the relevant A Level/IB etc course requirements and the department is happy to have you switch there seems no reason why you couldn't switch.
Then again you may decide you like the degree, but really really don't like the module choices that you made. You kinda get the first few weeks to play around with your module choices (if you're really undecided) so you could do change around your choices.
Either way you have a decent amount of flexibility. Just a few words of caution, don't leave it too late if you want to switch, but also be sure to talk with the course staff. Carl might look all big and scary (I joke), but him, Amanda (course administrator) and the pathway representatives are very approachable people and will hear all your concerns fairly.
Original post by Torvus
It shouldn't be too difficult, as we had someone who was on this course at the beginning of this academic year who then switched. If you give do it within the first few weeks (first month if you are really pushing it) and have the relevant A Level/IB etc course requirements and the department is happy to have you switch there seems no reason why you couldn't switch.
Then again you may decide you like the degree, but really really don't like the module choices that you made. You kinda get the first few weeks to play around with your module choices (if you're really undecided) so you could do change around your choices.
Either way you have a decent amount of flexibility. Just a few words of caution, don't leave it too late if you want to switch, but also be sure to talk with the course staff. Carl might look all big and scary (I joke), but him, Amanda (course administrator) and the pathway representatives are very approachable people and will hear all your concerns fairly.
Then again you may decide you like the degree, but really really don't like the module choices that you made. You kinda get the first few weeks to play around with your module choices (if you're really undecided) so you could do change around your choices.
Either way you have a decent amount of flexibility. Just a few words of caution, don't leave it too late if you want to switch, but also be sure to talk with the course staff. Carl might look all big and scary (I joke), but him, Amanda (course administrator) and the pathway representatives are very approachable people and will hear all your concerns fairly.
thank you very much!
Hello to all,
I am also fortunate enough to have a place to study the Arts and Sciences degree in September and have recently come back from one of their Open Days. I have to say, I was really impressed with how dedicated and committed both the current students and (in particular) the faculty staff were to the course. Everyone seemed to be really keen to help with anything and it seemed like this would the sort of support one can expect when taking part in the degree.
I actually have a place for the three year course, but after the Open Day I am really keen on the idea of studying abroad for a year. I was wondering how easy it would be (and how accommodating the faculty will be) if I requested to be transferred from the three year to the four year program. This isn't a deal breaker in terms of whether or not I accept the place (I am still waiting to hear back from Durham) but it would be somewhat of a cherry on top of what appears to me to be a fantastic degree at an amazing university in an amazing city.
Would love some advice on this matter so please feel free to write back!
I am also fortunate enough to have a place to study the Arts and Sciences degree in September and have recently come back from one of their Open Days. I have to say, I was really impressed with how dedicated and committed both the current students and (in particular) the faculty staff were to the course. Everyone seemed to be really keen to help with anything and it seemed like this would the sort of support one can expect when taking part in the degree.
I actually have a place for the three year course, but after the Open Day I am really keen on the idea of studying abroad for a year. I was wondering how easy it would be (and how accommodating the faculty will be) if I requested to be transferred from the three year to the four year program. This isn't a deal breaker in terms of whether or not I accept the place (I am still waiting to hear back from Durham) but it would be somewhat of a cherry on top of what appears to me to be a fantastic degree at an amazing university in an amazing city.
Would love some advice on this matter so please feel free to write back!
Original post by iblackmore
Hello to all,
I am also fortunate enough to have a place to study the Arts and Sciences degree in September and have recently come back from one of their Open Days. I have to say, I was really impressed with how dedicated and committed both the current students and (in particular) the faculty staff were to the course. Everyone seemed to be really keen to help with anything and it seemed like this would the sort of support one can expect when taking part in the degree.
I actually have a place for the three year course, but after the Open Day I am really keen on the idea of studying abroad for a year. I was wondering how easy it would be (and how accommodating the faculty will be) if I requested to be transferred from the three year to the four year program. This isn't a deal breaker in terms of whether or not I accept the place (I am still waiting to hear back from Durham) but it would be somewhat of a cherry on top of what appears to me to be a fantastic degree at an amazing university in an amazing city.
Would love some advice on this matter so please feel free to write back!
I am also fortunate enough to have a place to study the Arts and Sciences degree in September and have recently come back from one of their Open Days. I have to say, I was really impressed with how dedicated and committed both the current students and (in particular) the faculty staff were to the course. Everyone seemed to be really keen to help with anything and it seemed like this would the sort of support one can expect when taking part in the degree.
I actually have a place for the three year course, but after the Open Day I am really keen on the idea of studying abroad for a year. I was wondering how easy it would be (and how accommodating the faculty will be) if I requested to be transferred from the three year to the four year program. This isn't a deal breaker in terms of whether or not I accept the place (I am still waiting to hear back from Durham) but it would be somewhat of a cherry on top of what appears to me to be a fantastic degree at an amazing university in an amazing city.
Would love some advice on this matter so please feel free to write back!
You can leave changing to a year abroad to the latter part of your first or even the beginning of your second year! But if you really want to change just fill out a form when you come to the course. You do need to get a 2:1 (60% average, roughly an A) in your first year though in order to qualify for a year abroad.
mdvfox, in case Tl.dr doesn't reply back in time I will give my two cents on this.
It honestly depends on the modules you take which determine how many contact hours you have. Some modules have longer lectures, have labs (like Chemistry), group projects (Engineering) which dramatically increase contact hours. But in my opinion 9-15 contact hours a week is reasonable.
Coming from a Philosophy degree its no surprise that you had fewer contact hours. I can't comment specifically on the Health & Environment pathway but the 2nd term projects begin taking up more of your time. Research Methods (BASC1002) is largely a group project and will take up many hours during your week, so will your project for Quantitative Methods (BASC1003) and keeping proficiency in your language.
So to answer your question your contact hours will depend no which modules you pick, which you can look at in your first week and decide for yourself which ones you feel comfortable with or not
I hope that is sort of answered your question, but if you still have worries please do reply ^_^
It honestly depends on the modules you take which determine how many contact hours you have. Some modules have longer lectures, have labs (like Chemistry), group projects (Engineering) which dramatically increase contact hours. But in my opinion 9-15 contact hours a week is reasonable.
Coming from a Philosophy degree its no surprise that you had fewer contact hours. I can't comment specifically on the Health & Environment pathway but the 2nd term projects begin taking up more of your time. Research Methods (BASC1002) is largely a group project and will take up many hours during your week, so will your project for Quantitative Methods (BASC1003) and keeping proficiency in your language.
So to answer your question your contact hours will depend no which modules you pick, which you can look at in your first week and decide for yourself which ones you feel comfortable with or not
I hope that is sort of answered your question, but if you still have worries please do reply ^_^
Original post by mdvfox
Many thanks for your response Torvus. So it sounds like a great deal of contact time will be down to my pathway module choices. And of course 9-15 hours does sound reasonable, I agree. I'm just hoping my choices might take me more towards the 15 side than the 9 lol. But any hours will probably seem like a lot compared to Philosophy.
So do 2nd term projects in the core tend to focus a lot of your time on independent/group study outside of class, combined with doing your language?
Thanks again Torvus, appreciate the help!
So do 2nd term projects in the core tend to focus a lot of your time on independent/group study outside of class, combined with doing your language?
Thanks again Torvus, appreciate the help!
The 2nd term Research Methods module is mainly group work. You will have to work as part of a team to design a research project and pitch how you will run it. You will also interview academics, analysis the transcripts and write reports. There is a lot of different things to do on this course which means that you are constantly flipping between different skills sets and disciplines which keeps things fresh and challenging
As for teaching hours I am not the best person to ask. You will be assigned a personal tutor who will advise you on your course choices. They will be the best people for this and for that you will have to wait until the first week of term ^_^
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