Liberal arts freshers 2013

ME Really looking forward to it. The course seems pretty great. Out of curiosity, what grades do you need (if you're conditional that is)?

Hi! My offer is conditional, had to pass IELTS, which I did in April so I guess it's unconditional now! The course seems amazing, King's as well. Have you applied for accommodation yet? What is your top 3?

Oh cool, mine is unconditional too so I was wondering what the conditional offers were like! Congratulations I live in London already so I'm not bothering with accommodation as I can get there in ~30 mins and it's so expensive. I was at UCL earlier in the year so I've had experience of living in halls and I'm okay missing out this year. Since you had to take the IELTS I'm guessing you're international? Where are you coming from if you don't mind my asking?

Also, I'm glad to see another Liberal Arts fresher. Seems like there's hardly anyone from that course on here!

That's great! I haven't seen any other firmers here either so I'm glad as well. I'm from Sweden, so I'm an EU student but it takes about 1,5 hours to travel by flight to London so it's not that far away. Congratulations on your offer! What did you study at UCL? Have you thought anything about what major you would like to study?

Oh, okay, at least you aren't too far then. I studied French and Russian at UCL but decided that the course wasn't really for me so I re-applied. I'm not too sure about my major. Maybe English, as that's what I applied for at other unis but I'm open to other things if I find something I enjoy more. What about you?

Oh, I see. Right now I'm thinking politics, but that might change. I really like the look of the philosophy modules as well.

I'm applying for this course for 2014 entry. I have a few questions, if somebody has a spare few minutes?

1) As there are only a few Liberal Arts courses in the UK and I imagine you didn't apply to them all, what else did you apply for at different unis and how did you tailor your personal statement?
2) What did you have to do to get your unconditional offers? When did you apply?

Thanks!

Hi!

1) I applied to Arts and Sciences at UCL, Liberal Arts and Sciences at Birmingham, Combined Honours in Social Sciences at Durham and Liberal Arts at Kent. The courses at Birmingham and UCL are a bit different from the others as the include science. I tailored my personal statement to suit the liberal arts courses and did not include anything about science. Since these courses are fairly new, admissions understand that you may not be able to write your PS with liberal arts in mind. King's requires you to submit an additional PS where you can write about your interests in the liberal arts and their specific course. Unless you're applying to courses that are extremely different in what they offer, I wouldn't worry too much.

2) I'm not really sure what you're asking for here. Test results? I applied on the 14th of January, a day before the deadline, so fairly late.

If you have any other questions, please feel free to ask. Since the course is quite new, there is not a lot of people around to ask for advice, and I found that that made the application process and PS writing a bit tricky at times.

Thanks for the reply. Out of curiosity did you look at the European Social and Political Studies course at UCL? That seems fairly similar to the Liberal Arts. It's reassuring that King's ask for an additional PS. Did you get offers from UCL or Birmingham too?

Sorry, I phrased the second question a little badly. Did you apply the January after getting your A2 grades?

Thanks again!

I did look at the ESPS course but I was more drawn to the structure and content of the A&S course. I received an invitation for an interview from Birmingham but I decided not to go because I had already received offers from all of my other choices and Birmingham was not my first choice.

No problem. I finished school in 2011 so my grades were already final by the time I applied. Moreover, I'm not from the UK so I haven't done A-levels.

I see! What subjects did you take (at your equivalent to A-level)?

Swedish, English, French, Latin, philosophy, music, photography, contemporary art, international relations, religion and an extended project.

So it's quite different from A-levels.

Evidently! I'm doing English Literature, History and Chemistry so I was a little bit worried that they'd prefer a candidate with three arts/humanities subjects instead of one science.

Evidently! I'm doing English Literature, History and Chemistry so I was a little bit worried that they'd prefer a candidate with three arts/humanities subjects instead of one science.

Thanks for the reply. Out of curiosity did you look at the European Social and Political Studies course at UCL? That seems fairly similar to the Liberal Arts. It's reassuring that King's ask for an additional PS. Did you get offers from UCL or Birmingham too?

Sorry, I phrased the second question a little badly. Did you apply the January after getting your A2 grades?

Thanks again!

Oh cool, mine is unconditional too so I was wondering what the conditional offers were like! Congratulations I live in London already so I'm not bothering with accommodation as I can get there in ~30 mins and it's so expensive. I was at UCL earlier in the year so I've had experience of living in halls and I'm okay missing out this year. Since you had to take the IELTS I'm guessing you're international? Where are you coming from if you don't mind my asking?

Also, I'm glad to see another Liberal Arts fresher. Seems like there's hardly anyone from that course on here!