UCL / European Social and Political Studies (ESPS) / 2018 Entry

The full economics specialization now requires that an A* in Maths at A-level though this will not be used as a pre-interview filter and the A* will only be asked for when making conditional offers. The rational for this is....well, plenty of first-year ESPSers in the past took UCL economics proper for a laugh and bombed the exams. This, understandably did not make ESPS look good and the UCL econ department was similarly unimpressed .

I'd specify the full-economics only if you are sure you can achieve the entry marks and have an aptitude for quantitative subjects....otherwise the Department may strongly suggest that you switch specialization if your first-year uni results in economics are low. At one point in the revision meeting, a member of staff practically begged a few of us to drop economics because "if you're not talented at it now, you will not be in the future and your marks will crash down!". If you still wish to take economics but do so partially, if this option is still available in course choices, you can take the economics courses at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES). Plenty of my coursemates took this route after doing poorly in UCL Economics and they all said that SSEES-Economics is miles easier in coursework and exams and at a more manageable pace.

If you count the dissertation as Economics then your total would be over 50%. But for the full I'd be assuming that for any unit specified as being an "area of specialization" it MUST be an economics course, so you wouldn't really have the opportunity to take another non-economics course unless you make a very strong case for it or risk losing the "full" designation.It does make sense as the full prepares you for postgrad while the 'element of' doesn't, and since you'll be taking language/culture courses concurrently as a degree requirement you are already at a knowledge disadvantage with Economics BAs applying to postgrad. At the end of years 1 and 2 you will have a personal meeting with the course tutor (which staff member it is changes each year, and thusly their strictness) to discuss your module choices for the next year to make sure you are on the right track.

Just in case you haven't run into this yet:
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/esps/prospective-students/programme-structure.htm

Unfortunately the specialization is not named in the diploma or the transcripts. Though quite a few grad schemes would ask for a transcript anyway and it gets quite obvious from the course choices what your specialization. Also, students make a point to explicitly state their specialization on their CV.

Which country are you from? Students from ESPS usually have no problems being employed/ being admitted to postgrad back in their home countries or in continental Europe. A Japanese ESPS-er was able to use her degree for Nomura in Asia. The profile of the degree itself is rising and can only get better in the future as a niche-flagship degree from UCL. Though I understand your concerns.

Please note that the amount of contact hours in your language courses are very language-department specific, it is by no means uniform for all languages. For Russian, if this is taken at SSEES it has been well known that the language acquisition course is very very short and some other seminars run by SSEES are fortnightly rather than weekly. Conversely other departments such as Dutch will have "hidden" modules that add extra hours and seminars to the language acquisition and cultural modules so the language and cultural part for other languages can also be quite intense. This can lead to comparing and squabbling amongst ESPS colleagues on who received the raw deal on languages.

Dear Kishan,

I'd like to help. I am a Third Year ESPS student currently on my year abroad in Florence.

There are many people who come who do what you do, and I am sure that you will be alright.
The following things I say without bias, having observed them at length:

ESPS is one of the most heavily academic and excellent (as in they excel) courses in UCL. You will find that ESPS students often stand a head above other students (even in their own departments). In terms of course choice, you pretty much can select any humanities courses, including (but not limited to) Politics, International Relations, Economics, Law, History, Philosophy, Geography, etc.

Teaching at ESPS proper is rather good, if limited to only a few courses. However, you can pick almost any course and as a result you can pick what best suits you and your academic direction, including courses with the best lecturers. I will confess that the choice of politics proper courses is limited since UCL doesn't have a dedicated politics department (this is as close as it comes) but you can pick related history, IR or philosophy courses that will add up to the same or better than you will get anywhere. The Economics department is one of the best in the country and since you can pick your own courses you will be fine. There are a number of tutors who link ESPS with other departments who should be willing to help and provide any further guidance. They are very friendly.

ESPS is almost 50% comprised of students from the EU and other countries so you network with people from across the globe. In addition to this UCL is the most international of all British universities with 40% of its students from abroad. As a result, you are often much more likely to encounter foreigners than British students (I've had trouble finding enough British friends )

Lastly, the CAreers Service is excellent providing all the services you need and should help you structure your CV and career perspectives as to your wishes.

Good luck!