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Why does practically everyone here hate SOAS?

Natsuko

That sounds very interesting! What sort of things do you study on such a course? I bet your choices of unis were even more limited than mine! I thought I'd have a tough time finding people even interested in Japanese on here, let alone anyone doing/applying for it at uni (everyone at school thinks I'm crazy, although perhaps they're not far off the mark, and my French teacher was very disapointed! She's recentlty accused me of trying to lure her AS protégé away from French, that was funny. Anyway, back to the subject...). But when I started a thread about it, I was suprised. Have you tried that?

I got the very same reaction from people at my school when I said I was applying for Japanese - the reaction you may expect from someone saying they were going to study prostitution as a degree or something from a few people..a mix of confusion and awkwardness as they try not to say the words 'how...interesting!'. (And is that Kyo in your avatar, by any chance? :biggrin:

)

My uni's hated? Huh. Well, I like it and that's all that really matters to me. It's great for my subject and I'm enjoying it so far....despite the workload slowly getting heavier.

Reply 21

numb3rb0y

15

Natsuko

That sounds very interesting! What sort of things do you study on such a course? I bet your choices of unis were even more limited than mine! I thought I'd have a tough time finding people even interested in Japanese on here, let alone anyone doing/applying for it at uni (everyone at school thinks I'm crazy, although perhaps they're not far off the mark, and my French teacher was very disapointed! She's recentlty accused me of trying to lure her AS protégé away from French, that was funny. Anyway, back to the subject...). But when I started a thread about it, I was suprised. Have you tried that?

It's actually a really great course; you can do languages, archaeology, history, pre-history, and literature. Plus about half the required modules and a lot of the electives are actually thought by UCL, which basically right next to SOAS' buildings, so I'd in effect be going to two awesome universities at the same time :biggrin:

I actually checked UCAS, Oxford is the only other place in the UK that offers it, and even then they only do it as a joint-honours with Egyptology, so I've basically applied for classics dept. courses everywhere else, which is a little annoying since I had to do a weird combination in my PS. It's still nice to be able to think that I'm applying for a course nobody has ever heard of at a university most people don't seem to know exists, though.

Reply 22

Natsuko

1

Soxi

I got the very same reaction from people at my school when I said I was applying for Japanese - the reaction you may expect from someone saying they were going to study prostitution as a degree or something from a few people..a mix of confusion and awkwardness as they try not to say the words 'how...interesting!'. (And is that Kyo in your avatar, by any chance? :biggrin:

)

My uni's hated? Huh. Well, I like it and that's all that really matters to me. It's great for my subject and I'm enjoying it so far....despite the workload slowly getting heavier.

Yes, it's Kyo ^^ And that is the exact reaction of some people, I like the description! Others also say "wow" or "cool" (or something like that lol) and leave it there, which I find a little funny. They don't ask questions!

Reply 23

Soxi

Natsuko

Yes, it's Kyo ^^ And that is the exact reaction of some people, I like the description! Others also say "wow" or "cool" (or something like that lol) and leave it there, which I find a little funny. They don't ask questions!

Yeah - unlike 'normal' subjects, there's usually no follow up questions, unless you get the big ones from family of 'So....what kind of job can you get from that then?'. So annoying!

SOAS is great for these 'odd' subjects though, there are so many resources available to use that you wouldn't get anywhere else (which is very, very useful, as my experience last week with essays taught me!). It is kinda funny to have people need a long winded explanation as to what SOAS stands for, where it is and that it actually does exist and isn't a place like Hogwarts :rolleyes:

.

Reply 24

Hikari

1

It's a very specialist institution, so I guess people are put off by that.

However, it offers many courses not available anywhere else in the country, is top 10 for law/economics, and has a better reputation for language teaching in subjects such as Japanese than Oxbridge, plus in the Guardian league table it's in the top 10. It also has the best library for the area's in the world for which the subjects revolve around.

it's very left wing also, but you can just ignore that. It has a sort of reputation for being a place for hippies/weed smokers, but tbh I hardly know anyone like that.

SOAS ftw! Non-believers shall perish :yep:

Reply 25

Socrates

17

Lizsco3

Politics.

SOAS has one of the best politics departments in the country, in terms of research. Besides grades are linked to demand, not quality of course. The reason why Oxbridge grade requirements are high is not because their departments are amazing (some of them are to be fair, but not all) but because so many people want to go there.

Reply 26

username196545

19

I love SOAS. I don't go there, but a really good friend of mine does and I've spent LOADS of times in SOAS halls.
Also, I was there today because it's connected to Senate House, which is where I had to go.
But yeah, SOAS is cool, and they have some really interesting courses. I wish I could have applied their, but they don't do IR Ba :frown:

Reply 27

River85

17

Socrates

SOAS has one of the best politics departments in the country, in terms of research. Besides grades are linked to demand, not quality of course. The reason why Oxbridge grade requirements are high is not because their departments are amazing (some of them are to be fair, but not all) but because so many people want to go there.

Grade requirements are little more than an indication of how "in demand" a course is. So those that are the most competitive/in demand have the higher grades.

Of course, you'd expect that "the best" departments are those that are over subscribed and in demand but this isn't always so. Durham ask for AAA for their politics course and I can tell you that, although Durham have a strong middle east department, SOAS is still stronger. The reason why they are able to ask for high grades is because many people chose Durham's politics course simply for the name or because of its.....atmosphere.

Anyway, I'm not really aware of too much "SOAS bashing". I do think there's a little bit of UoL snobbery and those at UCL, LSE, KCL (and Imperial, even though it's not UoL anymore) look down on all other institutions in the UoL. These are just morons though and a tiny minority. I've actually seen a fair number of these UoL snobs who do include SOAS as one of the top London unis.

If you think SOAS is badly done to then what about the ex-polys, or even some older unis that just aren't "top 20/30".

Reply 28

Eklipz89

10

After talking to my teacher...as mentioned above, the grade requirements reflect the demand.
For example you see courses with low requirements because the University is either a Metropolitan Uni etc.

Ive applied to SOAS for History knowing they have one of the best History Dept in the country. Their requirement is ABB/BBB but ive heard you generally need AAB as a requirement.
Just because the University might have a low requirement doesnt make it a bad Uni. Its just that they want more applicants. For example Govt and Economics i think at LSE want ABB, but with only 50 or so places, people will need AAA/AAB prediction.

I mean when you bring Lg tables into consideration. On the Guardian SOAS is ranked 8th but is around 20th on the times. It just depends. SOAS is a very specialist Uni and their tradition is different to that of other Uni's. I mean some one who wants to do an Asian Language will love it there. 100's of students who have the same interest. Same with History students. But then those who look at languages as "mickey mouse subjects" will obviously have something to say about SOAS

Why does practically everyone here hate SOAS?

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