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what's the process of getting into a neuroscience or psychology course at kcl like?

so, it's lowkey my dream to be able to go to king's college- i want to study neuroscience and psychology, and hopefully that will lead me on to a great profession (i haven't exactly figured out what i want to do as a job yet, but i've done a LOT of research and i have a lot of branches im interested in). i used to want to go to ucl, but i didn't want to take chemistry for a-level to do neuroscience since it is a separate course to pysch, but in kcl i saw they have a course that is both neuroscience and psychology (as well as them separate too) so that was convenient.

i just wanted to ask: anyone that goes to kcl, what's it like there? what was the admissions process like? was there an interview? was your ucas personal statement a huge indicator of whether you got in, or was it combined with your a-level grades (if you did a-levels)?

it would be nice if any students taking neuroscience, psychology, or even both could answer, because even though i'm in year 11, i'm still really interested in the uni life and how it works out for different people. any answers for people taking any courses would be really amazing!
(edited 9 months ago)
Reply 1
second year KCL student here! 😊 so I'm technically on the Biomedical Science BSc but I'm specialising in Neuroscience (just allowed me to pick all my modules without having to take some of the compulsory ones I didn't want lol) and I believe the process is pretty much the same! certainly the just-neuroscience course runs the same as it's the same faculty and we have the same first year modules and most of my second/third year modules

firstly, the admissions process was pretty straightforward! no interviews or anything, and I'm not sure of the exact weighting but it definitely takes both your personal statement and your a-levels into account -- I don't think my personal statement was that great, but I had high predicted grades 😅

in terms of what kcl is like, I'm pretty happy here! It was my first choice uni when I applied because of the total flexibility of my course and idk just something about it I really liked. As a neuro student you'll be on guy's campus, or neuro and psych is on Denmark hill which I haven't been to yet but will next year, which are science campuses in pretty much central London (DH is a bit further away) and the atmosphere is pretty chill and friendly. Especially when it's good weather, maybe it's just me but it's just such a good vibe. There are also a ton of student societies for pretty much every interest that are either free or pretty cheap to be part of, and it's also (in my experience) very lgbtq+-friendly if that's something that applies 😊

On the neuroscience only course, you have what's called the Common Year One in first year, which is where all the courses that fall under the School of Bioscience (Biomed, neuro, pharmacology, anatomy and suchlike) do the same set of 8 modules that cover biochemistry, anatomy, genetics, pharmacology, physiology, cell biology and a smidge of neuroscience, and then the course gets neuro-specific in second and third year. whereas I've seen that the first year in the neuro and psych course is very psych-heavy, and then it's a mix of both -- a lot of the optional modules I've seen for that course are actually ones I've done or am doing! :biggrin:

In my experience, the workload isn't too bad on a week-by-week basis, as you generally only get set work for tutorials and workshops, which usually expect you to complete the questions beforehand. otherwise, it's pretty much just self-study so up to the individual. I'm not sure if they're different for the neuro+psych course but my lectures are usually an hour long, though you often get them back to back. How modules run in second year (at least amongst the Bioscience faculty) is that they each run one day of the week, and you'll have lectures in the morning and then practicals/tutorials/workshops after lunch. I won't lie, lecturers are a bit of a mixed bag - you get some great ones and also some terrible ones lol. But, either way on neuro or neuro/psych, you'll get to have Dr Clemens Kiecker who runs a lot of neuro modules and is widely regarded amongst like half my year group to be an absolute legend of a lecturer. A lot of the neuro lecturers are pretty good

The only real downside I've had at king's is that admin is not always the best --- my personal tutor, for instance, is supposed to contact me at least once a term and we've spoken like twice the whole time I've been here 😅🥲 we also had a ton of timetabling issues this year. on the whole, it's not too bad though

I hope this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!! I'll be happy to answer anything I can :smile:
Reply 2
Original post by cyberhex
second year KCL student here! 😊 so I'm technically on the Biomedical Science BSc but I'm specialising in Neuroscience (just allowed me to pick all my modules without having to take some of the compulsory ones I didn't want lol) and I believe the process is pretty much the same! certainly the just-neuroscience course runs the same as it's the same faculty and we have the same first year modules and most of my second/third year modules
firstly, the admissions process was pretty straightforward! no interviews or anything, and I'm not sure of the exact weighting but it definitely takes both your personal statement and your a-levels into account -- I don't think my personal statement was that great, but I had high predicted grades 😅
in terms of what kcl is like, I'm pretty happy here! It was my first choice uni when I applied because of the total flexibility of my course and idk just something about it I really liked. As a neuro student you'll be on guy's campus, or neuro and psych is on Denmark hill which I haven't been to yet but will next year, which are science campuses in pretty much central London (DH is a bit further away) and the atmosphere is pretty chill and friendly. Especially when it's good weather, maybe it's just me but it's just such a good vibe. There are also a ton of student societies for pretty much every interest that are either free or pretty cheap to be part of, and it's also (in my experience) very lgbtq+-friendly if that's something that applies 😊
On the neuroscience only course, you have what's called the Common Year One in first year, which is where all the courses that fall under the School of Bioscience (Biomed, neuro, pharmacology, anatomy and suchlike) do the same set of 8 modules that cover biochemistry, anatomy, genetics, pharmacology, physiology, cell biology and a smidge of neuroscience, and then the course gets neuro-specific in second and third year. whereas I've seen that the first year in the neuro and psych course is very psych-heavy, and then it's a mix of both -- a lot of the optional modules I've seen for that course are actually ones I've done or am doing! :biggrin:
In my experience, the workload isn't too bad on a week-by-week basis, as you generally only get set work for tutorials and workshops, which usually expect you to complete the questions beforehand. otherwise, it's pretty much just self-study so up to the individual. I'm not sure if they're different for the neuro+psych course but my lectures are usually an hour long, though you often get them back to back. How modules run in second year (at least amongst the Bioscience faculty) is that they each run one day of the week, and you'll have lectures in the morning and then practicals/tutorials/workshops after lunch. I won't lie, lecturers are a bit of a mixed bag - you get some great ones and also some terrible ones lol. But, either way on neuro or neuro/psych, you'll get to have Dr Clemens Kiecker who runs a lot of neuro modules and is widely regarded amongst like half my year group to be an absolute legend of a lecturer. A lot of the neuro lecturers are pretty good
The only real downside I've had at king's is that admin is not always the best --- my personal tutor, for instance, is supposed to contact me at least once a term and we've spoken like twice the whole time I've been here 😅🥲 we also had a ton of timetabling issues this year. on the whole, it's not too bad though
I hope this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!! I'll be happy to answer anything I can :smile:

thank you so much for this!! this was so helpful honestly. it actually gives me such a good insight from your pov. atm i don't have any pressing questions on my mind, so i wish u the best in all your studies : ))
Original post by cyberhex
second year KCL student here! 😊 so I'm technically on the Biomedical Science BSc but I'm specialising in Neuroscience (just allowed me to pick all my modules without having to take some of the compulsory ones I didn't want lol) and I believe the process is pretty much the same! certainly the just-neuroscience course runs the same as it's the same faculty and we have the same first year modules and most of my second/third year modules
firstly, the admissions process was pretty straightforward! no interviews or anything, and I'm not sure of the exact weighting but it definitely takes both your personal statement and your a-levels into account -- I don't think my personal statement was that great, but I had high predicted grades 😅
in terms of what kcl is like, I'm pretty happy here! It was my first choice uni when I applied because of the total flexibility of my course and idk just something about it I really liked. As a neuro student you'll be on guy's campus, or neuro and psych is on Denmark hill which I haven't been to yet but will next year, which are science campuses in pretty much central London (DH is a bit further away) and the atmosphere is pretty chill and friendly. Especially when it's good weather, maybe it's just me but it's just such a good vibe. There are also a ton of student societies for pretty much every interest that are either free or pretty cheap to be part of, and it's also (in my experience) very lgbtq+-friendly if that's something that applies 😊
On the neuroscience only course, you have what's called the Common Year One in first year, which is where all the courses that fall under the School of Bioscience (Biomed, neuro, pharmacology, anatomy and suchlike) do the same set of 8 modules that cover biochemistry, anatomy, genetics, pharmacology, physiology, cell biology and a smidge of neuroscience, and then the course gets neuro-specific in second and third year. whereas I've seen that the first year in the neuro and psych course is very psych-heavy, and then it's a mix of both -- a lot of the optional modules I've seen for that course are actually ones I've done or am doing! :biggrin:
In my experience, the workload isn't too bad on a week-by-week basis, as you generally only get set work for tutorials and workshops, which usually expect you to complete the questions beforehand. otherwise, it's pretty much just self-study so up to the individual. I'm not sure if they're different for the neuro+psych course but my lectures are usually an hour long, though you often get them back to back. How modules run in second year (at least amongst the Bioscience faculty) is that they each run one day of the week, and you'll have lectures in the morning and then practicals/tutorials/workshops after lunch. I won't lie, lecturers are a bit of a mixed bag - you get some great ones and also some terrible ones lol. But, either way on neuro or neuro/psych, you'll get to have Dr Clemens Kiecker who runs a lot of neuro modules and is widely regarded amongst like half my year group to be an absolute legend of a lecturer. A lot of the neuro lecturers are pretty good
The only real downside I've had at king's is that admin is not always the best --- my personal tutor, for instance, is supposed to contact me at least once a term and we've spoken like twice the whole time I've been here 😅🥲 we also had a ton of timetabling issues this year. on the whole, it's not too bad though
I hope this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!! I'll be happy to answer anything I can :smile:


Hi,
What were your GCSEs like and what did you talk about in your personal statement when it comes to extracurriculars ect?
I’m also considering studying at KCL for neuroscience but I’m worried my grades aren’t good enough especially since it’s a top Russel group Uni.
Reply 4
Original post by user_098761234
Hi,
What were your GCSEs like and what did you talk about in your personal statement when it comes to extracurriculars ect?
I’m also considering studying at KCL for neuroscience but I’m worried my grades aren’t good enough especially since it’s a top Russel group Uni.

so I did 11 GCSEs, one of which I actually took (just Religious Studies lol but came out a 9) and the others which were 8s-9s but with the caveat that I was the year they cancelled them, so I don't think unis put that much stock in them last year (Oxford, for instance, outright told us they cared about nothing but our admission tests basically because they didn't trust our grades lol). My A-Level predicteds were 4A* (I didn't quite come out with that haha) and my EPQ which I'd attained at an A* (but again not sure how much they care about that)

My personal statement is a weird one, I think because I was going for Biomed but I didn't really know what to put it was all jumbled. I introduced it talking about this epigenetics book I'd read, then I talked about my interest in neuroscience which my extracurriculars for that were my EPQ (was semi-relevant, did it on an evaluation of the lobotomy) and then a few free online courses I'd done on educational neuroscience because they were the only ones I could find). I also had a paragraph on a few online medical summer schools I'd done (don't know why when I never wanted to do med but I think I just needed something to do over quarantine) and the UNIQ online summer school which I'd been in for some Biomed stuff. Outside of science, I talked about liking cyber security and doing a few courses for that, and then briefly mentioned the fact I read/write stories in my spare time. So I had nothing majorly tangible and because of the pandemic, everything I had was virtual -- I don't really have major extracurriculars that can show for things because what I actually spend my time doing is reading fanfiction, watching TV and slowly working on the novel I've been trying to write for the past 4 years 😅

It's hard to say how much unis took into account each part of my application because both sets of my exams were affected by Covid and I don't know how much they weigh them up against each other. But I think it's probably my personal statement that let me down a bit with it being all jumbled between different areas so really not having anything solid for my subject (combined with the fact I had no real proof of my grades) - I got into KCL and Uni of Leeds but was rejected from Oxford, UCL and Edinburgh so definitely don't worry too much about grades!! As long as you meet the requirements, I think they really place more value in seeing that you're passionate about the subject and would "be a benefit to the university" (both from an academic drive and extracurriculars, like maybe if you're into sports or music or something along those lines? you don't even have to have any actual desire to join the societies, but it's making them think that you will I guess)

hopefully this helps! and happy to answer any other questions :smile:
Original post by cyberhex
second year KCL student here! 😊 so I'm technically on the Biomedical Science BSc but I'm specialising in Neuroscience (just allowed me to pick all my modules without having to take some of the compulsory ones I didn't want lol) and I believe the process is pretty much the same! certainly the just-neuroscience course runs the same as it's the same faculty and we have the same first year modules and most of my second/third year modules
firstly, the admissions process was pretty straightforward! no interviews or anything, and I'm not sure of the exact weighting but it definitely takes both your personal statement and your a-levels into account -- I don't think my personal statement was that great, but I had high predicted grades 😅
in terms of what kcl is like, I'm pretty happy here! It was my first choice uni when I applied because of the total flexibility of my course and idk just something about it I really liked. As a neuro student you'll be on guy's campus, or neuro and psych is on Denmark hill which I haven't been to yet but will next year, which are science campuses in pretty much central London (DH is a bit further away) and the atmosphere is pretty chill and friendly. Especially when it's good weather, maybe it's just me but it's just such a good vibe. There are also a ton of student societies for pretty much every interest that are either free or pretty cheap to be part of, and it's also (in my experience) very lgbtq+-friendly if that's something that applies 😊
On the neuroscience only course, you have what's called the Common Year One in first year, which is where all the courses that fall under the School of Bioscience (Biomed, neuro, pharmacology, anatomy and suchlike) do the same set of 8 modules that cover biochemistry, anatomy, genetics, pharmacology, physiology, cell biology and a smidge of neuroscience, and then the course gets neuro-specific in second and third year. whereas I've seen that the first year in the neuro and psych course is very psych-heavy, and then it's a mix of both -- a lot of the optional modules I've seen for that course are actually ones I've done or am doing! :biggrin:
In my experience, the workload isn't too bad on a week-by-week basis, as you generally only get set work for tutorials and workshops, which usually expect you to complete the questions beforehand. otherwise, it's pretty much just self-study so up to the individual. I'm not sure if they're different for the neuro+psych course but my lectures are usually an hour long, though you often get them back to back. How modules run in second year (at least amongst the Bioscience faculty) is that they each run one day of the week, and you'll have lectures in the morning and then practicals/tutorials/workshops after lunch. I won't lie, lecturers are a bit of a mixed bag - you get some great ones and also some terrible ones lol. But, either way on neuro or neuro/psych, you'll get to have Dr Clemens Kiecker who runs a lot of neuro modules and is widely regarded amongst like half my year group to be an absolute legend of a lecturer. A lot of the neuro lecturers are pretty good
The only real downside I've had at king's is that admin is not always the best --- my personal tutor, for instance, is supposed to contact me at least once a term and we've spoken like twice the whole time I've been here 😅🥲 we also had a ton of timetabling issues this year. on the whole, it's not too bad though
I hope this helps, and feel free to ask if you have any more questions!! I'll be happy to answer anything I can :smile:

This is actually super great. I'm not even the one who asked the question but this was so delightful to read. I'm doing neuro at kcl in sept and this got me pretty excited. Thank you so much!
Original post by user_098761234
Hi,
What were your GCSEs like and what did you talk about in your personal statement when it comes to extracurriculars ect?
I’m also considering studying at KCL for neuroscience but I’m worried my grades aren’t good enough especially since it’s a top Russel group Uni.

Heyy!!
I actually didn't do GCSEs but I'm also doing neuro in sept. They actually asked for my predicted grades which was around a 96% but that's higher than what they required. They wanted an AAA which I would say is around an 85%. In my personal statement I said everything I could about my extracurriculars because I did quite a few of those. So I would recommend talking a lot about excs and how you'll be a great addition to kcl!!
hi! i’m a second year neuro and psych student at kcl. there was no interview process! you’ll be on the denmark hill campus (which we’ve tried to campaign to get onto the other campuses more as it’s not the best of the bunch - but have been told no 😔.) neuro and psych is super interesting and bcos it’s a fairly newer course they’re constantly taking feedback from us and implementing it into the next years. our cohort is quite small (around 60 people). i think a combo of grades & personal statement (incl any experience you can get) is helpful. it’s very hands on and we have a lot of in person seminars, practicals & lectures. the lecturers and GTAs are really lovely and because there’s not a lot of people on the course you get to know everyone quite personally. our modules are split evenly between neuro and psych. we also have research methods (lots of stats & coding) which you have 3 modules for across 3 semesters. let me know if you have any more questions! (:
Reply 8
Original post by Anonymous
hi! i’m a second year neuro and psych student at kcl. there was no interview process! you’ll be on the denmark hill campus (which we’ve tried to campaign to get onto the other campuses more as it’s not the best of the bunch - but have been told no 😔.) neuro and psych is super interesting and bcos it’s a fairly newer course they’re constantly taking feedback from us and implementing it into the next years. our cohort is quite small (around 60 people). i think a combo of grades & personal statement (incl any experience you can get) is helpful. it’s very hands on and we have a lot of in person seminars, practicals & lectures. the lecturers and GTAs are really lovely and because there’s not a lot of people on the course you get to know everyone quite personally. our modules are split evenly between neuro and psych. we also have research methods (lots of stats & coding) which you have 3 modules for across 3 semesters. let me know if you have any more questions! (:

omg this was so helpful THANK YOU. what's the workload like, and what kind of grades and extra curriculars etc. did u do for a levels? because I've been trying to take on as much as i can and I'm trying to do a lot of wider reading and stuff but I'm not entirely sure exactly what they want you to deliver. I've read quite a bit about the course as a whole, but like for you personally do you think its worth it?
Reply 9
Original post by itsadara
omg this was so helpful THANK YOU. what's the workload like, and what kind of grades and extra curriculars etc. did u do for a levels? because I've been trying to take on as much as i can and I'm trying to do a lot of wider reading and stuff but I'm not entirely sure exactly what they want you to deliver. I've read quite a bit about the course as a whole, but like for you personally do you think its worth it?

idk if i can help much but i got an offer from kings for neuro as my non-med option and i dont think they rlly take into account ur personal statement bc mine was completely for med, i j had decent predicted
(edited 2 months ago)
Original post by itsadara
omg this was so helpful THANK YOU. what's the workload like, and what kind of grades and extra curriculars etc. did u do for a levels? because I've been trying to take on as much as i can and I'm trying to do a lot of wider reading and stuff but I'm not entirely sure exactly what they want you to deliver. I've read quite a bit about the course as a whole, but like for you personally do you think its worth it?

for workload: we have a lot of in person stuff so one coding prac per week for research methods & then generally a seminar/practical for the remaining 3 modules a week too. 4 modules per term & every week is one lecture per module or one lecture but split up into segments (these are around 2hrs.) imo it’s manageable but i work part time too so with that it is a lot more difficult.

for a levels i did bio chem & psych (BUT i did actually do a year of medicine before this so a lot of the stuff i did was catered for medicine until i dropped med and transferred all my experience over to this course for my personal statement.) think only bio & psych is necessary tho. from what i’ve seen from other people though it is just experience related to neuro/psych so maybe volunteering somewhere like helping with SEN kids or along those lines. you could try get involved with research - although i don’t know how easy that is to do if you’re not an undergrad. this might be helpful to you https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/youth-awards

i do think it is worth it because i do genuinely love the balance between neuro and psych (science/research heavy vs essay heavy). but i guess part of that is because at 18 i didn’t really know what i wanted and had to do med first to realise i wanted something different! hope that helps (:

extra note if you’d like to talk to one of our lecturers (i did this before getting a place to ask questions) - you can here:

https://api.unibuddy.co/og/kcl/buddies/staff/5f92fb7aa10c5003de166912
Reply 11
Original post by Narges001
idk if i can help much but i got an offer from kings for neuro as my non-med option and i dont think they rlly take into account ur personal statement bc mine was completely for med, i j had decent predicted

if it's ok to ask what were your predicted grades
Reply 12
Original post by Anonymous
for workload: we have a lot of in person stuff so one coding prac per week for research methods & then generally a seminar/practical for the remaining 3 modules a week too. 4 modules per term & every week is one lecture per module or one lecture but split up into segments (these are around 2hrs.) imo it’s manageable but i work part time too so with that it is a lot more difficult.
for a levels i did bio chem & psych (BUT i did actually do a year of medicine before this so a lot of the stuff i did was catered for medicine until i dropped med and transferred all my experience over to this course for my personal statement.) think only bio & psych is necessary tho. from what i’ve seen from other people though it is just experience related to neuro/psych so maybe volunteering somewhere like helping with SEN kids or along those lines. you could try get involved with research - although i don’t know how easy that is to do if you’re not an undergrad. this might be helpful to you https://www.kcl.ac.uk/ioppn/youth-awards
i do think it is worth it because i do genuinely love the balance between neuro and psych (science/research heavy vs essay heavy). but i guess part of that is because at 18 i didn’t really know what i wanted and had to do med first to realise i wanted something different! hope that helps (:
extra note if you’d like to talk to one of our lecturers (i did this before getting a place to ask questions) - you can here:
https://api.unibuddy.co/og/kcl/buddies/staff/5f92fb7aa10c5003de166912

thank you so much for the links- they look so helpful : )) i recently got accepted into a cambridge university higher education+ programme which i think will help me dive deeper in the whole psychology aspect and help me with writing my personal statement and getting opportunities to do stuff related to what i want to do. plus, i also got accepted into this other programme where once every week i go to a university to sit in on lectures and get a feel of what the psychology study is like- plus when i complete it gives me a lower conditional grade (so instead of the usual AAA they'll let me in with an ABB or AAC for example depending on the course). AND i registered to sign up to a neuroscience and psychology conference organised by the same person who wrote and created my psychology textbook. so as you can probably tell lol i'm TRYING to do as many wider stuff as i can because honestly i don't want to miss any chances in case I can't do it in year 13, and since secondary was NOT a good time for me academically i don't want to slack or regret not signing up for something. i don't know whether you think all these things would help with my application in future, but hopefully it accounts for something 😭. also (sorry for talking so damn much) are u planning on doing a masters after this or going straight into work or something, because i'm actually not sure what the job prospects are with only this degree. plus, is your accomodation on site, or somewhere else- because that's something that's kind of stressing me out lmao
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by itsadara
if it's ok to ask what were your predicted grades

a*a*a
Original post by itsadara
thank you so much for the links- they look so helpful : )) i recently got accepted into a cambridge university higher education+ programme which i think will help me dive deeper in the whole psychology aspect and help me with writing my personal statement and getting opportunities to do stuff related to what i want to do. plus, i also got accepted into this other programme where once every week i go to a university to sit in on lectures and get a feel of what the psychology study is like- plus when i complete it gives me a lower conditional grade (so instead of the usual AAA they'll let me in with an ABB or AAC for example depending on the course). AND i registered to sign up to a neuroscience and psychology conference organised by the same person who wrote and created my psychology textbook. so as you can probably tell lol i'm TRYING to do as many wider stuff as i can because honestly i don't want to miss any chances in case I can't do it in year 13, and since secondary was NOT a good time for me academically i don't want to slack or regret not signing up for something. i don't know whether you think all these things would help with my application in future, but hopefully it accounts for something 😭. also (sorry for talking so damn much) are u planning on doing a masters after this or going straight into work or something, because i'm actually not sure what the job prospects are with only this degree. plus, is your accomodation on site, or somewhere else- because that's something that's kind of stressing me out lmao

there's no one set way to go about your personal statement, if you show a genuine interest & understanding about the subject you're applying for, that's what they want to see. as well as meeting grade requirements ofc, but don't stress too much! funny you ask that, we actually did have a tutorial with my tutor and we were asking him what the job prospects are. not entirely sure what i'll do, don't particularly want to go straight into a master's. he said the highest paying job would probs be something coding-based e.g., bioinformatics, but there are also avenues into research etc and we get bps accreditation too (although i think a master's would probs be required for some jobs). a lot of ppl on my course are doing a placement year next year, personally i just want to finish my degree so not doing that, but that could help w experience & getting an idea of jobs. i commute, but there is a campus near denmark hill, i know some people stay in canada water/stratford & other stay closer to guy's campus and travel to our campus in first year.

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