The Student Room Group

SOAS or Royal Holloway for Politics and IR

Hey everyone, I’ve gotten offers for both RHUL and SOAS for Politics and IR. I was originally going to put Holloway as my insurance as they offered me ABB grades and I loved the campus when i went on an open day. However, SOAS has since offered me BBC for the course, and it is ranked higher than Holloway for politics. I also liked SOAS when I went, but i’m concerned that SOAS may be too small and that the social life isn’t as good and that it may be hard to make friends. If any SOAS students share their experience that would be great! Obviously picking SOAS makes the most sense as it is a better regarded course and has lower grade requirements, but part of me just loves Royal Holloway! Any help would be appreciated :smile:
Original post by Anonymous
Hey everyone, I’ve gotten offers for both RHUL and SOAS for Politics and IR. I was originally going to put Holloway as my insurance as they offered me ABB grades and I loved the campus when i went on an open day. However, SOAS has since offered me BBC for the course, and it is ranked higher than Holloway for politics. I also liked SOAS when I went, but i’m concerned that SOAS may be too small and that the social life isn’t as good and that it may be hard to make friends. If any SOAS students share their experience that would be great! Obviously picking SOAS makes the most sense as it is a better regarded course and has lower grade requirements, but part of me just loves Royal Holloway! Any help would be appreciated :smile:

Hi!

I study International Relations and Arabic at SOAS and would be happy to share my experiences!

Have you had a look at the different modules each university offers? One of my favourite aspects of SOAS is its focus on decolonising world politics and studying from non-eurocentric perspectives. This means that we cover a lot of interesting issues and areas that are historically under-examined in mainstream IR.

I think another great thing about SOAS is that it’s located in the heart of London, in the Bloomsbury area, which is well-known as a haven from the bustle of the city and filled with pockets of green spaces. It also has great transport links to most other areas of London, so there’s always somewhere to go and something to do.

Lastly, there’s lots of opportunities to meet students from different nearby universities since our societes host lots of inter-university events. Moreover, most London university students can use each other's libraries, so there’s the opportunity to vary your study spaces.

Hope this helped, let me know if you have any other questions!
-S, Ba International Relations and Arabic
Original post by Anonymous
Hey everyone, I’ve gotten offers for both RHUL and SOAS for Politics and IR. I was originally going to put Holloway as my insurance as they offered me ABB grades and I loved the campus when i went on an open day. However, SOAS has since offered me BBC for the course, and it is ranked higher than Holloway for politics. I also liked SOAS when I went, but i’m concerned that SOAS may be too small and that the social life isn’t as good and that it may be hard to make friends. If any SOAS students share their experience that would be great! Obviously picking SOAS makes the most sense as it is a better regarded course and has lower grade requirements, but part of me just loves Royal Holloway! Any help would be appreciated :smile:

Hello!

It's great to hear you've received an offer from us for Politics and IR, and I'm thrilled to hear you loved our beautiful campus when you visited for an Open Day.

One of the best things I would advise to help make your decision is to chat to one of our current Politics and IR students: https://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/chat/
We currently have three Politics and IR students available for you to chat to, just filter on 'Area of Study' and you will see them pop up.

You can ask them any questions you may have about the course or about Royal Holloway more generally, such as accommodation, clubs and societies etc, and they can share an insider's viewpoint with you.

I hope this helps!

Best wishes
Royal Holloway, University of London

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