Wow, I had this down as my first choice if I were to get an offer but after today I can't say I'm terribly keen anymore. I had an interview for Psychology and turned up at 12:30 at a most unimpressive, frankly grotty building.
All of the candidates (around 80 of us, with many mums and dads as well) had to wait in a cramped uncomfortable common room til 1 o'clock. Then we were taken for about 45 minutes to fill out questionnaires for a Psychology student's project, followed by about another 45 minutes of faffing about on a computer deciding whether to side with the Guardian's predictions of certain football scores or The Sun's, based on their past record.
This took us til around half two, but my interview wasn't til 4. But we were required to wait in the common room anyway! So I sat there bored out of my face for 90 minutes before being interviewed by the most unfriendly duo I'll ever have the displeasure of meeting.
I don't think one of them cracked a smile through the whole twenty minutes. Their questions were so long and rambling that by the end of them I'd forgotten what the point of them were in the first place. So invariably I would answer the question at a slight tangent, at which point the interviewer would tell me to stop and say 'perhaps I should clarify the question'. So I never got into a flow with my answers, I was constantly interrupted, rather rudely in my opinion. And then I left, with UCL looking worse for wear in my eyes.
At other interviews we have been given a nice talk by the head of the subject, shown around the buildings, been invited to talk to students, made to feel like we MATTER. Maybe UCL feels that cos of its reputation it doesn't have to bother with us. I spent about 4 and a half hours there, of which I only needed to be there for 20 minutes for the interview. I learnt nothing about the university or the course. What a waste of a day!