University College London - UCL
speciality: Sociology

I am a current UCL undergraduate student entering my second year this September. From my first-year experience, I have found UCL to be a great university overall. One highlight is its convenience, located in the centre of London. Most first-year halls are within walking distance of the Bloomsbury campus, making it accessible for students and much more affordable than commuting. If travelling by underground or bus, there are several tube and bus stops near the campus, which adds to the convenience.

Since I am a home student from a Chinese background and came from a small town in the UK, I have found the diverse learning environment to be eye-opening and refreshing. It is incredible to be in multicultural spaces where I can connect with peers from different backgrounds, which upholds UCL’s reputation as a ‘Global University. ‘ This aspect of diversity has elevated my experience, allowing me to connect more with my Chinese identity.

Moreover, I believe that UCL provides excellent support. Each student is assigned an academic tutor whom we can ask for guidance on our educational work and content. This support helped me in the first term since I was unfamiliar with essay writing at the university level. My academic tutor offered me helpful feedback that I was able to implement. The Academic Writing Centre at UCL is also a great resource for anyone who wants additional support with their assignments.

Overall, my first-year experience has been amazing. I have had many opportunities, support, and enrichment from being in a dynamic learning environment. I recommend UCL to anyone who wants to study in a thriving city with great career prospects and academic support from the university.

As a third-year student at University College London (UCL), my experience has been both academically rigorous and personally rewarding. The university’s diverse, international community has provided me with the opportunity to engage with students and faculty from all over the world, enriching my perspective and learning experience. UCL’s interdisciplinary approach allows me to explore multiple fields and make valuable connections between them, enhancing my academic growth.

UCL offers exceptional resources, including extensive libraries, research centres, and accessible professors who encourage critical thinking and intellectual curiosity. The academic challenges are balanced by a supportive environment that promotes exploration and development.

Situated in the heart of London, UCL offers unrivalled access to internships, career opportunities, and cultural experiences. The city’s dynamic environment has been integral to my personal and professional development, offering numerous networking opportunities in various industries.

UCL’s vibrant student life has allowed me to grow outside the classroom as well, with opportunities to get involved in student societies and extracurricular activities, helping me develop leadership and teamwork skills.

Overall, UCL has provided me with the academic foundation and real-world exposure to thrive in my future career while offering a welcoming and enriching environment.

There are a lot of activities and opportunities for students, but I think the school has accepted too many students. So it is more commercial rather than academic. Though, all the videos for studying and hanging out is good.

City campus in centre of London has so much going on everyday from relaxing, mingling with people to intense debates. Very active and diverse student union with all the interesting societies to explore.

The course itself is challenging that brings out the best in me. Scared and overwhelmed but motivated and inspired at the same time because peers and departmental staffs are always supportive

I feel like this uni, and the Social Sciences degree in particular is perfect if you imagine your future as a researcher. The degree is very research-based, with a lot of focus on how to conduct studies. However, if doing a PhD and then becoming a researcher is not your ultimate goal, this might not be the ideal degree for you. In my experience, if you imagine yourself in the private sector and not in research, you will need to gain lots of experience outside of your studies doing part-time jobs or volunteering to get a good job. Luckily, in my experience, the workload on this degree is not extremely heavy, so you will able to work and/or enjoy life with just a little bit of time managament and organisation. As for part-time jobs, they are not too hard to find, even the school itself offers some great opportunities. Location-wise, London is one of the most exciting European cities, so you will never be bored. Plus, UCL’s main campus is situated in Bloomsbury, in Central London, quite close to busy and interesting places like Oxford Street, Regents Park or the British Museum. The downside of this are the insane rent prices you will have to pay if you want to live close to uni. The main building of UCL looks great and is equipped with everything you could want, but some of the other buildings (e.g. the IOE, where the Social Sciences degree is based) are not as pleasant. The cafés of UCL are great for cheap and good coffee, but not the best choice for a meal in my experience – even though they are quite cheap, they are not necessarily that delicious and/or filling. As for meeting peers, UCL is very international, so if you want to have friends from all around the world and learn about different cultures, this is the place to go to.

This program is generally ok. It contains many terminology as well as statistics knowledge based on population health. It also contains coding class to allocate the statistics. But some of the lectures is quite ambiguous about the content and there are quite a lot essay to write.

UCL offered a multitude of opportunities in the extracurricular arena. This varied from academic, cultural societies to altruistic and sports clubs. The structure of the year is as such that everyone is allowed to access free taster events, be it for the gym, kickboxing, yoga or so on. Later in the year, everyone has the opportunity to run for a democratic election to lead a student club, giving everyone a chance fo get involved in committee regardless of their background and demographic.

In terms of study space, more needs to be done to ensure adequate seating, silent rooms, cleanliness measures in toilets and make more kitchenettes accessible. For a university with 42000 students, further investment in the aforementioned slant is worthwhile.

Overall, I found myself growing as an individual and not just as a student, thanks to my faculty support.

UCL is a world-renowned university known for its high educational standards and exciting student life. Coming all the way from Asia, I expected it to be difficult to settle in and feel apart of the community. However, the universities internationality and society, in general, made me feel extremely comfortable. UCL soon became my home away from home. The students are welcoming, professors are highly learned and helpful and the University is as central as it can get. Studying at UCL made me a more confident individual, ready to take on the world as soon as I graduated. It taught me theoretical as well as practical skills. I would 100% recommend UCL to any student wishing to have a holistic university experience.

Good university with a range of opportunities, both academic and social, but it can also be a challenging environment that sometimes feels too big and decentralized. BASc Arts and Sciences is a great course, small department that provides a lot of help and support to its students, and allows exploration of different subjects. However, although it seems like the perfect course for someone unsure of what they might like to pursue, it is actually better for people who have several but clear, well-defined interests so they can use this programme to pursue those interests in a coherent way. Overall, I think UCL and London in general would be better for a master’s than for an undergraduate degree, as both the university and city environment are vibrant but very busy and challenging.

Teaching is good, love it!!! one of the best times I’ve met so many lovely people here, learn a lot through exposure to entrepreneurship, resources great, alumni great, its amazing here! You get talks , and you learn so much!