International Relations/Politics 2024

[Calmmumnot]

Has anyone applied and received offers in International Relations/Politics? where are the offers from? Thanks

Gosh I feel I know nothing about this process. If you have a conditional offer and confirm they are your first choice early are you more likely to get halls? If we wait to hear from Bath, which is a stretch and offers late, might she then find she can’t get halls at York which is the place DD would put first at the moment?

@RedSeaQuestion Hall applications vary from uni to uni. Allocation should be after all offers have been made for courses or students wanting courses that decide late are at a huge disadvantage. So I would read up the applications for halls. Applications might well be different from allocation and its allocation they matter.

When posters are concerned about better courses or unis, I would ask: who might worry? Are employers really going to go over what each dc has studied? They really don’t. They want general work skills and ability to pass selection tests and assessments. The vast majority do not get near the FO or similar. Most seem to work for charities and data collection companies. I would make a huge effort to get work experience and not think the degree matters too much. Not even a MA in a friend’s case. DS unemployed for months then got £25k job in London. No work experience though. So that’s my advice. Degree content matters less than work experience and ability to get through selection tests.

@TizerorFizz while some of that is true … the fit of the university to the student, the course content, how inspiring the course leaders are, the learning culture, what variety of experience the uni offers, what the city is like, what the campus is like, what facilities are available, proximity to a support network … these things are also important. If they weren’t everyone could just be going to their local college.

So there are many reasons students will be waiting for their top choices.

@zigzag716746zigzag Of course. Nothing wrong with that and it matters for the three years of the course. Though you might never see that inspiring professor of course!

What I was referring to was when some discussions veer towards what’s best, it’s surely a valid question to ask best for what? You can’t say that the contents of a degree in politics or IR greatly improve job prospects. It’s much more personal attributes than that. I’m an advocate for not studying at a home uni but on another thread many think the opposite now. So maybe there is greater emphasis being placed on cost. I do think many parents think course content gives a leg up. I’m not convinced it does. There’s more to it than that.

If it's any help, my DD was offered Bath literally 2 years ago this week, and speaking to others on her course was one of the last to receive an offer. So shouldn't be long now. Also Bath opens accommodation to all first years on the same day and closes applications on the same day so it's not a first come first served like some others.

St Andrews was the last to come through at the end of April!

You make good points @TizerorFizz 🙂

That's useful to know @BlindurErBóklausMaður. We're waiting for Bath too.

My DS, who is in his 2nd year now, didn't decide until after the offer holder days in April which offer to firm. He had no problem with accommodation. He was also waiting for Durham, who were super slow.

Application unsuccessful for LSE 😔

Never mind. Still waiting for Bath, which is the next favourite.

Rejection today from Kings here, still waiting for Glasgow, St Andrews and LSE, Glasgow is DS's first choice.

Sorry @Poblano I hope she gets her acceptance to Bath soon!

@Smartysmitty I hope Glasgow comes in soon.

The wait is hard, isn’t it?

Sorry to hear about Kings @Smartysmitty. Fingers crossed for the others, especially Glasgow.

I for one am not sad that this is the last time I'll be going through university applications with my DC. Such a stressful time.

Oh sorry to those who got rejections. It stings doesn’t it?

Anyone heard from Bristol or Leeds yet? I’m not hopeful for Bristol particularly but these are DS’s 2 favourites. I think he’d possibly reapply next year with grades in hand if he was rejected from both (if he got the grades obv).

@Poblano @Smartysmitty sorry to hear about the rejections, fingers crossed the favourites will come through. The wait is horrible!!

Still waiting on Bristol, but DD has offer holders days booked with Exeter and Bath which are her favourites. She has decided she doesn't want Bristol now anyway.

I wish Edinburgh would stop sending out random emails. Today’s one was about “exploring Edinburgh”. Every time DS gets one his heart jumps.

@GuestWW when did your Bath offer come through? I was hoping the reason we haven’t heard is that they have not made any offers yet.

Email from Bath today apologising for the wait, but that due to the volume of applications they are still assessing and we will hear by April 30th at the latest. April 30th is a long way away...

Mind you, they also emailed shortly after DD applied to say that in order to give equal consideration to all applicants they don't make offers until after the UCAS deadline. This was clearly not true as others have posted on here that they had offers before then!

DC got a Bath offer tonight! It’s for International Politics with a language (4 year course with year abroad). AAB offer. It’s their first choice. So unbelievable pleased!

Well done to your DC @RedSeaQuestion!

Mid-November… she did early entry but was rejected by Cambridge after interview.

Same from St Andrews!

@RedSeaQuestion It’s usually a great advantage to add a MFL in. Many unis are short of MFL students and they want them. It really does enhance an application and too many dc drop MFLs. For International Relatioms/Politics it’s clearly a good idea to study a MFL. We Brits just seem to think we don’t need to bother with MFLs. I wonder if the MFL fast tracks decisions? Hopefully yes!

Anyone heard anything recently? Still waiting on Durham and UCL.

Still waiting on Bristol, even though it will be rejected anyway. Exeter open day this Saturday.

Desperately waiting for Bristol and Leeds (my desperation! DS quite chilled). Think it might be a long wait.