hi guys so I am frequently asked about
my experience of undergraduate and
postgraduate studies at the University I
specifically attended and living in that
city as a student so the university I
attended for with my undergraduate and
postgraduate as it happened was the
University of Edinburgh so I'm going to
take this opportunity to talk to you
about my experience as a student at the
University of Edinburgh studying in my
course and living there as a student
there other person and information you
probably want to have before going into
this video if you're not familiar with
my other videos is that I was a student
of Classical Studies for my
undergraduate and classics for my
postgraduate in Edinburgh which are both
degrees that were under the umbrella of
the school of history classics and
archaeology and specifically the
classics department another little bit
of background information would be that
I also spend my entire childhood growing
up in Edinburgh so I chose to do my
undergraduate degree at University in
the same cities I'd grown up and been
raised in I was very familiar with
Edinburgh from that perspective so I
don't have the experience of appearing
in a new city at the beginning of my
undergraduate like some people do but
that doesn't mean I can't review my
experience of the University and overall
my experience at the University of
Edinburgh was incredibly positive I
loved my time there especially for my
undergraduate and really happy with my
decision to go to that University there
was well two or three main reasons I
chose to go to Edinburgh one of which
was very emotional I mean two of which
were more practical and a forced
convenient plus point for me I guess
going to the University as well so the
emotional reason was that my dad had
gone to the University of Edinburgh and
had been a mature student also as a
child and I just remember watching him
as a student Edinburgh University
visiting the campus with him and
this falling in love with that and it
kind of in greening itself in my brain
as a bit of a dreamer to go there but
obviously that wasn't the final reason I
chose to go there there was other things
to take into consideration the second
reason I chose to go there was that I
was always going to go to university in
Scotland because that was a much cheaper
option for me as a student coming from
Scotland as well as the Scottish
government as it stands currently pays
the tuition fees for Scottish students
attending Scottish University and the
third reason which is more applicable to
everybody is that the University of
Edinburgh is not only a very highly
regarded University in general but it
has a really excellent track record in
the UNH department and classics
specifically and classics isn't
something that is taught at every
University so I already have my choices
limited for me and I knew I would get a
good experience of ancient history
archaeology all of those things at
Edinburgh because it totals them and has
really good reviews for those subjects
going to any university also meant that
in my first year I should live at home
which again saves me a lot of money
until I moved out in second year that
was also a major determining factor in
the reason I went there for a
postgraduate because I did have to pay
fee for a postgraduate and they were
quite expensive and there aren't
currently postgraduate loans available
in Scotland for Scottish students and so
I did have to pay those fees which meant
I had to go home and live with my
parents so that I could pay for my fees
by has also drawn to the university in
part because they had such a positive
experience there during my undergraduate
I was familiar with the campus and the
teaching methods which I felt would be
an easier transition and I just knew it
was a good place to go because I had my
own experience from there so that's why
I stayed there from a postgraduate when
either you know my reasons for going to
Edinburgh that we can talk about my
actual experience there so in general
and lived up to my expectations really
wonderful my undergraduate was four
years long the oldest course
universities if not all the Scosche
universities you can do a four-year
undergraduate master
degree it's not a three-year BA and it's
not the equivalent of a postgraduate
master's it's like this weird in-between
thing that you can do so as universities
that's all I can see it variability so
what I attained at the end of my
undergraduate was any with honors in
classical studies and I initially
started off at Emory University studying
for a joint honours degree in ancient
history and classical archaeology I
talked about this a little in past
videos I ended up deciding I didn't want
to be an archaeologist and I wanted to
focus my academic career on text based
studies so just so that I had a little
bit more flexibility with my courses and
that I didn't have mandatory archaeology
classes to take in my last two years I
chose to switch to Classical Studies
Classical Studies was kind of the
equivalent of doing a text leaning
ancient history degree without requiring
you to study the ancient languages and I
didn't take ancient languages as a part
of an undergrad gia I did do them in
summer schools and evening classes and
then did them as a part of my
postgraduate degree as is ancient Greek
what I did take were a multitude of
ancient history classical archaeology
classical art classical literature
courses when I was age and by my first
year I definitely studied a broader
spectrum and I did straight archaeology
which included more scientific
archaeological methods and prehistoric
archaeology rather than just classical
based stuff in Greece and Rome which was
really fascinating experience and I
loved being exposed to all that even if
I did choose not to go down that route I
was so happy to study that and why did
find it was really easy to change my
course and I know not a few other people
that changed the courses within the
School of classics archaeology and
history there was a real ease in your
first two years to change I don't know
two years pre honours that didn't
contribute to my overall final grade
gave it a little bit of wiggle room to
figure out what works for me when I was
there the faculty in the classics
department offers a really broad range
of courses there is options on Greek
history and Roman history
a art based archaeology based text-based
stuff philosophy lots of different
things that I could take and get my
teeth into and I felt like I got
exposure to really wide range of
subjects and I really enjoyed that
obviously within my niche that's for
certain
but it helped me I got to go all the way
back to the myceneans and the Minoans I
know there were medieval and Byzantine
type courses I never went that far but I
did study the early-to-mid Roman Empire
that came as far as I chose to go but I
did have that really wide range to pick
from and the staff were amazing I had
amazing lectures lectures who have been
in their fields for decades as well as
newer lecturers but that's what some
dress to me and somebody that is is new
to that that academic field in terms of
in their first few years as a lecture
because they have some really
interesting insight they can be really
innovative they can really shake things
up in academia and that's certainly
necessary so I've had a really nice
array of people and also have that
educational security and use really
experienced lecturers as well I didn't
like every course a day that is a given
you're going to expect that from every
University if you expect to enjoy every
single course that you take use you're
probably expecting a little too much I
mean you might but I wouldn't expect it
are you're trying new things out so
there's a good chance there might be
something that isn't for you I got some
rubbish grades I've got some really
great grades and I felt like I was the
feedback I got from my lecturers and
markers was really able to improve on my
grades so I feel like my lecturers gave
me everything I could possibly want from
them sometimes but I had to ask for a
little bit more expansion because it's
not always enough
that little poorly you get with your
essay but if you make the effort to then
email your lecturer and ask for a
meeting my lectures were always really
happy to meet with me and build on the
feedback that they poop on essays and I
found that always really really helpful
I always got the clarification I needed
and
the advice that I needed to improve in
my experience I was always my experience
in my undergraduate I definitely in my
early years was lesson claimed to see
type feedback and that was to my
detriment and it took me a while perhaps
to learn but I don't see that as a flaw
of lecturers you have to ask for that
feedback they are marketing tons of
students work so you have to be willing
to go the extra mile and be an
independent thinker and ask for feedback
so do that as soon as possible wherever
you are studying and I do want to do a
video more discussing my experience
particularly of the difference between
postgraduate and undergraduate but just
worth mentioning at this point as I did
feel in my masters there was a little
bit life selection for me because a lot
of what was being taught were similar to
the things that were taught my
undergraduate courses because this was a
same University in the same lectures
with the same expertise and there was
people coming in to this university from
completely different backgrounds that
didn't have the exposure to the same
kind of teaching methods and information
so this degree was designed for people
not necessarily coming from the same
University so I did feel like there's a
bit of repetition although there was
obviously more in-depth analysis and a
postgraduate isn't all about new
information it's about honing your
skills as an academic to prepare you for
research I just think that may be worth
noting in terms of socializers tons of
societies Ejim university I participated
in a few I gradually got more and more
involved in my closet Society which I'm
really enjoyed being in the society I'm
connected to my department because
obviously got to me a lot of people and
hang out with people on your course or
they were generally interested in your
subject I'm not a competitive sports
participator asides and religion thing
like that but there where comes to pick
from if that's something you're
interested in and my experience is
degree related societies with 5:8 love
this why we say that being on the
committee in my first year I
University itself is really nice because
it's right in the center of Edinburgh a
lot of the student accommodation and the
areas the students tend to rent flatten
or quite close to the University so
traveling distance is very short it is
walkable if that works for you or there
are tons and tons of public transport
buses in Edinburgh a really great public
transport and on the cheaper side of
public transport there's also lots of
cafes and bars if you're interested and
lots of things to do like free museums
and art galleries
there's loads of lovely outdoor green
spaces like Holyrood Park and The
Meadows and princess tea gardens which
are gorgeous and lovely to spend your
time in when Edinburgh husbands
spectacular study moments raised in
Edinburgh as Scotland's cause is some of
the highest and so once you're outside
of university accommodation I never
saved in university accommodations I
cannot comment on that but once you're
arraigned take in Edinburgh it is not
cheap in terms of Scotland it is
significantly cheaper than somewhere
like London but London is annoying
representative in terms of rent so I
would generally say that a member is not
particularly cheap and that is worth
taking into consideration I'm not
exactly sure what great places are right
now so that's worth looking into if it's
something you need to think about the
stuff we did as societies was never very
expensive and the Student Union and
Edinburgh which territory cheap food and
there's a little friend thanks to the
University so that's cheap food for you
library at any university was incredibly
well-stocked it was a wonderful library
and although I started to run out of
materials somewhat in my postgraduate
not run out but start I started to
become familiar with most of what was
there and perhaps won't eat a few more
things there was tons in terms of
humanities and classics
there is so much in our I agree and it's
a wonderful place to study I really
enjoyed studying in the library there
was also in the school's history
archaeology and classics a smaller
library specifically aimed at those
departments and had a lot of ancient
texts
perfectly books although you couldn't
take a part of that language I believe
you could use them in that library
there's a law in divinity library if I
remember it correctly which sometimes
are almost be very useful for Humanity
students and you can get access to that
in special circumstances even if you're
not a law or divinity students there is
also the National Library of Scotland
which is a reference library which means
that you can pretty much get anything
that is written in English from that
library you can order it in or they
might already have it in the library I
didn't really use a side of you much
until I was a postgraduate but I believe
you can get access to it as an
undergraduate and you just need to apply
for access and you can keep computers
and pens and stuff you have to use
pencils but it does mean if you need a
specific book there's a good chance that
you can get it from the national library
there's also the Central Library and
Edinburgh which is across the world from
that national library which is just a
general membership library anybody
living in Edinburgh can use and it has a
wonderful array of just general stuff
you might want to read not necessarily
to your degree it's just a great library
I was also able to use interlibrary
loans at the University Library which
was really handy and the humanities
department had access to most of the
online journals and resource websites
that I ever needed there are resources
at the University if you are struggling
with health and mental health problems
whilst in attendance there is obviously
a GP service there is Student Union
there are multiple things that are there
to support you as a student if necessary
by running those things to see that I
think would be helpful if you have any
more specific questions about my time at
the University of Edinburgh then please
go meet them in the comments down below
and I will try my utmost to answer them
as well as possible and if you are
currently applying to University or
trying to decide between offers and I
wish you the best of luck and I will see
you again next time bye
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