Oxford or University College London (UCL)?

[art_history]

Hey All,

 

I have been accepted to the University of Oxford for the MSt in History of Art and Visual Culture and to UCL for the MA in  History of Art.  I'm having quite a tough time deciding which offer to take up.  I only have two weeks to accept one of them and will not hear about most of the scholarships/fellowships I have applied for until after the deadline.  Any advice or thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thank you,

 

art_history

[solus]

Well, it really depends on your desired area.  In my research process I ended up not even applying to Oxford, but I did to UCL (as it turns out this years QS rankings just came out and UCL is number 4 in the world, and Oxford is behind that, so all the advice I heard from mentors about not bothering with UK schools other than Oxbridge schools was useless lol) because they had staff and electives that support my long term research goals. 

 

Also, when I spoke with my POI at Oxford they explained that it is expected that we will not work and will devote our entire time to study alone and if the staff find out that we are working while in their program there might be consequences.  I honestly would never have believed that if it didnt come directly from the mouth of a staff member.  UCL takes a much more enlightened view and understands that some of us are not independantly wealthy. 

 

Bottom line is that if you want to study anything from antiquity through lets say the lat 1700's early 1800's then Oxford might have the better professors and electives, anything post early 1800's and the courses and professors are better at UCL, but thats just my opinion.

 

On a side note, PM me if you do decide on UCL as I accepted their offer the day I got it