Undergraduate Admissions

The Department of Philosophy enrols about 50 undergraduate students each year who we think are suited for sustained philosophical study. Most are on the single honours Philosophy BA programme.

All applicants must apply through UCAS. Visit the UCAS website on http://www.ucas.com for further information.

Our procedure has been developed in recent years to make the admissions process fairer and more efficient. It has two stages. First, we examine the UCAS form of each applicant to decide whether to pursue the application further. We are looking for preliminary evidence of philosophical motivation and intellectual ability. Those that are selected are then invited to an open day.  At the open day a member of the Philosophy faculty will describe the BA Philosophy courses and answer your queries. This will be followed by a philosophical talk with a brief discussion period, followed by a short written test on the subject of the talk. Promising applicants who reside outside the UK will not be asked to attend an open day. Rather, they will be emailed essay questions by the Assistant to the Philosophy Admissions Tutor, to be answered and returned to us as part of the selection process.

An official decision reaches each applicant through UCL's Arts and Humanities Faculty and through UCAS. We try to let applicants know the decision without too much delay, but in order to be fair to later applicants we may have to keep some waiting. Regretfully, given the ratio of applicants to places, some good students will be unsuccessful.

Based upon figures from our two most recent admissions cycles, we receive about 365 applications for Single Honours Philosophy (V500) each year and make offers to about 60 of them. We receive about 355 applications for Philosophy and Economics (VL51) each year and make offers to about 40 of them. We receive about 55 applications for Philosophy and History of Art (VV53) each year and have made three offers in each of the past two years, though the number of offers for this course has been higher in previous years. We have received an average of 10 applications for Philosophy and Greek (VQ57) over the past two years and have made offers to 2-4 of them. Although the A-Level condition of entry for Philosophy and Greek and Philosophy and History of Art is lower than that of Single Honours Philosophy (AAB versus AAA), we otherwise apply the same high standard when making decisions regarding offers across these three courses (V500, VV53, and VQ57). We need to apply a somewhat higher standard to Philosophy and Economics (VL51), given the high quality and quantity of the applications, and the limited number whom we can enrol.

At the beginning of each session we arrange a conference for new students, so that they can quickly get to know each other and some of the staff and students already here, and experience the intellectual stimulation that is the hallmark of UCL's Philosophy Department.