Possible Stupid Question Alert!

I'm writing my academic statement for UCL (it's the second part of my application process, apparently I am not fully, fully accepted yet!), and I am seriously having brain-melt on a few things.



When writing this academic statement, should I be capitalizing the following items, or leaving them lowercased:

Bachelors (or is it Bachelor's?) Degree (or is it appropriate to say "BA")
Masters (or Master's) Degree (or is it appropriate to say "MA")
Undergraduate
Graduate
Conservation of Art (as a field of study)
Paper Conservation (also as a field of study)

Obviously I would be capitalizing the department I am applying to, History of Art, but for some reason I'm having brain-melt with this little grammar bit, and I am normally a grammar-nazi! (except I love run-on sentences!)

Any help would be great! TIA!

I wouldn't capitalize any of those.

(and in the UK, "postgraduate" is usually the term used for masters/phd level studies, not "graduate.")

exception: for degrees, if you were saying "I am currently studying for a Bachelor of Arts in Conservation of Art" then I would capitalize.  However, something like "I am studying conservation of art as the principal subject of my masters degree" would be lowercase.

I thought not. I was having an internal battle with myself about it, but I seriously think I'm losing a bit of my marbles. Probably doesn't help that it's going to be 96 degrees today and my BLACK car's AC is still broken! 

And thanks for the postgraduate bit, I don't know why I forgot about that! I've been looking over the ASU site too much (ASU calls it graduate).

Thanks Andrea! 

Oh! One more question. If I have initially referred to University College London and Arizona State University by their full names in the first paragraph, is it acceptable to abbreviate them to UCL and ASU for the rest of the paper or should I always refer to them both by their full names?

Oh! One more question. If I have initially referred to University College London and Arizona State University by their full names in the first paragraph, is it acceptable to abbreviate them to UCL and ASU for the rest of the paper or should I always refer to them both by their full names?

UCL, certainly, because obviously they'll know where you're referring to.

ASU...probably would be okay, but I would probably just use "Arizona State" as a shortened form instead since it's not a familiar acronym.

Thanks Andrea! You're such a help!! Sometime I'll have to buy you a pint! 

 

And now for something completely different...

SHAMELESS BEGGING!!!

Would anyone like to volunteer to proofread my academic statement? If I make it to London, I will bring you a box of Girl Scout Cookies! I've got Samoas and Thin Mints! Any takers? 

It's only a page and a half double spaced

I'm happy to, but I'll turn your US grammar and spelling into UK English!    Not sure if that would be helpful or not!!!

BTW, to confirm, UCL is ALWAYS called 'UCL', never by the full name.


Vicky

I just realized that all of the paperwork left (including the statement) is due today, so I had to send it in without having anyone proofread it.

It's okay though, I read over it again today after not looking at it for a few days. It allowed me to revise and reorder some things I put in to make it make more sense.

Fingers crossed!

I scanned it, and it looked good to me.

Fingers crossed.

Vicky

There's really no chance now that I'm going to go to UCL, and from the email I got this morning, probably no chance I qualify for any of the alternative options.

Here's a link to the thread I started about this problem:

[url Study Abroad rant!]http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=32472.0[/url]

Thanks again Vicky for taking the time out of your day to help me. I know you're probably very busy, but I really do appreciate it even if I now know I can't go anyway.  :\\\'(