Postgraduate studies in the UK

I've been accepted to my dream school, SOAS. 

I'm wondering how other Yanks fare in the English higher educational system? Do you find it more difficult than back home? More reading? How is the support of your professors? Any special concerns among the mature students?

More reading?  depends on the course I'd imagine, but in my experience- hell yes.  I studied abroad while in undergrad and took English literature classes- in my Shakespeare class we were reading an entire play or two every week, whereas in the States we would have taken at least 3 weeks to discuss a play.  Same sort of thing with my other classes.  There wasn't a lot of outside work, but if you didn't keep up with the reading, you were basically screwed.

Now, I'm back in the UK for my masters in a completely different subject (social science), and it's quite different- there's not much assigned reading, but the lectures on their own aren't enough in the slightest...instead of giving you tons of reading to do, our lecturers expect you to take the lectures as a starting point and then go out on your own to read up on things so that you know enough to pass your assessments.

Good luck at SOAS!  I am just finished at another UL uni - Royal Holloway, but I knew a few folks at SOAS.

All I can say is that your mileage WILL vary.  I think my reading load might've been heavier, but with less classes (I was only in 3 the 1st semester and 2 the 2nd) it didn't seem like a heavier workload in my opinion.  I think the classes you ARE in are definitely more intense, but I'm so used to 5 classes at once, that it seemed almost easier.  I did love that I could focus on just one specific topic for the entire year, rather than being forced to take maybe 1-2 classes towards my major but then a bunch of other electives that had little to do with what I was studying.

There's also more outside research expected at the Master's level, like Andrea said.  Your lecturers/tutors might give you assigned reading, but by and large YOU'RE expected to find those texts and readings yourself and often required to do suggested supplemental reading to fully grasp a concept.  We were never given a 'book list' but expected to use the library and our own resources to make sure we got readings done (which could've been chapters in the odd book, a whole book, or a journal article).  I think only class actually GAVE us photocopies of chapters/articles we had to read - the rest made you fend for yourself.

Don't let this scare you!  It's all extremely rewarding if you're doing something you're passionate about .

There's also less 'work' along the way, as everything tends to be due at the end of term or even the end of the year!  This is great if you can be disciplined and not procrastinate, but bad if you leave everything until the last minute!!

I finished my Masters of International Studies at the Univ of Leeds in 2006. I did my undergrad degree at the Univ of Pitt in Spanish/business.

My background was lacking for the degree, many UK students knew far more than I did about politics, history and world events. I felt behind, but I still did really well. The reading is heavier, but I expected that with a Masters course. Also, I foudn that you didn't have to do all the reading - you find out what each lecturer expects of you in class and adjust accordingly. I had 2 papers for each course, except for one course where there was just one. Get a headstart on them!!! They will take a long time, not only b/c they are longer, but b/c they are more in depth and hte books will most likely be scarce around the time it's due! I found the lecturers a little less interactive and the fact that classes were only once a week that it was harder to get involved in the Uni and be freinds with students. Mind you, I didn't live near campus b/c I was living with my british bf (now Dh). The degree was 1yr and overall, as I look back, was fairly easy, but I would have preferred more class time.

Also, I foudn that you didn't have to do all the reading - you find out what each lecturer expects of you in class and adjust accordingly.

I would agree with this...I did my MA at UCL a few years back, and each week there would be a number of readings, many of which were extremely dense. Ultimately some of them would appeal to you and your interests more than others. I would familiarize myself with all of the readings, but then really focus on a couple, and that served me well. I think the professors expected that you would be slightly self-selective with the lists. I think at the end of the day, the professors would rather see that you really gained an in-depth knowledge of a couple of the readings rather than a cursory knowledge of all of them. You just have to make sure that you don't continually avoid the same topics/author or you could end up in trouble on the exams.

The exception to this was in our core course, where they really did expect you to do all the readings every week.

Congratulations on your acceptance.  My husband teaches part time at SOAS. 

I only had papers to write - no exams

...our lecturers expect you to take the lectures as a starting point and then go out on your own to read up on things so that you know enough to pass your assessments.

yes, I have comprehensive exams at the end, before the dissertation, and the dept head assured me that I would only have to write about what I actually know. I didn't understand it then.

I find this style better than the US system of grad education  - just fulfilling requirements, it seems.