u/idkwhatswro-

I recently moved from India to London for university and I’m struggling with homesickness way more than I expected.
I’ve only been here a few weeks and my parents have just gone back to India. Since they left, I’ve been crying constantly and I genuinely just want to go home. I miss everything about my life there, my family, my house, familiar food, people, routines, even really small everyday things I never thought I’d miss.
I thought moving to London for KCL would finally make me happy because I’d been feeling lonely and unhappy for quite a while before moving. I had this idea that I’d come here, start university, make friends and have this exciting new life. Instead I feel even more miserable than I did before.
I live in East London in a PG rather than student accommodation, quite far from uni. I live with a family and another couple and share a bathroom, and I really hate the living situation. Most people around me seem to live near uni with flatmates and are constantly going out, while I come back to my PG and feel completely alone. The evenings are especially horrible.
I’m also quite socially anxious and haven’t managed to make close friends at uni yet, which obviously makes the homesickness worse. I feel like I’m watching everyone else start their university lives while I’m just trying to get through the day.
I keep thinking that I made a huge mistake coming here and that I should’ve just stayed in India. I have to do my 4 year degree ,so the thought of staying here for the whole year till summer break let alone 4 years feels impossible right now.

My eye area is my biggest insecurity. My eyes always look tired and dull, and I have noticeable dark circles. They also look quite sunken/deep-set, so I constantly look exhausted.

I know my sleep schedule isn't ideal—I usually sleep around 2 am—and I'm working on fixing that. But I'm wondering how much difference good sleep can realistically make if the issue is partly genetic.

Has anyone here improved a similar eye area? I'd love advice on:

Can getting 8–9 hours of sleep make a noticeable difference?

Are there skincare ingredients that genuinely help?

Is it more likely to be pigmentation, hollowness, or just deep-set eyes?

Has anyone with a similar eye area seen improvements, and what helped?

I'm [18]F, 5'6" (168 cm), around 60-62 kg.

As a child, I was very lean (almost underweight). I had asthma, breathed through my mouth a lot because of it, and took antibiotics frequently. I still mostly mouth-breathe while sleeping, although I can breathe through my nose normally during the day.

As I got older, I gained some weight and was no longer skinny, but I wasn't overweight either. Around that time, I already started noticing that my face looked fuller, wider, and more asymmetrical than it did when I was younger.

Then in 2023, I gained a significant amount of weight. I've since lost most of it, and now I'm at a healthy weight (60–62 kg at 5'6"), but I'm not as lean as I was as a child. I still carry fat in my face, arms, and stomach.

My biggest concern is my front view. My face looks round and wide, and I feel like my relatively large nose and full lips make everything look crowded. The asymmetry also bothers me.

Another thing that's always confused me is that I look completely different in selfies. My face looks much narrower and more defined, to the point where people who know me in real life have genuinely said they wouldn't have recognised me from some of my selfies.I genuinely feel like my facial proportions look different.

Does this sound like something that could still improve if I got leaner?

Can someone at a healthy weight still have enough facial fat for their face to become significantly narrower?

Or does this sound more like underlying bone structure?

Could my history of mouth breathing have contributed at all, or is that unlikely?

Has anyone experienced something similar after childhood weight changes?

I'd appreciate any tips and advice, thank you!

I took my IELTS Academic (UKVI) today and I'm really anxious about my Writing score.

For Task 1, I completed it and wrote over 150 words. It wasn't perfect, but I finished it.

For Task 2, everything went wrong. I completely lost track of time. I wrote the introduction, one body paragraph with an example, and started the second body paragraph, but I only managed around 180 words. I didn't get to properly develop the second point, write a conclusion, or proofread for grammar and spelling.

I'm worried because I need at least 5.5 in Writing (and 5.5 in every section, 6.0 overall) to meet my university's English language requirement. My Reading and Listening went much better than Writing, so Writing is my biggest concern.

Has anyone here been in a similar situation? Did anyone score 5.5 or higher despite being under the 250-word limit in Task 2? Or will i have to retake the exam? I'm looking for honest experiences rather than reassurance.

Anyone starting the KCL International Foundation Programme this year?

Just wanted to ask if there's a group chat (WhatsApp/Instagram.) for foundation students. Would be great to connect with some people before September :)

I applied to the KCL International Foundation Programme and after several months of being on hold I received the following update:

"Thank you for your application. This year has been particularly competitive and we have been unable to offer you a place on the Economics module due to the module approaching capacity, and your academic achievements so far assessed as being slightly below the advertised entry requirements.

We may be able to make you an offer on one of the following module combinations:

Global Politics + Liberal Arts

Global Politics + Social Sciences

Liberal Arts + Social Sciences

Should you decide to change your module choices, you would be able to stay on the same pathway and progress to the same chosen progression degree.

If you would like to change your application to progress to any of the options listed above please respond by 14 June."

Is it likely to receive an offer afterwards?

Why do universities write "if you are eligible, you will be made an offer" rather than simply saying "upon confirmation we will issue an offer"? What do they check at this stage?

I'd really appreciate any helpful information

Thankyou!

KCL International Foundation

Applied to KCL International Foundation (Politics, Culture & Social Sciences pathway) on 6 March and still on hold as of 16 May.

My percentage is 72.83% and the stated requirement is 75%, so I know I’m borderline, but I’m confused about what’s actually happening at this stage.

I recently emailed admissions because my portal query hadn’t been answered for weeks, and after that I got an “application update” email ,but when I checked the portal it still just said “on hold.”

What I don’t understand is:

\- by mid-May, wouldn’t they already know roughly how many seats are filled?

\- if they didn’t want me, why not just reject me already?

\- do people actually get accepted this late from the hold pool?

Also, the foundation programme has around 900 seats total, so I’m wondering how competitive the hold pool really is.

Would appreciate honest experiences from people who stayed on hold this long and what happened in the end.

​

Applied to KCL International Foundation (Politics, Culture & Social Sciences pathway) on 6 March and still on hold as of 16 May.

My percentage is 72.83% and the stated requirement is 75%, so I know I’m borderline, but I’m confused about what’s actually happening at this stage.

I recently emailed admissions because my portal query hadn’t been answered for weeks, and after that I got an “application update” email ,but when I checked the portal it still just said “on hold.”

What I don’t understand is:

\- by mid-May, wouldn’t they already know roughly how many seats are filled?

\- if they didn’t want me, why not just reject me already?

\- do people actually get accepted this late from the hold pool?

Also, the foundation programme has around 900 seats total, so I’m wondering how competitive the hold pool really is.

Would appreciate honest experiences from people who stayed on hold this long and what happened in the end.