I registered at SOAS last Thursday and as first impressions go, my impressions of that institute are pretty good, at least with my department. I showed up at 3 pm, filled out a form, showed them my passport and signed up for courses and half an hour later I'd gotten my student ID and library card as well as my student union card. Last time I registered with a university in London I was running around between offices in different buildings and it took hours!
I've got my soas email set up (sigga at soas.ac.uk), I've been assigned a locker and I've gotten the readers for my courses as there are no set texts. Very smooth and efficient! Classes start on Monday and I'm really excited :)