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Rejected without looking at my grades?

Hi,

my situation is somewhat unique from the majority of you. Basically I am applying to law in the UK from a North American university. I am set to acquire a degree in a few months, and I would be pursuing a second bachelors in the UK in law.
That means I have applied through UCAS as an individual.

I recently recieved two rejections, one from LSE and the other from Queen Marys. I am very familiar with what its like to be rejected so unlike many high school students I don't feel like its the end of the world :smile:

Still, I do feel quite disappointed. I have a very good GPA (higher than what LSE and QM asked for), and I am coming from a pretty prestigious university in North America. I was rejected and these universities dont even know my grades because the UCAS application did not have a place to put my GPA. They never asked for my transcripts, and I was just rejected like that. The only grades they had were my high school grades. Much has changed since then!

I also thought my personal statement was pretty good (but perhaps not good enough!) - I have a pretty good academic background in law, since ive taken about 3 law courses already and written several papers on the topic.

That means I was rejected on the basis of my high school grades four years ago and my personal statement. I dont know, it just feels quite unfair. Is anyone else in the same situation?

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Either personal statement or they question the need for a second BSc.
In The UK , the PS means a lot , admissions tutors put a lot of weight on your PS , so even if you have amazing grades but a poor PS , you are more likely to be rejected in favour of someone with a strong PS but lower grades than you . A PS says a lot about you , so its important you have a top notch one ...sorry about the rejections .
Reply 3
Original post by ariannaka
Hi,

my situation is somewhat unique from the majority of you. Basically I am applying to law in the UK from a North American university. I am set to acquire a degree in a few months, and I would be pursuing a second bachelors in the UK in law.
That means I have applied through UCAS as an individual.

I recently recieved two rejections, one from LSE and the other from Queen Marys. I am very familiar with what its like to be rejected so unlike many high school students I don't feel like its the end of the world :smile:

Still, I do feel quite disappointed. I have a very good GPA (higher than what LSE and QM asked for), and I am coming from a pretty prestigious university in North America. I was rejected and these universities dont even know my grades because the UCAS application did not have a place to put my GPA. They never asked for my transcripts, and I was just rejected like that. The only grades they had were my high school grades. Much has changed since then!

I also thought my personal statement was pretty good (but perhaps not good enough!) - I have a pretty good academic background in law, since ive taken about 3 law courses already and written several papers on the topic.

That means I was rejected on the basis of my high school grades four years ago and my personal statement. I dont know, it just feels quite unfair. Is anyone else in the same situation?


It was required to enter in all of your grades on UCAS, including your university grades. I've applied from a NA University to law in the UK as well. I entered my grades in the A+, A, A-, B+, B, B-, etc format, and named the qualifications "Non-UK bachelor degree" or something. If they want to see a transcript they will ask you for it, usually via email. They do their own research to see what your grades mean, and you don't have to put in your GPA for this reason. Plus, they can calculate GPA themselves.

Maybe contact them to say there was a misunderstanding, and your Uni grades weren't sent through UCAS... because it seems to me that they didn't know you went to university... or your personal statement was inconsistent with the grades you submitted (if you mentioned your uni degree).

Good luck.
Original post by ariannaka
Hi,

my situation is somewhat unique from the majority of you. Basically I am applying to law in the UK from a North American university. I am set to acquire a degree in a few months, and I would be pursuing a second bachelors in the UK in law.
That means I have applied through UCAS as an individual.

I recently recieved two rejections, one from LSE and the other from Queen Marys. I am very familiar with what its like to be rejected so unlike many high school students I don't feel like its the end of the world :smile:

Still, I do feel quite disappointed. I have a very good GPA (higher than what LSE and QM asked for), and I am coming from a pretty prestigious university in North America. I was rejected and these universities dont even know my grades because the UCAS application did not have a place to put my GPA. They never asked for my transcripts, and I was just rejected like that. The only grades they had were my high school grades. Much has changed since then!

I also thought my personal statement was pretty good (but perhaps not good enough!) - I have a pretty good academic background in law, since ive taken about 3 law courses already and written several papers on the topic.

That means I was rejected on the basis of my high school grades four years ago and my personal statement. I dont know, it just feels quite unfair. Is anyone else in the same situation?


I imagine that's your answer. The universities don't know you've got any other qualifications. I think (although this is not my area, as I only deal with students with UK qualifications, as I work in a UK school) that you would put them under the 'other qualifications' category. You could try calling UCAS to see what they suggest, which I imagine would be contacting the universities and explaining the situation.
Reply 5
Wow that was fast. thanks for your input.
I suppose since I am applying outside the UK I had little indication of what a good PS looks like on UK standards. I did, however, have several people read over my statements including professors, friends, etc. But perhaps it wasn't on par with what they were looking for.

Still, I find it hard to believe that my grades mean nothing to these universities, so much so that they do not even want to consider what my grades might be. To me, it wasn't the rejections that disappointed me, but it was the principle that all the work I've put in the last 4 years (after I practically flunked high school, transferred from a **** uni to one that is quite well-known) were completely irrelevant to these universities. But maybe that is my North American mindset talking :P
I have not heard back from the other universities I applied to, but I am getting a bit worried, since they too have not asked to see my grades either.
Original post by ariannaka
Wow that was fast. thanks for your input.
I suppose since I am applying outside the UK I had little indication of what a good PS looks like on UK standards. I did, however, have several people read over my statements including professors, friends, etc. But perhaps it wasn't on par with what they were looking for.

Still, I find it hard to believe that my grades mean nothing to these universities, so much so that they do not even want to consider what my grades might be. To me, it wasn't the rejections that disappointed me, but it was the principle that all the work I've put in the last 4 years (after I practically flunked high school, transferred from a **** uni to one that is quite well-known) were completely irrelevant to these universities. But maybe that is my North American mindset talking :P
I have not heard back from the other universities I applied to, but I am getting a bit worried, since they too have not asked to see my grades either.


It's not that your grades mean nothing to them, rather than that they simply haven't seen them and many universities, especially LSE, are so swamped with applications that they have an automatic filtering system of sorts which will weed out anyone who doesn't make the basic requirements. It's possible that your application fell at that hurdle. You might want to consider contacting your remaining universitities ahead of any possible rejections and explaining the situation to them.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 7
Original post by ariannaka
Wow that was fast. thanks for your input.
I suppose since I am applying outside the UK I had little indication of what a good PS looks like on UK standards. I did, however, have several people read over my statements including professors, friends, etc. But perhaps it wasn't on par with what they were looking for.

Still, I find it hard to believe that my grades mean nothing to these universities, so much so that they do not even want to consider what my grades might be. To me, it wasn't the rejections that disappointed me, but it was the principle that all the work I've put in the last 4 years (after I practically flunked high school, transferred from a **** uni to one that is quite well-known) were completely irrelevant to these universities. But maybe that is my North American mindset talking :P
I have not heard back from the other universities I applied to, but I am getting a bit worried, since they too have not asked to see my grades either.


My best friend, who now goes to Cambridge, applied from Canada last year from uni and didn't have to send his transcript in until his final qualifications were received, post-offer. The point I'm making here, is that they don't need to see your transcript before they make you an offer. All they need is the grades you entered into UCAS.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 8
Original post by carnationlilyrose
I imagine that's your answer. The universities don't know you've got any other qualifications. I think (although this is not my area, as I only deal with students with UK qualifications, as I work in a UK school) that you would put them under the 'other qualifications' category. You could try calling UCAS to see what they suggest, which I imagine would be contacting the universities and explaining the situation.


Yes, you know I was quite sceptical when I was sending off my UCAS application because there simply was no blank for my grades.
For my "other qualifications" I did write in that I am studying at university, and I am expected to get an "honours degree", but that was all there was space for.
I have a friend that applied last year, and universities actually contacted him to get his grades and transcripts within weeks of him applying and before they accepted or rejected him. I've checked, and all the information he filled in is exactly the amount of information I filled in for myself.
I wanted to know if my circumstance was a norm or whether I should be worried and contact UCAS/the unis, because I am not very familiar with the norm
Reply 9
Original post by ariannaka

Still, I find it hard to believe that my grades mean nothing to these universities, so much so that they do not even want to consider what my grades might be. To me, it wasn't the rejections that disappointed me, but it was the principle that all the work I've put in the last 4 years (after I practically flunked high school, transferred from a **** uni to one that is quite well-known) were completely irrelevant to these universities. But maybe that is my North American mindset talking :P
I have not heard back from the other universities I applied to, but I am getting a bit worried, since they too have not asked to see my grades either.


Am I missing something? From what I can tell it seems the UK unis have no idea that you already have a bachelors/will get one soon. It's not that they don't care, it's that you haven't told them. If you somehow put down that you are currently at uni then I expect they would have asked you for your grades if you didn't put it on your UCAS form.
Original post by ariannaka
Yes, you know I was quite sceptical when I was sending off my UCAS application because there simply was no blank for my grades.
For my "other qualifications" I did write in that I am studying at university, and I am expected to get an "honours degree", but that was all there was space for.
I have a friend that applied last year, and universities actually contacted him to get his grades and transcripts within weeks of him applying and before they accepted or rejected him. I've checked, and all the information he filled in is exactly the amount of information I filled in for myself.
I wanted to know if my circumstance was a norm or whether I should be worried and contact UCAS/the unis, because I am not very familiar with the norm


Well, as I said, it's not my area really, but we do have very large numbers of international students here, so it's not that we're hostile to people from eslewhere, if you follow me. I'm a firm believer in asking if you don't know the situation. Start with a call to UCAS and follow their advice. Even if they don't suggest calling your other universities, I'd still do it.
Original post by ariannaka
Hi,

my situation is somewhat unique from the majority of you. Basically I am applying to law in the UK from a North American university. I am set to acquire a degree in a few months, and I would be pursuing a second bachelors in the UK in law.
That means I have applied through UCAS as an individual.

I recently recieved two rejections, one from LSE and the other from Queen Marys. I am very familiar with what its like to be rejected so unlike many high school students I don't feel like its the end of the world :smile:

Still, I do feel quite disappointed. I have a very good GPA (higher than what LSE and QM asked for), and I am coming from a pretty prestigious university in North America. I was rejected and these universities dont even know my grades because the UCAS application did not have a place to put my GPA. They never asked for my transcripts, and I was just rejected like that. The only grades they had were my high school grades. Much has changed since then!

I also thought my personal statement was pretty good (but perhaps not good enough!) - I have a pretty good academic background in law, since ive taken about 3 law courses already and written several papers on the topic.

That means I was rejected on the basis of my high school grades four years ago and my personal statement. I dont know, it just feels quite unfair. Is anyone else in the same situation?


What was the '****' uni you went to, and what is the 'well-known' one that you now go to? your making yourself sound good :smile: Or are you one of those pretentious Americans that us Brits can't stand?


Another thing, in the UK, we have people who can get C grades at A-level and still go to university, is that the same case in the States, do they still go, albeit to a **** one? Surely they wouldn't be able to afford it, well the average American due to high tuition; so to rely on scholarships from uni's for being bright...etc?

Cheers
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 12
Original post by tooosh
Am I missing something? From what I can tell it seems the UK unis have no idea that you already have a bachelors/will get one soon. It's not that they don't care, it's that you haven't told them. If you somehow put down that you are currently at uni then I expect they would have asked you for your grades if you didn't put it on your UCAS form.


Sorry for not being clear.
The university I am currently attending is written on my application and next to it is my graduation date. That is all there was space for on the application.

At the same time, there is WAY more information about me as a high school student since that is who the UCAS form is mainly catered towards.
Reply 13
Original post by ariannaka
Hi,

my situation is somewhat unique from the majority of you. Basically I am applying to law in the UK from a North American university. I am set to acquire a degree in a few months, and I would be pursuing a second bachelors in the UK in law.
That means I have applied through UCAS as an individual.

I recently recieved two rejections, one from LSE and the other from Queen Marys. I am very familiar with what its like to be rejected so unlike many high school students I don't feel like its the end of the world :smile:

Still, I do feel quite disappointed. I have a very good GPA (higher than what LSE and QM asked for), and I am coming from a pretty prestigious university in North America. I was rejected and these universities dont even know my grades because the UCAS application did not have a place to put my GPA. They never asked for my transcripts, and I was just rejected like that. The only grades they had were my high school grades. Much has changed since then!

I also thought my personal statement was pretty good (but perhaps not good enough!) - I have a pretty good academic background in law, since ive taken about 3 law courses already and written several papers on the topic.

That means I was rejected on the basis of my high school grades four years ago and my personal statement. I dont know, it just feels quite unfair. Is anyone else in the same situation?


I'm sorry to hear about your situation - I think the main reason for your rejection will have been that the universities did not see your grades - there is very little likelihood that you will have been rejected on the basis of your PS. I guess the best thing you can do is contact the universities and see what they have to say (quote your UCAS application number in any correspondence ), and I guess apply next year.
Reply 14
Original post by ariannaka
Yes, you know I was quite sceptical when I was sending off my UCAS application because there simply was no blank for my grades.


There were the same blanks as there were for where you entered in your HS grades.

Instead of "High School Diploma" or something, you should have added a second set of qualification:

Degree (International Non-EU Bachelor)

THEN, there was space to enter in each individual grade of yours from your degree, just like you would have done with your HS grades.
(edited 12 years ago)
Reply 15
Original post by ariannaka
Sorry for not being clear.
The university I am currently attending is written on my application and next to it is my graduation date. That is all there was space for on the application.

At the same time, there is WAY more information about me as a high school student since that is who the UCAS form is mainly catered towards.


Well either way, you should really be looking at law conversion courses rather than undergrad law courses since you (will) already have a degree. Cheaper and you get it quicker with the same content.
Original post by tooosh
Well either way, you should really be looking at law conversion courses rather than undergrad law courses since you (will) already have a degree. Cheaper and you get it quicker with the same content.

Good and interesting point. Not sure what the position is with non-UK degrees, though.
Reply 17
Original post by carnationlilyrose
Good and interesting point. Not sure what the position is with non-UK degrees, though.


It works with non-UK degrees, or at least it does at QMUL:

http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions/requirements/m101/index.html

They have admissions req's for Canada, USA, etc.
Original post by MDS3
It works with non-UK degrees, or at least it does at QMUL:

http://www.law.qmul.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions/requirements/m101/index.html

They have admissions req's for Canada, USA, etc.


Thanks, that's good to know, although in my job, it's not going to be information I'm going to need.:smile:
I would like to add that Law is a very competitive course, especially if you applied to LSE. Also, I've heard Queen Mary law is very competitive, apparently their entry requirements are high with an A* at A level :s
So, it can be that you were solely rejected on the basis of your personal statement. Like medicine, many people meet the entry requirements or exceed them but get rejected on the basis of their personal statement. So, it may just be that. Personal statement holds a lot of significance and especially for a course as competitive as law.

Good luck :smile: But, I would also definitely call UCAS/the university etc to clear the misunderstanding.

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