Economics (and Economics + Finance) options

Okay so until recently I was pretty certain I was going to apply for Economics at the universities listed in option 1, but since then I have started to wonder if I should be aiming for slightly "better" universities. I got AAAA at AS level, and am doing Maths, Economics and Geography at A2. I got 191/200 UMS for Geography and 269/300 for Maths if that helps. Haven't returned to sixth form yet so I don't know what my predictions for A2 will be but I would imagine I'll be predicted at least one A*. Whether I can achieve that is a different matter. Anyway, the options are as follows:

Option 1:
Warwick - A*AA
Nottingham - A*AA/AAA
York - AAA
Leeds - AAA
Manchester/Sheffield - AAB

Option 2:
Warwick - A*AA
Bristol - A*AA
Nottingham - A*AA/AAA
York/Leeds - AAA
Manchester/Sheffield - AAB

Option 3:
Warwick - A*AA
Nottingham - A*AA/AAA
Bristol - AAA (but for Economics + Finance)
York/Leeds - AAA
Manchester/Sheffield - AAB

Option 1 is pretty straight forward, and it is what I've had my heart set on for some time now, but I've been told that I am highly likely to get offers from York, Leeds, Manchester/Sheffield so I may as well aim higher and go for Bristol in option 2, which is a better uni than York or Leeds if you want to go into investment banking as it tends to be regarded as a 'semi-target' more than York/Leeds. And yeah, trust me, I fully appreciate just how competitive IB is. While I think I'm capable of getting an A* in one subject, I would be a little hesitant to apply to 3 unis that require an A* (assuming you count Nottingham as one), so I thought that I could still go for Bristol but apply for Economics and Finance which only needs AAA. I would be fine with the actual content of this although I would be a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to change all of my draft PS to include aspects of finance as well as economics and whether that would hinder the economics part of my PS. Might also be worth noting that according to university.which, E+F tends to be more competitive than Economics, with 64% of candidates receiving offers compared to 76%.

So yeah there's my situation - would be incredibly grateful if anyone could give me advice on which 'option' to go for.

Thanks in advance :smile:

(edited 7 years ago)

Reply 1

anonwinner

19

Your AS grades are really good, I think you should apply to more targets. Look at UCL and LSE (consider applying to joint Econ courses if you're not confident on getting an A*).

Try to get an A* prediction in Maths. Even if on results day you end up with only AAA, Bristol/Nottingham/Leeds etc. will still probably let you in.

Reply 2

joddcfc

OP

12

Original post by anonwinner

Your AS grades are really good, I think you should apply to more targets. Look at UCL and LSE (consider applying to joint Econ courses if you're not confident on getting an A*).

Try to get an A* prediction in Maths. Even if on results day you end up with only AAA, Bristol/Nottingham/Leeds etc. will still probably let you in.

Thanks, my "target" choice is Warwick really, I would apply to more but fear it would be like a wasted choice because of the competition for Oxbridge, LSE and Imperial places - I think I saw that around 15% of applicants get offers.

Reply 3

anonwinner

19

Original post by joddcfc

Thanks, my "target" choice is Warwick really, I would apply to more but fear it would be like a wasted choice because of the competition for Oxbridge, LSE and Imperial places - I think I saw that around 15% of applicants get offers.

I would definitely choose more than 1 target if I were you. I'd choose 3 or maybe even 4. The semi-targets give offers to almost all applicants as long as they have the required predicted grades, so even if you get rejected from all the targets you will almost definitely still get into a semi. Warwick also gives lots of offers out (60% of Economics applicants get an offer).

Reply 4

joddcfc

OP

12

Original post by anonwinner

I would definitely choose more than 1 target if I were you. I'd choose 3 or maybe even 4. The semi-targets give offers to almost all applicants as long as they have the required predicted grades, so even if you get rejected from all the targets you will almost definitely still get into a semi. Warwick also gives lots of offers out (60% of Economics applicants get an offer).

So do you reckon that if I applied to any of Notts, York, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield (some semi targets, some not), I would be almost guaranteed to get an offer? And the 60% figure for Warwick is a weird one - it's miles higher than other target ones and when I went to the open day I asked about it and they told me that they receive around 3000 applications yet only give out around 500-600 offers and they had no idea where the 60% figure came from. And that kind of makes me doubt other figures for unis listed above that tend to be, according to university.which, over 85% ish

Reply 5

anonwinner

19

Original post by joddcfc

So do you reckon that if I applied to any of Notts, York, Leeds, Manchester and Sheffield (some semi targets, some not), I would be almost guaranteed to get an offer? And the 60% figure for Warwick is a weird one - it's miles higher than other target ones and when I went to the open day I asked about it and they told me that they receive around 3000 applications yet only give out around 500-600 offers and they had no idea where the 60% figure came from. And that kind of makes me doubt other figures for unis listed above that tend to be, according to university.which, over 85% ish

Warwick generally isn't as competitive as the other targets. Look at all of Warwick's courses on the which uni website. The only one that has a really low acceptance rate is Medicine. I trust UCAS data more than I trust someone at a Warwick open day who's trying to make their course seem as competitive and elite as possible.

Acceptance rates for Economics:

Bristol - 76%

Nottingham - 83%

York - 94%

Leeds - 85%

Manchester - 82%

Sheffield - 90%

The people getting rejected from these probably don't have the right predicted grades or they have a terrible/irrelevant personal statement.

Also, if you did get rejected by all your choices (which is EXTREMELY unlikely) you are allowed to reapply to different unis on UCAS, or you could use clearing. All unis except for Oxbridge/LSE/ICL/UCL are in clearing.

Reply 6

Trapz99

21

Option 3 would be the best. You'd have a very good chance of getting into Bristol and the other unis on that list. Also, the subject doesn't matter for investment banking so you'll be fine with both economics and economics+finance

Reply 7

joddcfc

OP

12

Original post by anonwinner

Warwick generally isn't as competitive as the other targets. Look at all of Warwick's courses on the which uni website. The only one that has a really low acceptance rate is Medicine. I trust UCAS data more than I trust someone at a Warwick open day who's trying to make their course seem as competitive and elite as possible.

Acceptance rates for Economics:

Bristol - 76%

Nottingham - 83%

York - 94%

Leeds - 85%

Manchester - 82%

Sheffield - 90%

The people getting rejected from these probably don't have the right predicted grades or they have a terrible/irrelevant personal statement.

Also, if you did get rejected by all your choices (which is EXTREMELY unlikely) you are allowed to reapply to different unis on UCAS, or you could use clearing. All unis except for Oxbridge/LSE/ICL/UCL are in clearing.

That's fair enough, cheers. I feel a lot more confident about going for target universities now. I knew those figures all along anyway but I guess that extra reinforcement about how unlikely being rejected by all was needed!

Original post by Trapz99

Option 3 would be the best. You'd have a very good chance of getting into Bristol and the other unis on that list. Also, the subject doesn't matter for investment banking so you'll be fine with both economics and economics+finance

Thanks for the reply :smile:

do you know how different my personal statement would have to be if I applied for 4 economics + 1 E+F courses as opposed to 5 straight economics courses?

Reply 8

Trapz99

21

Original post by joddcfc

That's fair enough, cheers. I feel a lot more confident about going for target universities now. I knew those figures all along anyway but I guess that extra reinforcement about how unlikely being rejected by all was needed!

Thanks for the reply :smile:

do you know how different my personal statement would have to be if I applied for 4 economics + 1 E+F courses as opposed to 5 straight economics courses?