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Official Warwick Economics Q&A Thread

Warwick Undergraduate (UG) Admissions Confirmation for Economics

Thursday 16th August sees the release of A-Level results in England, and, simultaneously, the release of the majority of remaining UG admissions decisions for the Department of Economics for 2012 entry.

If you have successfully met the conditions of your offer, many congratulations, and you will shortly receive information from both the University and the Department regarding the next steps. In the meantime, please visit the Welcome to Warwick website for a flavour of what is to come.

If you have failed to meet the conditions of your offer, please check UCAS Track to see the latest status of your application. In some cases, you will be shown as “successful”, your place in the Warwick Economics Department is secured, and you can follow the above information for successful applicants. In some cases, you will be shown as “unsuccessful”, as we only have a limited number of discretionary places to offer, meaning that we are unable to take even very talented applicants who have only missed their offer by a narrow margin. In some cases, your decision will still be “outstanding”, as we have a record number of offers to process which may take some time to return to UCAS, so please keep checking UCAS Track for updates, or contact the Confirmation Hotline (+44 (0)24 7653 3544) for the latest information.

If your decision is still outstanding because you have not yet submitted requested evidence of your school level exam results or English Language qualifications (e.g. IELTS), then please do so as soon as possible to the UG Admissions office. The longer you wait to send your complete results and requested documentation, the less chance there is of a place being available if you have missed any part of your offer.

If you have missed your offer, with Warwick as your “insurance” offer, please be aware that a decision may take slightly longer than normal, as we can only process your application once your “first choice” university has confirmed to us that they will not be making you an offer.

If you have any questions about your application, please check the What Happens Next website - http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/next/ - or phone the Confirmation Hotline (+44 (0)24 7653 3544) for the most up to date information. If you wish to speak to someone in the Economics Department regarding your application a member of the Economics Admissions Team will be available for you to speak to from 3pm to 5pm each working day between the 16th and 22nd August on +44 (0)24 7615 1120

Please note, the Economics Admissions Team can only provide general information about the admissions process and how decisions are reached, and are not permitted to either make or reverse offer decisions. For the most up to date information about your specific application, it is recommended you contact the Confirmation Hotline in the first instance.

If you are calling either the Confirmation Hotline, or the Economics Admissions Team, to enquire about transferring in to the Department of Economics (if you hold, or have made, an offer for another department in the University), please be aware that we are unable to accept any such transfers in due to the capacity limitations of the department, and the record number of places being made available to students who applied for Economics for 2012 entry

(edited 11 years ago)

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Reply 1

Warwick Rep

Hi all,
as promised earlier in the summer, we've made some small changes to admissions for Warwick Undergraduate Economics, for 2012/13 entry, based on your feedback here and wider comments relating to how we run our admissions process.

Part of that new approach is having a dedicated presence here, on The Student Room, where you can ask questions directly to us, and receive useful, personal answers. You can also give us your feedback on our offers and course, and we'll take that into account when we're looking at how we develop our courses going forward.

As such, this thread will be a dedicated Warwick Economics Info and Q&A thread through the year. I'll post info, answers and keep an FAQ, which should hopefully help you in making a decision about where to apply for 2012.

To get you started, based on your feedback over the summer, I've created a "Notes on Applications" pdf document, which should help you learn more about our admissions cycle this year. It's a good read and can be downloaded from

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/ug/prospective/notes_on_applications_for_2012-13_entry.pdf

The main points to note are:

•

Withdrawal of LV13 Economics and Economic History

•

Clarification of standard A-Level Offers
[INDENT]

•

A* A A B - if you are doing 4 A2's (including grade A at Maths A2 for L100 and L112)

•

A* A A a - if you are doing 3 A2's and at least 1 AS (including grade A at Maths A2 for L100 and L112)

•

Removal of different offers if you study Further Maths

•

Aside from Maths, no preference over other good A-Levels
[INDENT]

•

such as Economics, Further Maths, History, English, Geography, Psychology, Physics etc.

So have a read of the document, and let me know if you have any questions, or anything is not clear.

For more information on our courses, please visit our prospective students homepage and the study pages of the University website

Withdrawal of LV13 Economics and Economic History

When this course started, Economic History was very much a fringe subject, and something not regularly taught on most core Economics courses, so it was necessary to have a dedicated course which catered to those interested in studying the area.

With the rise of the internet, and digital libraries, however, the accessibility to Economic History has increased significantly, and it's now taught as a core component of our core L100 course.

L100 also now has significant flexibility in the 2nd and 3rd year of the course, so someone wishing to study Economic History can pick and choose the options they want, to, in effect, create exactly the same course as LV13 offered previously.

Having the flexibility on L100 to do this meant that numbers of people studying on LV13 dropped dramatically (they were instead applying to L100), and so we decided to remove the course, instead encouraging those interested to apply to L100, and then simply choose their Economic History options in 2nd and 3rd year to reflect their interests.

Clarification of standard A-Level Offers

Last year, if you studied Further Maths at A2 level, you would receive a harder offer (A*AAA) than if you didn't (A*AAB), and this was, rightly, perceived as pretty unfair. As such, we've now removed all our "special" offers for those studying Further Maths, and it is now considered as a standard subject like any other, which means it can be taken as an AS Level for our A*AAa offer as well.

This means that you will now receive one of only two A-Level offers when applying to economics at Warwick. A*AAB if you study 4 A2's, and A*AAa if you study 3 A2's and 1 AS. In addition, if you are applying to L100 or L112, you must achieve at least a grade A at Maths A2, and if you are applying for LLD2, you must have an A* at GCSE Maths if Maths is not one of your A2 or AS subjects.

No preference over A-Levels (or IB) aside from Maths

The Warwick economics course is mathematical, so we require an A at A-Level Maths, or a 6 at Higher Level Maths in IB, for L100 and L112.

Aside from Maths, however, this year we have no preference over other strong A-level subjects, such as Further Maths, Economics, Psychology, History, Sciences, English etc.

This means that you should study those subjects which you are interested in, and you think will be helpful to you during your degree, rather than trying to "tailor" an application to what you think we want to see.

For example, you will want to display an interest in Economics in your personal statement, but we understand that not everybody has had the opportunity to study it at A-Level, or is just now deciding that's what they want to study at degree level, so we are happy to accept applications from people with a wide range of academic backgrounds.

Maybe, for example, you wanted to be a linguist, and chose your A-Levels as such, but now decide you would like to get a solid grounding in Economics, and study languages as an option on your degree (which you can do on L100) instead. If so, that's great, and we'd love to receive an application from you.

Speed of Decisions

Last year, we tended to hold on to applications we were not sure about, for quite a while, in order to be in a better position to make a decision when we had a more concrete idea of how many places we would have available, and the standard of other applicants in a similar position. This, however, comes at a cost to the applicant, as they would like to know earlier whether they have, or have not, been offered a place.

This year, therefore, we will aim to make much quicker decisions for the majority of people. The consequence of this, however, is that places will fill up quickly (as we are more decisive), and so we would encourage you to apply as early as possible in the cycle.

Warwick AWARDS

One thing a few people have asked is about how to convey circumstances, which have had an impact on their academic performance, but do not necessarily fit within the standard UCAS form.

The answer may be Warwick AWARDS. As our website says

AWARDS was established to enable you to provide us with information to supplement your UCAS form. At Warwick we make offers to high achieving students who we feel will get the most from our degrees, but we realise that many applicants have faced challenges which have prevented them from doing as well as they could. It is not often easy or appropriate to explain personal circumstances on the UCAS form, but we want to provide an opportunity for you to tell us about them more fully. We can then take this information into account when considering your application

If this sound like something which may fit your situation, please visit the website at http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/apply/awards/ to learn more, and for info on how to apply.

I can't answer specific questions relating to AWARDS, but do email [email protected] if you need more info.

(edited 11 years ago)

University of Warwick

Coventry

Reply 2

Warwick Rep

FAQ's

Importance of GCSE Results in an application

Spoiler

Previously thinking about applying to LV13 Economics and Economic History

Spoiler

What to write in a personal statement

Spoiler

Additional AS Levels

Spoiler

Mentioning books in personal statements

Spoiler

Maths GCSE

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Applications with predictions below our standard offers

Spoiler

What happens if I miss my offer?

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Where is Warwick ranked for Economics in the league tables?

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I've made my offer. What should I be reading over the summer?

Spoiler

(edited 11 years ago)

Reply 3

Tateco

Original post by University of Warwick

I have heard rumours suggesting Warwick are unlikely to give offers out to people who have below 9A*s at GCSE. I know it is probably not true to that extent, but how much weighting do Warwick place on GCSEs if AS levels and A2 predictions are good.

Thanks

Reply 4

TSRavenclaw

I would like to also elaborate on Tateco's point of GCSEs. How important are GCSEs? Would someone with poor GCSEs be disadvantaged?

Reply 5

-Illmatic-

Fisrtly, with regards to cashing in ASs, my secondary school doesnt do it until year 13. Will I be signficiantly disadvantaged if I do not declare my modules but my referee highlights the modules that were particularly strong.

Lastly, would I be disadvantaged if I did 5 AS and got a D in the least relevant one?

Reply 6

Warwick Rep

Original post by Tateco

Original post by TSRavenclaw

I would like to also elaborate on Tateco's point of GCSEs. How important are GCSEs? Would someone with poor GCSEs be disadvantaged?

Warwick does use GCSE grades as part of the application profile when deciding whether to make someone an offer or not.

Also, it's obviously more preferable to us for you to have better GCSE grades. So, in that sense, you are at more of a disadvantage the worse your grades are.

That being said, they are not the sole deciding factor, and we also take AS grades and A2 predictions into account, along with personal statements and school references.

It's not really possible to say how much weight we place on them, as every application is different, and we will be more concerned with grades on some applications than others.

The result of this is that there is no GCSE profile which results in an "auto-reject" from us, and rumours of "9 A* GCSE requirements" are clearly untrue.

Is it possible that someone with 8 A* GCSE's was rejected? Yes

Is it also possible that someone with 0 A* GCSE's got an offer? Yes too.

If you are concerned about your grades, and feel that they are not reflective of your ability going forward (which is what we are ultimately interested in), I would recommend explaining this a bit in your personal statement, and, for example, if you got very good UMS scores at AS Level, I would cite them as an example of how your results are improving rapidly, and why you would be a good student at Warwick.

Similarly, if you were at a school which, on average, performed less well at GCSE's than most, and hence your results were very good compared to others in your year, then it's useful for us to have that explained a little in the school's reference.

Reply 7

Warwick Rep

Original post by -Illmatic-

It's helpful for us the more information you can put down, so, even if you can't declare your AS results, we'd like to see you reference (either in personal statement or schools reference), how you did in your AS exams, and I would highlight those that are of particular interest to us (Maths for example) and those you did very well in.

On your second point, as with the GCSE question, we'd prefer you to have as strong an academic record as possible, but your result wouldn't prevent you from getting an offer if we were happy with everything else.

Reply 8

-Illmatic-

Original post by University of Warwick

Thank you.

Reply 9

Tateco

Original post by University of Warwick

Thanks for the prompt reply, so are you suggesting that relatively worse GCSEs (i.e. only 5A*) can be overcome by very good AS level scores and A2 predictions?

I appreciate that it is difficult to give a rule in general but out of:

1. AS Results
2. A2 Predictions
3. GCSEs
4. Personal Statement
5. References

How would these be ranked in order of importance? I know it is difficult to say but I would be interested to have a general idea.

Reply 10

somaiyar

Im sure that you are aware that many candidates who apply to the Economics course at Warwick also apply to similar courses at LSE, UCL, Cambridge, Bristol, Nottingham etc. If you get an application early, you would make a reasonable assumption that they have applied to Oxford (E&M) or Cambridge, would this be a positive sign?

Reply 11

-Illmatic-

Another question:

I've tailored my PS for the Econ and Econ History course. I was very distraught to find that it has been scrapped. Would this make me less suitable for the L100 course?

Reply 12

stefl14

By the way, you mentioned that if you don't think your GCSE grades reflect your true potential you should talk about your AS marks on your personal statement. Would it not be more appropriate to get a tutor to mention this on the UCAS reference? Would it matter at all because I'm struggling to find room on my personal statement? My situation is as follows:

Poor GCSE's relative to other applicants: 3A*'s 5A's 1B 2C's (C's in Spanish and Statistics (taken in year 9)).

Results achieved in year 12:
Maths (full A level in 1 year): A* 273/300 (91%) at AS, 294/300 (98%) at A2 for a 94.5% average
Economics AS: A 190/200, 95% average
Biology AS: A 288/300 96% average

I will be studying Further Maths, Economics and Biology this year and am predicted A*A*A* and have already achieved 1 A*.

Also, will I be significantly disadvantaged for not having studies an extra AS level?

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 13

zaina94

Do you consider GCSE equivalents (in addition to other GCSEs) such as CIDA (ICT) and a strong performance in this?
Also, do you include these equivalents when comparing GCSE grades between applicants?

Thanks!

Reply 14

somaiyar

Original post by stefl14

Those grades are amazing, you did the whole maths A-level in a year and got 95%!

Reply 15

stefl14

Original post by somaiyar

Those grades are amazing, you did the whole maths A-level in a year and got 95%!

Thanks, unfortunately my GCSE's are sub-par relative to other economics applicants at the big universities. That rules out LSE and to some extent Warwick. I'm hopeful that Cambridge will look past the GCSE's to some extent though, as they place a lot of emphasis on UMS.

Reply 16

Warwick Rep

Original post by somaiyar

Hi,
we don't look at where else you have applied, or what other courses you have applied to, so it wouldn't form part of our decision making process.

Reply 17

Warwick Rep

Original post by -Illmatic-

Another question:

I've tailored my PS for the Econ and Econ History course. I was very distraught to find that it has been scrapped. Would this make me less suitable for the L100 course?

Hi,
very glad you asked this question. I cover it in a bit of detail in my "notes on applications" pdf.

We are aware that people will be applying to other universities, and other courses, which are unlikely to be identical to ours, and that you can only write one personal statement.

We're also aware that the Warwick course offers you a lot of flexibility with regards to options in 2nd and 3rd year, and that people will be interested in different areas of economics (history, development, finance, etc.) which it's possible to take as optional modules on our L100 course.

As such, as long as you are clearly interested in economics in your personal statement, we're happy for you to also discuss your passion for specific areas that we offer modules in, which you would be able to take as part of our course.

This applies very directly for Economic History this year, but also applied to other areas which we don't offer a specific course in.

We like to receive applications from talented people who want to study economics, but have a strong passion for things we offer on a more module-specific level.

Reply 18

miscellaneous123

Hello,

what are you actually looking for in a personal statement? I find that my interests lie mainly in branches of economics i.e. Behavioural economics and Game theory. Do you think I should write more about the macroeconomy and crises such as the euro crisis (which I am also interested to a lesser extent). Basically, I am asking whether you would look at what I've done unfavourably.

Thanks!

Reply 19

Warwick Rep

Original post by stefl14

Yes, in a case like this, it's always nice if your tutor / schools reference can include some information about your GCSE results, and why they think you're somebody whose AS results reflect their ability better than their GCSE's.

Your AS marks are clearly very good, so I'd encourage you to really sell them in your personal statement where possible.

On your second point, as long as your have enough A2's and AS's to make one of our 2 standard offers, that's fine.