OK so I have a bit of a problem regarding my insurance

I might be wrong, but people who have studied Philosophy are generally seen as people who can "think" and that is a plus for future job applications...


Then again, American History is very interesting, the question is, "do you want to go to USA/Canada/Australia for a year?"

First, wait until you have all your offers.

Then, ignore grades. Choose where you most want to go as your firm, and your 2nd favourite as your insurance. Some unis will be more lenient than others, and you may get offered an alternative course then.

First, wait until you have all your offers.

Then, ignore grades. Choose where you most want to go as your firm, and your 2nd favourite as your insurance. Some unis will be more lenient than others, and you may get offered an alternative course then.

Instead of deciding "I want to go to UEA" work the other way around and actually consider these courses carefully - regardless of the amount of ducks, lakes and pretty things the UEA campus throws at you if you're on a course you don't enjoy then you won't be loving the the university.

If you want to do history it seems incredibly silly to opt for a philosophy course. If you take this one only 33% of your time will actually be spent doing history meaning given you've gone to the effort of changing your courses etc it is rather ironic if you go to a university and don't actually study history. The other course UEA have offered you does seem more applicable but you will have to read into it more and consider things such as do you actually want to go on a year abroad? If you don't want to and don't want to do a 4 year degree then there is little point accepting this offer. Similarly, look at the course information online - this degree will mean you're specialising in specific aspects of history so are you okay with this or would you be put out that you're not also studying Russian history, or somewhere else in the world? I envisage that within this course you will touch on the relations with Russia, particularly during the Cold War meaning you will still include Russian history in your work and you could do your dissertation etc on this topic. But you will have to look at the course information and check it out.

For both of these cases consider the course properly - if they weren't at UEA would you still be jumping at the chance to study philosophy with history? Probably not is the impression I get from this.

Similarly, as has been said - if Birmingham and Sussex are your favourites why not have one for your firm and another for your insurance? Your insurance doesn't have to be lower grades, it can be higher and many people have been rejected from their firm on results day but accepted to their insurance choice. Your insurance should be your second favourite not the one which only makes sense from a grades perspective as you actually have to go and live there for 3 or 4 years.

I don't think that I would like to take that risk to be honest, especially with the cuts that Universities are facing this year. Birmingham would definitely be my firm (they will offer AAB or ABB if they do give me an offer). Then Sussex and UEA are literally joint second favourite, I would honestly struggle choosing between them if they offered the same grades. However, Sussex's offer is AAB and UEA's will be BBB. I may not have originally intended on studying Philosophy, but the degree is split 50:50 (I don't understand how you got only 33% being History...) and I'm allowed to put more of an emphasis on History if I want to in my second and third years. Plus, Philosophy does sound very interesting and is apparently very beneficial for Journalism. I also have the opportunity of going abroad for a semester, which is also something I would like to do. Plus, if I really don't like Philosophy, I'm sure I'd be allowed to change to straight History if I'm performing well in my History modules!

If it is with history, which is what you've written it means its weighted 2:1 in favour of history. If it were 50/50 it'd be philosophy and history, whereas given you've written philosophy with history this means the emphasis is on philosophy. With regards to changing to straight history if you didn't like it, I would check this out with them - if you're doing a "with" degree it is highly unlikely you'll be able to swap because you won't have done enough modules in the relevant subjects as your degree is weighted towards philosophy. Similarly, even with joint honours it can be difficult to change to single honours as you'll only have done half of the course content the single honours people will have covered.

It sounds like you've got a plan sorted out which is good, but I would encourage you to properly look into the courses before making decisions as otherwise you might find you can't do something you want in the future