How competitive?

Hello everyone :smile:

My cousin is applying this year for English Literature and has so far chosen Oxford, Warwick, Durham, York and St. Andrews - obviously very popular and prestigious universities. He is predicted 4 A's in English Lit & Lang, French, Politics and one other subject which I can't remember.

I have heard various stories of applicants being turned down for subjects like Medicine and Law by top universities, despite being predicted 3 or 4 A's at A Level; is this also a regular thing with English applications? My cousin is pretty confident he will get offers from all of his universities, but I have advised him to pick a uni with a lower offer in reserve - am I being too cautious?

Thanks in advance.

Reply 1

Tyler Durden

17

I would advise him to put a "safety" option as his sixth. If he wants to post his Personal Statement in the Ask A Helper forum which is here people could advise him after seeing how good it is. They are all top Universities and the vast majority of people applying will have 3 A grades (at least). Even though York's offer (for example) is only ABB in theory, I have seen people with the same predictions as your brother be turned down. English is HIGHLY competitive.

Reply 2

~Jen~

I'm pretty sure Warwick doesn't like applicants to have combined english lang&lit (don't know about the other unis) because straight english lit is preferred, so that might be a disadvantage to him.

Reply 3

silence

16

a friend of mine was in the same situation regarding grades, but only got one out of six offers. that's probably an extreme example, but i suppose english is very competitive. as said above, the best thing to do is put down a 6th choice which isn't at the very top of the league tables; leeds (my friend's only offer) and birmingham gave me offers with an aab prediction so i'd liek to think that a 3a student should have a fairly decent chance of getting offers from them.

Reply 4

hallucination

OP

1

Thanks everyone for your replies. He is thinking of putting down Newcastle or UCL as his reserve choice...is this wise? They both seem pretty high AAA-AAB. I was thinking he should go for a university with ABB.

Reply 5

Tyler Durden

17

Put it this way, if he goes with UCL he would be running the risk of not getting an offer (in my opinion). There's the issue of the lit/lang combo but mainly because of the competitive nature of the subject. There are all sorts of factors nobody seems to be sure about. Stories about chucking candidates based on a couple of poor GCSEs, chucking a candidate based on the school they're at or whatever. I'm sure they're not entirely true, but when you're getting 3000 applicants for 154 places there are always going to be worthy applicants slipping through the net. If he is happy to run the risk of not getting anything and either going through clearing or taking a year off then tell him to go for it. It's an outside chance, but it happens. You say he's confident he'll get an offer from ALL of them, I would say the chances are just as good he could miss an offer from all of them. Having said that, I expect 4 or 5 will give him an offer because he does have good grades.

Reply 6

hallucination

OP

1

englishstudent

You say he's confident he'll get an offer from ALL of them, I would say the chances are just as good he could miss an offer from all of them. Having said that, I expect 4 or 5 will give him an offer because he does have good grades.

Yes, that's exactly what I said to him - in my opinion he's slightly overconfident. I just think it's because he's always gone to a low-performing state school and has always had teachers praising him left, right and centre...if he went to a better school he may realise the competition he's against. I just don't want him to have to reapply/go through clearing. Thanks for the advice.

Reply 7

silence

16

i'm sure he 'deserves' to get into some of the competitive unis, but because of the vast numbers applying it's somewhat a lottery. it wouldn't be terribly shocking if he got offers from over 4 of them, but then again if he were unsuccessful for every university applied to, then on a one by one basis you wouldn't be able to look at their decision with much surprise at all. ucl is just as competitive (17 applicants per place) as most of the top uk unis.

also, it's not even the standard offer grades which indicate how competitive a certain uni is - i.e. edinburgh with its bbb offer was probably (numerically) more competitive than places with higher offers. in other words, the offer grades don't always have much correlation with the either type of performance the uni expects from it's successful applicants at A level or the predicted grades which most applicants have.

it's pretty important to have a decent and safe 6th option because if all offers are missed and it goes to clearing, a competitive subject like english will NOT be easy, or even possible, to find in the listings come results day.

Reply 8

Apricot Fairy

16

Tell him to give up the idea of applying to Warwick. With the combined Lit&Lang A-level it's a waste of time. They don't accept it.

Reply 9

hallucination

OP

1

susiemakemeblue

Tell him to give up the idea of applying to Warwick. With the combined Lit&Lang A-level it's a waste of time. They don't accept it.

Ok...I'll have to check that he is doing the combined course; maybe I just got it wrong. Thanks.

Reply 10

Mrs Rickman

2

I was in the same sort of position when picking unis, but i honestly couldn't find a uni with lower offers that i would really want to go to. There's no point having an insurance you wouldn't be happy at. As has been said, English is so competitive at times it's like a lottery so people are very lucky to have all six unis make them offer. HOwever, when i went to look round Exeter, they said that basically if you're predicted straight As at A2, so long as your personal statement's not completely dire, they'll make you an offer. So i should think he has a very good chance of having a few unis to choose from. :smile:

Reply 11

hallucination

OP

1

Mrs Rickman

I was in the same sort of position when picking unis, but i honestly couldn't find a uni with lower offers that i would really want to go to. There's no point having an insurance you wouldn't be happy at. As has been said, English is so competitive at times it's like a lottery so people are very lucky to have all six unis make them offer. HOwever, when i went to look round Exeter, they said that basically if you're predicted straight As at A2, so long as your personal statement's not completely dire, they'll make you an offer. So i should think he has a very good chance of having a few unis to choose from. :smile:

Thanks very much - I think he was looking at Exeter as a possibility.

Reply 12

Agrippina

15

I was rejected by three of my six university choices despite having 100% at English... it's very very competitive. I ended up declining my insurance option because I really didn't want to go there. Haven't got much else to add to what's already been said, except good luck to your cousin! :eek:

Reply 13

willst3r

Wow- I have never heard of this first hand. I'm afraid that your cousin is almost certain to be refused entry to any of these universities. You ask why?

Due to the combination of your cousins potential universities ( that create the yocryn :smile:

"S.O.W.D.Y" will, unfortunately, terminate any chance your cousin has. Think of it as in Business terms- one cannot own an ologopoly ( apart from the oligopoly commission) and in UCAS terms, one cannot take the best combinations and thus forcing other applicants out. "S.O.W.D.Y" does not exist in the public vocabulary, I used to work for UCAS ( actually only 3 months ago) but had to leave due to the rotten ethos and dirty tactics.

I'm sorry to bring this bad news,

Reply 14

dappleddawndrawndauphin

3

Extremely, not as bad as Medicine and Law though I would imagine! Your cousin does sound a little overconfident - I'm predicted 4 As in Lit, French, History and Law and I'm currently thinking along the lines of 'please let one of them give me an offer'!

Despite this, personally I wouldn't advise him to apply to a 'safe' choice unless he can genuinely imagine going there; surely you can use ucasextra, clearing or reapply if you get rejections, and it's better to aim high the first time around. But if he does like the look of a course at a uni that's not quite as competitive, it might be wise. All depends on the person, really.

Reply 15

sophieD

2

willst3r

Wow- I have never heard of this first hand. I'm afraid that your cousin is almost certain to be refused entry to any of these universities. You ask why?

Due to the combination of your cousins potential universities ( that create the yocryn :smile:

"S.O.W.D.Y" will, unfortunately, terminate any chance your cousin has. Think of it as in Business terms- one cannot own an ologopoly ( apart from the oligopoly commission) and in UCAS terms, one cannot take the best combinations and thus forcing other applicants out. "S.O.W.D.Y" does not exist in the public vocabulary, I used to work for UCAS ( actually only 3 months ago) but had to leave due to the rotten ethos and dirty tactics.

I'm sorry to bring this bad news,

lol can u say that in english please? sorry i don't have a clue what you're on about

As for the cousin...he is most likely not to get all 6 offers, as it is such a competative subject. Plus good grades don't always equate to an offer. most unis look for something different, a really interesting PS for example.

If you're cousin is expecting to walk into these places, he's setting himself up for dissapointment. Its the wrong mentality to have. There are so many applicants with top grades its hard for unis to differenciate. The best advie i can give you cousin is to read loads, ready for any interviews, and produce a truly interesting personal statement. Grades are only half the battle im afraid. its all subjective nowadays. He should really look into the courses he wants to do, so he can sound as enthusiatic as possible about the coureses, whether it be in his PS or interview.

at the end of the day though, its a lottery if you ask me! But even if he only gets one offer out of the places he's applied to, at least it'll be a place he'd like.

Reply 16

~nat~

1

*Bethany*

Extremely, not as bad as Medicine and Law though I would imagine! Your cousin does sound a little overconfident - I'm predicted 4 As in Lit, French, History and Law and I'm currently thinking along the lines of 'please let one of them give me an offer'!

Despite this, personally I wouldn't advise him to apply to a 'safe' choice unless he can genuinely imagine going there; surely you can use ucasextra, clearing or reapply if you get rejections, and it's better to aim high the first time around. But if he does like the look of a course at a uni that's not quite as competitive, it might be wise. All depends on the person, really.

I heard that English is now the most competitive course, closely followed by History, Law and Medicine!

sophied - I completely agree! You should apply for English with rejection in mind. I'd be surprised that, unless an exceptional candidate, someone received all 6 offers from top unis. It's not impossible, but nowadays it's rare.

Reply 17

sophieD

2

~nat~

sophied - I completely agree! You should apply for English with rejection in mind. I'd be surprised that, unless an exceptional candidate, someone received all 6 offers from top unis. It's not impossible, but nowadays it's rare.

yeah! plus if u have 6 offers is harder to choose! Rejections make decisions easier! lol
I mean, its quite sad getting a rejection, but its just the way it is. It's not worth getting upset over. i mean, just do what i did, and say "well i didnt want to go there anyway!"

Reply 18

~nat~

1

sophieD

yeah! plus if u have 6 offers is harder to choose! Rejections make decisions easier! lol
I mean, its quite sad getting a rejection, but its just the way it is. It's not worth getting upset over. i mean, just do what i did, and say "well i didnt want to go there anyway!"