The Student Room Group

Austrian "Reifepruefung"

Hi! I'm Carina, I'm 18, I'm from Austria and currently working in America as Au Pair. Adopting english as my everyday-language, I had the crazy idea to study in an english-speaking country. Well, I don't have a lot of money, I love GB, so I thought Scotland would be a good choice. There are four universities I really like: St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow. I want to study ancient history / biblical studies / art history / archeology.

Well, I never thought about even going to America, I thought I'll stay in Austria and study in Vienna, where we don't have requirements for those subjects, so my school-leaving-university-entrance-marks are not really that good.
Got a 1 in Religion, 1 in Music (parts of the exam in english), 2 in German, 2 in English, 3 in Psychology and Philosophy and a 4 in Maths.
These are just the marks for the university entrance. I've 17 more marks for finishing my last school year - is anybody interested in them, do I need to write them down at my UCAS application?

And do I need to write down at my "educational" part that I attended a school for music (1-3 hours each week for 10 years). Also at the educational part, do I need to write down that I attended some classes at universities here in America, or do I write these stuff in my personal statement?

At least, do I even have a chance to be accepted to a scottish university with my marks? (I don't really understand the homepages of most of the unis - st andrews eg says, I need an average of 2.0 or better, but also that I'd need at least a 3 in maths (for ancient history?))

Thanks for your help! :smile:
Reply 1
Write any academic qualification you've gained on your UCAS form, anything that you didn't get a qualification from but think you gained relevant experience from put on your personal statement :smile:.
If you stuck on entry requirements i would email the universities themselves to enquire about it.
Reply 2
Original post by Shelly_x
Write any academic qualification you've gained on your UCAS form, anything that you didn't get a qualification from but think you gained relevant experience from put on your personal statement :smile:.

Thanks :smile: I didn't understand it because you're also able to pick "no formal qualifications" so I wasn't sure if I should put the uni classes there ( which I'm taking for fun), because I'd count this anyway as "education" (even without getting a qualification for it).
Original post by gini1

Original post by gini1
At least, do I even have a chance to be accepted to a scottish university with my marks? (I don't really understand the homepages of most of the unis - st andrews eg says, I need an average of 2.0 or better, but also that I'd need at least a 3 in maths (for ancient history?))


You won't get an offer if you do not meet ALL of the entrance requirements. Both Edinburgh and St Andrews want a 2.0 average, do you have that? (I'm not sure if your subjects take equal weighting or not) as these are the minimum minimum grades required for entrance. Edinburgh state that since 2008 most students they have accepted have a 1 in the majority of subjects, which you do not have.

http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/international/country/europe-russia/austria/austrian-quals

If St Andrews want you to have certain scores in certain subjects and you do not have them, then you'll need to reconsider your choices. The universities you're considering are the best universities in Scotland and generally only accept students with the highest grades. Have you looked at places such as Dundee, Stirling and Strathclyde?
Reply 4
Original post by oxymoronic

If St Andrews want you to have certain scores in certain subjects and you do not have them, then you'll need to reconsider your choices. The universities you're considering are the best universities in Scotland and generally only accept students with the highest grades. Have you looked at places such as Dundee, Stirling and Strathclyde?


I know that they are the best and that's not why I chose them - they offer the subjects I'd like to study. I found one course at Stirling that I'd also like, where the requirements are much lower than even my (admittedly bad) marks, but it's not the same, as it's a different course. Guess, maybe I should cross out St. Andrews and Edinburgh and add Stirling anyway.

By the way thanks for being honest, although I knew already that my chances are lower than low :smile: It's too bad, I never thought about studying abroad, so I didn't learn a lot for my marks -.- my fault, I don't need to complain about that. grr, I'd have a lot of voluntary work and extracurricular education to show, which I guess won't count at all, as my marks are not good enough...
Original post by gini1

Original post by gini1
I know that they are the best and that's not why I chose them - they offer the subjects I'd like to study. I found one course at Stirling that I'd also like, where the requirements are much lower than even my (admittedly bad) marks, but it's not the same, as it's a different course. Guess, maybe I should cross out St. Andrews and Edinburgh and add Stirling anyway.

By the way thanks for being honest, although I knew already that my chances are lower than low :smile: It's too bad, I never thought about studying abroad, so I didn't learn a lot for my marks -.- my fault, I don't need to complain about that. grr, I'd have a lot of voluntary work and extracurricular education to show, which I guess won't count at all, as my marks are not good enough...


As I said before, what is your actual average? As if you have a 2.0 or higher then you meet the minimum entry requirements (although as you've said you do not for St Andrews due to maths, you'll have to check with Edinburgh) so you can apply, just be aware that applicants are generally expected to have achieved much higher than the minimum requirements so this means you need to have a range of universities. Pick say, 2 such as Edinburgh/Glasgow/Aberdeen and then pick 3 more other universities with lower entrance requirements.

Scottish degrees are generally very flexible so even if the university doesn't offer the exact combination of subjects you want to study, if they offer modules in other courses you'd like to take you might be able to do so :smile:
Reply 6
Original post by oxymoronic
As I said before, what is your actual average? As if you have a 2.0 or higher then you meet the minimum entry requirements (although as you've said you do not for St Andrews due to maths, you'll have to check with Edinburgh) so you can apply, just be aware that applicants are generally expected to have achieved much higher than the minimum requirements so this means you need to have a range of universities. Pick say, 2 such as Edinburgh/Glasgow/Aberdeen and then pick 3 more other universities with lower entrance requirements.


I guess all my marks count the same, even if I had to do more in Music and English. And as I'm sure that I need to give all 6 marks (they'll want my certificate someday), my average is 2.167. :frown:
Original post by gini1

Original post by gini1
I guess all my marks count the same, even if I had to do more in Music and English. And as I'm sure that I need to give all 6 marks (they'll want my certificate someday), my average is 2.167. :frown:


Yes, you'll have to provide all of your marks for every subject. They will want to see your certificate either when you accept the offer or at matriculation when you start the university.

I'd say 2.167 probably equates to BBC then at A level or BBBC at Higher. There are plenty of Scottish universities open to you with those grades, even more if you look at universities in the rest of the UK although I realise you might not want to do this due to the tuition fee differences.
Reply 8
Original post by oxymoronic
Yes, you'll have to provide all of your marks for every subject. They will want to see your certificate either when you accept the offer or at matriculation when you start the university.

I'd say 2.167 probably equates to BBC then at A level or BBBC at Higher. There are plenty of Scottish universities open to you with those grades, even more if you look at universities in the rest of the UK although I realise you might not want to do this due to the tuition fee differences.


I know, it's just that they don't offer exactly that, what I want. Well, maybe I should start to study at home, try to get really good marks and apply next year to start at 2nd year. Think I read that something like that's possible.

Thank you a lot, you've helped me a lot :smile:

Latest

Trending

Trending