potential 2012 optometry applicants

Oh yeah I got the open day e-mail today. I'm not sure, it's not compulsory is it? Because I went for the open day and got to see the Optometry department and everything back in June, and I live in Greater London so travelling to Birmingham is quite a trek if I've already seen it all! Are you going?

Yeah I'm going since I missed the one back in June! (can't remember why though :P)
I live in London too I'm guessing you're gonna accept Anglia ruskin as one of your choices since its closest uni apart from city

Well I wouldn't mind going to uni as far as Birmingham or Manchester, I just want to board at the university, which is why I've been slightly put off going to City; I would either have to find expensive accomodation nearby (no thanks!) or travel to and from everyday (defo no thanks!) otherwise, City is perfect. Great uni and facilities, and it's next to Moorfields as well. But the location itself isn't ideal for me.
Whereas Anglia Ruskin is perfect in terms of location, not too far if I wanna visit home at the weekend but far enough to feel independent etc, and it's a lovely location did you go to Anglia Ruskin's open day?? I absolutely fell in LOVE with the uni. Slightly weird how just thinking about it makes me feel emotional... LOL

Haha emotional I know what you mean lol
Yeah I went to the open day and loved the campus and the city in general I was shocked at how small the classes are for optometry but I guess that's good in a way I'm definitely thinking of putting it as one of my final choices so I might end up seeing you there! lol

I know right, only 60 I think? But that means there's a much better teacher:student ratio and they're extra supportive and whatnot
What are you thinking of having as your firm and insurance choices then?

I want AR to be my firm, which means my insurance will have higher entry requirements :P so I've got till March-ish to decide which out of my A*AA or AAA offer I wanna choose as my insurance pahaha

Haha go for the A*AA just for fun I'm thinking of putting city as my firm and AR as my insurance unsure I'll meet city's offer but I'll give it a go :P lol

That sounds good what subjects are you studying atm/what are you predicted/what did you get at AS by the way?

I'm studying biology, physics and maths I got predicted A*AB ( I was two off an A in physics but they didn't predict me higher ) and at AS I got ABBBD (not good I know :P)
What about you?

Wow you're both clever and brave to be taking those subjects :P what were the other 2 subjects you took at AS?
I currently do Psychology, Biology and Physics and am predicted A*AB accordingly. At AS I got AABD (Biology A, Psychology A, English Lit B 2 marks off an A so I'm resubmitting my coursework to bump my marks up to an A hopefully, and Physics D).

My D in Physics haunts me every day I'm going to have to resit Unit 2 in Jan as well as Unit 4. What was your D in?

Haha you're quite smart there yourself lol
my other two subjects at AS were computing and general studies (so awful I got a D in it lol)
I'm resitting my bio unit 1 and physics ISA in the summer sad times :P
How you finding physics unit 4?

Yeah me too I really wanna go city as well!
By the way are you going to the Aston open day thing for optometry?

What open day is this?? Can anyone go or is it just for people that have got offers?
I REALLY want to go to aston but they haven't sent me a reply yet

Yeah I really hate how the entry requirements are practically the same for EVERY optometry uni, so there really isn't much of a back up if you have a bad day of the exam or something I mean, I was going to apply for Ophthalmic dispensing as a back up since they ask for like CCD but then I was like... is it reallyyy worth paying for 2-3 years at uni doing a foundation course to then pay for 3 more years doing optometry... when I can just take a year out and re-sit then apply again? So I'll probably end up doing that if my grades fail me :P

My City offer is A*AA but I'm confused because the City and UCAS websites have always said, and still do say, that you either need A*AA OR AAB (with at least a C at AS). And I have a B at AS so I don't understand why they've given me the "wrong" entry requirements? I've sent them an e-mail about it anyway haha.

So yeah these are my offers so far:

Anglia Ruskin - ABB (AB in Biology and Physics)
Aston - AAA (in Biology, Physics, Psychology)
City - A*AA (in any order of Biology, Physics and Psychology)

My predicted grades are
Psychology A*
Biology A
Physics B

At AS I got
Psychology A
Biology A
English Lit B (2 marks off an A so I'm resubmitting coursework to get an A in jan)
Physics D

Physics is the bane of my life :P I'm resitting the AS June module as well as the A2 Jan module after Christmas, booo!

What did you get for AS levels? And what subjects do you currently do other than Biology?

I think Bradford asks for AAB, but for all of these uni's they ask for AA in the core sciences :/ except AR

Ahahahha I feel the same, for every reassuring post I read on Student Room, about 1000 crush my soul after

Ah okay fair enough I started doing the EPQ at the beginning of year 12 but just found it way too much with my other qualifications and school responsibilities and stuff.
Are you Edexcel for physics? Unit 4 is... alright. I think I always struggled at AS because I just didn't have the "physics brain" and I was the only one in my class who didn't do Maths, so everyone else understood mechanics etc whereas I just fell further and further behind. But now I've got my offers I'm more motivated, I just need to pull my D around into a B somehow now :P Good luck with the re-sits! (what would we do without them)

Yeah same with me, I was gonna apply 4 Optometry and 1 Orthoptics... But I dont want to waster all the money on a degree, become a qualified orthoptist, then go back to do Optometry!

Yeah same with me, I was gonna apply 4 Optometry and 1 Orthoptics... But I dont want to waster all the money on a degree, become a qualified orthoptist, then go back to do Optometry!

YEAH thats true! I went to this Uni fair in exeter and I spoke to a man from city and he said about the AS thing!! But tbh why is it even A*AA??? The A* can be in anything because I asked! So theres not much point of it tbh..

I just found out today that after telling me my photography teacher would predict me an A* she actually ended up predicting me an A its like wtf is the point? I know it doesn't matter much but dont lie to my face then do something else on UCAS!??

YEAH I KNOW I really just want some admissions tutor to be like look, this girl has wanted to do optometry since she was a kid, shes got 2 years work experience lets just give her an offer with a B in bio
That would actually make my life!!

In my AS's I got:
Maths: A
Photography: A
Biology: C (like you and your physics, i'm redoing both AS modules in this)
Chemistry: C - All I was aiming for tbh, I've dropped this to focus on biology!!!

Well, considering the Orthoptics degree is paid for by the NHS it doesn't seem a bad option. If you decide you want to do a second Optom degree you'll still be able to have the funding and only one set of fees.

Yeah I know, I was just thinking if Manchester are as flexible in terms of grades like Bradford and AR. Thanks for the info anyway.. How are you finding Optometry at Manchester atm?

Lol yeah, I heard Bradford was like an informal meeting. I was thinking Manchester would take interviews more seriously. How long did your interview last? Did they ask you questions you couldn't answer? When I went to their open day, and I saw that many people wanna do Optom, I thought it's gonna get hard to get in Manchester.

Lol Woow! I rate you for getting an A in Chemistry even with a C at AS.. Chemistry is haaard! They did predict you an A for chemistry right?

I'm predicted A*AA (A* for Maths, A for Bio/Chem)