Are my uni choices too ambitious for applying for History?

I've read in many places that applying for uni you should have 1 'ambitious' choice, 2/3 realistic choices and 1/2 insurance choices, so as to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.

Saying this, at the moment my top five are:

Oxford (AAA)
Durham (A*AA)
Bristol (A*AA)
Exeter (AAB)
Royal Holloway (ABB)

I got 4As in History, Eng Lit, Spanish and Psychology at AS, however UMS-wise my results were mostly middling As (except from Psychology, ironically the subject I'm dropping which was a 96% average). I don't know my predicted grades yet and unsure of what they'd be.

I know Oxford and Durham are notorious to get into for History and that Bristol's History requirements are also high...am I being too ambitious? Should I try to look at other unis with AAA/AAB requirements? How difficult is it to get an A* at A Level compared to getting an A at AS?

Thank you so much!

I've read in many places that applying for uni you should have 1 'ambitious' choice, 2/3 realistic choices and 1/2 insurance choices, so as to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.

Saying this, at the moment my top five are:

Oxford (AAA)
Durham (A*AA)
Bristol (A*AA)
Exeter (AAB)
Royal Holloway (ABB)

I got 4As in History, Eng Lit, Spanish and Psychology at AS, however UMS-wise my results were mostly middling As (except from Psychology, ironically the subject I'm dropping which was a 96% average). I don't know my predicted grades yet and unsure of what they'd be.

I know Oxford and Durham are notorious to get into for History and that Bristol's History requirements are also high...am I being too ambitious? Should I try to look at other unis with AAA/AAB requirements? How difficult is it to get an A* at A Level compared to getting an A at AS?

Thank you so much!

I've read in many places that applying for uni you should have 1 'ambitious' choice, 2/3 realistic choices and 1/2 insurance choices, so as to avoid putting all your eggs in one basket.

Saying this, at the moment my top five are:

Oxford (AAA)
Durham (A*AA)
Bristol (A*AA)
Exeter (AAB)
Royal Holloway (ABB)

I got 4As in History, Eng Lit, Spanish and Psychology at AS, however UMS-wise my results were mostly middling As (except from Psychology, ironically the subject I'm dropping which was a 96% average). I don't know my predicted grades yet and unsure of what they'd be.

I know Oxford and Durham are notorious to get into for History and that Bristol's History requirements are also high...am I being too ambitious? Should I try to look at other unis with AAA/AAB requirements? How difficult is it to get an A* at A Level compared to getting an A at AS?

Thank you so much!

I've never believed in Bristol and Durham's entry requirements. Always boosted up a bit. I suspect there's wiggle room there.

In my experience, fewer people got A*s in arts subjects. Of course, very small sample size. In sciences, with more focused work around exam time, it's not that hard.

Arts are different and, to be honest, I have no idea.


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Im assuming you would put Oxford/Durham as your firm and Royal Holloway as your insurance? I'm sure you'd get in!

I've seen some TSRers have their insurance at AAA and their firm at A*AA which I find extremely risky. I would have a look to see what offers you would be getting at all of them (online prospectuses aren't reliable, check forums) because you wouldn't want to be stuck with very similar offers.

i got an offer from exeter( for history) with a BCCE in AS, believe me they only really care about your history alevels.

That's exactly my plan! Well assumed Oxford is my dream uni in every way however if I don't get an offer I'd still be more than happy with Durham. Then I feel Royal Holloway is a lovely insurance choice that I would feel quite calm about getting into no matter what.

I'll have a look at some forums, thank you for the advice!

That's good to know! I'm visiting on Saturday. If you don't mind me asking, what was the offer that they gave you?

I kinda wish I had know about looking around first because my ambitious choice bumped up their grades which was 100% unattainable then my insurance bumped theirs up. I felt like my ambitious choice was a waste of an option when I received the offer!! In the end the place that I firmed and my original insurance was the same grades so I had to use my back up insurance. Thankfully I got into my firm (but not ambitious choice)

As long as you are not totally unrealistic, better try to get into a course/university which you really like and as long as you have insurances you like, no need to drop ambitions. In the end, I think a gap year is more useful than spending three years at a university, you don't like, but have taken, because it was said, that would be realistic. You are not that far away from excellant grades, so no need to take it for granted, there is no space left to get better.

AAB, but my friend had a conditional offer for AAA. it varys based on your academic performance,

ps do you know what you plan on doing after history?

Yeah I suppose if I don't apply, I'll never know! Better off with a couple of rejections than aiming lower than I could've achieved I guess.

And thank you very much! I am very happy with my AS grades, results day was fantastic. I just know realistically that A2 is going to be difficult next year (in a couple of days when I think about it!) and I don't know my chances of getting an A*.

Just work hard and make sure, the universities, you choose, are what you want. Then you will do fine.

Oh no! Hopefully the ones I'm looking at won't up their grades..well done on getting into your firm choice though! Where do/did you go?

They look fine! My three AS grades were AAA in history business sociology and I'm doing the EPQ next year as a fourth , I plan to apply to these universities

Bristol A*AA
Warwick AAAC
Kings College London AAA
Southampton AAB
Royal Holloway AAB

Do these look ok choices?

I would go with an insurance choice that is ABB.

My predicted grades will be A*AA-A*A*A though and I feel pretty comfortable with being 29 marks 24 marks and 46 marks into an A respectively so the chances of me going Down two grades is pretty low