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Uni offers for French and Spanish

All the unis that I'm considering applying to seem to have pretty high offers (Oxford, Durham, Bristol, Exeter, Bath and Lancaster) so I'm a bit worried that either I might not get any offers or I might not meet the offers. Can anyone recommend a uni with slightly lower entry requirements for French and Spanish? (i.e BBC)

Reply 1

Charlie P

Hello! I got BBB/BBC offers from Edinburgh, St.Andrews, Manchester, Leeds and Nottingham. I am currently at Bristol (they asked for AAB) and I STRONGLY RECOMMEND that you don't apply if you really love your languages! Spanish is appalling and I've heard from people doing French that the department is useless. Same seems to apply for Spanish at Durham. Don't go for whichever one'll accept you - do some proper research, try and talk to students already there and go for the best course or you'll be stuck on a sub-standard course like me! :smile:

Reply 2

Ronove

Sheffield?
And eeeeew don't apply to Lancaster.

In what way is Bristol Spanish bad?

Reply 3

kellywood_5

Charlie P, you make me glad I chose Exeter over Bristol lol, although someone in the Exeter forum didn't seem too keen on the course there either :frown:

Anyway, to the OP, I really think you should stop worrying so much! :p:

With 6 A*s and 7 As at GCSE and AAAB at AS, I'm sure you'll get offers from Exeter, Bath and Lancaster at least. As for meeting them, I don't know about Bath or Lancaster, but Durham and Exeter both offer ABB and Bristol can be a bit random, but they offered me ABB for French and Spanish. I really don't see you slipping from AAA to BBB unless all your As were really low and/or you slack off next year. My lowest offers were from Sheffield (BBB) and Royal Holloway (ABC/BBB) but like I said before, I think you should just apply where you want and not worry so much.

Reply 4

lucho22

Charlie P

Hmm...Bristol is bad is it?...argh... I don't know where else to apply.. - I've also heard that Durham's Spanish dept is crap - and for me Spanish is the more important of the two. I think my second choice will either be Edinburgh or St Andrew's...Why didn't you choose either of them? I think they have a better rep for languages anywho...

Reply 5

fuglyduckling

Bristol is really great for my subjects (Italian & German). As in, amazingly good: great tutors, very close and social year group, great speakers. I suppose it depends on the department, though, as I've heard French is very anonymous.

Reply 6

Charlie P

fuglyduckling

Good point! German is amaaaaaazing. The course is varied and interesting, the tutors are fantastic and enthusiastic, all the students are friendly and if you take linguistics, biscuits are involved.
Spanish on the other hand is taken mainly by rah-type people who thought it would be an easy option. And they were sort of right. The course is more culture-based. They seem not to care about language at all. Throughout the year we only handed in 4 pieces of written Spanish and they were handed back without any constructive feedback. The additional exercises in grammar booklets take aaages to do and they are not marked (so are pointless). You get the impression that nobody in the department cares how you do. Lectures are dull and vague but you are expected to know a lot of detail in the end of year exams.
In conclusion:
German at Bristol: YES!
Spanish at Bistol: Just NO.

Reply 7

Mr. Jim

wowzer this is interesting! anyway to reiterate what kellywood said - i got worse GCSEs than you and the same AS grades but i still got an offer from cambridge and met it. i don't think you should be worrying about it too much :smile:

Reply 8

paddy

Why does everywhere seem to be so cack at Spanish? :mad:

My school was awful at Spanish as well!
Meh for me it's the less important of my two languages. If the department is rubbash then I'll just drop to single honours or go to Spain a lot (well I'm doing the second anyway).

Reply 9

lucho22

Can anyone advise me which courses are fairly traditionally based courses (ie with plenty of literature)? The Bristol one really doesn't seem for me by what people have been saying... What do people think of my choices?

Gracias amigos :smile:

Reply 10

Charlie P

Well I know that Edinburgh put a HUGE emphasis on literature, which is why I declined their offer ASAP! Bristol is awful for language but in the 1st year there is a general literature course covering all areas and the same in history. In your second/fourth years it is possible to choose all literature modules if you like. So it is fairly literaturey.

Reply 11

Angelharpist

Oh dear

Having been told that B4 isn't the place to be at Wills Hall, I'm now hearing that Brizzle is bad for languages. NOOOOOOOOOO! *sob*

Reply 12

*~vicki~*

i got a BBC offer for Kings College London and Sheffield and a BBB offer from Warwick.

Reply 13

lucho22

Charlie P

Thanks Charlie... I think it will be either Edinburgh, St Andrew's, or Durham (because it's good for French) - after Camb obviously :wink:

. I'm not very experienced in literary study..but I think it will be the most rigorous way to learn languages - which is exactly the way I want it to be :redface:

Reply 14

Winnipeg

lucho22

I haven't chosen to apply to those unis cos I'd prefer not to go to Scotland (I have nothing against Scotland or Scottish people - I just want to go to uni in England).

paddylad

Why does everywhere seem to be so cack at Spanish? :mad:

Same! My teachers at school were TERRIBLE and they're not that much better at college now :frown:

French is my priority at uni though so just as long as that side of things is good, I'll be happy.

Reply 15

Charlie P

Angelharpist

Oh dear

Having been told that B4 isn't the place to be at Wills Hall, I'm now hearing that Brizzle is bad for languages. NOOOOOOOOOO! *sob*

Don't worry! You WILL have a fabtastic time! Brizzle is a great city and you probably won't have much work to do so will be free to enjoy it. You also have your own bathroom and formals to look forward to :smile:

The French-learners all seem to be lovely people as are the vast majority of Willtonians. Sorry about the old pessimism (if that's how you spell it) - this year could be an entirely different kettle of fish!