do i have a realistic chance of russel group offers??

I got ABDD at AS, I've dropped one D and am re-sitting the other so I should end up with ABC. My target grades will be AAC for next year I think.
I want to apply for politics at Newcastle, Liverpool, Birmingham and Sheffield, all of which ask for minimum ABB, would these be a waste of my applications are they realistically going to give me offers??

Reply 1

pencil_case

You have a chance, but you may want to apply to one or two non-russell group unis just in case.

You can always call up the uni just to be sure :smile:

Reply 2

CallMeBatwoman

I applied with ABDE (dropped the E) and got 5 offers, just apply smart with your choices, though to be fair I did only apply for York as my russel group as a gamble with 4 'safer' options (Hull, Keele, Coventry and Bangor), but I got my offer for psychology, which has 1000+ applicants for 200 places apparently. The only issue you may have is realistically I woudln't advise applying to anywhere with predicted grades lower than the entry requirements as they may well just throw your application in the bin for competitive courses. Try and see if you can be predicted the B you need to apply in the subject you got a D in, I got B predicted because my teacher knew me well and knew I had a few issues the previous year which affected my performance. But see if you can persuade your staff that you're going to work for that B.

My advice would be go for it, but I wouldn't put 4 of your choices as russel groups, maybe 2 or 3 safer options is best; not going to a russel group, contrary to what you might hear on here, is not the end of the world!

Reply 3

dragonkeeper999

I suggest you get in touch with the admissions departments of those universities and ask if they would consider AAC instead of ABB - UCAS points wise they are "equivalent" but not many top universities use UCAS points and may be more strict on the grades. I believe that the government has removed the cap on student numbers below ABB now though (someone correct me on this if I'm wrong) so they may be more flexible than in previous years.

Some universities have so many applicants that they can afford to just chuck in the bin any applications which don't easily match their criteria - but others may be more willing to consider your grades in light of the other aspects of your application, so make sure your personal statement is good :smile:

When I went to an open day at Bath uni, they said that for my course (Natural Sciences) they gave offers to pretty much everyone who was predicted the required grades, knowing that there were several other universities in the same league offering the same course so only a small proportion of those who applied would actually accept the offer. Universities will use statistics from previous years to predict student numbers and will usually over-offer (often massively - see CallMeBatwoman's post above) to ensure they have the correct number of students arriving in September without having to take too many through Clearing.

If you look on unistats you can see the entrance UCAS points for each of your courses - which could indicate how willing they are to accept students with grades a bit below their standard entrance requirements. I'm sure there was a website somewhere where you could see what proportion of applicants receive offers - but I can't seem to find it :frown:

Bear in mind that you will eventually have to attend one of these universities, so don't just base your decision on statistics! If there is a university you really love which is asking for slightly higher entrance requirements, it's still worth applying just in case - but make sure you also have a couple of 'insurance' choices with lower grades which you would also be happy going to.

Reply 4

fjtc

Original post by dragonkeeper999

Thanks for the help everyone!! i looked on unistats and for my course average UCAS points it says 410 which seems quite low, I already have 170 UCAS points from my AS's, so I would only need 240 which is BCC??

Reply 5

dragonkeeper999

Original post by fjtc

If you continue with an AS to an A2, you can't count the UCAS points from that AS :smile:

Therefore, you would be carrying forward 30 UCAS points from your D - and so need 380 further points (A*AA) from your A2s.

However, it sounds like you have been looking at the AVERAGE UCAS points - have a look at the minimum to get an idea of the lowest grades they will accept. One or two students with particularly low grades may just indicate people they have made exceptions for due to extenuating circumstances, but if they are letting in a significant number of people with lower grades than those stated as their entrance requirements on their website, then it may indicate they are more flexible.