University of Edinburgh

Unexplainable Edinburgh rejection

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Reply 20

Terrafire

I can't explain Edinburgh at all... I got a BBB offer for Law... and I can't think of anywhere that does that!

University of Edinburgh

Reply 21

grammar_king

Jussterr

We're both Chinese nationals though, so maybe that comes into account too? I know that universities do like to have a certain number of internationals as it means funding. (We pay about 8 times more than EU or UK residents.)

I thought the way it worked was that the university gets the same amount for every student, it's just that British students are subsidised somewhat by the government, and Scottish students moreso? Maybe I'm wrong, but if I'm not then surely the university would just accept every foreign student that applied?

Reply 22

lukeyboy

I haven't been on TSR in ages, but waiting for a bus in Vietnam does cause one to procrastinate, however, i had a similar situation last year and believe i can be of some help.

When i applied to Edinburgh, i was rejected in the first instance, and as this was the only uni i really wanted to attend i requested some feedback on my application. They told me that the reason was my lack of a language pass at GCSE.

This was a rather infuriating decision, as the very reason i didn't take a language at GCSE was that the poor manchester school i attended couldn't afford to build a language block - thus only 30 students could take the subject.

I wrote Edinburgh a vociferous e-mail to voice my anger at their plainly discriminatory policy - and got in. I've never attended public school, was predicted 4 A's, and still got rejected by an arbitrary requirement. I'm quite sure that due to the volume of applications Ed receives, it has these rubrics purely to reduce the number of applications - so the admissions officers can really examine the personal statements of those that are submitted. In my correspondance with the dean of admissions (i think, or head of UG admissions) Lisa Kendall, she explained to me that the personal statement is one of the most important aspects of the application - more important than grades. Low grades (eg BBB for english literature) are only accepted in exceptional circumstances, not merely for coming from a state school but having other factors which hampered your exam performance. The BBB grade is there to widen accessibility upon consideration of other factors, however an average student such as myself (i.e having no majorly adverse situations during my education) should have 3 A's for a high demand course such as politics, philosophy, law, english lit, history etc. This is a minimum requirement for 90% of students, not an entrance guarantee. Your extra curricular background and personal statement really are the deciding factors, as most of the serious applicants to the high demand humanities will have A's, and though the system may be flawed, they can only then accept and reject on the basis of personal statement. Though you said your statement was the best the school had seen in ages, this is opinion. What one person sees as confidence, another may view as arrogance, what one may deem appropriate experience another may deem irrelevant. No rejection is unexplainable, but don't take it to heart.

This issue seems to come up again and again with Edinburgh, but i have found in my experience that they do not discriminate against public school students negatively, nor comprehensive school students positively. They consider each application on the whole and of its own merits. I too was rejected, and i do think that they let me in because of the initiative i demonstrated, not purely on the merits of my application. If you really wanted to go to Edinburgh, i suggest you take a similar path and request feedback - then challenge it. Another TSR member has been successful in this manner, as it was him who advised me to take the 'challenge the university' course of action, a search of the forum should show the post (too lazy to look :P).

I hope this is helpful for any unsuccessful applicants.

Reply 23

grammar_king

Ginsberg

I have been told that Edinburgh give BBB offers to make things comfortable for their potential students because they are already sure that they want them, regardless of the grades they get. However, in order for them to want you and give you an offer, you need to be very strong academically and have predictions and AS's which are much, much higher than the three B offer. I'm told that people who are predicted BBB wont even come close to getting an offer.

Atleast that's what I like to believe to justify turning down Durham and Warwick in order to go to Edinburgh.

I've heard this too but that raises some questions.

Every university gives more offers than it can possibly accommodate, obviously because at least some offers will get rejected and other conditional offers won't be reached. If the offers that are given out are often below the expected grades of the students they're given to, and they've given low offers to expectedly high results students, then they could surely have much more applicants than places! Therefore, if you reach your offer (in my case BBB), then you're still not guaranteed a place. I suppose this applies to all universities really. Makes me wonder how they sort it out.

Reply 24

arod

on the web site they list the number of applicants and number successful for each degree

Reply 25

ILoveComplexNumbers

grammar_king

I think a lot of people will put Edinburgh as their insurance. Even if they prefer Edinburgh I think a lot of people will assume they must put their AAA offer as firm and BBB as insurance - the other way round wouldn't make any sense.

Reply 26

grammar_king

Yeah, I was in a stranger situation because my two favourite offers (Leeds and Edinburgh) were both BBB offers, so I couldn't put one as my insurance. Instead I put my lowest offer, Liverpool BBC, as my insurance.

Reply 27

bodgery

'Unexplainable'?? If your grammar was as poor as that in your PS, fair enough really.

My rejection was inexplicable. B*****ds.

Reply 28

ILoveComplexNumbers

grammar_king

Well you could of. Even though they were the same grades if you got, say, ABC, and Ed rejects you, Leeds may have a different policy/spaces left and would take you. But to be on the safer side you're probably best of putting something that's a grade down.

Reply 29

grammar_king

That's true, didn't look at it that way.

Reply 30

asattar9

Whoever got rejected was unlucky as in my class this guy with zero a'z at GCSE and all retakes at AS and still a bunch of C'z,D'z,E'z holds a BBB offer for Economics..and another one who had good GCSE's but really bad AS level grades has only one offer which is also Edinburgh ..also they have offers for 2nd year entry if they get higher grades (A'z) which is quite shocking actually.

Reply 31

Agamemnon

cabeca

im the same but for english. I emailed them asking why, to cut a long story short they told me there were "other factors" apart from academic acheivement, these are them.... (Get ready for postive discrimination at is most extreme! :mad:

)

see attachment

Hmm... I had a look at the attachment. I was suprised at d), It's voluntary to put your parents' occupation and I didn't think the university saw it, but rather that UCAS uses that information to compile statistics about the amount of people from a working class background going to university. This means that if your parents are in a degree-level job it's in your interest not to mention it on the UCAS form?

EDIT - I've just checked, it's not voluntary, although, perhaps it was before? (You can put your own occupation down if you are not in full-time education any more - e.g. apply during your gap year.)