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Most difficult course to get onto?

essygal1990

lovenlivelife

this might be wrong, but i heard that getting into the eco course at LSE was more difficult than getting into any course at oxbridge..

I would have to agree :smile:

And, management at LSE is even more competitive that pure economics with a chance of 1/23

Reply 41

_imperator_

In terms of numbers per place I imagine it varys quite a bit from year to year, also some subjects give lots of offers per place etc. Theres probably a group of subjects which are fairly similar in terms of this.
VetMed does require lots of outside stuff but as people have said its reasonably easy to get if you contact the right people.
And there are so many myths going around about how much competition there is for getting onto certain courses.

Reply 42

montyr

18

Angelil

Yeah, because "scepticising" isn't stupid at all :rolleyes:

It is in this case :wink:

Reply 43

Annaconda

17

PHKnows

iv heard vet med is the hardest, followed by med, and then oxbridge. vetmed at oxbridge is my guess :eek:

physics is definitely up there aswell. its possibly harder than med

thats not true cos lots of vets dont want to go to cambridge because it has a reputation to have a strong research emphasis, so lits of people dont wwant to go there, which although doesnt make it any easier to get into, reduces the amount of competition a bit

Reply 44

pyrogena

1

Annaconda

thats not true cos lots of vets dont want to go to cambridge because it has a reputation to have a strong research emphasis, so lits of people dont wwant to go there, which although doesnt make it any easier to get into, reduces the amount of competition a bit

True, but Cambridge has the lowest number of intakes per year...so perhaps it evens back out?

Reply 45

fabo89

10

Vet med purely because there are so few schools,something obscene like 20-25 applicants per place.Then med/dent for which there are around 10-15 applicants per place all of whom will,in the majority of cases,be of equally high standard.No other courses place more emphasis upon assessment of personality and character than these 3,thats what makes them that much harder.

good point.

vet science

Architecture is supposed to be really competitive. And when I was in Cambs, I was told Philosophy was the 3rd most competitive subject of the entire uni. So. I hadn't heard those two yet.

Reply 49

*pitseleh*

20

Most difficult science course would have to be Med/Vet Med. If my school is anything to go by, I would say Vet Med is probably a touch harder, because the numbers of pupils applying for each course are comparable (there are more applying for Medicine, but not *loads* more), yet I believe the applicants-per-place ratio favours applicants for Medicine, in this case. Which is quite harsh seeing as Medicine already had a rather terrifying applicants-per-place ratio in the first place!

I reckon the hardest arts course to get onto is probably English.

Reply 50

t kay13

12

Cooro

I've applied for English and creative writing, and it is fiercely competitive. For some of the unis I applied to, I had to send in some examples of my writing. For one of them I need 4 poems and 7 pages of prose!

Well jolly, that really is quite a lot. Ahem, Ahem, Ahem :rolleyes:

Reply 51

iolaus

6

fabo89

Vet med purely because there are so few schools,something obscene like 20-25 applicants per place.Then med/dent for which there are around 10-15 applicants per place all of whom will,in the majority of cases,be of equally high standard.No other courses place more emphasis upon assessment of personality and character than these 3,thats what makes them that much harder.

I'm surprised at those figures, midwifery actually has a higher application to place figure (when I applied 3 years ago it was 300 applicants to 10 places and that wasn't a particularly well known university for the subject - and I think it's around the same still) I would have imagined medicine etc would have been harder (but I guess it is to do with the amount of places available)

Reply 52

Boo_2

12

English is hard because its so oversubscribed everywhere. Same for English with drama courses. Bristol had 14 applicants per place last year for english/drama!

Reply 53

The Sherminator

16

Boo_2

English is hard because its so oversubscribed everywhere. Same for English with drama courses. Bristol had 14 applicants per place last year for english/drama!

That ratio isn't that much compared to the competition on other courses. Take LSE for example, the economics and management (those are the two i know about) have more than 20 applicants per seat, so obviously they are more competitive.

Reply 54

Callipygian

2

You're all talking about competitiveness in terms of how many apps per seat, but this isn't nesercerialy a good indicator. To apply to oxbridge you have to fill in extra forms etc, so unless people think they are in with a chance of getting in they won't apply there. For any other uni someone could just put it down on a whim on their UCAS form without applying early, paying the extra fee and filling in extra forms. Also, some courses are more competitive because the type of people applying are very good, so there might not be much competition but it might be REALLY good competition. I know some wannabe medics who put down economics at LSE just for a laugh at the end of their UCAS form since you are allowed to have a fith choice in a different subject. It's hard to define competitive.

Reply 55

v2006

Considering the top 6 universities for Economics have an average entry tariff score of 480-540, the competition is very intense.

Reply 56

The Sherminator

16

Callipygian

I know some wannabe medics who put down economics at LSE just for a laugh at the end of their UCAS form since you are allowed to have a fith choice in a different subject. It's hard to define competitive.

Fair enough about your other comments...
Did they happen to get in by any chance? I mean, you never know, they might have liked their logical approach :p:

Not they would have taken it if they were serious about medecine, but not a bad offer to hold.

Reply 57

essygal1990

8

Boo_2

English is hard because its so oversubscribed everywhere. Same for English with drama courses. Bristol had 14 applicants per place last year for english/drama!

That may be true, yet the quality of applicants is perhaps a better indicator. For example whilst students applying for English at Oxford may have a 1/5 chance, the students do have a stronger application overal. :smile:

Reply 58

Callipygian

2

Shrayans

Fair enough about your other comments...
Did they happen to get in by any chance? I mean, you never know, they might have liked their logical approach :p: