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Underachieved with my offers this year - now what?

This year, I applied to; Leeds, LSE, UCL, Bristol and Warwick, which in retrospect was really, really over ambitious. Unfortunately this year I didn’t get the offers I was hoping for, applying for Economics – I now have a decision to make – take the offer I got at Leeds or re-apply next year and hope to improve upon it.

Supposedly Leeds is not bad, and I liked the city when I went over there for an open day. I wouldn’t mind going there, but I feel that there’d always been a nagging feeling wondering if I couldn’t have done better. The risk is that I take a year out, and end up with no improvement with what I’ve got already so I would kinda like to know what my chances are.

I underestimated the importance of my PS, which led to me being a bit lazy about it and producing a bit of a rush job – something that I could certainly improve upon if I took a year out.

Although I got 9A* and 2A at GCSE, my predicted grades for A2 are also only AAA/B rather than AAA (Economics, Further Maths and History respectively) – this could be rectified though if I get AAA after the exams (Economics is in the bag, Maths is almost there, History is the tough one, got RS A at AS if that's at all relevant). Then I stupidly sent in my application REALLY late (about 4 days before the Feb deadline because I didn’t realise I had to pay…oops&#8230 :wink:

Do unis also take into account stuff like sport/drama/music – if they do, I’m in trouble, since I’m really none of those unfortunately. L

With a better PS (I know it really wasn’t that great), sending my application in on time and AAA would I have a chance of improving upon Leeds?

If so, there’s the problem of what to do on my gap year. Having not really been planning on taking one out, I left it to late to apply for any gap year programmes with the likes of Deloitte, PWC or any other program relevant to the course. I wouldn’t want to have a gap year due to wanting to improve my offers and yet not do anything in the year that would enhance my application – does the things I do during the gap year have to be totally relevant to the course or can it simply be volunteer work etc?

Looks like I’ve written an essay, sorry. :biggrin:

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Reply 1

Noémie

it wouldn't hurt to reapply and try and get investment banking work experience for a year or whatever. but leeds is still damn good.

Reply 2

sv90

In a way, if I could a work placement somewhere worthwhile it would kinda make the decision for me, because it would be useful either way. I was under the impression though that all of the opportunities had pretty much closed up by now since it's so late?

Reply 3

Noémie

i'd email every single firm you could possibly ever ever ever be able to get to for the placement and only THEN if they ALL said no would i give up, in that case.

Reply 4

Ed.

I think you can improve on your university offer.

Reply 5

sv90

Should have been clearer about 'Further Maths.' I'm doing the one with 9 modules, rather than 12 (we call it 'Double Maths' in my school).

Reply 6

prospectivEEconomist

If you were predicted AAA, then it wouldn't really it will make a huge difference if you apply to LSE/UCL/Warwick post A levels. To be honest, you should have applied to Nottingham as it has a decent economics department and isn't as picky with grades as the top 5 schools.

Reply 7

ObaMartins9

Sounds to me like you were seriously unorganised.

With top unis (like the 4 which rejected you) the PS is CRUCIAL. 90% of applicants will have AAA prediction, and most will have good GCSEs or Unis won't care that much.

You need to show you care about the subject, have wider interests and really want to study at university. If you can write a PS that REALLY does that (everyone says they have a good PS, very few do) then it may be worth reapplying.

As you say, leeds isn't bad, do you want to 'lose' a year to do something that you don't neccessarily want to do?

Reply 8

sv90

I was unorganised yes. :P Trust me, I'm kicking myself over it now.

My personal statement, reading it back, seems so...cliched. As for my gap year, it's not so much 'I don't want to do it' but I wasn't planning on one initially (based on the assumption that a lot of unis don't like them?) I'm sure I'll find something which I can do during the year which I would enjoy, it's more a case of whether it would help or hinder my application.

If you were predicted AAA, then it wouldn't really it will make a huge difference if you apply to LSE/UCL/Warwick post A levels.

Would the A/B prediction make a big difference though? I kinda thought that if a top uni looked at it, alongside the straight AAA predictions it would have been easier for them to discard it, or decide against it, even if my PS etc was on a similar level to the others (not that it likely was).

Reply 9

PorcineAviation

Reapply. Please.

Leeds is really pretty rubbish for Economics, and with 9A*s, AAB you can land a place at Durham/Bath/Nottingham, assuming you put some effort into your PS.

Reply 10

alex_hk90

sv90

Should have been clearer about 'Further Maths.' I'm doing the one with 9 modules, rather than 12 (we call it 'Double Maths' in my school).

Wouldn't that be Maths A2 and Further Maths AS?

And yes, looking at your GCSEs (which are as good as mine), you should definitely reapply next year with a better personal statement.

Reply 11

alisama

Seriously no question here, I'd reapply. With AAA or AAB and some very good GCSEs as you have you should be getting into something like Bath or Nottingham. If university reputation is what you want then those unis are quite a bit better than Leeds. Worth taking a gap year no doubt. If you get 3As then there is pretty much no university in the country that would reject you on grades (maybe LSE prefer 4 A-levels, but if you didn't have the option for instance...)

You applied to 4 out of 5 universities that require 3As with AAA/B which probably wouldn't have been to bad if you didn't apply so late. Seriously, they will have given out tonnes of offers by the time you applied...

As long as you apply again early, and have a semi-okay economics PS, I don't see why anyone will reject you (as long as you meet their A-level requirements..).

Go on a gap year, travel the world or something... you might be thankful you took the opportunity while you still can...

Reply 12

sv90

My extra-curricular stuff was almost non-existent (though I did mention some tenuous ones) :frown:

How much would that have held me back?

Leeds is really pretty rubbish for Economics, and with 9A*s, AAB you can land a place at Durham/Bath/Manchester/Nottingham, assuming you put some effort into your PS.

I knew Durham/Bath/Nottingham were decent for Economics, but never knew about Manchester?

Cheers for all the advice so far.

Reply 13

alex_hk90

sv90

My extra-curricular stuff was almost non-existent (though I did mention some tenuous ones) :frown:

How much would that have held me back?

I had very little "extra-curricular stuff" and it didn't adversely affect my application.

You've already identified the issues you had; the lateness of your application, your personal statement and the A/B prediction.
If you can fix all of these for next time then you have a chance of getting an Economics offer from anywhere. :smile:

Reply 14

YouAreWhatYouEat

naomeh is a tiger.

it wouldn't hurt to reapply and try and get investment banking work experience for a year or whatever. but leeds is still damn good.

yes b/c IB's are currently lining up around the corner to take on a-level students :rolleyes:

your best bet was accountancy big4 stuff such as KPMG and Deloitte etc but looks like you missed the boat on that

Reply 15

prospectivEEconomist

Benh842

Reapply. Please.

Leeds is really pretty rubbish for Economics, and with 9A*s, AAB you can land a place at Durham/Bath/Manchester/Nottingham, assuming you put some effort into your PS.

Is Manchester as good as the other three for economics? They only want ABB, so aren't they on par with Leeds in economics?

Reply 16

rangers_mad

Hiya mate!

I was pretty much stuck in the same situation as you this year. I applied to Oxford, LSE, Warwick, UCL and Manchester for Economics. However, I only received an offer from Manchester.

After thinking long and hard about what I really wanted to do, I decided to decline my offer from Manchester and apply to Cardiff through UCAS Extra. This way I benefit from going to an up-and-coming university, as well as getting nearly £2,000 off my tuition fees. Also I received an unconditional offer even though I haven't actually completed my A-Levels yet.

I decided that I wasn't going to re-apply next year and waste a year of my life, who's to say that those universities aren't all going to reject me again? It's entirely up to you mate, from from my perspective I would go to Leeds. League tables and rankings are somewhat important, but I believe that it's what you get out of the degree which is more important.

Go to Leeds, get a first, involve yourself in university life, and have a good time :biggrin:

All the best in your decision :biggrin:

Reply 17

Noémie

YouAreWhatYouEat

yes b/c IB's are currently lining up around the corner to take on a-level students :rolleyes:

your best bet was accountancy big4 stuff such as KPMG and Deloitte etc but looks like you missed the boat on that

oh he might as well try! don't be a spoilsport :smile:

Reply 18

PorcineAviation

sv90

My extra-curricular stuff was almost non-existent (though I did mention some tenuous ones) :frown:

How much would that have held me back?

I knew Durham/Bath/Nottingham were decent for Economics, but never knew about Manchester?

Cheers for all the advice so far.

Yeah, sorry, I hadn't meant to put Manchester. I was thinking about another thread I'd just been looking at. Manchester is in fact worse than Leeds for Econ.

I've edited my original post.

Reply 19

prospectivEEconomist

Benh842

Yeah, sorry, I hadn't meant to put Manchester. I was thinking about another thread I'd just been looking at. Manchester is in fact worse than Leeds for Econ.

I've edited my original post.

Do you think a first in economics from Nottingham would be impressive and as good as a 2:1 in economics from Warwick/UCL?