Is Cardiff Uni really hard to get into?

Stated entry requirements =/= actual entry requirements.

Reply 3

OP

Original post by Notoriety

Stated entry requirements =/= actual entry requirements.

Sorry, I'm confused could you explain this? Again, I'm only in year 12 and have no older siblings or cousins so don't know much

Reply 4

MidgetFever

I applied for Cardiff a couple of years back, I've heard they're quite lenient with grade boundaries. Though there's other considerations to take into account, the competitiveness of your course for example.

Reply 5

OP

Original post by kurro

My course at Cardiff is ABB too and I had BBC at AS, still got an offer for BBB though.
You just need to have a strong personal statement, make sure you do 'supercurricular' activities regarding your course but that goes for any 'good' university.

They might give you a contextual offer because of the area you live or your school too. (Hence the ABB dropping to BBB and is in Swansea too lol)

Thanks so much for the reply! Would you mind explaining the contextual offer? I'm a little confused :smile:

Reply 6

Themysticalegg

Universities Forum Helper

Nice

I'm at Swansea University (Whoops just noticed I went into the Cardiff University thread please no one crucify me. :laugh:

) and I've attended Cardiff many times for lectures, very lovely university. What course are you applying for? I can get some unistats on entry requirements for it just to give you an idea on leniency.

Original post by dumbass1424

I'm still only in year 12 but Cardiff Uni is and has always been my first choice for university. The rentru requirements for the course I like the look of is ABB, Which I think I should be able to get, although I doubt I will get much higher than that. I want to know if with the correct grades, is Cardiff a very hard uni to get into? I'm worried because I don't have many other options that I like yet and I really want to go to Cardiff :smile:

I live in Swansea by the way.

Reply 7

mnot

20

Original post by dumbass1424

I'm still only in year 12 but Cardiff Uni is and has always been my first choice for university. The rentru requirements for the course I like the look of is ABB, Which I think I should be able to get, although I doubt I will get much higher than that. I want to know if with the correct grades, is Cardiff a very hard uni to get into? I'm worried because I don't have many other options that I like yet and I really want to go to Cardiff :smile:

I live in Swansea by the way.

I doubt it, their offer rate across the whole Uni is 80%... and normally a good chunk of the non-offers are for people who apply without the correct prerequisites/ wrong course to match application.

I would say they probably aren't even strict on grades i only know of 1 person whos gone their but they got Bs & Cs at a-level on a course advertised as AAB/ABB...

I suspect if you are even reasonably close on predicted grades you'll get an offer, and if u miss by a grade or 2 u still have a decent chance. There just advertising higher grades in an attempt to compete with more prestigious/competitive Unis (this practice has become common place & UCAS does nothing to hold unis accountable)

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Themysticalegg

Nice

I'm at Swansea University (Whoops just noticed I went into the Cardiff University thread please no one crucify me. :laugh:

) and I've attended Cardiff many times for lectures, very lovely university. What course are you applying for? I can get some unistats on entry requirements for it just to give you an idea on leniency.

I won't be applying for a couple of months yet, because I just finished my AS exams. I've been looking at the Journalism, media and English lit. course, or just English lit. :smile:

Reply 9

Themysticalegg

Journalism, Media and English Literature:
Most common A-levels studied and grade achieved according to Which is BBB. According to Unistats 15% got grades lower than ABB.

https://university.which.co.uk/cardiff-university-c15/courses/journalism-media-and-english-literature-ba-hons-2019-b89ff29cc2d1
https://unistats.ac.uk/subjects/entry/10007814FT-UFBAJRMAELTA/ReturnTo/

English Literature:
Most common A-levels studied and grade achieved according to Which is BBB. According to Unistats 27% got grades lower than ABB.
https://unistats.ac.uk/subjects/entry/10007814FT-UFBAELTA/ReturnTo/
https://university.which.co.uk/cardiff-university-c15/courses/english-literature-ba-hons-2019-cf471786fa6a

Hope that helps. :smile:

It suggests there is some leniency.

Original post by dumbass1424

I won't be applying for a couple of months yet, because I just finished my AS exams. I've been looking at the Journalism, media and English lit. course, or just English lit. :smile:

Reply 10

Notoriety

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by dumbass1424

Sorry, I'm confused could you explain this? Again, I'm only in year 12 and have no older siblings or cousins so don't know much

The grades they have on the site might not be the grades they actually require. E.g. you could get in an ABB course with BBC and this could be so routine as to be their actual entry requirements.

Reply 11

mnot

20

Original post by Notoriety

The grades they have on the site might not be the grades they actually require. E.g. you could get in an ABB course with BBC and this could be so routine as to be their actual entry requirements.

Yep a quick look at the stats shows the average student (not bottom 1/3rd or lower quartile) but the average student at Cardiff achieves lower than the entry requirements, which shows they are completely bogus as their just arbitrary grades they put on their website as they want to look better, UCAS should really crack down on this but they have never made any attempt to, unfortunately students every year get mislead, way too many Unis are involved in this behaviour.

Several years ago the Nottingham physics department did a great video, this issue is briefly discussed as a side topic in the vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvvF7-5SIJ8

Reply 12

Notoriety

Original post by mnot

Several years ago the Nottingham physics department did a great video, this issue is briefly discussed as a side topic in the vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvvF7-5SIJ8

That's so weird. I randomly rewatched this vid about 2 hours ago. I remember watching it when it first came out 6 years ago!

Reply 13

Themysticalegg

Universities Forum Helper

I watched it a week ago! Very relevant still.

Original post by Notoriety

That's so weird. I randomly rewatched this vid about 2 hours ago. I remember watching it when it first came out 6 years ago!

Reply 14

mnot

20

Original post by Notoriety

That's so weird. I randomly rewatched this vid about 2 hours ago. I remember watching it when it first came out 6 years ago!

its a great video & still so relevant, every year 12 student should watch it before they start exploring the ucas process

Reply 15

username2871748

18

For journalism the range is ABB-BBB and they may give you BBB (they sometimes go even lower) as the offer due to where your school is located/where you live. I too live in Swansea and they must have given me the contextual offer because my sixth form is in a rough area. Or something like that, you can probably check Cardiff uni website for contextual offers to see if you are applicable.

Original post by dumbass1424

Thanks so much for the reply! Would you mind explaining the contextual offer? I'm a little confused :smile:

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 16

OP

Original post by kurro

For journalism the range is ABB-BBB and they may give you BBB (they sometimes go even lower) as the offer due to where your school is located/where you live. I too live in Swansea and they must have given me the contextual offer because my sixth form is in a rough area.

I go to Olchfa, which isn't exceptionally rough so I don't know if I'll get anything there. The most annoying thing for me is that I can't get funding because my parents technically get the right income, but I'm a triplet so they obviously don't have enough for all three of us at the same time, so we all have to pay all of it through loans 😅 I'm a little worried about the debt

Reply 17

DAMIANLANGFORD

13

Just get A*A*A* and go to oxford

Reply 18

username2871748

18

Olchfa's a pretty nice area, I used to live 2 mins away a few years ago lol
But I think they also take into consideration where you actually live too.

About the loans: (if you are confused about how much you get)
Tuition fees is around £9000-9250 per year (forgot which but £9250 is the max) and we all get loans for that so your parents won't have to pay. You will just have to pay that back once you get a job more than £25k per year. You won't see this money, it will go straight to the uni you just need to apply for this stuff next February/March. But a few years back the Welsh government paid about half I think but now that's not the case for us :/

But for the grants/maintenance loans, if they don't change the rules again then everyone can get £9k in total each year to help pay for accommodation, food, etc (£3k will be given to us each term so we don't overspend) The grant and the maintenance loan together make up the £9k, but depending on your parents income you will get a certain amount to keep for free and you don't have to pay that back (that is the grant), the rest is the maintenance loan which makes up the rest of the £9k which you will have to pay back once you get a job earning more than £25k per year. (At least I think it is 25k, might be 23/24 sorry can't remember haha)

Yes this will make us in huge debt, but we will somehow have to manage.

I found this from the student loan repayment website:
For example, if you are paid monthly and earn £2,400 before tax per month you would repay 9% of the difference between what you earn and what the threshold is:

£2,400 - £2,143 = £257

9% of £257 = £28

So your monthly student loan repayment would be £23.

Hopefully, this makes sense. Not good at explanations :/

Original post by dumbass1424

I go to Olchfa, which isn't exceptionally rough so I don't know if I'll get anything there. The most annoying thing for me is that I can't get funding because my parents technically get the right income, but I'm a triplet so they obviously don't have enough for all three of us at the same time, so we all have to pay all of it through loans 😅 I'm a little worried about the debt

Reply 19

Realitysreflexx