University application statistics

hello all you admissions tutors out there.

we had a little talk about next year the other day, and the director of studies said something like
the number of applications has gone down a lot (60,000 to 40,000) since AS levels were introduced,
and the number which are successful has risen quite a lot too. That's for maths (at imperial).

I thought it was quite suprisingly shocking, and was just wondering whether similar things happened
at other unis for other subjects, and what we should do to fix it.

adam

Reply 1

Unregistered

"smish" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
[q1]> hello all you admissions tutors out there.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> we had a little talk about next year the other day, and the director of studies said something[/q1]
[q1]> like the number of applications has gone down a lot (60,000 to 40,000) since AS levels were[/q1]
[q1]> introduced, and the number which[/q1]
are
[q1]> successful has risen quite a lot too. That's for maths (at imperial).[/q1]

I would presume that less apply since they have a better idea of what their final grade will be like
since they've already done half of the course, and those at the bottom of the spectrum no longer
apply "just in case". Same goes for the number which are succesful, since AT's can see how we are
doing much better.

That sound right?

Reply 2

Unregistered

[q1]> I thought it was quite suprisingly shocking, and was just wondering[/q1]
whether
[q1]> similar things happened at other unis for other subjects, and what we[/q1]
should
[q1]> do to fix it.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> adam[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
Nope. Ours (Business) are up and are offering better grades. I understand Engineering has dropped
through the floor, though. John

Reply 3

Unregistered

"smish" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
[q1]> hello all you admissions tutors out there.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> we had a little talk about next year the other day, and the director of studies said something[/q1]
[q1]> like the number of applications has gone down a lot (60,000 to 40,000) since AS levels were[/q1]
[q1]> introduced, and the number which[/q1]
are
[q1]> successful has risen quite a lot too. That's for maths (at imperial).[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> I thought it was quite suprisingly shocking, and was just wondering[/q1]
whether
[q1]> similar things happened at other unis for other subjects, and what we[/q1]
should
[q1]> do to fix it.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> adam[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]

Maybe now it's the way it should have been in the first place, in which case their's little to be
done to fix it. I'm sure admission tutors like dealing with a smaller number of (to them) more
interesting applications.

G.Sharma.

Reply 4

Unregistered

In article <[email protected]>, Gaurav Sharma
<[email protected]> wrote:
[q1]>"smish" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...[/q1]
[q2]>> we had a little talk about next year the other day, and the director of studies said something[/q2]
[q2]>> like the number of applications has gone down a lot (60,000 to 40,000) since AS levels were[/q2]
[q2]>> introduced, and the number which are successful has risen quite a lot too. That's for maths (at[/q2]
[q2]>> imperial).[/q2]

Well, something wrong there 'cos Imperial certainly don't get 40000 applications to do
maths; I'd guess around 1000. There aren't 40000 maths applications over the whole country;
and only a handful of univs get anything *remotely* like 40000 applications in total; I
doubt whether any UK univ [exc the Open] has *ever* had 60000.

That number is roughly the total number of people taking maths at A-level [haven't actually
seen latest figures myself, but it used to be 80000-ish and has been going down]. Only
around 5000 of these are mathematicians, and the implications of a drop in maths uptake are
much more serious for physics, chemistry, CS and engineering.

Applications for maths have dropped [by about 3% here]; but the quality is up, way up. I'd
guess that the top univs are going to have bumper years, and that many of the maths depts at
other univs are going to struggle. Some will close. Which is not good news.

[q1]>Maybe now it's the way it should have been in the first place, in which case their's little to be[/q1]
[q1]>done to fix it. I'm sure admission tutors like dealing with a smaller number of (to them) more[/q1]
[q1]>interesting applications.[/q1]

No complaints from me! AS's seem to have really focussed applicants, so that virtually
everyone applying here has a good solid record at GCSE and AS to support their A2
predictions. But I suspect ATs at univs outside, say, the top 20-odd ["Russell"] will not be
so happy. I think there has been a change in patterns of application. Decent students used
to apply to a spread of univs, perhaps one or two rather ambitious, two or three middling,
and one or two insurance. These days, they're just going for top places, knowing from their
AS's that they'll almost certainly get to one of them, and that if their A2's go completely
pear-shaped they'll still get OK grades and be snapped up by any number of respectable univs
in Clearing.

--
Andy Walker, School of MathSci., Univ. of Nott'm, UK. [email protected]

Reply 5

Unregistered

Dr A. N. Walker ([email protected]) wrote:
[q2]> >"smish" <[email protected]> wrote in message[/q2]

[q2]> >> we had a little talk about next year the other day, and the director of studies said something[/q2]
[q2]> >> like the number of applications has gone down a lot (60,000 to 40,000) since AS levels were[/q2]
[q2]> >> introduced, and the number which are successful has risen quite a lot too. That's for maths (at[/q2]
[q2]> >> imperial).[/q2]

[q1]> Applications for maths have dropped [by about 3% here]; but the quality is up, way up. I'd[/q1]
[q1]> guess that the top univs are going to have bumper years, and that many of the maths depts at[/q1]
[q1]> other univs are going to struggle. Some will close. Which is not good news.[/q1]

Applications for Maths at Queen Mary are down 24% on last year. The blame for this has been put on
the AS situation. I don't know about the quality. Maths here always has a real struggle to recruit
anyway. In order for them to fill up they probably will have to take almost anyone who wants to do
Maths in London and hasn't got into one of the other University of London colleges, so that will
obviously have dire consequences on Maths departments in the London ex-polies.

Applications for Computer Science at Queen Mary are down 17%. Quality is about the same as last
year. Number of applicants who have made us their Firm choice, however, is down 39%. Number of
applicants who have made us their Insurance choice has remained constant. My feeling is that this is
a knock-on effect from Imperial, UCL and Kings making offers to people who they would have rejected
last year, so we lose them as the Firm choice, but gain them as the Insurance.

Matthew Huntbach

Reply 6

Unregistered

From: "Gaurav Sharma" <[email protected]> Subject: Re: University application statistics Date:
20 June 2002 22:16

"smish" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]...
[q1]> hello all you admissions tutors out there.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> we had a little talk about next year the other day, and the director of studies said something[/q1]
[q1]> like the number of applications has gone down a lot (60,000 to 40,000) since AS levels were[/q1]
[q1]> introduced, and the number which[/q1]
are
[q1]> successful has risen quite a lot too.[/q1]

I wonder why that has happend.

hehehehehe

That's for maths (at imperial).
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> I thought it was quite suprisingly shocking, and was just wondering[/q1]
whether
[q1]> similar things happened at other unis for other subjects, and what we[/q1]
should
[q1]> do to fix it.[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]> adam[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]
[q1]>[/q1]

Maybe now it's the way it should have been in the first place, in which case their's little to be
done to fix it. I'm sure admission tutors like dealing with a smaller number of (to them) more
interesting applications.

G.Sharma.

University application statistics

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you