The Student Room Group

The Alternative Economics League Table (TAELT) 2010

Welcome

This is the first edition of 'The Alternative Economics League Table 2010 thread'. (TAELT for short).

Firstly a 'warning' for applicants looking to use TAELT 2010 to make econ application decisions for the 2009/2010 cycle. TAELT 2010 has been updated using:
1)UCAS Course Search 2010
2)Uni websites.
3)Average Tariff figures from the Independent 2010 table.

The data here at the moment is still provisional. This will reflect:
i)Unis changing their typical offers. The current typical offers on UCAS Course Search 2010 may not be the same as the typical offers that admissions tutors use when Autumn comes round. So please please both check UCAS and uni websites and re-check TAELT before applying.
ii)Information gained from Results Day. This will reflect both clearing and Adjustment. i.e. there may be movements between groups.
iii)2009 Newsapaper Economic League Tables data series (esp. Average Tariff Points).

So if you are a 2010 applicant please use TAELT 2010 and also please re-check the admissions situation before applying.

TAELT attempts to rate each uni in terms of how hard it is to get offers from. It does this mainly by looking at:
i)Typical Offers
ii) UCAS Tariff points of actual econ students at each uni. (Not just the average (available in newspaper League Tables) but also the distribution in 20 point slices (available from unistats.com)

This thread should be considered alongside:
1) The Econ Uni guide which explains how to choose your 5.
2) The Good Econ PS guide which explains how to write a good Econ PS (but you probably worked that out yourself).

Finally the uni offers are NOT guaranteed to be correct. They were collected manually by myself from UCAS with some checking on uni websistes. So that is one source of errors. Secondly some unis change their policies mid cycle (e.g. in the 08/09 cycle changes were made by Exeter and SOAS). But there may be others. Thirdly unis are free to make whatever offers they want and hence can make non-typical offers. For more on uni choice check out the econ uni guide (link above and in my sig).


So what does the Alternative Economics League table actually look like?


Ridiculously Ridiculously Competitive (RRC) Courses
a.k.a as the 5 unis that make up the Top 5

AAA.0.0 (360 Points) (No non-AAA offers even if taking >3 A-levels. Not many more offers than Admissions. High GCSE A* requirement. No Interviews to sell yourself)
1) LSE AAA M**A FM**p 523 34.4K Applications:Offers data
AAA.0.1 (360 Points) (No non-AAA offers even if taking >3 A-levels. Between 9 and 16 applicants per offer. Not many more offers than Admissions. e.g. approximately 70-90 offers)
2) Oxford AAA M**p 538 29.0K 3 Average intake 84; 10.1% applicant:redface:ffer ratio Typical Intake 75 applicant/offer ratio 08/09 cycle 1166/73 (6.26%)
A*AA.0.2 (360 Points) (No non-AAA offers even if taking >3 A-levels. Not many more offers than Admissions. e.g. Cambridge approximately (200 offers, 5 or 6 applicants per offer, and typically a 90% conversion rate)
3) Cambridge A*AA M** E**p (2009 AAA) 554 38.3K Recent Offers:Admissions Ratios 2006 (193:177) 2007 (205:185)

AAA*.1 (380 Points) (No non-AAA offers even if taking >3 A-levels. Approximately 600 offers for 180 places)
4) UCL A*AAe M**A* (2009 AAAe M**A) 488 30.6K
AAA.1.0 (360 Points) (Demand more than just AAB: require a 4th AS/A level)
5) Warwick AAAb/AAAC/AAAB with FM M**B (2009 AABb/AAbbb/(AABB with FM)/AABC M**) 499 28.5K looking for 9 GCSE A*s

Ridiculously Competitive (RC) Courses
a.k.a as the next 6 unis that make up the Top 10.

AAA.1.1 (360 Points) (non-AAA offers (Durham AAB 2008, Notts AABB, Bristol AAA-ABB 2009, Bath AAB (2009)))
6) Durham AAA M*b m#a* 491 26.5K Use GCSE standardisation measurement score 5 GCSE A*s required?
7) Nottingham AAA/AABB (AAB/ABBB non-EU)M**p (Bsc Economics and Econometrics M**A) E**p m#a468 25.0K 40% Student excess in 2008 So look for 7 or 8 GCSE A*s. Summary stats No offers until after January 2010 deadline
8) Bristol AAA-AAB M**A (2009 AAA-ABB) E**p 457 27.1K H 44 places 906 applicants2009 rejection email (Rejecting a lot of applicants with Top 5 offers!)
9) Bath AAA (2009 AAB) M**A E**p declare AS grades preferred A-levels m#a* AS aaa actual and A2 AAA predicted preferred 454 26.8K 135 places 150-180 Offers 1600 applicants

AAA.1.2(340 Points) (Not make ABB offers or accept ABB grades)(Bsc)
10) St Andrews AAA (2009 AAB) 475 25.1K 09 application experiences (Times 8th(12th), Independent 6th(9th), Guardian 3rd (8th))

BBB.0 (300 Points) (In practice many students need a lot more than BBB to get an offer)
11) Edinburgh BBB M**B/M*A (2009 M*p m#a) AAA and more than 6 GCSE A*s prefered 450 23.1K H H H(Times 20th(22th),Independent 11th(16th),Guardian 4th(11th))

What Admission Statistics are there?
Admission Statistics for all the RRC and RC unis
For each of the top 11 unis have collated for each year:
i)Applicants
ii)Offers
iii)Places
and from those 3 key variables derived:
i) Applicants per Place
ii)Applicants per Offer

Why is LSE above Oxford and Cambridge?
LSE is ranked as the hardest to get into on the basis that there is no interview to sell yourself at.
Oxford is higher than Cambrdige due to the higher applicants per offer at Oxford (between 9 and 16 at Oxford c.f. between 5 and 6 at Cambridge).
But at that extreme point of the table, features specific to your application may determine that one or another of the unis is harder to get into:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showpost.php?p=18408574&postcount=61

This is an issue on which there is not universal agreement (to say the least!). But I would say that if you want to apply to one uni out of LSE and Oxbridge and have not got stand out academics (esp. in terms of GCSE A*s), then I would suggest Oxbridge over LSE as at least that gives you an oppurtunity to sell yourself as an Economist and hence stand out that way,

What changes have there been in this section since 2009?
+Cambridge AAA to AAA* (maybe!)
+UCL AAA to AAA* M**A*
+Warwick AAB to AAA
+Bristol AAA-ABB to AAA-AAB
+Bath AAB to AAA-AAB
Edinburgh BBB to BBB M**B/M*A

Scroll to see replies

Reply 1
Not Ridiculously Competitive (NRC) Courses

These unis are relatively straightforward to get offers from. But:
i)actually achieving the grades (esp AAA) may not be.
ii)a lot of the data on TSR is probably for top students.
iii)there are exceptions esp. if not doing A-level Maths.

AAA.2.2 (360 Points) Exeter/SOAS AAA-ABB (But mainly AAA)
12) SOAS 2010 AAA m#c (2009 AAA-ABB (But mainly AAA)) 390 24.3K -- Confusing offer history (Times 40th (28th), Independent 40th(18th) , Guardian 13th(10th))
13) Exeter (Ba) AAA-AAB m#a (But mainly AAA) M**Ap 386 22.8K -- not hard to get a (high) offer from

AAB.2.1.1 (340 Points) (Birmingham ABB in 2009))
14) Birmingham AAB m#a (2009 ABB) 403 24.1K (Times 10th(7th),Independent 14th(12th),Guardian 6th(4th)) 2008 Freshers Thread

AAB.2.1.2 (340 Points) (ABB offers (Southampton ABBb in 2009, York: 2008 accepted York CF applicants who achieved ABB))
15) York AAB M**p m#ap 457 25.1K
16) Southampton AAB/ABBB/AABC/AAAD M**C 422 24.9K (Times 19th(17th), Independent 12th(14th), Guardian 26th(32nd))
AAB/ABBb/ABBC/AABD/AAAE M*c

AAB.2.2 (340 Points) Accept lower offers: (ABB offers (Lancaster 2008) Only need 2 A-levels(Lancaster))
17) Lancaster X AAB/AAbb/ABaa (2010 at least M* maybe M** m#b) 423 20.0K Course now Bsc (starting with 2009 graduates)

AAB.2.3 (340 Points) (Ba Course. ABB in 2008(Newcastle, Glasgow) ABB in 2009 (Glasgow) ABB offer for variant courses(Leeds) ) Loughbourgh ABB in 2009, Cardiff ABB in 2009
18) Leeds (Ba) AAB m#a 418 21.2K (Times 32nd(29th),Independent 39th(24th),Guardian 29th)
19) Newcastle (Ba) X AAB m#b 417 21.8K (Times 31st(32th),Independent 20th(27th),Guardian 50th)
20) Glasgow (MA) AAB (AAA on resit) (ABB (AAB on resit) in 2009) 414
21) Cardiff (BScEcon) X AAB M**B (2009 ABB) 398 22.2K (Times 30th(25th),Independent 31st(23th),Guardian 43th)
22) Loughborough AAB m#c(2009 ABB/AAC/ABab/AAbc) 378 23.0K (Times 24th(16th), Independent 25th(25th), Guardian 33rd(23th))

ABB.1 (320 Points) (Up to 11% of students have less than 320 points:Manchester (Ba) 9%)
23) Manchester (Ba) ABB m#c resit AAB[BSc AAB M**B E**p resit AAA] 408 23.2K (Times 38th(39th),Independent 32nd(36th),Guardian 30th) Offers/Places: (BA) BSc
24) Sheffield X Ba: ABB (2011 AAB/ABB) m#b (2009 BBB-BBbb) Bsc:AAB M**B (ABB-BBbb in 2009) 372 21.3K Much more competitive this cycle than in 2008/9 (Times 26th(38th),Independent 22nd (37th),Guardian 46th (38th))

Changes since 2009
+SOAS AAA-AAB to AAA
+Birmingham ABB to AAB
Lancaster atleast M* maybe M**
++QM BBB to AAB
+Cardiff ABB to AAB
+Loughborough ABB to AAB
+ Glasgow ABB to AAB
+ Sheffield (BSc) BBB-BBbb to ABB
Reply 2
Courses in Extra but not necessarily in Clearing
These unis appear in Extra 2009 but not necessarily in clearing:
i) Extra 2009 All
ii) Clearing 2009 Only Surrey and QM.
iii) Clearing 2008 Only QM.
iv) Clearing 2007 All except Sussex
(The clearing discrepency suggests these unis were in clearing in 2007 only for variant courses).


ABB.2 (320 Points) Not in clearing for striaght ecnomics in 2008; accept lower offers: RH BBB(with Maths) in 2008, Sussex (BBB) Surrey (ABB/BBB?) City BBB in 2008; Intermediate numbers of students below 320: Liverpool 20%, Sheffield 22%, Sussex 25%, RH 26%
25) Liverpool X BBB with either Maths or Economics/ ABB without both Maths and Economics M*b (2009 BBB) 385 (Times 36th(42nd), Independent 29th(33rd), Guardian 22nd(31st))
26) Royal Holloway X ABB if M**/AAB if M*b/AAA m#a M**p E**p (UCAS 2010 has ABC-BBB if M**/ABB if M*b/AAB if m#a) 370 26.0K
27) Sussex X ABB-BBB m#b 345
28) Surrey X C uni website ABB/BBB E**p/M**p m#b (ABB on UCAS 2010) 329 21.8K
29) City X ABB m#b (BBB in 2009) 328 21.3K (Times48th (41st), Independent 37th(40th), Guardian 43rd(34th))

BBB.1 (300 Points) (Up to 14% of students have less than 280 points), Sheffield (6%), Liverpool (10%), Queen Mary (9%), Queens Belfast (0%),City (14%)
30) Queen's Belfast X BBB-BBCb m#b 355 16.0K (Times 43th(45th),Independent 53rd(41st),Guardian 38th(42nd))

AAB.3 (340 Points) QM BBB in 2009 33% of students less than 320 points Clearing in 2008
31) Queen Mary X C(C) AAB (2009 BBB) M**B 370 20.6K (Times 23rd(34th),Independent 23rd(32th),Guardian 22nd)

Why is Queen Mary in this section?
Well:
1) 2 grade rise since 2009 (BBB to AAB)
2) They were in Clearing last year only:
i)on Results Day
ii) only according to the Independent newspaper but not according to the Queen Mary Website or UCAS Clearing Course Search.
Hence does not look like they are heading towards clearing in 2010.

Changes since 2009
+ Liverpool BBB to AAB (if neither M nor E)
+ Surrey BBB to AAB/BBB
+ City BBB to ABB
+ Queen Mary BBB to AAB
Reply 3
Courses regularly in Clearing and Extra
These unis appear in clearing and Extra a lot:
i) Extra 2009 All except Ulster
ii) Clearing 2009 All expect East Anglia, Strathclyde, Herriot Watts, Stirling, Dundee, Ulster, Nottingham Trent and Salford
iii) Clearing 2008 All except Strathclyde and Ulster
iv) Clearing 2007 All

Why were there less unis in clearing in 2009?
Well:
i) in 2009 the increase in demand for places was less than the increase in places. Hence less demand by unis in clearing.
ii) Adjustment started (e.g. East Anglia were in Adjustment)
iii) 4 of the unis (Strathclyde, Herriot Watts, Stirling, Dundee) are Scottish and Scottish exam results are out a week earlier. So looks like those unis had found enough students to fill their empty places before the English and Wales results came in a week later.

ABB.3 (320 Points) (More than 39% of students have less than 320 points: Essex 42%,UEA 40%, Leicester 49%, Reading 51%; Clearing 2007 and 2008 (all); % students 280 points and below ( Essex 20% UEA 15%, Leicester 19%, Reading 26%)
32) Essex X C(C) 320 (AB (200 on UCAS Course Search)) m#c 325 23.7K ++ (very strong Research (RAE 2008 GPA 3rd, Power 6th) but 'hated' campus) (Times 19th, Independent 21st(19th), Guardian 30th(25th))
33) East Anglia X N(C) ABB-BBB m#b 332 (Times 11th,Independent 30th(21th),Guardian 49th(37th))
34) Leicester (Ba) X C(C) ABB m#b (BSc M**B) 320 19.3K(Times 20th, Independent 26th (28th), Guardian 25th(28th))
35) Reading (BSc) X C(C) ABB/AAC/ABBe/AACe/BBBc/ABCc/AADc/BBCa/ABDa/ACCa/AAEa M*c (BA m#b) 348 21.2K (Times 35th,Independent 54th(39th),Guardian 55th(58th))
36) Kent X C(C) 320 ABB (2010:320 BB 300 BB on UCAS Course Search 2010) m#b 306


BBB.2 (300 Points) (Atleast 51% of students below 280 points) (Kent (54%), Swansea (51%)
37) Swansea X C(C) 300 [Ba 260] 277 16.9K (Times 35th,Independent 44th,Guardian 56th)

BBC (280 Points)(% below 280 points: (Strathcylde 6%, Brunel 29%, Abeystwyth 55%)
38) Strathclyde X N BBC m#b 442 (Times 29th,Independent 31th,Guardian 21st)
39) Brunel X C(C) BBCc (2009 BBC) M*c 311 22.4K (Times 47th,Independent 43th,Guardian 53th)
40) Aberystwyth X C(C) 280 m#c (min of 80 from A-levels) 249 (Times 55th,Independent 61th,Guardian 48th)

BCC.1 (260 Points)(% points below 240 points: (Heriot Watt unknown, Central Lancashire unknown, Stirling 20%)
41) Heriot-Watt X N(C) BCC 328
42) Central Lancashire X C(C) 260-220 m#c (280-240 (220) on UCAS Course Search 2010) 311
43) Stirling X N(C) BCC or BCcc 293

BCC.2 (260 Points)(% points below 240 points: (Hull 35%, Portsmouth 42%, UWE 40%, Coventry 45%, Hertfordhsire 66%, Kingston 80%)
44) Hull X C(C) 260 283 22.1K (Times 25th,Independent 35th,Guardian 45th)
45) Portsmouth X C(C) BCC 249 23.0K
46) UWE Bristol X C(C) 240-300 248 18.7K(Times 57th,Independent 58th,Guardian 39th)
47) Coventry X C(C) 260-320 m#c245 18.8K(Times 50th,Independent 52th,Guardian 19th)
48) Hertfordshire X C(C) 260 m#c (240(220) on UCAS Course Search 2010) 233 18.6K (Times 61st(58th), Independent 58th (51st), Guardian 62nd (59th))
49) Kingston X C(C) 260 m#c 191 17.5K (Times 63th,Independent 63th,Guardian 60th)

CCC.1 (240 Points) (<20% of students sub 240 points in 2005/6) Dundee (5%), Aberdeeen (15%), Ulster (15%)
50) Aberdeen X C(C) CCC or aabb 344 (Times 33th,Independent 30th,Guardian 35th)
51) Dundee X (C) CCC 337
52) Ulster N() 240 (160) 254 (Times 40th,Independent 46th,Guardian 27th)

CCC.2 (240 Points) (Atleast 20% of students some 240 points) Manchester Met (50%), Salford (Unreported), Portsmouth (42%), Nottingham Trent (65%), Hertfordshire (66%), Bradford (Unreported)
53) Nottingham Trent X N(C) CCC m#C 264 21.1K (Times 52th,Independent 50th,Guardian 20th)
54) Manchester Met X C(C) 240 (140) 259 16.3K
55) Salford X N(C) 240-260 m#c(240) 249
56) Bradford X C(C) 240-260 (160) 239

CDD (200 Points)
57) London Met X C(C) 200 m#c (140) (220 (160) on UCAS Course Search 2010)

DDD (180 Points)
58) Greenwich X C(C) 180-220 m#c 191 21.3K

Changes since 2009
Liverpool BBB to AAB (if neither M nor E)
Sheffield BBB-BBbb to ABB

Notes
1) deleted Aston as not on any table and no straight economics course there.
2) deleted JMU as no straight economics course there.
3) Central Lancashire average entry points from Guardian 2009 table
4) Keele deleted as no straight economics offered. Keele is trying to sack half it's economics department. This may adversely affect the educational experience if you study there.
Reply 4
Note the following post is just a copy of a post from TAELT 2009.
Hence the questions and answers may be out of date. Further any references to this cycle or last cycle may be confusing. Finally specifically (but not only) the audit of changes is incomplete given the new changes in TAELT 2010.

What extra information is in the spreadsheet version?
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=r3i5f6ufoS1KYIrg6YF9KCw&output=html

The excel spreadsheet contains the information in the printed version plus more details:
A-level applications As above plus some website links, the total QAA score, positions for each unis from each of the three Newspaper Economics League Tables and some partial series (e.g. Further Maths , excluded subjects and applicants per place).
Scottish Applications Similar but for Scottish applications
IB Applications Similar but for IB applications. Lets you compare UCAS points of IB qualifications with the actual average tariff of successful applicants.

Clearing 2008 Contains data on clearing used in the Economics Clearing 2008 thread). It shows which unis were in clearing for economics in 2007 and 2008. For 2008 it shows the different situations for UK/EU and International students. As well as tracking over time the UK clearing situation.

Most of the information on tariff distribution is not displayed above. And I have used the information to form the separate AAA,AAB,BBB and CCC groups. So the Tariff sheets are really worth looking out if you want to understand the validity of the groupings. (And if you are planning to use the group info to make application decisions you should want to understand them!)
Tariff Frequency05-06 What % of students came in each of 10 tariff categories
Tariff Accumulation 05-06 Summation of the sheet 3 data so can see what % of students got below a certain tariff
Tariff Frequency06-07 What % of students came in each of 10 tariff categories
Tariff Accumulation 06-07 Summation of the sheet 3 data so can see what % of students got below a certain tariff
Change in Tariff Accumulation How the situation changed between the 06/07 and 05/06 years.

QAA Reports 2001 Assessment of economics departmental quality.
Output Data on what job categories econ graduates from each uni end up in. See this post from the Econ applications FAQ for more details

Which courses are selected?
Nearly all courses are straight economics (L100 and a few L101s) except:
Oxford it is Economics and Management
Glasgow is L150.

Why are some universities followed by an X?
The X means that the uni is currently in Extra 2009 for Economics.
Note that unis appear in Extra unless they have told UCAS they have enough applicants. So there may be some false positives when Extra has just opened.

Why are some universities followed by C,C(C), (C) or N(C)?
(C) means that the uni was in clearing for straight economics in 2008 for UK/EU students
() or (N) means that the uni was not in clearing for straight economics in 2008 for UK/EU students
C means that the uni was in clearing for straight economics in 2009 for UK/EU students
N means that the uni was in clearing for straight economics in 2009 for UK/EU students
see TAELT 2009 for 2007 clearing information.

Note that many of the 2009 clearing unis were in clearing for only a few hours.
i.e. gone by the next day. For details see the 2009 Economics Clearing thread:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?p=20730707#post20730707

What do the letter (and sometimes numbers) immediately after the university name mean?
They give the typical offer for each uni for economics in 2009.Upper case is A-level, lower case is AS-level. Where the offer is in terms of points for both AS-levels and A-levels then the A-level requirement is in brackets. Where the university has more than one typical offer both are given.

Where did you get the typical offers from?
The typical Offers are all sourced from UCAS 2009 entries for each university.

Can I get hold of the typical offers myself?
Yes. Goto the UCAS website:
select "search by subject".
click on "e" and then select "economics" from the list.
Then select "all Economics courses"
Then you will get 4 pages of links to all the different economics courses for all the UK universities.
The typical offer for each uni is available under "Economics"/"Entry Profiles"/"English, Welsh and Northern Irish Qualifications".

What do the M**, M**A, M**B, M*,M*c M**p, M*p and m#c refer to?
Thirdly I have encoded the requirements for Maths and Economics as follows:
M** means A-level maths is mandatory
M**A means A-level maths grade A is mandatory
M**B means A-level maths grade B is mandatory
M* means AS-level maths is mandatory
M*c means AS-level maths grade c is mandatory
M**p means A-level maths is preferred
M*p means AS-level maths is preferred
m#c means that GCSE Maths grade c is mandatory

What about if I do not meet the GCSE requirement for Maths but am doing AS-level or A-level Maths?
You should check with the uni concerned: they may be flexible.

So if there is no M**p or M*P after a uni does that mean my application is not weakened if I do not have maths?
No, I am afraid not. It just means that I have not found any reference where that uni states a preference for students who studied maths at school. And in many cases that is just because certain universities give virtually no info on what their entry requirements are.
e.g. they don't even make explicit any preferences on A-levels e.g. that they prefer Economics to General Studies.
My rule of thumb would be that for all competitive unis e.g. AAB.1.1+ that not having Maths A-level would be a significant disadvantage. (This may be less of an issue at the ..2 unis which are Ba e.g. AAA.2.2 SOAS). This is because econ at top unis is basically applied maths.

What do the E**p and E*p refer to?
E**p means A-level economics is preferred
E*p means AS-level economics is preferred

So if there is no E**p or E*P after a uni does that mean my application is not weakened if I do not have economics?
As with maths it just means:
1) that I have not found any reference where that uni states a preference for students who studied economics at school.
2) that is just because certain universities give virtually no info on what their entry requirements are.
3) my rule of thumb would be that for all competitive unis e.g. AAB.1.1+ that not having Economics A-level would be a significant disadvantage. Reasons for this include:
i)hard to do a good econ PS when you have not studied economics at A-level.
ii)doing A-level means you have got background knowledge and reassures unis that you are making an informed choice.
iii)that lots and lots of econ students at top unis have A-level economics e.g. in 2007 80-90% of 1st year economics students at LSE, Warwick and UCL have A-level economics.

What do the 3 digit numbers refer to?
The 3 digit number is the average UCAS tariff score of 1st year undergraduates for 2006/7 from the Times table. UCAS have a table which gives the tariff for each qualification. The Times figure may well include some joint degrees. i.e. not just straight economics. Hence it may under-estimate the true level.

How come a lot of the tariffs are above 360?
Well the tariff includes points for all qualifications. So that is all AS-levels, any other UCAS point earning qualifications and all A-levels (even if that is >3) qualifications.
And yes a lot of successful applicants do 4 A-levels plus a couple of AS-level kickers.

What are the K numbers about?
They give the average starting salaries for economics graduates from each uni as estimated by The Times newspaper:
http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/1765/econsal.png

A couple of the uni have ++ or -- after them. What does that mean?They are an indication of how IMO course quality compares with the TAELT competition rating.

So Birmingham is +++ because whilst it is "easy" to get offers from it is a good course. I don't go as far as the newspapers (Times has it as 7th, Independent as 12th and the Gaurdian as 7th) but it is better than 21st i.e. Birmingham is an improving course, and I would have it as top 15.

Exeter and SOAS are -- as I am not convinced their courses are as good as the AAB.2.1 courses in the group below them. i.e. Exeter is Ba and SOAS Economics shares a common 1st year with the Ba Economics and Development Studies course.

A couple of the uni have H or HHH after them. What does that mean?
H stands for holistic, and HHH stands for very very holistic.
Bristol is H and Edinburgh is HHH.

What does holistic mean?
Holistic means considering the whole person. And hence selection has less weight on academics than you might expect.

Why have you given the Newspaper ratings for some universities? And not others?
Where there is a big difference between the TAELT league position and one or more of the newspaper positions, all three Newspaper position are given. The newspaper ratings are also given for the out of position entries of Warwick and Edinburgh.

Where the Newspaper rating is 10 or more positions above TAELT, the newspaper rating is in green.
Where the Newspaper rating is 10 or more positions below TAELT, the newspaper rating is in red.

I don't give the newspaper rating where they are (all) close to the TAELT positions as then they don't add much value.

How do the Newspaper ratings compare with the TAELT ratings?
The big differences seem to be for cities with large populations. The following unis are significantly higher in TAELT than in the newspapers (with size ratings for English cities in brackets):
Manchester 400,000 (7th largest)
Leeds 450,000 (4th largest)
Newcastle 190,00 (20th largest)
Cardiff 320,000
Reading 230,000 (17th largest)
This suggests that students want to get into large unis with exciting nightlife (even when the economics department is not that academically strong). This would result in courses having lots of applicants and hence high typical offers and average entry tariffs. Such unis would appear highly on TAELT but not in the newspaper League tables.

And it is important to understand that the typical offer and Entry Standards should reflect all good (and bad) qualities that a uni has. So it is no good thinking that a uni is high in TAELT and has a good nightlife and so moving it mentally further up the table (unlike you would with the newspaper tables). Finally this article suggests that students may be happier in smaller unis anyway

How many of the points are just from A-levels?
About half of the Warwick Economist have 3 A-levels and about half have 4 A-levels.

Where does all the data come from?
I collected all the data manually so I apologise in advance for any mistakes. Please let me know of any and I will attempt to fix them.

What do the XXX./0/1/2/3./1/2 groups mean?
The 1st part is the headline typical offer. The 2nd part compares results of successful students with that typical offer. The 3rd part is a measure of course quality
XXX
This means that unis in that group typically make offers of XXX. Where the university has more than one typical offer the upper is used. Where 3 offers are used the middle is given.

/0/1/2/3
Sometimes groups are small and not broken down further. But sometimes they are. When unis typically require a higher level of academic performance than XXX then the .0 suffix is used.When XXX is normally adequate .1 is used. When one grade lower (i.e. XXY) is often adequate then .2 is used. Similalrly when a 2 grades underperformance (i.e. XXZ) is often adequate then .3 is used.

/1/2
The Final 1/2 term is rarely used. It unlike the 1st 2 parts reflects course quality. It is when it is clear IMO that two unis despite having the same offer and acceptance behaviour have different quality levels.

What order are the unis in?
Originally the unis were sorted by typical offer and then by the average tariff of students actually doing the course. Where UCAS gave 2 offers (e.g. Exeter AAB-ABB) the higher (AAB) was used. Where UCAS gave 3 offers (e.g. Bristol AAA-ABB) the middle (AAB) was used.

However this resulted in some very big groups. For example there are 10 AAB and 15 ABB unis . So I decided to break them into unis that were likely or unlikely to accept students with a lower grade. The concept being that two unis should be in different groups if it could be reasonable to have the higher group uni as a firm and the lower group uni as an insurance. There are 4 main reasons why a uni may be in the lower group:
i) explicit policy of sometimes giving lower offers. e.g. Exeter and SOAS are AAB-ABB
ii) accepts breadth of qualification as a substitute for high grades. e.g. Southampton accepts ABBb instead of AAB
iii) has a high proportion of it's students with tariffs below the typical offer. For example, the lower group of BBB unis all have at least 20% of their students below 280 points.
iv)Has a history of accepting lower grade students. So up to 2008 Durham's typical offer was AAB and this year York typical offer was AAB but accepted (at least some) ABB students.

Finally I have now tried to put the groups into order of how competitive they are. This was because some unis (e.g. Warwick and Edinburgh) make offers that are clearly not at Market clearing levels. Hence I moved them up. Similarly IMO it is relatively easy to get offers from Exeter and SOAS (even though it is a very high offer!)hence they are moved down.

What are the Ridiculously Ridiculously Competitive Courses , Ridiculously Competitive Courses and Not Ridiculously Competitive Courses labels about?
Well there is a big difference in how hard it is to get offers:
i) from the top 5 unis and all the rest
ii) from the top 11 unis and all the rest
These labels emphasis this.

So the number in front of each uni represent your ordering?
Yes:
i) but within a group the ordering is determined just by one years average tariff. Hence unstable
ii) lots of personal factors you should consider when making your decision (e.g. city/campus uni, how far it is from home) that no objective (by which I mean generic, non-applicant specific) table can encompass.
iii) The Scottish unis have a lot of Highers candidates and hence higher tariffs and hence higher positions.
iv) Expecting TAELT to distinguish between similar unis is unreasonable. e.g. LSE being 3rd does not mean it is worse than Cambridge or Oxford. Hell, oxford don't even teach straight economics. (I did consider when I first created TAELT not including Oxford at all as they don't teach straight econ. But I thought dropping Oxford would cause more confusion than it was worth).

What abut the AAA.0 and AAA.1 groups?
Given how many offers UCL make per place (10:3) I have split them off. Cambridge in 07/08 were 1.09:1. I don't have the same figures for Oxford or LSE but I very much expect them to be much close that 1 than 3. Hence the split.
For more on this issue check out the 3rd post of the Econ Uni Guide.

What about the AAB.0 and BBB.0 groups?
Warwick (explicitly) and Edinburgh (implicitly) demand more from (all: Warwick, most: Edinburgh) students than just the 3 A-level grades given by the typical offer. So to show that they are in their own subgroups.
In the "Which unis should I apply to for econ guide?" the background with Warwick and Edinburgh is discussed on question "Are better universities necessarily in higher groups?
": http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=658957

Why is Bristol in the separate AAB.1.0 group?
Well given:
i) how many students with top 5 offers were rejected by Bristol this cycle (08/09)
ii)that Bristol were AAA in 2007 and that they are the only uni out of all 61 to go for a lower offer during the last 2 years. Suggests Bristol would still clear at AAA.
iii)that Bristol are making a number of AAA offers
Hence it seemed sensible to reflect this by giving it a more competitive group than the other AAB.1.1 unis.

Why are the AAB.0 and BBB.0 groups out of order?
I have:
1) moved the AAB.0 group (Warwick) up to above the AAA.2 group
2) moved the BBB.o group (Edinburgh) up to above the AAB.2 group.

This is an attempt to put unis into the order they would be if they were priced
to market. Means that:
1) unis in higher groups are more competitive.
2)the table is no longer (totally) in Typical Offer
order
3) Table now reflects that there is a discontinuity at the AAB.2 group in terms of competitiveness.
4) the table bends the rule of having firm and insurance unis in
higher and lower groups. But:
i)that rule still applies with .1 .2 unis
ii)that rule still applies within each XXX group.
iii)the rest of the group orderings are consistent with the "hardness" to get into concept.
iv)Can justify move on basis that .0 unis are not priced to market.
5) users no longer have to mentally move Warwick and Edinburgh to make sense of
the table as it has been done physically

And why are there AAB.1.1 and AAB.1.2 groups?
The AAB.1 unis all make AAB typical offers and don't accept ABB.
The difference in the AAB.1.1 and AAB.1.2 is in terms of the course quality. I have put Leeds in a lower group as:
i)It is BA not BSc.
ii)In terms of output only 30% of Leeds Graduates get Business, Finance and Stats jobs. Whilst with Warwick, Bristol and Bath the percentages are 73%, 59%, 45%
iii)It only got a QAA mark of 22
iv)It is ranked 29th, 24th and 29th for econ by The Times, The Independent and The Guardian

What do the colours mean?
The colour of the uni represents how the typical A-level offer (in points terms) compares with the average actual points from all qualifications (i.e. not just A-levels but also AS-levels and any other reported qualifications).
average<typical red
average<typical+30 purple (30 points being half an AS-level a grade)
average>typical+60 blue (60 points being an AS-level a grade)
average>typical+120 green(120 points being an A-level A grade)
otherwise black

But I hate the colours!
If you don't like the colouring then copy and paste it into a TSR post (as opossed to quoting) and it will all go black.

If you want to know what the concept behind the colouring is check out this post.

Are there any versions of this table for other subjects?
Yes there is for PPE
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=916175
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=rlJA2q_8vQDCwOE_aJ2qV_w&output=html

Are there any versions of this table for earlier years?
Yes there is TAELT 2009.

I was inspired in this undertaking by the 2007 Entry Requirements post produced by Werty675. So I fully acknowledge my debt there.

Significant changes 2007-2009 include :
Down:
-Bristol is AAB instead of AAA

Up:
+Durham is AAA instead of AAB
++SOAS is AAB instead of BBB
+Leeds is AAB instead of ABB
+Manchester is AAB instead of ABB
+ Lancaster AAB/AAbb/ABaa instead of ABB
+Sussex is ABB instead of BBB
+Essex is ABB instead of BBB
+East Anglia is ABB instead of BBB
+Reading is ABB instead of BBB
+Kent is BBB instead of BBC
+Aberystwyth is BBC instead of BCC
+Heriot-Watt is BCC instead of CCC
+Stirling is BCC instead of CCC

(definite) changes since 2008:
+ Exeter AAA- ABB (But mainly AAA) instead of AAB
+ Durham AAA instead of AAB
+ SOAS AAA-ABB (But mainly AAA) instead of AAB-ABB
+ Newcastle AAB instead of ABB
+ Lancaster AAB/AAbb/ABaa instead of ABB

Changes since 2009

+Cambridge AAA to AAA* (maybe!)
+UCL AAA to AAA* M**A*
+Warwick AAB to AAA
+Bristol AAA-ABB to AAA-AAB
+Bath AAB to AAA-AAB
Edinburgh BBB to BBB M**B/M*A
+SOAS AAA-AAB to AAA
+Birmingham ABB to AAB
Lancaster atleast M* maybe M**
++QM BBB to AAB
+Cardiff ABB to AAB/ABB
+Loughborough ABB to AAB
Liverpool BBB to AAB (if neither M nor E)
Sheffield BBB-BBbb to ABB

Do you know which of these course went into clearing?
There is this list for 2007. But as I understand it it includes all economics courses (e.g. even agricultural economics) and not just L100 straight economics, so it can be a bit misleading.

See this thread for 2008 clearing Economics data
I managed this one so it does record:
i) the difference between straight and non-straight economics.
ii) the difference between UK/EU and International applications.

Great. I now have a better idea how competitive each uni is. But how do I select which 5 unis to go for?
Well in order to avoid the twin perils of both over and under applying check out the companion thread that is The Econ Uni Guide.
Reply 5
good job as always
you sir, are the definition of dedication

btw are bath and liverpool not definate changes?
Reply 7
amazing!
Reply 8
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
btw are bath and liverpool not definate changes?

Sorry. What do you mean?
Paulwhy
Sorry. What do you mean?

liverpool iirc in another thread raised their offers for 2010 as have bath from AAB-AAA
Reply 10
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
liverpool iirc in another thread raised their offers for 2010 as have bath from AAB-AAA

I thought had updated Bath and Liverpool with their new offers and grouped them apropriately. Have I not?
Paulwhy
I thought had updated Bath and Liverpool with their new offers and grouped them apropriately. Have I not?

Don't know, have you? I'm just confused because at the very end of the TAELT there's a definate changes section.
Reply 12
Once again, Paulwhy creates another amazingly usefull thread. :smile:
Brilliant effort, and cited!
Reply 14
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
Don't know, have you? I'm just confused because at the very end of the TAELT there's a definate changes section.

The FAQ post has not (yet) been updated from the 2009 version.
(But all the first 4 posts have been)

Hence the confusion.

DorianGrey
Brilliant effort, and cited!

Cited? Is that not what happens to Rugby players who have been accused of eye guaging?
Paulwhy


3) LSE AAA M**A 510 Applications:Offers data

AAA*.1 (380 Points) (No non-AAA offers even if taking >3 A-levels. Approximately 600 offers for 180 places)
4) UCL A*AA M**A* (2009 AAAe M**A) 459


great im sure this will be a great reference to the future applicants
btw do you have exact data for App:Offer ratio rather than App:Place for both LSE and UCL 2009/2010 cycle?
Reply 16
BetterThanYesterday
btw do you have exact data for App:Offer ratio rather than App:Place for both LSE and UCL 2009/2010 cycle?

No. I have given all the applications:Offers:Places data I have in the spreadsheet:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pV60RSZTWYDWJ5-ycl6sDDw

So for UCL we have what they said at an Open Day, about them making aprroximately 600 offers. And for LSE we can infer that like Oxbridge they will not get many rejections. i.e. probably 10-20% excess of offers over places.

DorianGrey
Brilliant effort, and cited!

I (think I) have now worked out what you mean. You like the hyperlinks. i.e. you like the fact that it cites it's sources.
Reply 17
please link me to the figures for UCl total applications, I have been looking for it.
Reply 18
RoflRofl
please link me to the figures for UCl total applications, I have been looking for it.

The 2700 total applications figured is calculated from the 15 applications per place figure and the 180 places figure.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pV60RSZTWYDWJ5-ycl6sDDw
Reply 19
Paulwhy
The 2700 total applications figured is calculated from the 15 applications per place figure and the 180 places figure.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pV60RSZTWYDWJ5-ycl6sDDw

apologies, it must be the hour, I meant the total offers.

Edit:
Ah okay the 2nd link covered it. Indeed I think I remember when that was said too. Was 2 or 3 years ago.

Thank you

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