Ambitious UCAS choice - Is it worth it?

Law. I've dropped the E obviously. As I'm predicted A*AA my teachers seemed to think it was OK, my PS is good too.

That's fair enough, and that's the way I've been trying to look at it; I know it isn't the end of the world or anything if I didn't get in somewhere, but it's still really worrying, you know?

Surprisingly, you're not the first person to ask me that! My English teacher keeps asking the same thing everytime I see her, but to be honest, it's just because (as cliched as it sounds) I've always genuinely loved History, and I can't imagine doing anything else.

Thanks

Law? That's like LSE's second most competitive course after Economics. What are you other choices? It's worth a try if it's your dream uni, but it seems quite unlikely to me.

I don't understand how you can get BBBE at AS and still get predicted A*AA for A2...

Yeah, I definitely think you should go for it. You've got a range of entry requirements there, so it's not as if you're applying to 5 ambitious choices with the potential of having nothing to fall back on, and I think that it's likely you'll regret it if you don't apply. The worst that could happen is that they reject you, but ultimately, you've got four other good universities there. Your grades look fine as well, even without A*s at GCSE/a D in AS Biology. They'll know that a lot of people seem not to do as well in their 4th AS. Good luck!

It's mainly because it says on the Classics and Ancient History department website that the vast majority of candidates that apply are expected to have a substantial number of A*s at GCSE due to the popularity of the courses. It's just because as well that even though the D is in an unrelated subject, I'd still be competing against Oxbridge students/top achievers who'd have achieved straight As regardless of the relevance of the subject to the degree choice. It's just that I'm worried that things like this means that my application is likely to end up being seen as weaker than others who'd be applying as well.

Sorry, I'm just being somewhat over-paranoid and insecure

Like I said, my school expect you to go up a grade at A2 so the As are explained. The A* is because I would've achieved an A in my AS were it not for a teacher absence.

Queen Mary
City
Brunel
Westminster

Ranging from my predicted grades to a grade down (A*AA-ABB)

I thought A2 was supposed to be quite a big step up from AS?

The rest of your choices seem alright. Are you intent on staying in London? have you considered swapping City for King's since they both ask for A*AA but Kings is far better.

My personal advice for applications has always been:
Pick one university that you think is slightly unrealistic (while matching their entrance requirements).
Pick two universities whose entrance requirements are definitely attainable.
Pick one university whose entrance requirements are slightly lower than your predictions.
Pick one university that you really should get into.

As it stands, I'd argue that four of your choices are pretty "safe" - barring a complete mess at A2, you should be able to get into all of them comfortably. I'd recommend applying to an A*AA university and possibly another AAA uni.

Have you got a career in mind involving history?

If I were you I would go for it (a tad ambitious but in a good aspirational way as I think it's a reasonable choice) and I would think about going for another AAA Uni as well

I want to go into (the ultimate cliche) teaching, either at A level or university level, or into historical research. Yep, I'm the total history stereotype

Haha, fair enough. It might be worth considering joint honours between history and english in that case for the writing skills you'd get. Just a suggestion of course, obviously it's not my place to tell you what you should study, just might be worth thinking about.

Is LSE really picky about AS? I got BBBE and I'm applying. :P Predicted A*AA

I knew Oxbridge was out but I didn't know LSE too

That's fair enough; it's just because I wasn't sure how my D would line up against Oxbridge potentials/top achievers who'd still be achieving straight As regardless of the subject

I had been looking for other universities with higher requirements, but there's very few I actually like in terms of course, which is what my main priority is.

I'd say that you still have a chance, but you will have to make up for your AS grades being below the average of the other LSE applicants in other areas. There are a certain number of criteria which universities use to judge you, of which AS grades is an important one. But if your personal statement and reference are very good, you could get an offer. Your predicted grades are, of course, very good by any standards but many other LSE applicants will match them. From my experiences at events at the LSE for prospective applicants, I can say that they put a lot of weighting on the quality of your personal statement. If you have confidence in your personal statement then you can have some confidence of getting a place.

I'd say that you still have a chance, but you will have to make up for your AS grades being below the average of the other LSE applicants in other areas. There are a certain number of criteria which universities use to judge you, of which AS grades is an important one. But if your personal statement and reference are very good, you could get an offer. Your predicted grades are, of course, very good by any standards but many other LSE applicants will match them. From my experiences at events at the LSE for prospective applicants, I can say that they put a lot of weighting on the quality of your personal statement. If you have confidence in your personal statement then you can have some confidence of getting a place.



Well, there will be a number of people applying to places like Durham who have straight As, but (and this point links to what I have written above) you still have the opportunity to outshine them in other areas, particularly in your personal statement but also with your reference and predicted grades. Applicants who have straight As at AS may not be particularly passionate or well suited to the course. They may not even be good writers; not all students who do well in exams write a strong personal statement. An exceptional personal statement is probably rarer and more valuable to an admissions tutor than very high grades are.

It's good that your commitment is to the courses you like rather than the reputation of the universities. I simply meant to say in my previous post that you shouldn't feel restricted from applying to courses with higher grade requirements if you would prefer to do so.

Hope this helps.