The Student Room Group

Where to Apply? General Rules

Hello Everyone,

I just finished my AS exams, and like most of you are still wondering which universities to apply to.

While lurking around TSR I came across some general guidelines/advice people gave to one another. Such as You have:
"low xxxx so dont apply to xxxx"
"high xxxxx so apply to xxxxx"

So I was hoping we could make it easier for everyone, if we could all put the general rules for different universities in here, so we can apply to our strengths.

Regarding anything of the selection process: A2, AS ,GCSE, UKCAT, BMAT, Work Experience, Extra-Cirriculars, Personal Statements and anything else

Hopefully we all get offers somewhere :tongue:
Or you could look at the wiki applying to your strengths which has all that information in it already? :smile: (I would link to it but I'm on my phone).

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Reply 2
Original post by Amyk89
Or you could look at the wiki applying to your strengths which has all that information in it already? :smile: (I would link to it but I'm on my phone).

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Yeah i know about that :smile:
Thats great for A2,AS,GCSE
but for other things it gets vague and upto interpretation.

Im hoping for the little "insights" on each admission process. (the not so known ones)
Reply 4
As an example I recently found out Manchester Medical School has Voluntary Caring work experience as a Requirement rather than a "if you have it, its better"
(its on their website)
Reply 5
Don't apply to Leeds if you're expecting your application to be managed in an equal and orderly fashion. Or if you don't want 10 emails a day indirectly telling you how disorganised their system is.

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Reply 6
Original post by em.d_4
Don't apply to Leeds if you're expecting your application to be managed in an equal and orderly fashion. Or if you don't want 10 emails a day indirectly telling you how disorganised their system is.

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I would die if my application fails due to a technicality :s-smilie:

Maybe you could shed some more light on the situation?
Reply 7
Original post by AlphaMariMo
I would die if my application fails due to a technicality :s-smilie:

Maybe you could shed some more light on the situation?


Well there were a number of people who got rejected due to their application being incorrectly ranked by Leeds. Some people managed to insist eventually on their application being reviewed despite reluctance from Leeds. All the interview days were over so unsurprisingly Leeds decided their personal statements weren't good enough and rejected them anyway.
There were also issues with people who had 3A's as specified by the entry requirements but also had a b in chem (all at AS). Some of these people were rejected but not all for no clear reason! These applications were not reviewed, despite the inequality.
And they send you constant updates which is initially exciting but soon gets annoying when they're only saying that they're over running yet another deadline they'd said.

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Reply 8
Original post by em.d_4
Well there were a number of people who got rejected due to their application being incorrectly ranked by Leeds. Some people managed to insist eventually on their application being reviewed despite reluctance from Leeds. All the interview days were over so unsurprisingly Leeds decided their personal statements weren't good enough and rejected them anyway.
There were also issues with people who had 3A's as specified by the entry requirements but also had a b in chem (all at AS). Some of these people were rejected but not all for no clear reason! These applications were not reviewed, despite the inequality.
And they send you constant updates which is initially exciting but soon gets annoying when they're only saying that they're over running yet another deadline they'd said.

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damn :mad:

thats harsh
Reply 9
Original post by AlphaMariMo
damn :mad:

thats harsh


I mean that's just a small minority and tbh I wouldnt be surprised if it happens at many unis. But the incessant emailing 'too keep us informed' (actually it's a bit distressing as everyone you know will have 5 offers by then) highlighted every flaw in the system.
HYMS also screwed up so have had to review their policy for 2015 and Southampton were interviewing up until recently which suggests something a bit weird if not just disorganised their.
My friend had issues with her Bham interview feedback, she's convinced it's about someone else not her but there's obviously no way to prove that.
On the other hand I found Sheffield helpful with feedback and they put rather a lot more ps emphasis than id realized but perhaps that was a lack of research to me.
QUB were also really good and their application process was comparatively fast and very transparent. Their feedback was excellent.

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Reply 10
Original post by Jatyization
Any more contributions to this thread?


Have you not come across anything useful to share in your own research to add?
I could add pages of stuff but only because I did hours and hours of work.

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If you don't want to wait until the UCAS cycle finishes to get a response, don't apply to UEA :')

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