Economics applicants 2015

Is the Nottingham economics course a BA or BSc depending on which modules you select?
Also, entry requirements are A*AA - AAA, so on what basis do they give an offer of AAA instead of A*AA?

Would appreciate your help

I had relatively poor GCSEs compared to most applicants (1A*, 5As, 5Bs, 1C), but then I managed to turn that around and I got AAAAA at AS and A*A*AA at A2.

For me, I wanted the most maths in the course as possible which was why I wanted to go to UCL. As far as I'm aware the economics courses at UCL and LSE are extremely similar so if UCL is too mathsy then LSE will definitely be too. The reason I didn't apply to LSE though was because I didn't think id get an offer with my GCSEs. But for some people I can understand why the amount of maths may be a little off putting.

Warwick and Oxford are good choices though if you don't want as much maths.

I went to a horrible school where my GCSEs were one of the best and they're only 2 As, 3 Bs and 3 Cs. Most of my friends failed to even get 5 A-Cs and 70% of the people in the gcse-resit class at my sixth form are from my high school. :/ My teachers think I should apply to Cambridge because of my AAAA AS grades and A* predictions but I just know I am going to get rejected. Hearing about your case has given me a bit hope. Speaking of which, any idea if Cambridge's econ course is just as mathematical as UCL/LSE?

I went to a horrible school where my GCSEs were one of the best and they're only 2 As, 3 Bs and 3 Cs. Most of my friends failed to even get 5 A-Cs and 70% of the people in the gcse-resit class at my sixth form are from my high school. :/ My teachers think I should apply to Cambridge because of my AAAA AS grades and A* predictions but I just know I am going to get rejected. Hearing about your case has given me a bit hope. Speaking of which, any idea if Cambridge's econ course is just as mathematical as UCL/LSE?

Ah cool well for joint honours you normally write about each subject equally but obviously you're only applying to two unis for joint honours so maybe talk about French in relation to economics if you can? Although that may be easier said than done haha, you could ask a careers advisor at school about this
Nope don't think you need to declare your ums for any of these, but I'm not 100% sure with lse, they may require it, again if in doubt send the department an email

Have you read any economics books already? I'm guessing that your ps may need to be heavily weighted on showing off your knowledge of economics and why you want to study it because you haven't done it at AS. Having a look at a textbook may be helpful for your own understanding but obviously not to write about in your ps
LSE has a preliminary reading list in their prospectus for econ:
A V Banjeree and E Duflo - Poor economics: barefoot hedge-fund managers, diy doctors and the surprising truth about life
T Harford - the undercover economist, and the logic of life
P Keugman - end this depression now
S D Levitt and S J Dubner - freakonomics and super freakonomics

That should be plenty of reading, the economist is always a good shout too


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Ninja's above post is very good.

The only thing I might argue about is that your courses are different or that they're 'joint honours'... as a joint honours applicant, your courses all seem to be single honours except maybe UCL and RHUL is 'combined' rather than 'joint'.

I would advise you to apply for straight Economics (or as close as you can get for UCL) and make a PS just for Economics. Your optional modules you decide when you get there anyway, so afaik, there's no reason you need to give it as much importance as Economics. I fully intend to make use of the Language Centre at whichever university I end up going to (offering the ability to learn a language outside of my degree was one of my shortlisting criteria) and I'm not going to mention a word of it on my PS.

As luck would have it, RHUL will be creating this opportunity by the time our year group arrive there (I asked in their Q&A thread on this forum). I'd be very much surprised if the London institutes don't offer language courses, but I'd check just in case.

By the way, Arabic in Year 10? You must be a genius!

Thank you very much, I think to save the hassle I'm just going to apply to straight econ, and then pick up languages while I'm there!! And ok thanks for the heads up, I'll contact lse and see if they do!

In terms of how much I've read, well...I'm going to! But thanks for your suggestions, I really do need to get on it!!

Thanks again, and also where are you planning on applying to?


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Do you guys think i stand a chance at offers from warwick, bath, bristol, notts, manchester?

I got AABB with A*AA predicition
GCSEs 6A* 3A 2B


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Do you guys think i stand a chance at offers from warwick, bath, bristol, notts, manchester?

I got AABB with A*AA predicition
GCSEs 6A* 3A 2B


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You should definitely apply! I wish that I had applied to Cambridge looking back as there was someone in my year who even had lower grades than me and not even straight As at AS who applied for econ and got an offer!

I'm not 100% sure about the maths content at Cambridge but I know for a fact that it is still very mathematical due to the fact that they ask for the A* to be in maths. However I know that they have compulsory history modules and that for the first year in particular, there will be a fair bit of essay writing. So if you aren't too keen on the essay side then that may be something to think about.

I'm applying to cambridge warwick durham nottingham and leeds


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Hi guys, recently got AS grades- it wasnt great but could be worse. AABD. But I badly messed up maths and have dropped it (D). Unis such as bham, notts, leeds, Leicester and loughborough- say GCSE maths is enough? Im worried I wont be able to cope at uni/won't get in. Alternatively to economics, I'm looking to apply to accountancy and finance. Help anyone?

Which Cambridge college are you applying to, out of interest? I'm going to apply for Econ at Cambridge too but still unsure on which college

Hey everyone! I really need some help... i've finally decided that i want to do an economics course at uni

my gcse grades are 6A* and 5A's
I got A in Bio, German, Maths and Turkish and B in Chem at AS

Which uni's do you think i have a chance of being accepted to?

and also, i know for medicine you have to do a ukcat/bmat test... is there anything like that which you have to do when applying for economics? basically, how do you apply for economics at uni? thanks so much!

Hey everyone! I really need some help... i've finally decided that i want to do an economics course at uni

my gcse grades are 6A* and 5A's
I got A in Bio, German, Maths and Turkish and B in Chem at AS

Which uni's do you think i have a chance of being accepted to?

and also, i know for medicine you have to do a ukcat/bmat test... is there anything like that which you have to do when applying for economics? basically, how do you apply for economics at uni? thanks so much!

Nope there aren't any admissions tests you need to do unless you apply to oxford where you'll have to do the tsa and some cambridge colleges require the tsa (although not many)
Seeing as you do maths and will presumably get at least a 3A prediction you can pretty much apply to any university for economics. Although the more mathematical courses (ucl/lse/cambridge/warwick) like students to have further maths to AS at least You're in a different situation to most having not studied economics at a level but that's fine for most (pretty sure cambridge requires geog if you haven't studied econ but don't quote me on that) so you'll have to tailor your ps to show you're knowledge of the subject and why you want to study it more so than others but I'm sure a teacher will be able to help with this

Just out of curiosity why didn't you do economics at AS? Also well done on your results!


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No offense, but what kind of question is that? You clearly have internet access so just do a bit of googling and research into unis and it should be straightforward. The only test is the TSA at Oxford, and sometimes Cambridge.