Any Bath/Birmingham/Warwick students out there?

I'm a current student at Bath on the 4 year BSc and happy to answer any questions you have.

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Do you know what Bath are like if you just miss your entry grades? Also what did you put down as your insurance? Are you enjoying the course? Sorry for the 101 questions!

That's a hard one to answer as it varies from year to year at all universities, based on how many of the students who have gone for them meet their grades, and therefore if they have any free spaces for near misses or not. I know of someone who missed her A*AA offer and got in with AAA but with an A* in her EPQ. My insurance was Loughborough, who I had an unconditional from. Yes, I really like it at Bath, it's a really nice department and uni.

Ahhh right okay thank you! They take Welsh Bacc as an alternative for an A Level for every course apart from Psychology and I'm not confident that I will get the grades! How valuable is your placement year and what placement options do you get?

I'm a first year so haven't done my placement yet, but it is the main reason I chose Bath, and I'm really excited about it. There's an absolutely enormous range of placements you can apply for - there were over 180 this year. There's research ones in loads of different countries, clinical, forensic, health, business, all sorts. I think it's invaluable if you want a career in psychology.

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Ahhh okay thank you very much! Do you have any advice as to whether I should put Surrey or Birmingham as my insurance? Surrey have a placement year too but are lower in the league tables, 21st whereas Birmingham are 8th but don't have a placement year.

I didn't apply to either so don't have personal experience. Did you prefer one to the other? Do you want to work in psychology? Personally the placement year was very important to me as I think it can make a big difference when applying for jobs after finishing, so I prioritised that over ranking. Both are good departments, so based on that I'd go for Surrey as insurance because of placement, but you need to think about which you preferred too.

Yeah, I am aiming for a career in Clinical Psychology which is why I think the experience is so important because of how competitive it is, but it's the league tables that are making me thing twice which is such a shame. Surrey's research assessment is 2.35 whereas Birmingham is 3:10, but having looked at the modules I prefer Surrey's course content because it doesn't have as much as a biological emphasis as Birmingham does. (PS thank you for your help, I'm currently having the biggest breakdown over this haha!)