Hi guys. I am a first year neuroscience student at the University of Sussex. I came here through clearing with the level 3 BTEC Extended Diploma in Applied Science (Medical) at grades DDM. This year Sussex have been quite lenient with their entry requirements, probably due to the government lifting the cap on the number of students they can take.
I will warn you though, many other universities do look down on the BTEC, ignore people that tell you that you are not at a disadvantage with the BTEC because the honest truth is that you are.
Ignore UCAS when they say that a BTEC at grade DDD is worth 360 UCAS points (3 A grades at A level) because the half decent universities have their own standards that they adhere to which rarely take UCAS points into consideration.
Other universities are extremely strict when it comes to BTEC, if they say they want DDD or DDD + A in A level biology, they mean it. Unlike with other level 3 qualifications, there is usually little leniency.
I called up many universities during the clearing process, the vast majority turned me down due to being one grade too low.
For anyone on the BTEC applied science course thinking of studying at Sussex, I have one big recommendation.
MAKE SURE YOU KNOW YOUR CHEMISTRY. Don't just copy and paste your coursework from Wikipedia, make sure that you can actually perform basic calculations and have some knowledge of biochemistry concepts (organic wouldn't hurt either) otherwise you will find the first year quite hard as much of what you do in your first year of studying life sciences at the University of Sussex is biochemistry related in some way.
Anyway please don't hesitate to ask me any questions.