Is this a ridiculously over-ambitious list of potential choices?

Original post by Rattie

I'm trying to put together a list of places to put on my UCAS application to study English and really having trouble with coming up with a broad range of universities, in terms of how difficult they are to get in to. So far I have:

Birmingham
Exeter
Cambridge
York
Either Reading or Warwick

- it's kind of hard to work out the difference in typical offers since I'm doing Access to HE and most places seem to have the same offer: 30 Distinctions, 15 Merits, no Passes.

I'm pretty sure I can meet that with no problems (already have 24 D, 0 M, 0 P from my first year) but I'm scared of getting no offers at all :biggrin:

English is a tremendously oversubscribed subject and the places you have listed are going to be massively oversubscribed as well. You need to have a wider range, with a couple of safer options. This is no slur on your application at all, and is the advice I would give to all similar applicants.

Reply 3

OP

Thanks so much for your posts!

In terms of safer options, would Reading be considered one? I didn't like it that much at the open day I went to, but I thought it might be a little less dangerous than some of the others. I also went to Southampton and Surrey - Surrey I didn't like at all, and Southampton was okay but i got horribly lost :biggrin:

I looked at Hull, Keele and Lincoln's websites - Keele's typical Access offer is quite high, though. I'm wondering if anyone has better suggestions for more accessible universities (taking into consideration the results i already have) as it's pretty hard to find info on which ones are more likely to give offers for Access students.

The course outlines and assessment methods at lots of the more attainable universities tend to appeal to me less - I really don't like being assessed by groupwork or presentations.

One problem I have is that my college tutors and careers advisor don't have a lot of experience in this area. The careers advisor in particular told me that she really doesn't have anything much to do with the Access and A level students, and that she's mostly familiar with advising the BTEC students. Most people from my college go on to do vocational degrees or aim for universities with pretty low entry requirements (really they shouldn't - I have friends there with great results so far who are aiming well below where their results would suggest they should).

Sorry about all the questions…

Reply 4

OP

What I mean by mentioning the students going for the vocational courses it's that that's the main area my college prepares people for, so they're very knowledgeable about, e.g., applying for nursing.

Reply 5

Original post by Rattie

What I mean by mentioning the students going for the vocational courses it's that that's the main area my college prepares people for, so they're very knowledgeable about, e.g., applying for nursing.

I'm a bit out of the loop these days on which universities are offering lower grades for English, and Access courses have never been my area of expertise, but you might try typing your expected grades into www.whatuni.com and searching that way. I am assuming the search facility accepts things other than A levels, but I can't swear to it. However, if you enter in different combinations of A level grades, you will get a set of results at different levels, which may help you.

In the meantime, here is my sticky on applying for English:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2012563&p=37765516#post37765516

Reply 6

OP

Original post by Carnationlilyrose

I'm a bit out of the loop these days on which universities are offering lower grades for English, and Access courses have never been my area of expertise, but you might try typing your expected grades into www.whatuni.com and searching that way. I am assuming the search facility accepts things other than A levels, but I can't swear to it. However, if you enter in different combinations of A level grades, you will get a set of results at different levels, which may help you.

In the meantime, here is my sticky on applying for English:
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2012563&p=37765516#post37765516

Thanks for the site suggestion and the thread link - I'm sorry about any mistakes I'm making with posting, BTW; I've only ever lurked and browsed before now. I'll go and check those out.

Reply 7

Original post by Rattie

Thanks for the site suggestion and the thread link - I'm sorry about any mistakes I'm making with posting, BTW; I've only ever lurked and browsed before now. I'll go and check those out.

No worries. Would you like me to move this to either Mature Students or English?

Reply 8

OP

Original post by Carnationlilyrose

No worries. Would you like me to move this to either Mature Students or English?

If you think those would be better, yes please!

Reply 9

OP

Wait, that was an "or", wasn't it? :biggrin:

I'm not sure which would be more appropriate TBH.

Reply 10

Original post by Rattie

If you think those would be better, yes please!

Well, it could go one of two ways. In Mature Students, you'll get responses from people about which universities are especially Access friendly, and in English, you'll get ideas about where else to apply to. Pick which one you like and I'll move it, and then maybe you can make another thread in the other forum.

Reply 11

OP

Original post by Carnationlilyrose

Well, it could go one of two ways. In Mature Students, you'll get responses from people about which universities are especially Access friendly, and in English, you'll get ideas about where else to apply to. Pick which one you like and I'll move it, and then maybe you can make another thread in the other forum.

Thank you - it sounds like English would be useful. :smile:

Reply 12

Original post by Rattie

Thank you - it sounds like English would be useful. :smile:

Done.

Reply 13

The Empire Odyssey

21

Original post by Rattie

I'm trying to put together a list of places to put on my UCAS application to study English and really having trouble with coming up with a broad range of universities, in terms of how difficult they are to get in to. So far I have:

Birmingham
Exeter
Cambridge
York
Either Reading or Warwick

- it's kind of hard to work out the difference in typical offers since I'm doing Access to HE and most places seem to have the same offer: 30 Distinctions, 15 Merits, no Passes.

I'm pretty sure I can meet that with no problems (already have 24 D, 0 M, 0 P from my first year) but I'm scared of getting no offers at all :biggrin:

I think Reading is a safer than all the other ones. I think in terms of grades, if you don't have what they are looking for then they'll probably reject you. That's what happened to me anyway. I have a friend that goes to Reading, she likes it.

I applied to Keele. It's in the middle of nowhere though.

I have no idea about what you're asking in terms of the grades and whatnot.

But maybe ask yourself what kind of literature you want to study and what do you want to get out of your degree. For example, some English departments at unis specialize in earlier literature works like 900-19th Century Literature, while other unis will focus on modern and contemporary works. It's pretty similar for all first years to read a wider range of literature, like Shakespeare, Victorian Literature, American Literature in their first years anyway. But when it comes to 2nd and 3rd year, you get to specialize in what you find interesting.

Personally, I like the Victorian or 19th Century literature. But, academically, I want my degree to be quite varied and interesting. Not so much the philosophy side where I pretty much enjoy Ancient and Medieval Philosophy. Back to the Literature side, I'm taking various lit modules like Crime and Trangressive literature, I'm taking a module that solely focuses on animals and their narratives in literature. So I'm defo making the most of it.

Have a think of whether you want to study varied modules or modules that are close together in theme or literary period. That should have a big influence in which unis you apply to.

Reply 14

OP