Academic rigour at UCL/LSE/Bristol/KCL

Even if you had straight A's, the minimum to be even considered at them unis are A*AA...

Surely then his offer should have been adjusted to something like AAA or ABB? If it was, OP's fine.

Yes, the offer for Singaporeans tends to be AAA. However, I think OP's issue is that he was first rejected on the basis of poor predicted grades, but has now received good actual grades and wants to appeal his rejection. (Results day in Singapore was only in late Feb)

Yep!

You also need to do the LNAT, have you done that?

If OP has an offer from Bristol, I would assume so.

(OP, it would be helpful to know your LNAT score as well.)

Hi! This will be catered mostly to students of Bristol! Especially Singaporeans. I've received an offer from Bristol, just wanted to ask some questions.

I was actually pretty happy with Bristol until I heard about how they were not very recognized in my country, which I plan to practice in, Singapore. And also the fact that there were many Singaporeans and so cultural exposure was nothing much, difficult to travel around, little internship opportunities, 6 modules.

I'm coming from a position where despite obtaining good grades at the A levels, I am generally a poor student. I'm not one of those 'brilliantly smart' students and my As were a pleasant surprise. One of my main priorities is career opportunities, in which case my local university, NUS, would seem to have the upper hand. Yet, I'm also looking at somewhere without intense competition/90% of cohort being brilliantly bright such that I lose out and become bottom 10%. Doing great at a small school VS doing poorly at a great school and all that, and NUS is one such 'great school' haha.

So I was happy with Bristol thinking the cohort might not be so over-achieving/pressurising/stressul, yet I realised that they have 6 modules compared to other schools, and little flexibility in terms of modules. Would that mean the school life is tougher in Bristol?

In addition, some schools rely on a 100% year-end examination. This is a great concern obviously haha. Any advice on whether it is truly so all or nothing, or whether there are consistent examinations throughout the school year that advise you on your standing and all that so that your end-year grade is actually pretty predictable etc would be great!

One more concern is the guidance available from teachers. I am the kind of student that requires a lot of guidance/instructions and am pretty poor at just magically producing whatever the teacher happened to have in mind. I was wondering how Bristol copes with this?

In summary, would love advice/opinions on the following points!:
1. Intelligence of the whole cohort (lol)
2. Academic rigour in Bristol/module info
3. 100% year end exam vs a few
4. Guidance from teachers
5. Internship opportunities for intl students (likely in London, have heard that Bristol is too far away etc) (London firms dislike intl students, whether schools will arrange/hv progs etc)
6. School culture!*

Less impt things:
1. Horses?? Dogs?? Animal-related interest groups??
2. Anything else interesting!

Any and all help is appreciated. Thank you Btw we do not have A* here, A is the top.

*I think this ties in with the competitiveness etc. I hated my past schools' school culture (top schools) and am really looking forward to a more relaxed, united actual school spirit and culture in university haha.

I got 24.
Just got replies from all universities, all rejections haha. Does the UK by protocol generally not accept appeals? Or was the 'your predicted grades didn't make it' reason just an excuse? Aka what they didn't like was actually my personal statement or whatever.

Could it also be because I only have 10 units? It's a perfect UAS but I understand they probably have tons of 11/12 unit applicants.

OP I'm confused - so you don't have an offer? Or the other four were rejections?

I was going to write a lengthy post but thought I'd clear that up first.

R

Here's my 2p (non-Singaporean):

1: It will vary, as always. Bristol has a gigantic class (400+ people) and it's difficult to define the 'intelligence' of the cohort, compared to LSE/UCL which have about 150-170 students. In my year, around 70-100 of those got a 2.1 in the first year.
2/3: The academic rigour will be about the same in all these universities. The difference with Bristol is that, in the first year, there are 4 modules with 100% exams, and 1 module with 100% coursework (2x2000w essays) [plus an introductory unit. In the 2nd and 3rd years, the module increase to 6]. The issue is that they love authorities in the essays, and creating a truly good essay will make it difficult to revise properly during the formative and, most importantly, summative examinations.
4: This is good. They do try their best and always invite you to visit them during office hours (or send emails). That said, I do get the feeling that the massive size of the class has affected communication. Also, you get no guidance for the coursework essays (intentionally), and many people perform very poorly because they cannot guide themselves. For exams, to get a first/high 2.1 you need to have clearly read beyond the already tough reading lists, and that's something that falls on you entirely (again, not any different to most other unis I'd presume).
5: There are hundreds of events from firms here, and I think Bristol runs an international scholarship scheme for top performers. I don't know much on this one however, as I'm not 'international' myself.
6: Not sure what you mean - but it's very open and accepting, and the school creates lots of events to get you to meet others. There are so many Singaporeans here anyway so that shouldn't be a problem.

1: Not sure per se, but there are many related societies.

As for competitiveness, it can be insane sometimes, and glaringly so. Only 1-2 students get a 1st in their first year, so it will affect people's competitive nature. That said, it's not too much and certainly not any different to other unis.

It's 3:30am and I'm in the UCL library....

Hi yep, only one offer to Bristol, wish I could edit the title haha.
"Does the UK by protocol generally not accept appeals? Or was the 'your predicted grades didn't make it' reason just an excuse? Aka what they didn't like was actually my personal statement or whatever.

Could it also be because I only have 10 units? It's a perfect UAS but I understand they probably have tons of 11/12 unit applicants."

I got 24.
Just got replies from all universities, all rejections haha. Does the UK by protocol generally not accept appeals? Or was the 'your predicted grades didn't make it' reason just an excuse? Aka what they didn't like was actually my personal statement or whatever.

Could it also be because I only have 10 units? It's a perfect UAS but I understand they probably have tons of 11/12 unit applicants.

Yes, no appeals. It's not usually an excuse, they tend to explicitly say so if it was the PS.

I'm unfortunately not that sure about the 10AU thing as I didn't go through the Singaporean exam system myself. But for what it's worth, students who do 3 A2 subjects here in the UK are viewed virtually the same as those who do 4.5 so I wouldn't have thought that it posed an issue.

Thank you! It is an odd comfort to know that haha. I did feel very demoralized but I guess maybe it's a blessing in disguise.

Thanks so much for your reply!! It is very helpful Could you clarify on "The issue is that they love authorities in the essays, and creating a truly good essay will make it difficult to revise properly during the formative and, most importantly, summative examinations." please?

"Also, you get no guidance for the coursework essays (intentionally), and many people perform very poorly because they cannot guide themselves. For exams, to get a first/high 2.1 you need to have clearly read beyond the already tough reading lists, and that's something that falls on you entirely (again, not any different to most other unis I'd presume)."
What happens to these people? How do they do better or do they just not??