BTEC - to Russell Group - First Class - AMA

Management Science Pieman. Number is confidential. SW luck - One Bank - FO. Soceities, we'll see how it goes. EFS - Yes - I know the President.

In fact BTEC vs A Level may have an even bigger impact than uni rankings as A Levels allows a greater breadth of opportunities in higher education.

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The post, if it is to be believed, only shows that one BTEC candidate with an A level got into UCL.

There are many people who have gotten into good unis with BTECs; I have a friend who got into Oxford with one.

However let's not extrapolate antidotal evidence and encourage the suggestion of a large shift in uni admissions attitudes towards BTECs. A few successful BTEC candidates provides no such indication of this occurring.

A Levels, with few exceptions, are massively superior in terms of breadth of higher education opportunities. An A Level student with 3 traditional subjects can apply to the majority of available courses and with a good personal statement can be successful in these applications. Whereas a BTEC students's options are much more restrictived.

I'm still looking down on Btecs unless you do three other A-Levels along side it.

Listen here, i took BTEC solely on its own, and at a Russell group university studying engineering you need to pick your head up from the grave and stop underestimating BTEC students, this thread is showing people that it is possible with hard work and determination that you can achieve a Russell group and achieve a top grade.

Another BTEC success story has launched it's way onto TSR.

I commend your efforts, an engineering disipline isn't easy. Lots of maths and computer programming.

Keep the hard work up!

Whereas a BTEC students's options are much more restrictived.

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If we take your first paragraph and work from your own knowledge, which I'm sure is sourced correctly and not entirely anecdotal, most of the top 25 unis don't accept BTEC. Therefore straightaway we can conclude that BTEC options are more restricted.

The point of my previous post was to say that an A Level student with 3 traditional subjects will be able to successfully apply to most courses available barring the obvious exceptions. Whereas BTECs, as is their very nature, are often centred around one particular topic/subject and thus can only successfully apply to a narrower range of courses. For example you may find it difficult to get offers for history of art, economics and psychology at Plymouth with your Forensic Science qualification whereas any A Level student with 3 BBBs in any subjects could get onto these courses. This is why on the course requirements for many universities you'll see something similar to 'If you hold a BTEC qualification it is vital that you provide our Admissions team with details of the exact modules you have studied as part of the BTEC.' As they want to make sure your specific BTEC is vaguely or sometimes closely related to the course you're applying for. For example forensic science can be vaguely related to law.


In regards to your demand for evidence; I could tell you my sentiments are founded upon and supported by my heads of department and also my previous college coordinator. However such anecdotal evidence is trivial so I shall refrain from doing so.

Most of the top 25 don't accept BTEC? No, not at all. In fact, majority do. Going off of the CUG tables:
1/2, Oxbridge: take them very very specifically and with limits
3, St Andrews: not sure
4, LSE: not sure
5, ICL: no
6, Durham: yes, they take BTEC for some courses
7, UCL: been over this
8, Warwick: few
9, Lancaster: yes
10, Lboro: yes, they adore BTEC!
11, Bath: few
12, UEA: yes
13, Surrey: yes
14, exeter: yes
16, birmingham: yes
17, bristol: yes
18, nottingham: yes
19, sussex: yes
20, york: yes
21, kcl: ehh
22, manchester: yes
23, newcastle: yes
25, kent: yes

Honestly, considering that the majority of students aren't looking to go to top 25 unis and smash their education, I really don't think BTECs are limiting. They allowed me to progress from being homeschooled for the majority of my life to going to a brilliant uni. Your point about the top 25 unis is definitely not correct, I did a lot of research into top to mid tier unis that took BTEC last year and can honestly tell you it wasn't in any way limiting to me, at all. I think the only top tier uni I concretely know doesn't specify BTECs in any of its courses is Trinity College Dublin, but the reasoning for that is obvious.

Congrats on addressing one point that I derived from your own post and ignoring the rest of my post.

'You'll also find near enough every university below the Top 25 will take BTECs for practically all their courses.'

Seems like a weird thing to say if most of the top 25 accept BTEC. But anyway apologies though as a quick google should have corrected my error. Once again I refer you back to my 3 traditional subjects vs BTEC argument which I've continually encouraged you to address.

I've never said BTECs are 'limiting' only that they offer less breath of opportunities to university courses than A Levels. If you know which university course you want to pursue and choose a sutiable BTEC for said course then they are only marginally more restrictive than A Levels as they exclude a few top unis when offered solely.

Definitely, but generally speaking, if you take your A Levels and then sort of pick your uni choice on a whim with a wide breadth of options, then it's unlikely you're gonna end up at a top 5 uni anyhow I think! Considering a lot of those kinds of people choose A Levels knowing what they want to do very early. Agree though, they're definitely still the best route

Very true however some people don't know what they want to do until a month or two before UCAS deadline! Guess that's what year 12 is for...

Anyways Good Luck at York, beautiful city and one of my favourite unis

Congrats.

I also did a BTEC.

Graduated with a first in Natural Sciences

It'd be interesting to know if they would have accepted you without the A level.

Dear all,

BTEC students have always been criticised due to the fact it's not a "traditional route" to university.

I studied a Level 3 Extended Diploma in Business & have finished my first year at a Russell Group university, feel free to ask me any questions.

Pursuing a Bachelor of Science.