MY APPLICATION PROCESS:
I wanted to study Natural Sciences because my interests lie throughout the sciences, and I wouldn't have been satisfied studying just one. Furthermore, sciences are so interdisciplinary nowadays that you will be much more knowledgeable and employable if you've studied multiple areas and not just one, and having a good breadth of knowledge was important to me. Natural Sciences courses vary a lot between universities, and not many universities offer it so it was fairly hard to choose. I ended up applying to some for natural sciences, and some for biology:
- Bath - NatSci
- Cambridge - NatSci
- Durham - NatSci
- Imperial College - Biology
- Edinburgh - Biology
I had 9 A*s and 2As at GCSE, 5As at AS level and ultimately got 3As and 2A*s at A2 level in biology, chemistry, maths, classical civilisation and art. I got offers from all of my unis, apart from Cambridge where I had an interview and then got rejected - my offer from Bath was A*AA, which is the typical NatSci offer. On results day, my results came back as 4As and 1A* (the A* was in art so didn't count for my Bath offer), so initially I had missed my grades and couldn't come to Bath. I was devastated, so sent back my papers to be remarked and all of them went up. I got my grades, and got into Bath a week later. Most of my classmates had the same experience - it just so happened that Edexcel's marking was atrocious that year. From my experience, I would definitely recommend getting your papers remarked if you're only a few marks off a grade, as it can change your life! If I hadn't bothered to get my papers remarked, I wouldn't be at Bath now.
In my case, I wasn't interested in Cambridge as the course, location and just general vibe of the university didn't appeal to me at all, so I only applied as my school liked it if students who had good grades applied. Imperial, Durham and Edinburgh were all just back-ups as they're good unis but I knew I wanted to go to Bath from the start.
WHY I ULTIMATELY CHOSE BATH:
I knew the place was perfect for me - I didn't want to live in a big city as it is too stressful and expensive for me as someone who was just starting uni, but I didn't want to be at a campus uni in the middle of nowhere and get bored. Bath is the perfect middle ground as the city is just big enough and has plenty to do, but not too big. If I do want somewhere bigger, Bristol is only 15 minutes away. The city has loads of culture and history and just generally lots to do, be it nightlife, shopping or just relaxing.
With NatSci, however, the course is the most important thing to think about when applying/choosing your firm choice as the courses are so different between unis and its such a personalisable degree. For me, the Bath course allowed me to have a combination of modules that suited me best - I could study everything I wanted without having to take modules I didn't want to take. However, it's important to remember that its a very personal choice, particularly when it comes to NatSci as everyone is doing different module combinations. So while I think Bath is perfect for me, the module combinations available might not work for you. What I'd recommend doing (as it's what I did) is printing out the flowchart/list/sheet that university websites have detailing all the module combinations you can take, and highlighting all the modules you'd want to do so you can visually see which university will give you the most. In doing this I realised that if I went to Cambridge or Durham, I wouldn't have been able to take as many modules that I enjoy as I can at Bath.
I hope this was helpful, and I'll continue doing posts in this thread on my uni experience, what I think of the course, social life etc. Please let me know if there's anything in partciular you'd like me to talk about, or if you have any questions!
Jessica, second year Natural Sciences student