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University of Edinburgh

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Most Pathetic Rejection

After enquiring why i'd been rejected for politics and philosophy, considering that my ps was ace, 4 A's predicted for A2, i've had experience in youth parliament etc and outstanding reference they told me they couldnt consider my application !! Why, you may ask...

because i didnt take a language at gcse (and get a C) !!!!

how petty ?

the irony of it is that their supposed to be widening access, i come from a pretty rough background (longsight in manchester & north east manchester) and lived on a council estate for 14 years, yet because my school was too poor to build a languages department i couldnt take a language, and took seperate sciences instead. so ive been rejected purely because i went to a poor school, widening access my left *******!

the sad sad irony.....

they also told me that if i applied next year (taking a gap year) they would automatically reject me because i dont meet their language requirement. way to go edinburgh !

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Reply 1

beanie

is the language GCSE requirement stated in your courses general requirements? as if it isn't you could appeal the rejection, or could you get evidence from your school that a language GCSE wasn't possible?

i thought that everyone our age had to do a foreign language GCSE, as we were the last year where a language was a compulsary subject. you can easily do a GCSE now though, I did GCSE Spanish last year and it took me a term, then went on to do the AS level in the other 2 terms.

University of Edinburgh

Reply 2

michaela_banana

That's crazy! You must be a ninja linguist! I'm struggling enough with AS french in 3 terms! (I could blame it on not doing any french for a year, but i know that's not the real reason)

If it's in the prospectus then you may well not have a leg to stand on, but if your school can write and explain why you don't then I can't see why you shouldn't be able to appeal.

Reply 3

beanie

michaela_banana

That's crazy! You must be a ninja linguist! I'm struggling enough with AS french in 3 terms! (I could blame it on not doing any french for a year, but i know that's not the real reason)

french rocks! i do A2 french and love it, i'm definatly carrying on either spanish or french at uni because i can't imagine not doing a language. what have you picked for your oral? i did alexander gustave eiffel, the dude who built the eiffel tower.

Reply 4

michaela_banana

Isabelle Dinoire and the face transplant. My french teacher wasn't so keen on it because it meant she had to do extra research for my discussion, but it's easy for me (mwahahaha) because I had to read loads about it in case it came up at a med interview.

The whole reason I applied to manchester was to do medicine with european studies, although edinburgh was always by first choice.

Reply 5

lizg

I think it was the year above who were the last to have to take a language. You didn't have to in our year at our school. Quite a lot of uni's do specify that you have to have a language GCSE and though I haven't checked I'm presuming that applies to Edinburgh.

Reply 6

tetedupet

We were not forced to take a language GCSE, however we were strongly advised at the time, I remember one of the teachers saying that universities like you to have a language at GCSE. Generally it was the more academic people who chose to take a language. That's really unfortunate that you've been rejected in this way, I thought they made allowances for people in your circumstances... I'd make a complete fuss, if you're really desperate about going to Edinburgh.

Reply 7

Obscured

Really don't know if this will help at all. I have an offer for philosophy and politics but I don't have a language at GCSE. My reference did explain why I under performed at GCSE ( health issues) but you seem to have a good reason for not having a language. If I were you I would appeal, considering there is no language requirement for the course.

Reply 8

Clarence

Ah, that may be why i got rejected too! I got a D at GCSE German.

Reply 9

L i b

Bloody Edinburgh admissions policy.

Reply 10

lukeyboy

i COULDNT take a language, as my school couldnt afford a language department so the space on the course was very limited... its annoying !

Reply 11

yossarianlives

Have you informed the university that you were unable to do a language course at your school?

Reply 12

lukeyboy

no, but i waited three months for that feedback (i originally asked for my course to be transferred, they said they wouldnt consider me for either course because i didnt have a language at gcse and so didnt meet their minimum entry requirements) and i dont think telling them that now would make any difference, considering the organisation/ response time they've demonstrated so far.

Reply 13

yossarianlives

True... Edinburgh's operations are kind of annoying. Making you wait so long so everyone can get a 'fair chance' etc etc.

Reply 14

lukeyboy

yeah well, their loss ! i just can't believe how unfair their admissions policy is, and the painful irony.....

Reply 15

Emmy18

No way Alias dont take it. I had the same thing happen to me for english lit (though not cos of the language GCSE, I had that) I appealed but they only gave me a place for 2007 (they said, we already filled up for 2006...like thats MY fault- not fussed cos was considerin a gap year but THE PRINCIPLE REMAINS). In my p.s and ref I didnt write that no-one in my family had been to Uni because obviously other uni's dont care and or want to know so once I got back to them with this they sorted it. And they did it within 10 days. So give it a go. And feel free to be nasty. I did -'I am greatly dissappointed that for a University that prides itself on equality and fairness you are just as arbitrary and biased and all the other elitist institutions'. It will make u feel better.

Reply 16

lukeyboy

i have already emailed them, with some fairly short and nasty quips. 'i feel upset that what proclaims to be a forward thinking institution has rejected me because of advice derivative of my poor background'

Reply 17

winterblue

They should feel ashamed. You're completely right, it's such a pathetic rejection. I hope they give you some sort of an apology (and hopefully an offer if you still want to go there)

Reply 18

beanie

to be fair though, I bet loads of other universities reject people in the same way. If you asked the majority of the top uni's why you'd been rejected they would probably come back with a lame excuse, as they have to reject people in some way and they have thousands of very able candidates. Some universties have 6/7 A* policies, at my school only 5 A*s were achieved at all- 2 were mine and 3 were my friend's. So we'd have been automatically rejected there purely because we went to a 'failing' school.