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Would I get these offers?! Be honest

GCSE: A*A*AAAAABB
A2/AS: A*aac (A* maths, a in physics and f.maths, c in economics lol)
Predicted: A*A*A (carrying on economics, my teacher thinks I can get an A as my C was one UMS off a B)

Applying to/ Standard offer:

Cambridge (MEng) A*AA
Imperial (MEng) A*A*A
UCL (MEng) A*AA-AAA
Bristol (MEeng) A*AA - AAA (contextual offer)
Bath (MEng) A*AA

Imperial/Bath/UCL/Bristol/Bath are all for Civil Engineering. For Cambridge, I know a lot is about the interview so can you respond to whether I will be able to get an interview or not?

My school is in the bottom 40% of schools and I would be eligible for a contextual offer from Bristol. This is under the presumption that everything else is 'good' e.g my personal statement/reference is not amazingly good or frighteningly bad, its what the university would expect to get so a 'typical PS/reference' etc'

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Reply 1
help, im going to sent my application off soon.
You have 5 fairly ambitious offers for the grades you have. I'd recommend having a 2 or 3 safety choices.
Reply 3
I'd say you'll maybe get a couple offers, don't know whether they'll see the C in economics and think you've been over predicted in everything though. I'd change one to say Cardiff or something with a lower boundary as a backup
Reply 4
Original post by GeogBerry
I'd say you'll maybe get a couple offers, don't know whether they'll see the C in economics and think you've been over predicted in everything though. I'd change one to say Cardiff or something with a lower boundary as a backup


I see, its just that as long as I get 2/5 of those offers I'm happy as they're all brilliant universities for Engineering.
Reply 5
Original post by `God
I see, its just that as long as I get 2/5 of those offers I'm happy as they're all brilliant universities for Engineering.


I know what you mean, people keep telling me to put a back up choice on there but if I get an offer from even one uni I've applied for I'm fine :wink:
Reply 6
Getting an offer is one thing but getting the grades is entirely another. Some people think that if they get an offer they're home and dry but sadly it isn't always so.

They're all great universities but if somehow one of your A levels slips to a B you could be stuffed. I would seriously have something like an AAB as a choice if not ABB because bad **** can happen to anyone.

Crossing my fingers that you get what you want :smile:
Reply 7
Original post by Folion
Getting an offer is one thing but getting the grades is entirely another. Some people think that if they get an offer they're home and dry but sadly it isn't always so.

They're all great universities but if somehow one of your A levels slips to a B you could be stuffed. I would seriously have something like an AAB as a choice if not ABB because bad **** can happen to anyone.

Crossing my fingers that you get what you want :smile:


Didn't think of it that way, I'm hoping that if I do get an offer it will either be A*A (Imperial) or AA (others excluding Cambridge and Imperial) as I've already achieved an A* in Maths, if Cambridge give me an offer it will be A*AA that I need to get this why which is why I'm not dropping economics. I highly doubt I'll get into Cambridge but I'll never know if I don't apply so I haven't got my hopes up but it'd be nice to get an offer. How about switching Bath to Birmingham?
Reply 8
Original post by `God
Didn't think of it that way, I'm hoping that if I do get an offer it will either be A*A (Imperial) or AA (others excluding Cambridge and Imperial) as I've already achieved an A* in Maths, if Cambridge give me an offer it will be A*AA that I need to get this why which is why I'm not dropping economics. I highly doubt I'll get into Cambridge but I'll never know if I don't apply so I haven't got my hopes up but it'd be nice to get an offer. How about switching Bath to Birmingham?


Ok you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong in my assumptions here as I get confused very easily lol.

You started all your courses at the same time but completed maths within one year and got A*. You are taking Physics, FM and Economics to A2 this year and so will have completed all 4 A levels within a 2 year period?

You have bagged an A* already in Maths which would count towards your offer grades so out of your remaining subjects you're looking for AA (or A*A for imperial)? For those unis I'd guess they are looking for Physics A so your third subject to count could be either FM or Economics?

Birmingham seems to want AAA and Bath wants A*AA. Since you already have an A* then the situation is the same for both unis in that you are looking for another AA in each case. If you failed to get the extra AA then both unis could potentially turn you down as A*AB =/= AAA even though the UCAS points are the same. In that situation you may as well keep Bath if you prefer it to Birmingham unless you think that Birmingham is a better bet for an offer and Bath is risky?

If you think that there is a chance you might not get the extra AA then you still need to look for an AAB or ABB uni.
Reply 9
Original post by Folion
Ok you'll have to correct me if I'm wrong in my assumptions here as I get confused very easily lol.

You started all your courses at the same time but completed maths within one year and got A*. You are taking Physics, FM and Economics to A2 this year and so will have completed all 4 A levels within a 2 year period?

You have bagged an A* already in Maths which would count towards your offer grades so out of your remaining subjects you're looking for AA (or A*A for imperial)? For those unis I'd guess they are looking for Physics A so your third subject to count could be either FM or Economics?

Birmingham seems to want AAA and Bath wants A*AA. Since you already have an A* then the situation is the same for both unis in that you are looking for another AA in each case. If you failed to get the extra AA then both unis could potentially turn you down as A*AB =/= AAA even though the UCAS points are the same. In that situation you may as well keep Bath if you prefer it to Birmingham unless you think that Birmingham is a better bet for an offer and Bath is risky?

If you think that there is a chance you might not get the extra AA then you still need to look for an AAB or ABB uni.


Hit the nail on the head :smile:, to be honest a lot of people say 'have a safe choice' but whats the point in having 'safe choices' that I won't even accept, with all due respect to universities, if I don't get into Bristol/Cambridge/Imperial/UCL I just won't go uni this year so I don't feel that I need an AAB/ABB choice.
Reply 10
I've got similar grades to you (1A*, 7A, 2B 1D at GCSE 3A's at A/S, predicted A*A*A and 1 A at A2 achieved) and I'm applying for a similar calibre of University.

The context of your college should help your chances (3% of students at my sixth form achieved A's, I was the only one to score straight A's) but of course if I could say whether or not you will get an offer I would be a fortune teller.

Personally I'm applying to Oxford but I heard Cambridge give 90/95% of applicants an interview in some colleges, don't quote me on that though. Oxford cull a lot pre-interview.

I would advise you to put just one slightly lower Uni in there though. For example I'm applying to 4 Law schools with a range of A*AA-AAA (+LNAT) but Manchester as a back up at AAB.
Reply 11
Change Bath/UCL imo. Bit over-ambitious.
Original post by `God
Hit the nail on the head :smile:, to be honest a lot of people say 'have a safe choice' but whats the point in having 'safe choices' that I won't even accept, with all due respect to universities, if I don't get into Bristol/Cambridge/Imperial/UCL I just won't go uni this year so I don't feel that I need an AAB/ABB choice.


I know this policy is not for everyone, but I agree with it. There is no point choosing a uni/course you don't want to do. Would you buy a car for £27,000 that you don't like? No, so why not apply the same reasoning to choosing a university? If you do have a disaster and end up with a B then you can apply next year assuming you don't get accepted anyway.

One point to consider, however, is your actual marks (not grades) so far. If your A's at AS are in the 90s it would take a major screw-up to drop to a B, and obviously if they were only just A's, then it's easier to slip.
Reply 14
Original post by ageshallnot
I know this policy is not for everyone, but I agree with it. There is no point choosing a uni/course you don't want to do. Would you buy a car for £27,000 that you don't like? No, so why not apply the same reasoning to choosing a university? If you do have a disaster and end up with a B then you can apply next year assuming you don't get accepted anyway.

One point to consider, however, is your actual marks (not grades) so far. If your A's at AS are in the 90s it would take a major screw-up to drop to a B, and obviously if they were only just A's, then it's easier to slip.


My Physics is 90.5 and Further Maths is 85 (only because I flopped the Decision Maths modules but got 94 in FP1)

I think I'll end up with:
A*AB with an A* already achieved, so top 3 - A*A*A.
Original post by `God
My Physics is 90.5 and Further Maths is 85 (only because I flopped the Decision Maths modules but got 94 in FP1)

I think I'll end up with:
A*AB with an A* already achieved, so top 3 - A*A*A.


In which case I think your strategy is sound.
Reply 16
Original post by `God
My Physics is 90.5 and Further Maths is 85 (only because I flopped the Decision Maths modules but got 94 in FP1)

I think I'll end up with:
A*AB with an A* already achieved, so top 3 - A*A*A.


Hypothetically if you got A*BB (not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility because **** can happen to us all) and were declined by both your firm and insurance because you'd chosen competitive places what would your course of action be?

Granted the probability is that you'd not be in this position and I certainly wouldn't wish that trauma on anyone but it could happen all the same. We all need to be prepared for "what if" so I'm just wondering what you'd do.
Reply 17
Original post by Folion
Hypothetically if you got A*BB (not entirely beyond the bounds of possibility because **** can happen to us all) and were declined by both your firm and insurance because you'd chosen competitive places what would your course of action be?

Granted the probability is that you'd not be in this position and I certainly wouldn't wish that trauma on anyone but it could happen all the same. We all need to be prepared for "what if" so I'm just wondering what you'd do.


Not go university, get work experience during that one year as a lot of universities desire applicants to have industrial experience, retake necessary exams and reapply to same universities.
not sure why people are negging you, civil eng was in clearing this year for multiple universities

even if you got AB this year, you wouldn't struggle to find a place if you so wanted
Reply 19
Original post by Table dust
not sure why people are negging you, civil eng was in clearing this year for multiple universities

even if you got AB this year, you wouldn't struggle to find a place if you so wanted


I don't know why people get negged for an opinion either. The OP certainly hasn't been rude anywhere on this thread that I can see. Sure a lot of people don't necessarily agree with their tactic and are recommending caution but I'm sure the OP is fine with that.

Sure I've been a bit nosy and devil's advocate in places but that's cos basically I'm all fuzzy and parental and would hate to see OP disappointed or unprepared. Looks like they've got a plan though.

I'm still curious as to whether OP has picked some options on the basis of high offer grades or has looked closely at course content of some other institutions that seem to be just as highly regarded but aren't asking A*.

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