History Degree. Am I aiming too high?

It worries me how you have heard of my school. Do universities compare your GCSEs to the average the school achieves? Yeah i know righttttttt!

No you're fine. Durham will probably reject you but King's might accept you if you have a good PS. You have a good chance with the rest.

Well I only got 3A*'s, 2A's, 2B's and 1C for my GCSEs ( and 3 BTecs ) and my AS results were: A in chem, A* in maths (already done the full A-Level, 596/600) and a C in computing. I'm carrying on with Further Maths and Chemistry, predicted A*A*A and I've got offers from:

Warwick, Bath, Nottingham and Bristol for Maths, and I've also got an Interview for Cambridge next week! So it proves that you don't have to have amazing grades for them to show some interest!

WOW. Phenomenal results! Especially the Maths. Good luck for your interview! and thanks!! makes me feel hopeful

Thanks aha! I worked my arse off all year lol, and they didn't reject me because of my GCSEs or C in computing! So hope for all! I look at the other threads and everyone is doing 5 A Levels, done maths challenges and stuff and I'm just sitting here feeling dumb lol!

Thank you! Bit nervous lol, you'll be fine! Have you sent your UCAS off yet?

It's certainly paid off! Nooooo, you'll be down to earth and they'll love it You are obviously very talented at maths, and have worked hard and deserve the offers you've received! Thanks! Nope, hopefully will be sent off by Monday or so.

It has! One more year to go! lol, I hope so! Thanks

And I only joined a Grammar school in 6th form, used to go to a 'normal' school before lol well it was quite bad aha

It's so good when you got offers, you feel so good about yourself! lol

I thought my PS was poo, but obviously not lol!

Good luck to you and your UNI endeavours! :P

Ohhhh, that's even more commendable then! yeah, i need offers to get motivated lol! I'm hoping my PS will help my GCSE profile! Thanks!!! Good luck for Cambridge

I'm doing History at York and I enjoy it. The period topic module in the first year was especially fun because there was a wide range of choice for it, and in the second year you have 4 modules that you can choose. Downsides are the very low number of contact hours - 5 in my first term!

The campus is nice, and everyone is guaranteed campus accommodation if they put York as their firm or insurance choice which is very important, I couldn't imagine not living on campus in the first year. The city is also really nice and safe.

Like you, I also applied to King's and they didn't give me an offer, they would have probably been my preferred choice but I'm happy with York. If Durham don't give you an offer, which one are you leaning towards?

Ahhh. I see. I chose the year abroad option at York which also makes it more appealing. How does the college system work? Is it random allocation? I think it goes:
1st Durham
2nd Kings
3rd York/Queens
4th Sussex.

I sent my form away on Monday, and got an offer from Queens on Wednesday. Just waiting on the other 4 now! I definitely need to visit the universities, (if i get an offer) before i decide on my firm. How long did it take York and Kings to reply to you?

The college system has only to with where you live. If you want to live in a certain college, you apply there when the time comes. I'm in Derwent and I'd recommend it if you like going out, it's known as the 'party college'.

I know I'm biased but unless you're Northern Irish I'd recommend going to York over Queens, as its reputation is definitely better.

Thanks! I'm just worried that most people will be applying with AAA/A*AA predictions, and it'll come down to GCSEs

Hopefully will get Queens and Sussex.

Nail your Personal Statement, far more important than GCSE's, also worth a read of this article which quotes the Head of Admissions at Sussex.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2014/aug/21/how-important-are-gcses-when-applying-to-university

It's sent away now and i was happy with my personal statement, and my referree said my reference was good so hopefully that'll help. Thanks very much for the article! I think you are right that AS and Statement is most important, followed by reference and gcses! I'm just worried i'll JUST miss out the cut. It's away now though, so there's nothing I can do but wait. Is it true that admissions people come on student room sometimes? Lol because if they could read this it'd be pretty embarassing. I hope i'm not waiting until like May for my other offers.

no worries- while admissions do come on to TSR they are there to help with exactly the type of question you have asked, so no need to be embarrassed

I know a few people in admissions and believe me they have heard pretty much every conceivable question...but you know that's their job!

I'm sure they'll be in touch well before May as you have great predicted grades and from the sounds of it a good PS

I am Northern Irish haha so i'm guessing that will have something to do with which college i'm allocated to. Oh cool. I heard James College is pretty nice? Yeah, I see that York is higher in rankings etc. What's the year abroad history programme like? If you have heard anything at all about it.