Hey, I’m at LSE (reading law) but I’m pleased to be friends with quite a few mathematicians at LSE.
Firstly, the minimum grade required for Mathematics at LSE is A*AA not AAA.
Secondly, my friend and I were actually just discussing a couple weeks ago about how odd it is that the minimum entry requirement isn’t stupendously high as one would have thought. Turns out although the minimum grade offer may be relatively average, that doesn’t mean the people who DO get offers don’t surpass the grades.I can give you the example of Economic History (a course my close friend studies) which has the entry requirement of AAB (She got A*AA btw). The reality is that many people on that course actually have straight As and A*s. There are people on the course with A*A*A* - the average grade of people on the course is probably A*AA or even higher.In fact, someone my friend knew was predicted AAB and applied for the Economic History course but was unsuccessful. When she enquired about the reason, she was told that her grades were not competitive enough in comparison to other applicants who were predicted As and A*s.They said although she her predicted grades met the entry requirement, she was also up against other candidates.You have to be reminded that you are pretty much up against the whole world if you apply.The acceptance rate for law in 2016 was 6.7% according to data provided. I imagine it’s a similar rate for Maths and Econ courses. It’s not enough to just meet the grade requirements.I imagine one reason it’s like this is because they want to attract people for the less competitive courses. However, I must stress that LSE is not short of qualified applicants. They would rather take 19 qualified applicants than 100 average applicants. It’s a competitive university to gain admissions for no matter what course you’re applying for. I think the fundamental reasoning behind this would be their desire to attract students from disadvantaged backgrounds who may have a number of extenuating circumstances and challenges affecting their academic attainment. Nonetheless, out of the many people who I’ve met here at LSE, I really couldn’t point to you anyone I know who got less than AAA. There is this one guy on the Economic History course who met his offer of AAB but if I heard correctly he had mitigating circumstances. Everyone's case is unique though. I have had many mitigating circumstances over the course of my education; I am pretty much your average ‘social mobility’ candidate. Still, I needed a minimum A*AA for law (which I thankfully exceeded like many other students studying law).My best advice is if you can do it, do it. If you can get higher grades, get higher grades! Nobody ever gets rejected for being too outstanding. You can however be rejected for not matching up to the level of other outstanding applications who are competing with you.I hope my explanation helped a little.