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Potential Uni Offers for Law with V. HIGH IB but pretty bad GCSE? HELP

Hi, I'm an IB student (not from the UK) with about 42/45 predicted (I'll probably be able to get it up to a 43/45 until october) and a solid application. Voluntary work, ECs at school, competitions, sports, hobbies, passion for law, you name it.

When I was writing my igcses I was going through a rough time in my life and ended up performing pretty poorly. I had 2 A* , a few As, a few Bs and one C. I got good grades for subjects I cared about like history or business studies or english but did rather badly in ones I hated (like chemistry).

These are the unis I'm applying to for LAW:

- lse
- ucl
- oxbridge
- kings college

These are my questions:

1. What are, reaslistically, my chances of getitng in to those unis with those gcses if my application on the whole is strong?

2. Will I be put at a definitive disadvantage?

3. Would it be wiser to apply to Cambridge rather than Oxford as I heard they tend to value progress and not pay as much attention to gcses because their IB requirements are higher?

4. Would it be TOO personal for my PS to write about why I improved as a studernt and how I'm not the person I was then, what changed me and how I will continue to improve, if the event in quesiton is very dark and potentially depressing? I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses or looking for sympathy, I just want to let every uni know exactly who I am, that I do not give up easily and that I have singlehandedly picked myself up after the most traumatic event in my life and dragged myself from rock bottom to the top.

Thanks in advance. Honesty will be appreciated
1) You have a reasonable chance as you have a strong academic profile and some good 'super curricular' activities which top universities look for. Of course all those universities will be oversubscribed by people like you and thus difficult to get into but I reckon you'll get 3 out of 4 offers. People from my college with similar IB results have gone to Cambridge and Kings.

2) No, grade progression from GCSE to A Level/IB is good because it shows you stepped up. If you really believe you underperformed at GCSE you can explain why in your personal statement but you clearly did quite well.

3) I don't know the answer to this, I would go along with whatever you can get from the websites, prospectuses and by emailing the admissions team.

4) As I said, it can be good to explain why and how you improved but definitely don't go on about it. More than 3 sentences will be a waste of characters and I wouldn't spend more than 30% of your personal statement talking about 'interests' and 'passions' and 'personal life' (in apostrophes because they're the cliches everyone uses) because that isn't what universities are primarily after: they want someone who has already achieved and will continue to achieve on the course they're applying for.

Best of luck!
Reply 2
Thank you :smile:
Reply 3
Original post by j23m
Hi, I'm an IB student (not from the UK) with about 42/45 predicted (I'll probably be able to get it up to a 43/45 until october) and a solid application. Voluntary work, ECs at school, competitions, sports, hobbies, passion for law, you name it.

When I was writing my igcses I was going through a rough time in my life and ended up performing pretty poorly. I had 2 A* , a few As, a few Bs and one C. I got good grades for subjects I cared about like history or business studies or english but did rather badly in ones I hated (like chemistry).

These are the unis I'm applying to for LAW:

- lse
- ucl
- oxbridge
- kings college

These are my questions:

1. What are, reaslistically, my chances of getitng in to those unis with those gcses if my application on the whole is strong?

2. Will I be put at a definitive disadvantage?

3. Would it be wiser to apply to Cambridge rather than Oxford as I heard they tend to value progress and not pay as much attention to gcses because their IB requirements are higher?

4. Would it be TOO personal for my PS to write about why I improved as a studernt and how I'm not the person I was then, what changed me and how I will continue to improve, if the event in quesiton is very dark and potentially depressing? I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses or looking for sympathy, I just want to let every uni know exactly who I am, that I do not give up easily and that I have singlehandedly picked myself up after the most traumatic event in my life and dragged myself from rock bottom to the top.

Thanks in advance. Honesty will be appreciated


Ask a real life actual Cambridge AT here
http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4847466
Ask An(other) Admissions Tutor 25/07/2017-08/08/2017

(I doubt she'll be able to comment on LSE, etc...)


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Reply 4
thank you :smile:
Reply 5
Original post by j23m
thank you :smile:


Please don't crosspost to multiple forums with the same question.
Reply 6
I think you definitely have a chance at LSE if you meet the minimum requirement and have a very good personal statement.

I know this from experience, I got an offer for economic history whilst being predicted AAB (the minimum but I did achieve AAA) and has below lse average GCSEs (though I went to a bad school) but got in cos in my personal statement I wrote why I wanted to study the course, the languages I spoke, volunteering work and sports etc and what I learned from them.

Though Law is more competitive than econ history, I think you have every chance and should apply. Good luck

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