The Student Room Group

Sudden crisis over grades and course choice

Hi everyone, last year I applied to study Politics at uni and firmed Durham, who gave me an offer of AAA. I was predicted 3 A*s (my subjects are History, Politics and Maths) but I only received A*A*A last Thursday, and frustratingly the A was in Politics. Since about Christmas I've been having some pretty serious second thoughts about my degree choice (not helped my the fact that I've had 2 rubbish teachers in politics for the last year and have absolutely hated it), and have been wondering if I should have applied for history and politics instead of pure politics. Durham sent me through my module options for first year today, but looking at them my first thought was 'god that looks dull', instead of any real excitement, and looking at the module options over the next couple of years only a minority of them actually excite me.

My fear is that if I withdraw from UCAS, take a gap year and reapply for History and Politics, the A in politics will seriously prevent me from getting offers from places like Durham and Edinburgh that I had the opportunity to firm this year, especially since Politics is my only other essay subject. Also, if I was to reapply I would certainly want to apply to either Oxford or Cambridge (I applied for HSPS at Cambridge last year and was pooled but rejected), but I'm concerned that again the A in Politics would make me seriously uncompetitive.

Just for some academic context, I got 10 A*s at GCSE, am on an academic scholarship for sixth form and am working towards a diploma in piano, so that would go onto my application beside the A. Could anyone give me their honest opinion/advice on how competitive they think my application would be and whether or not the A would really work against me? I like the college that I'm at at Durham, and really don't want to give up a place at a nice uni with a good reputation if it's unlikely I will be able to get in anywhere comparable for History and Politics.

Thank you!

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