Can your school hold your UCAS application 'hostage'?

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Reply 20

ayduh.h

I’m more than open to suggestions, I’m looking to do architecture

Reply 21

ohdearstudying

Original post by ayduh.h

I’m more than open to suggestions, I’m looking to do architecture

Original post by ayduh.h

my predicted grades are ABB I originally wanted to apply for Sheffield, UCL, Edinburgh, Brighton and Bath. I decided on Baths after one of my sixth form team members suggested it. After sending off my application and running it by them, they decided that I should remove Bath and find another university.

3/4 of your choices are above your predicted grades, which is incredibly risky.

Reply 22

EleaGR

Original post by artful_lounger

Aside from the practicalities and context of your application, on the surface level the issue of your school dictating your choices has been addressed above, and @PQ's advice will give you the necessary control over your application. In context though it sounds more as though your school is trying to encourage you to be more realistic in your choices.

For what course are you applying? I would note for most courses, absent any contextual flags, UCL, Edinburgh, Brighton, and Bath would probably be a stretch for someone with ABB predictions and might not be realistic to apply to four such "aspirational" choices. One or two, certainly, but if your school's advice is that you should switch Bath for a "safety" choice I think that is quite reasonable since you have what are probably four aspirational choices. At the end of the day, you want to select a range of course such that you have a very good chance of being made at least two offers.

Hey, @@artful_lounger! As far as I know, Brighton is not a stretch for someone with ABB. This is a safety choice, not an aspirational one.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 23

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by EleaGR

Hey, @artful_lounger As far as I know, Brighton is not a stretch fpr someone with ABB. This is a safety choice, not an aspirational one.

Yes, my mistake; for some reason I read that as Bristol! (this was before the OP noted they were applying for architecture)

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 24

swanseajack1

Cardiff are offering AAA-AAB but tend to be more flexible on results day than UCL, Bath and Edinburgh. Exeter are offering ABB-AAB. Kent are offering ABB. Lancaster are offering AAB. Loughborough AAB. Plymouth is in your range. Reading is ABB.

Bath is offering A*AA which is quite high and way above what you are expected so that is probably why your school are trying to get it changed. Possibly look at changing it to one of Kent or Reading and perhaps change one of the others to Cardiff, Lancaster, Exeter or Loughborough.

Reply 25

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by ayduh.h

I’m more than open to suggestions, I’m looking to do architecture

I would note, the style of architecture done at most of the universities you've selected is very different to the style of the course at Bath, to my knowledge. The Bath course is much more technically oriented, whereas the others (at least, UCL and Edinburgh from what I hea) are very "arty" courses. If the Bath course appeals to you, you may want to look into some more similar courses (I believe Strathclyde also has a similar architecture course to Bath in that respect).

Moreover, Baths' standard entry criteria for Architecture is A*AA. You are 3 entire grades below that in your predicted grades; I think it's extremely unlikely you will be made an offer, unless you have significant extenuating circumstances or contextual flags documented. Additionally, unlike the other courses there is no portfolio for that course; so there isn't even the chance they could be completely blown away by your portfolio and decide to make a more flexible offer to you.

As such, I really wouldn't suggest you apply to Bath. It doesn't fit your other options in the style of the course, your predicted grades don't meet their entry criteria, and there's no portfolio (or interview) to potentially salvage that. While I do agree schools shouldn't dictate their students uni choices, I do think they should try and guide them to not apply to universities they have very little hope of getting an offer for - which I think would be the case with Bath.

However @PQ is the authoritative source for architecture application and admissions info, so I will defer to them! Hopefully they can help advise more (and potentially correct any of my above comments which are mistaken :redface: