University of Edinburgh

How hard is it to be accepted to study English Lit at Edinburgh uni?

Hi, so I‘m a Scottish student and in a couple of years i’ll be leaving school. I have a few top choices university wise and Edinburgh is one of these. My hope is to study English Literature. Everyone always acts like it’s impossible to be accepted there - which makes me really nervous. What are your thoughts? Do you have any advice on how to get in? Thank you!

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

Well, it certainly depends on where you're from. Because you're from Scotland, you have a Scottish/EU fee status and places for those people are limited, so it's definitely more competitive than if you were an international student. However, I do feel like they accept more Scottish students because it's a Scottish uni and it would suck if EU students took all the places at a Scottish uni. You can check out this link to find out what kind of offer rate you can expect (keep in mind that they combine the Scottish and EU students): https://www.ed.ac.uk/student-recruitment/admissions-advice/admissions-statistics
Also keep in mind that the UK is no longer part of the EU. The EU fee status was still a thing for this year of applying (for Sept. 2020), but I don't think anybody really knows what will happen in 2021 or after. The competition from EU students might just disappear if they lose their current fee status due to the UK leaving the EU, but it's a bit unpredictable. When it's your time to apply and you wish to know what chance you have of getting an offer, definitely check out if anything changed in that department.
I'm an EU student, I applied for English Language and Literature and got an offer. My predicted grades weren't all that high (the minimum entry requirement for my country was 8 average with 8, 8, 7 in three subjects, and my predicted grades were an 8 average with 9, 8, 8 in three subjects), so I think I got an offer based mostly on my personal statement. I can't know that for sure, but regardless, I would advise you to take the writing your personal statement part very seriously when it's your time to apply. Doing some research on what to put into your personal statement and what not is definitely a good idea, there's a lot of information online :smile:

Lastly, English Literature is quite popular at Edinburgh, but at the Open Day I heard a professor say that for Sept. 2020 there would be more places available for English Literature at the uni of Edinburgh.
I think that sums up everything I know about the offer rates and chances of getting in. I hope it helped a bit!

University of Edinburgh

Reply 2

Quick-use

English Lit is extremely competitive at Edinburgh but if you get 4 or 5 A grades at Higher, you should be fine. If you're also part of LEAPS or anything similar where your school doesn't perform too great, then Edinburgh should be more lenient in giving you an offer as well. :rambo: