Do unis majorly care about GCSE grades?

Hey there, I've been in your place and clearly understand the nerve and stress students experience when it comes to self-assessing whether there GCSE predictions are good enough for their chosen universities. Firstly, determining whether universities' decisions are majorly influenced by your GCSE grades/predictions is a very broad topic as each university has its own selection criteria (that it would expect its applicants to meet), and furthermore the selection criteria differ in type and difficulty with respect to your chosen course. For the majority of higher education courses the expectation is that you achieve the standard English literacy and numeracy requirement (that is a 5 in English language, yet some universities will consider English literature as an alternative, and a 5 in mathematics). This is the minimum expected standard. Depending on your chosen course you'd be expected to have excelled in certain GCSE subjects, which again this depends on the university in question. For example, I have applied to study medicine. Three of the universities i have applied to expected me to achieve a 5 in my English language, yet one asked for a specified number of 7s, preferably across my sciences (As medicine requires the utilisation of scientific knowledge).

In conclusion, even though the answer to your question is not complicated, it is dependant on a lot of factors and there's no one specific answer to whether your GCSEs are majorly important when it comes to applying to university. To ensure that such a question is accurately answered I'd advice you to contact Manchester University and inquire about the GCSE requirements for your chosen course. Alternatively, you can visit the academic criteria on your university's web page yourself. Feel free to reply should you have any other queries!!

People often overestimate how hard it is to get offers. Unless you're applying to the top of the top or for particular subjects and pitch your options realistically - you're likely to get an offer from most of your choices. The difficult bit is then meeting said offer.

GCSEs aren't looked at too often, only in a select few cases. Most often you just tick a box of meeting minimum requirements. Unless Manchester needs 6s in English and maths (which some do), you should be fine here. Otherwise, you may want to look at doing them in the autumn period.

Wondering whether a 4 in maths would reduce your chances of getting into a Russell Group for a humanities subject (Eg: History, English, Philosophy) even if you have extenuating circumstances which explain why your GCSEs aren’t amazing? (Baring in mind that my humanities GCSE grades are all 8s and 7s). Starting to think I would be worrying about that more than I am.

If they require a 5 it may be an issue. (they can reject out of hand for missing GCSE requirements) Some like Warwick only require a 4. How extenuating circumstances would effect things I'm unsure, you'd need to ask.

The thing is I haven’t seen anything about requiring a 5 maths gcse. I’ve looked at the university wide basic requirements as well as subject requirements and all they seem to want is a 5 in English Language or Literature (maybe Language) and I have an 8 in both Lang and Lit. Perhaps I should email admissions? (I’ve been hesitant to as I’m sure they’re very busy atm).

There are no unwritten requirements, if it doesn't specify a minimum maths grade (I thought most did? I'd double check this. I've searched a few off the top of my head and they all seem to.) or specifies you need a 4, you won't need higher.

When I applied a few years ago the only GCSEs the unis really cared about was your English and if doing a Maths/Science course then your Maths GCSE but mostly it was on A Levels, whilst I can only speak for the ones i applied too I think from when i was looking around most just wanted you to have english at grade C or above, which I think is around a 4/5 on the new grades.

Depends on which russell group and what course you are doing. If you are wanting to go to the uni of manchester, they care about you meeting the minimum gcse requirement for their course. They will look at your gcses but they wont put any weighting on it except for some certain unis but overall every uni cares about other factors like personal statement, interview or external admissions test. They are great grades and I dont think they will put you in a disadvantage except that 5 in english language and maths as some courses require 6 in them so make sure you research if you will meet their requirements. You can try to sit them in Autumn or next summer tbh.

Hi, the uni of Manchester minimum requirements are a 4 in maths and english language is that good enough?