The Student Room Group

Struggling to find 5 unis to apply to

I want to do english lit and history joint honours, and my predicted grades are AAB. Anyone got any suggestions of where to apply? I've already chose Bristol and Liverpool :smile:
1) You have until Jan 2022 to make these choices - make sure you go to some Open Days etc and make informed choices before submitting your application..
2) Each course will be different both in structure and in topics covered - make sure you research this carefully.
2) You will need 5 choices with a range of grade requirements - useful reading : https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/university/apply/how-to-avoid-getting-five-university-rejections
(edited 2 years ago)
No harm in applying to 3-4 choices to start off with. By mid-January you’ll likely have a couple of replies and can then pick 1-2 more and you’ll know whether you can afford to be a bit more ambitious if you already have offers, (or safer if you don’t.).
Do you have any specific interests to study in English or history (or both)?

At university both degrees can vary massively in terms of content so if you do/don’t want to study any specific topics then you’ll need to check the module options available and not just the overall course title
You can apply early with fewer choices and then add more later up until the deadline.

If you want a joint honours then that might help narrow your search, perhaps try making a list of all the unis that offer it and then look into them?
Original post by ughexams123
I want to do english lit and history joint honours, and my predicted grades are AAB. Anyone got any suggestions of where to apply? I've already chose Bristol and Liverpool :smile:


Try Cardiff and Birmingham. Both biggish cities and not too far from Bristol. You could look at Manchester which is a large city not too far from Liverpool. In terms of smaller places you could look into Lancaster and Exeter. If your looking at bigger cities up North look into Sheffield or Leeds.
Original post by Admit-One
No harm in applying to 3-4 choices to start off with. By mid-January you’ll likely have a couple of replies and can then pick 1-2 more and you’ll know whether you can afford to be a bit more ambitious if you already have offers, (or safer if you don’t.).

Wait what? You can apply to some, and then add more later??
Original post by heccyeah
Wait what? You can apply to some, and then add more later??

Yes, of course. You still only get 5 choices in total though. The deadline for guaranteed consideration remains the same as well, mid-Jan.
York
Original post by Admit-One
Yes, of course. You still only get 5 choices in total though. The deadline for guaranteed consideration remains the same as well, mid-Jan.

Wow I did not know this - thanks lmao.
Here's my advice

1. Pull up the league table for your subject, look at the first 40 or so. Eliminate ones you immediately know you can't get into, now if your pool is too small go deeper down the league tables. From this point onwards, you will not look at the league tables once. All they are is a conveniently ordered list of unis which offer your course, it's quite a poor indicator of actual reputation.

2. Make a list of all of the unis here, and write their grade offers down. You're probably looking for 2 aspirational applications, 2 comfortable applications, and one which can go into either category depending on what unis you end up liking. Don't bother with a safety, low tier unis usually have clearing spaces anyway.

3. Narrow down the list until it's practical to visit open days for all of them. Cut ones based on whether you want a city centre campus or one that's on the outskirts, if it's important that everything's on campus then cut those for which that doesn't apply, ones which do unacceptably poorly in student satisfaction surveys, etc. Now also look at the courses, and make sure they have everything you want in them (doesn't have to be that in depth research yet, for instance in aerospace engineering I cut ones which didn't have much in the way of astronautical engineering modules).

4. You should now be prepared to visit open days. Enjoy yourself!

5. You've visited the open days, now it's time to decide once and for all where you're applying. Take out the ones you hated at the open day, and set aside the ones you loved and you know you're going to apply to. Now it's time for a tournament arc for the remaining places.

6. Draw up a bracket, compare each of the universities with a similar grade offer, and find your favourite by process of elimination. Compare things like the courses, now's your time to read the module descriptions and everything to find out which is your favourite, as well as accommodation costs, general cost of living for the area, campus vibe, etc.

7. If all went to plan, you should now have 5 universities you want to apply to. Now all that's left is to be predicted significantly lower than you expected by your ******** teachers, and then proceed to cry yourself to sleep as all the hard work went in the bin.

I know it's a wall of text, but hey you're the one who asked a very open and complicated question lol
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Filthy Communist
Here's my advice

1. Pull up the league table for your subject, look at the first 40 or so. Eliminate ones you immediately know you can't get into, now if your pool is too small go deeper down the league tables. From this point onwards, you will not look at the league tables once. All they are is a conveniently ordered list of unis which offer your course, it's quite a poor indicator of actual reputation.

2. Make a list of all of the unis here, and write their grade offers down. You're probably looking for 2 aspirational applications, 2 comfortable applications, and one which can go into either category depending on what unis you end up liking. Don't bother with a safety, low tier unis usually have clearing spaces anyway.

3. Narrow down the list until it's practical to visit open days for all of them. Cut ones based on whether you want a city centre campus or one that's on the outskirts, if it's important that everything's on campus then cut those for which that doesn't apply, ones which do unacceptably poorly in student satisfaction surveys, etc. Now also look at the courses, and make sure they have everything you want in them (doesn't have to be that in depth research yet, for instance in aerospace engineering I cut ones which didn't have much in the way of astronautical engineering modules).

4. You should now be prepared to visit open days. Enjoy yourself!

5. You've visited the open days, now it's time to decide once and for all where you're applying. Take out the ones you hated at the open day, and set aside the ones you loved and you know you're going to apply to. Now it's time for a tournament arc for the remaining places.

6. Draw up a bracket, compare each of the universities with a similar grade offer, and find your favourite by process of elimination. Compare things like the courses, now's your time to read the module descriptions and everything to find out which is your favourite, as well as accommodation costs, general cost of living for the area, campus vibe, etc.

7. If all went to plan, you should now have 5 universities you want to apply to. Now all that's left is to be predicted significantly lower than you expected by your ******** teachers, and then proceed to cry yourself to sleep as all the hard work went in the bin.

I know it's a wall of text, but hey you're the one who asked a very open and complicated question lol

Maybe skip step 7 though :wink:
Original post by Filthy Communist
Now all that's left is to be predicted significantly lower than you expected by your ******** teachers, and then proceed to cry yourself to sleep as all the hard work went in the bin.

:bawling:

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