Getting into Econ at Cambridge +UCL, Imperial, LSE and Warwick. Do I have a chance?

I would suggest not applying to trinity, as they reject people for no reason at all because they're so oversubscribed for most subjects relative to their size - only kings is more heavily subscribed. Personally I'd suggest applying to any other Central college really.

Also the Trinity porters are incredibly rude. And a few years ago when trinity withdrew from the uni pension fund several colleges stopped supervising trinity students in protest...

Otherwise you have as good a chance as anyone else. Cambridge isn't very GCSE heavy, LSE can be a bit more but you have pretty strong GCSEs except the two lower results (hopefully in unrelated subjects).

Imperial is a weird one because their economic course has no current students, so there's no telling if it'll be competitive or under-subscribed.
LSE are all about the personal statement.

How important is the interview at Imperial?

Hi all,

I'll be applying to Cambridge (Trinity) soon to study Economics, but I am worried that my results, especially at GCSE, aren't good enough, especially considering how competitive the course is.

I am predicted A*A*A*A* in maths, further maths, economics and history. My GCSEs were A*A*A*A*AAABC at a good school . How much do they care about GCSEs? I've also done a lot of preparation for the TMUA and have read widely around econ. I did my EPQ(A*) on competitive tax rates.

Do you have any advice on what I should be doing to maximise my chances?

I'll also be applying to LSE, UCL, Imperial and Warwick.

Hi all,

I'll be applying to Cambridge (Trinity) soon to study Economics, but I am worried that my results, especially at GCSE, aren't good enough, especially considering how competitive the course is.

I am predicted A*A*A*A* in maths, further maths, economics and history. My GCSEs were A*A*A*A*AAABC at a good school . How much do they care about GCSEs? I've also done a lot of preparation for the TMUA and have read widely around econ. I did my EPQ(A*) on competitive tax rates.

Do you have any advice on what I should be doing to maximise my chances?

I'll also be applying to LSE, UCL, Imperial and Warwick.

I would suggest not applying to trinity, as they reject people for no reason at all because they're so oversubscribed for most subjects relative to their size - only kings is more heavily subscribed across the board usually. Personally I'd suggest applying to any other Central college really.

Also the Trinity porters are incredibly rude. And a few years ago when trinity withdrew from the uni pension fund several colleges stopped supervising trinity students in protest...

Otherwise you have as good a chance as anyone else. Cambridge isn't very GCSE heavy, LSE can be a bit more but you have pretty strong GCSEs except the two lower results (hopefully in unrelated subjects).

Hi there, OP!

Trinity is no more oversubscribed for Economics than most other colleges. We recommend that applicants don't choose their college on the basis of how likely they think they are to get in based on statistics, not least because statistics don't give you the full picture. For example, College A might have 60 very well-qualified applicants for 6 or 7 offers, whereas College B might also have 60 applicants for the same number of offers, but they're not as strong. A strong applicant therefore has more chance to get an offer at College B in the year we're talking about, but the statistics don't reflect this.

It's also worth noting that about 20% of applicants who are made offers at Cambridge are given offers by a college that wasn't the one they applied to because they were put in the Winter Pool. Strong applicants from any college can be pooled and may well be made an offer elsewhere, so the numbers of applications vs offers at any one college isn't the whole story.

I'd also say to think carefully about how you understand someone telling you that you have a 'strong' or 'good' chance of an offer. This isn't directed at you specifically, but at anyone applying. It's worth remembering that what the person telling you that you have a 'strong' or 'good' chance of an offer thinks that means and what you think it means could be very different. If you understand a 'good' chance to mean 'you've made yourself as competitive as you can and at this stage of the process, but you're still competing against over 1,000 other applicants for around 150 places', then you might have a different understanding to someone who takes it as 'you are more likely than not to get an offer'.

I hope this is helpful!

Thank you for this advice, it's so helpful to get this information from a verified source! I completely understand the point on the probability of admission, especially for Economics. Additionally, how much, in your view, do GCSEs matter in the process?