Applying for ABB with AAC

Hi, I applied for Psychology (AAA) but ended up getting:
A - Psychology
A - Film Studies
C - Politics
A* - Extended Project

Considering applying for a Psychology BSc or Politics BA

Looking at Uni of Liverpool as both subject departments offer reduced grades with an EPQ of a grade A or above (ABB) - also Uni of Leeds for Politics as they do the same. Feel like the C may hold me back in regard to applying for a Politics course which is understandable - applied for remark and ended up being 2 marks off a B grade so would just miss the conditions

I know applying with lower grades is already cheeky but given how popular Psychology courses tend to be I'm sceptical of how lenient they will be? My EPQ was also Psychology related if that would potentially help.

Hi, I applied for Psychology (AAA) but ended up getting:
A - Psychology
A - Film Studies
C - Politics
A* - Extended Project

Considering applying for a Psychology BSc or Politics BA

Looking at Uni of Liverpool as both subject departments offer reduced grades with an EPQ of a grade A or above (ABB) - also Uni of Leeds for Politics as they do the same. Feel like the C may hold me back in regard to applying for a Politics course which is understandable - applied for remark and ended up being 2 marks off a B grade so would just miss the conditions

I know applying with lower grades is already cheeky but given how popular Psychology courses tend to be I'm sceptical of how lenient they will be? My EPQ was also Psychology related if that would potentially help.

Hi, I don't think it is "cheeky" to apply for psychology with those grades, they are excellent.

If you are worried about how specific admissions teams will look at your grades then you could Google the admissions emails for the universities you want to apply to and check whether your A-levels would be competitive.

I have emailed university admissions before and recieved some helpful advice. If your email is polite and concise then you will probably get a response that could help you out a lot.

Best of luck!

Just to check - ant particular reason to apply to Liverpool? Is that your local university?

Any chance of contextual offers?

Not local to me but I'm familiar with and like the city

And contextual offers wouldn't apply to me

Ok - thats great. The strategy would vary a bit on whether you apply for psychology or politics as psychology is much more competitive.

Firstly - there is nothing cheeky about applying so long as you meet GCSE and subject requirements. What is cheeky is universities overstating the grades required for their courses and creating a silly game. What you do have to consider (although its not a huge risk) is how much of an issue you would have were you not to receive any offers. You also have to consider that applying to both politics and psychology degrees with the same personal statement is a long way short of ideal.

So - I don't recommend applying for a course when you prefer a different one - if you apply for politics you have the benefit of it being less competitive. This makes getting offers easier, and also should you not receive offers there are likely to be good options available both in Feb, March and later in clearing.

For psychology there is much less likely to be choice beyond the initial applications. Probably some but not a large range to consider.

Unfortunately a lot of the knowledge and data people had pre covid about what the 'real' grade requirements for different courses isn't really available now due to grade inflation during the covid years. That makes things much more speculative.

What you can do is look through this thread: https://www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7283207&page=3 and see if you can judge which universities make offers quickly. Then apply to 2 (ish) courses you fancy and reappraise when you get the outcome. If you get offers - great - just add three more before the deadline that you really like to see what happens. If you don't you can decide on less competitive universities for at least one choice. Or apply for one less competitive place which seems to make offers quickly, get an offer and apply for 4 others.

Really, really appreciate the help : )

I'm currently on a year out so I've got plenty of time to apply and rethink my strategy if I don't receive any initial offers

You've highlighted my main concern with applying for a Psychology course given how overly-subscribed I know they can be - this is why I don't want to set my expectations too high knowing that I'm already disadvantaged because of my grades

In regard to Politics, if a university doesn't specify which subjects, if any, are needed to meet their entry requirements, would a grade C in Politics (it being my lowest) still taint my application or do admissions tend to look at the overall grades rather than my performance in each individual subject?

I definitely hear what you're saying about my personal statement too - I'm just trying to risk-assess which course I think could maximise my chances of receiving an offer before definitively choosing a lane (which I admittedly feel I need to do soon)

Thanks so much again