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Astrophysics at uni

I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it. For refrence, i take physics, chemistry and maths
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by rohanpatel12
I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it.

Further Maths is considered to be useful for many STEM courses (so I suppose it would be good to have it), however, if you are meeting the entry requirements and the rest of your application is strong then I wouldn't really worry too much about it.
Original post by rohanpatel12
I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it. For refrence, i take physics, chemistry and maths


Have you checked the entry requirements section on the course webpages? If further maths isn't required, then you should be fine.
Does it say 'FM required' or 'FM preferred'?

Unis have to comply with marketing law - and therefore they have to be very honest about the subjects required, and any preferences.
If it doesnt say that FM is either required or preferred, then you dont 'need' it.
Original post by rohanpatel12
I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it. For refrence, i take physics, chemistry and maths


The real issue here is you are taking very competitive universities so might well receive 5 rejections. Maybe you ought to consider 1 or 2 less risky choices.
Original post by rohanpatel12
I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it. For refrence, i take physics, chemistry and maths

I would say that if you are able to do further maths then it would be really useful to do. If you do not think you would get a good grade in it or it would pull your other grades down then I wouldn't worry about it and only concentrate on getting good grades in your other subjects :smile:
Original post by rohanpatel12
I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it. For refrence, i take physics, chemistry and maths

Hiya,

I'm currently a 3rd year astrophysics and cosmology student at Lancaster University and at the start of year 12 I took further maths having the mindset of continuing it for the rest of my A-Levels. At the start of year 13, I evaluated my A-Levels (as I was taking 5 at the time) and saw I spread myself too thin and it would be best to stick to 3 A-Levels that I knew would get me into various astro-based uni courses. I then dropped further maths and psychology and went on with maths, physics and economics, receiving 4 out of 5 uni offers, including Lancaster, Cardiff, Royal Holloway and Queen Mary.

Personally, I found reducing my workload meant I could improve my grades in my essential subjects and as further maths wasn't a requirement for any unis I was interested in, it wasn't a problem.

If you're wanting to do it to stand out from other applicants, there are other things you could do instead of another A-Level! I took a bunch of external courses related to astro and STEM as I knew I couldn't do well in further maths and it would affect my other grades. However, if you feel it is something you can do then by all means go for it!! If you have the option to take it for your first year and decide you want to change, then that could be a possibility, but otherwise, do what you think you can manage whilst still securing grades you want to in your other subjects.

-- Arya (Lancaster Student Ambassador)
Original post by rohanpatel12
I am looking to take astrophysics at st andrews, durham, edinborough, imperial or ucl.
However, I am having trouble deciding whether i need further maths to still be competitve or am i fine without it. For refrence, i take physics, chemistry and maths

As long as you have Maths and Physics - with predictions of A* in them, then I wouldn't worry about FM for any of those Unis. You have also taken another science which is as recommended as FM by some of those Unis. Those are some of the best Physics Depts - and some may appear irrational in their decision making as they get so many excellent applications that they often reject very strong applications because they can afford to eg Imperial. I would perhaps substitute one of them for a Uni which has a lower entry requirement.

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