Uni choices unrealistic?

Current y12 student here, studying Maths, FM, Physics, CS.
Looking to apply for CS at UCL, Imperial, Kings college London, Bristol, Loughborough,
Heard people on here saying that applying to multiple competitive London unis is a bad idea, but i really want to live in London. I have a lot of time to decide still, but looking for a second opinion; are these options terrible? :s-smilie:

Reply 1

swanseajack1

19

Original post by leno_o

Current y12 student here, studying Maths, FM, Physics, CS.
Looking to apply for CS at UCL, Imperial, Kings college London, Bristol, Loughborough,
Heard people on here saying that applying to multiple competitive London unis is a bad idea, but i really want to live in London. I have a lot of time to decide still, but looking for a second opinion; are these options terrible? :s-smilie:

It isnt the options are terrible but the London universities that you are looking at are heavily oversubscribed especially for CS and there is a strong likelyhood of anyone applying there being rejected. Imperial makes offers to 1 in 20. Kings 2 year ago hadnt made decisions and 1000s were auto rejected by UCAS. These are the reasons people say applying to multiple top London universities isnt a good idea.

If you want to stay in London fine but do so in the knowledge you might end up not getting offers from any of them. Universities outside London arent as competitive. There is a clamour especially from overseas students to be in London and in some universities 1/2 the students are from abroad. Over 1/2 the students at LSE come from China or India. They take 1800 students per year and around 1000 come from these 2 countries. This kind of issue applies to all 3 universities that you are appying for.

Reply 2

ageshallnot

21

Original post by leno_o

Current y12 student here, studying Maths, FM, Physics, CS.
Looking to apply for CS at UCL, Imperial, Kings college London, Bristol, Loughborough,
Heard people on here saying that applying to multiple competitive London unis is a bad idea, but i really want to live in London. I have a lot of time to decide still, but looking for a second opinion; are these options terrible? :s-smilie:

It's too early for you to worry about whether you should include 3 top London unis, or 2 or even 1. Part of the equation is how strong your application is. For example, will you predicted grades be A*A"A" or the minimum required? After one term of year 12, that's too early to call.

Reply 3

totallyfine

9

Everything said above. Also, it is difficult to tell because you have not included your predicted grades but your lowest is AAA? (unless you are one of the schools on Bristol's extensive aspiring schools list!)
I would take out one London one and add in a 'safe' bet. Look at Royal Holloway or Surrey as close to London for the links

At this stage it is most important that you start thinking about some open day visits to see if you actually like any of these places

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 4

ageshallnot

21

Good advice above on attending open days.

Reply 5

PQ

Clearing and Applications Advisor

21

Think through what you would likely do in different situations:
- if you didn’t get any London offers would you want to live in Bristol or Loughborough for 3/4 years?
- if you didn’t get any offers would you resit and reapply?
- how would you feel if you got great grades but no offers? Would you take a gap year and reapply or find somewhere else in clearing?

With CS having such poor unemployment rates it would probably be worthwhile planning a yini gap year regardless.
It is also not a good idea to have limited yourself to just 5 choices this soon. Find another 5 at least that you like the look of. Book onto open days. Look into the costs and practicalities of studying in London - the costs of accommodation and the time spent commuting and working to cover costs isn’t to be underestimated, there’s a reason many london universities have appalling student satisfaction ratings - it’s not an easy option and the benefits are limited.

Reply 6

McGinger

18

As above, applying to all 3 of Imperial, KCL and UCL is not a good idea.
Look at other Unis outside London which are often better, and where you might actually get an offer.

Look at Unis like Bath, Southampton, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool etc.

Reply 7

leno_o

OP

11

Original post by ageshallnot

It's too early for you to worry about whether you should include 3 top London unis, or 2 or even 1. Part of the equation is how strong your application is. For example, will you predicted grades be A*A"A" or the minimum required? After one term of year 12, that's too early to call.

yes many have said here its too early to think about it yet, but our school is making us do research tables etc for our current choices for university, and doing them made me stress out a lot, ill definitely take the advice of many here to just attend open days of those unis and ones outside of london to see what its like.

Reply 8

ageshallnot

21

Original post by leno_o

yes many have said here its too early to think about it yet, but our school is making us do research tables etc for our current choices for university, and doing them made me stress out a lot, ill definitely take the advice of many here to just attend open days of those unis and ones outside of london to see what its like.

Then don't take the task too seriously. 😃

Uni choices unrealistic?

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