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How Realistic Are My UCAS Choices?

I'm a gap year student with grades A*A*A achieved in Maths, Economics and History alongside a predicted grade A in Further Maths, so together A*A*AA.

My UCAS Choices are:
University of Oxford: Economics and Management
Imperial College London: Econ, Finance and Data Science
LSE: Economics
UCL: Economics
Warwick: Economics

I've heard some people say gap year students are disadvantaged when applying again so idrk whether I'm wasting my choices

Reply 1

Original post by ArthurMZ
I'm a gap year student with grades A*A*A achieved in Maths, Economics and History alongside a predicted grade A in Further Maths, so together A*A*AA.
My UCAS Choices are:
University of Oxford: Economics and Management
Imperial College London: Econ, Finance and Data Science
LSE: Economics
UCL: Economics
Warwick: Economics
I've heard some people say gap year students are disadvantaged when applying again so idrk whether I'm wasting my choices

For further context I got 988877776 in my GCSEs

Reply 2

Honest opinion - too many high-risk choices.

The Unis you have chosen are all mega-competitive for Econ and meeting, or even exceeding, the entry requirements does not guarantee you an offer. Each year, hundreds of such applicants will be rejected. This means that you risk not getting any offers at all - and with no lower grade choices at all, you will have nothing to fall back on.

The advice is to pick Oxbridge and at most, only two of the other Unison your list. Look at Unis like Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Durham etc, they will be less insanely competitive - and you are far more likely to receive an offer.

Reply 3

Those are all super competitive. First check which of those unis care about resits (I could be wrong but I don't think UCL likes resits). You should only apply to 5 competitive courses like that if you're fine with the possibility of going through clearing.

Reply 4

Never mind, ignore my comment. I just realised you didn't resit, you just had a gap year. Unis are fine with gap years as long as you show what useful things you did on that gap years.

Reply 5

Original post by Labradoodle1
Never mind, ignore my comment. I just realised you didn't resit, you just had a gap year. Unis are fine with gap years as long as you show what useful things you did on that gap years.

I see.

Reply 6

Original post by McGinger
Honest opinion - too many high-risk choices.
The Unis you have chosen are all mega-competitive for Econ and meeting, or even exceeding, the entry requirements does not guarantee you an offer. Each year, hundreds of such applicants will be rejected. This means that you risk not getting any offers at all - and with no lower grade choices at all, you will have nothing to fall back on.
The advice is to pick Oxbridge and at most, only two of the other Unison your list. Look at Unis like Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham, Durham etc, they will be less insanely competitive - and you are far more likely to receive an offer.

Agree. They could get into any one of them, but as they are so insanely competitive, they could also get zero offers. They also don't seem to have an option with lower than A*AA that they could potentially use as an insurance.

Reply 7

Original post by ArthurMZ
I'm a gap year student with grades A*A*A achieved in Maths, Economics and History alongside a predicted grade A in Further Maths, so together A*A*AA.
My UCAS Choices are:
University of Oxford: Economics and Management
Imperial College London: Econ, Finance and Data Science
LSE: Economics
UCL: Economics
Warwick: Economics
I've heard some people say gap year students are disadvantaged when applying again so idrk whether I'm wasting my choices

Note that you don't have to apply to all 5 at once. Keep 1-2 choices back in case your top 3-4 all reject you. If that happens then you can adjust your sights accordingly.

Reply 8

Original post by ArthurMZ
I'm a gap year student with grades A*A*A achieved in Maths, Economics and History alongside a predicted grade A in Further Maths, so together A*A*AA.
My UCAS Choices are:
University of Oxford: Economics and Management
Imperial College London: Econ, Finance and Data Science
LSE: Economics
UCL: Economics
Warwick: Economics
I've heard some people say gap year students are disadvantaged when applying again so idrk whether I'm wasting my choices

I wouldn't say that gap year students are disadvantaged, but uni's might expect a little more from you as you are one year older have have completed your A-levels, rather than being mid way through them. For example, an admissions tutor at Cambridge said that for Gap year students, at interview they could get asked any question from any part of the A-level syllabus, rather than just modules covered to date. You need to fill in a form prior to interview to say what modules you have covered so far.

Reply 9

Original post by lalexm
I wouldn't say that gap year students are disadvantaged, but uni's might expect a little more from you as you are one year older have have completed your A-levels, rather than being mid way through them. For example, an admissions tutor at Cambridge said that for Gap year students, at interview they could get asked any question from any part of the A-level syllabus, rather than just modules covered to date. You need to fill in a form prior to interview to say what modules you have covered so far.

I see, thanks for the notice.

Reply 10

Original post by ageshallnot
Note that you don't have to apply to all 5 at once. Keep 1-2 choices back in case your top 3-4 all reject you. If that happens then you can adjust your sights accordingly.

Noted 👍

Reply 11

Any particular tips or resources you can recommend for Maths, FM revision for A*/A grades? Considering taking Maths in a gap year.

Reply 12

Any particular tips or resources you can recommend for Maths, FM revision for A*/A grades? Considering taking Maths in a gap year.

If you're doing Edexcel Maths/FM I'd strongly recommend Bicen Maths for learning the content of itself. His videos are literally recordings of his lessons but also caters to his YouTube audience which is nice. I'd say make written notes using his videos to familiarise yourself with the content then just use the official workbooks for practice and Yesterdaysmathsexam.com for exam question practice.

Reply 13

Original post by ArthurMZ
I'm a gap year student with grades A*A*A achieved in Maths, Economics and History alongside a predicted grade A in Further Maths, so together A*A*AA.
My UCAS Choices are:
University of Oxford: Economics and Management
Imperial College London: Econ, Finance and Data Science
LSE: Economics
UCL: Economics
Warwick: Economics
I've heard some people say gap year students are disadvantaged when applying again so idrk whether I'm wasting my choices

A bit too risky dude...I have few experience with gap year student so you may check each school's statement about gay year yourself and explain it very well in your PS. Only one a-level grade difference is not enough for a whole year gap.

Oxford: TSA & interview required, with 5% successful rate
IC:Their Applications: places ratio is like 35:1 in 2023, and It requires both Admissions test (TMUA) & Post-application interview.
LSE: TUMA required, and the offer rate is like 12%-15% for home student and even lower on average. Extremely high requirement for your PS.
UCL: No special requirement, but it is still a very competitive program
Warwick: TUMA required

You may like Oxford very much, but you will need to prepare for two admission tests on October with only 10 days difference, while you might be busy with further math & interviews preparation. So I suggest that if you are interested in Oxbridge then you may choose Cambridge which also requires TMUA & interview, and yields a 12.5% offer rate in 2023 cycle. But it requires A*A*A, so you better get a A* in Further Math.

It seems most of your choices require TMUA score.
Usually a score above 6.5 can be regraded as satisfactory, but top school always aim higher. So take past paper and consult with your math teacher/tutor, if you cannot have a solid 6 for now, then choose wisely pls.
Besides, if I were you, I would probably choose 1-2 programmes without additional requirements as insurance school, and only pick my fav three out of oxbridge/ic/lse/ucl for this type of competitive programme.

Reply 14

Original post by JJnotJJ
A bit too risky dude...I have few experience with gap year student so you may check each school's statement about gay year yourself and explain it very well in your PS. Only one a-level grade difference is not enough for a whole year gap.
Oxford: TSA & interview required, with 5% successful rate
IC:Their Applications: places ratio is like 35:1 in 2023, and It requires both Admissions test (TMUA) & Post-application interview.
LSE: TUMA required, and the offer rate is like 12%-15% for home student and even lower on average. Extremely high requirement for your PS.
UCL: No special requirement, but it is still a very competitive program
Warwick: TUMA required
You may like Oxford very much, but you will need to prepare for two admission tests on October with only 10 days difference, while you might be busy with further math & interviews preparation. So I suggest that if you are interested in Oxbridge then you may choose Cambridge which also requires TMUA & interview, and yields a 12.5% offer rate in 2023 cycle. But it requires A*A*A, so you better get a A* in Further Math.
It seems most of your choices require TMUA score.
Usually a score above 6.5 can be regraded as satisfactory, but top school always aim higher. So take past paper and consult with your math teacher/tutor, if you cannot have a solid 6 for now, then choose wisely pls.
Besides, if I were you, I would probably choose 1-2 programmes without additional requirements as insurance school, and only pick my fav three out of oxbridge/ic/lse/ucl for this type of competitive programme.

I see, thanks for the advice.

Reply 15

Original post by ArthurMZ
I'm a gap year student with grades A*A*A achieved in Maths, Economics and History alongside a predicted grade A in Further Maths, so together A*A*AA.

My UCAS Choices are:
University of Oxford: Economics and Management
Imperial College London: Econ, Finance and Data Science
LSE: Economics
UCL: Economics
Warwick: Economics

I've heard some people say gap year students are disadvantaged when applying again so idrk whether I'm wasting my choices


Your offers seem pretty sensible to me you got top grades so applied to top universities I’d recommend taking a few days and exploring the areas those universities are in and seeing which ones you like best I can’t describe how important location is.

Reply 16

I agree with prior posters. There is a very significant chance of getting no offers from the courses you have selected. If you are happy taking that risk to have a chance at a top course no problem - but make sure that you are happy with that risk.

Reply 17

Original post by ArthurMZ
For further context I got 988877776 in my GCSEs

Just some random information but i got the EXACT same GCSEs as you. wow. any luck with oxbridge?

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