What maths unis should i consider?

I am applying for Maths with A*A*A*A predicted but I only really want to go somewhere that asks for at least an A* in maths and an A in further, but I'm having a fair difficulty finding any data. Can anyone give me a list or something?

Reply 1

Filthy Communist

That's an even more arbitrary way of filtering than going by rankings. Don't do that.

Go on the university rankings page, take the top 40 or so, eliminate anything you immediately don't like (e.g. that uni's in Slough, that's a small town uni and I know I want to be in a city), try to ignore reputation as much as you can because to be brutally honest it doesn't matter even remotely as much as you think it does unless your goal is investment banking. If that is your goal, you should already know what the target unis are and I don't know why you're bringing entry requirements into it.

You might well end up with your final 5 being Oxford, Imperial, UCL, Warwick, Durham. It's OK if it does, but you're shooting yourself in the foot if you refuse to even consider anything else - there are a lot of really good courses out there, whereas if you go blindly on reputation you might end up hating the uni.

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 2

JacquesOost

Original post by Filthy Communist

That's an even more arbitrary way of filtering than going by rankings. Don't do that.
Go on the university rankings page, take the top 40 or so, eliminate anything you immediately don't like (e.g. that uni's in Slough, that's a small town uni and I know I want to be in a city), try to ignore reputation as much as you can because to be brutally honest it doesn't matter even remotely as much as you think it does unless your goal is investment banking. If that is your goal, you should already know what the target unis are and I don't know why you're bringing entry requirements into it.
You might well end up with your final 5 being Oxford, Imperial, UCL, Warwick, Durham. It's OK if it does, but you're shooting yourself in the foot if you refuse to even consider anything else - there are a lot of really good courses out there, whereas if you go blindly on reputation you might end up hating the uni.

I just want a really high standard of fellow students. The actual name of the university is less important, i really liked Manchester and i have already received an offer so theres no point applying below that

Reply 3

mqb2766

Original post by JacquesOost

If youre applying for entry next year, its too late for oxford/mat and youd have to register for the 2nd tmua sitting (jan) as the first sitting has passed for the relevant unis. Similarly its too late for cambridge application.

Other than that, the usual top 4 is cowi so cambridge, oxford, warwick, imperial. Other than that there are a number of others like durham, ucl, edinburgh, bath, manchester, but the previous post as put a bit more useful detail in so I wont repeat it. A starting point could be
https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings/mathematics

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 4

Filthy Communist

Original post by JacquesOost

You remember how much of a meme GCSEs are compared to A-levels?

At least in STEM, A-levels are IMO the same. Look at the grade boundaries - do you really think that everyone who got an A* in maths sweat their balls off at A-level? I got an A* despite doing sweet **** all during lockdown, granted I did actually work quite hard to catch up whenever we weren't locked down (left 6th form in 2021 so I spent about 40% of it locked down). No, it's not a good measure for that.

What is actually a good measure is the general culture of the university and the students it attracts. For example, Imperial College London might be right up your alley for that reason. That's not the same as choosing blindly on reputation, you've found something specific about the university that you like. Even if it is that way because of reputation this means you've actually thought about it, which is what I'm trying to encourage. The same can be said of Oxbridge and LSE, and it's probably also true of Warwick for maths.