Safety unis

so my predicted grades: A*A*A
my courses shortlist so far (entry requirements only):

Option 1 (probably going to be my firm if I get an offer): A*AA
Option 2: AAA
Option 3: AAA
Option 4: AAA
Option 5 (safety): BBB

I've picked my courses based on what I wanted to study, but is having 3 options with the same entry requirements risky? I can't really find other courses with lower entry requirements e.g. AAB or ABB...

(edited 1 month ago)

Reply 1

totallyfine

I think that's fine. You can decide on your firm choice once you know which if these offer. You can also decide then which of the courses and areas you could be happiest at

Reply 2

McGinger

Degree subject?
Is it something mega-competitive like Economics, Mech Eng, or CS?

Reply 3

artful_lounger

Universities Forum Helper

Original post by marsoo

This should be fine fine, you could probably swap one or the AAA options for an A*AA or A*A*A option if you wanted. Your "safety" option also could realistically just be something with AAB or ABB rather than BBB, if there's a course with that requirement which you like.

As above may be more helpful to know which course(s) and/or unis you're applying to - not all courses with the same entry requirements are the same level of competitiveness for getting an offer. For example Oxford and Exeter both require AAA for law; however Exeter has on average a 90% offer rate across the university (believe law is around 80%), whereas Oxford has an average offer rate of 16% (apparently about 12% for law - they interview 34% of applicants and about 11% are ultimately successful so about 12% being made offers sounds about right).

Equally some courses are more or less competitive in general. For eaxmple typically humanities and language courses are somewhat under-subscribed, as are earth/environmental sciences and chemistry very often. So for many unis outside of a couple at the very "top" end, these courses may be generally a bit less competitive than you may assume relative to the entry criteria in terms of getting an offer. Others like psychology, or the aforementioned CS, economics and similar, are much more popular with more competition as a result.