Do I still have a chance in getting into LAE or Brampton?

I really want to get into one of these schools especially LAE but idk if my predicted grades are good enough for a chance to get in. I want to take biology, chemistry, maths and psychology in A levels. People I talked to said that the schools only look at the grade of the subjects that I want to do in their school, but others are saying that the 5 in physics will make the people looking at my application completely reject it, especially in these schools. Also I've seen students from last year in our school with around 5s or 6s as their actual GCSE grade, but they got a place in Brampton with the same subjects that I want except for psychology. Other people said that the personal statements and interviews are also important and that's how students get conditional offers despite their grades being somewhat okay. Finally what does top 8 aps mean? Does it mean the top 8 grades from my predicted are made into a mean. So with that make it into a 99987996, the mean being around 8.3. But again is this still enough.

Literature - 9
Language - 9
Maths - 9
Biology - 8
Chemistry - 7
Physics - 5
Geography - 9
RE - 9
Spanish - 6

Please let me know if I still have a chance.

(edited 3 months ago)

Reply 1

iugusd

Original post

by waterseaocean

I really want to get into one of these schools especially LAE but idk if my predicted grades are good enough for a chance to get in. I want to take biology, chemistry, maths and psychology in A levels. People I talked to said that the schools only look at the grade of the subjects that I want to do in their school, but others are saying that the 5 in physics will make the people looking at my application completely reject it, especially in these schools. Also I've seen students from last year in our school with around 5s or 6s as their actual GCSE grade, but they got a place in Brampton with the same subjects that I want except for psychology. Other people said that the personal statements and interviews are also important and that's how students get conditional offers despite their grades being somewhat okay. Finally what does top 8 aps mean? Does it mean the top 8 grades from my predicted are made into a mean. So with that make it into a 99987996, the mean being around 8.3. But again is this still enough.
Literature - 9
Language - 9
Maths - 9
Biology - 8
Chemistry - 7
Physics - 5
Geography - 9
RE - 9
Spanish - 6
Please let me know if I still have a chance.

(copy pasting from other thread)
It depends a lot on if you get an offer, and what subjects you want to take. I will say that for your cohort entry should be quite a bit easier since LAES will be taking in a lot more year 12s next year due to us moving to our new building. Here's my advice though:

(If you get an offer)

If you want to take humanities - Just meet the entry requirements and you should be fine, grade requirements on these aren't too strict

If you want to take STEM - These are a LOT more competitive, aim for an APS of around 8.0 for your top 8, even if you get an offer

(If you don't get an offer)

If you don't get an offer it depends a lot on what subjects are free, but I know people who didn't get offers and got in on the day for the subjects they wanted. You'd need exceptional grades for this if you want to do STEM (mostly 8s and 9s), again humanities will be more relaxed on the requirements.

My stats were as following (for Maths, Politics, Economics, Philosophy):
Predicted - 99888887 (8.1 APS)
Achieved - 99988877 (8.1 APS)

In your specific case biology and chemistry are very selective subjects, but given you have a high top 8 APS, and your average maths and sciences grade is above the 7 requirement, you should be a competitive applicant. I would say that even though I'd heavily recommend increasing your physics grade, since they view sciences together, they definitely WON'T immediately reject you for a 5 in physics. If you can maintain these grades I'd say you have a solid chance. I'm less knowledgeable about Brampton, but I can assume they're relatively as selective as LAE, so most of the advice will apply regardless.

Reply 2

oolie

Brampton student here, the 5 in your physics would be fine as long as it doesn’t decrease your GPA below ~8ish since they wouldn’t look at it too much if you’re not applying for physics as your subject.