UCL Engineering Foundation Year Enquiry

Hi I’m a year 12 A level student who may consider applying for the foundation year at UCL but I’m not fully sure about my eligibility.

I receive free school meals so according to the website eligibility checker I do qualify but other than that I have no other non-academic factors that stack on top (in terms of what UCL has listed) and on the IMD I’m in a fairly average to slightly deprived neighbourhood though I do live with only one parent.

I initially wanted to take maths and physics at A level but I got 6s for both in my GCSEs and the sixth forms I applied to needed 7s and I couldn’t get into any others following results day so I now study:

Geography Economics and Biology
I’m expecting a predicted of A*AA or A*A*A (in that order)

UCL website says there’s no specific subject requirements but it seems most applicants do more relevant subject combinations just with grades below direct entry

I am doing some good supercurricular activities and I think I could write a convincing personal statement as I am genuinely interested in engineering but I’ve just not been able to pursue the needed subjects.

With my grades being better than most applicants and my subjects being less coherent for engineering I’m not sure how likely I’d be for acceptance to the interview/assessment stage compared to someone ‘more disadvantaged’ who does maths physics comp sci ,for example, but is getting BBB

Sorry for the long block of text but I’d really appreciate some advice about my situation

Reply 1

Anonymous #2

on ucas it says the course is only for forced migrants(like refugees for example) or mature students who have been out of education for a while but i put what you mentioned in their eligibility checker and there's only one factor that decides it for you from what i saw and its whether you go to a state school or not, if you do youre eligible if you dont you arent eligible. i advise you to check though because maybe i got something wrong or misunderstood this message. if it turns out you arent eligible uni of manchester and uni of nottingham are also 2 other great universities that offer foundation years you can apply to without maths or physics so you should check them out too

Reply 2

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post

by Anonymous

on ucas it says the course is only for forced migrants(like refugees for example) or mature students who have been out of education for a while but i put what you mentioned in their eligibility checker and there's only one factor that decides it for you from what i saw and its whether you go to a state school or not, if you do youre eligible if you dont you arent eligible. i advise you to check though because maybe i got something wrong or misunderstood this message. if it turns out you arent eligible uni of manchester and uni of nottingham are also 2 other great universities that offer foundation years you can apply to without maths or physics so you should check them out too

i do go to a state school and their eligibility checker on the website does say i’m eligible therefore but i’m just not sure how’d they view the fact i’m getting grades high enough for direct entry into other courses at UCL even if they aren’t engineering

Reply 3

Anonymous #2

dont worry they dont care about that at the end of the day you're applying for what you want to do you're not just playing the cards you've been dealt. id argue this is an advantage and might make your application stronger because it shows youre dedicated to doing engineering. as long as you have a good personal statement im sure you'll get an invitation to the assessment day. But also do look into nottingham and manchester this is unrelated to this discussion its just two other great choices you can apply for its not to say i dont think you can get in. good luck with your application

Reply 4

Anonymous #1

OP

Original post

by Anonymous

dont worry they dont care about that at the end of the day you're applying for what you want to do you're not just playing the cards you've been dealt. id argue this is an advantage and might make your application stronger because it shows youre dedicated to doing engineering. as long as you have a good personal statement im sure you'll get an invitation to the assessment day. But also do look into nottingham and manchester this is unrelated to this discussion its just two other great choices you can apply for its not to say i dont think you can get in. good luck with your application

Thank you for the advice and motivation and yeah I think I will end up trying my application for the foundation year at UCL but I’ll also look into alternatives too.
I had sent them an email about how appropriate my application would be and I’ve just recently gotten a reply that it seems it would be fine to apply no matter your qualifications as long as you meet the 100 UCAS point tariff

UCL Engineering Foundation Year Enquiry

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