Rejected by Bristol for Economics.

Well I'm just going to ignore/skip over all these random/ridiculous arguments that are going on and say

-I have applied for Bristol for Economics and Finance
-I do Maths, Further Maths, Business Studies and Geography- AAAA at AS
-I've never studied Economics before
-My personal statement wasn't particularly outstanding as I really don't know that much about the subject
-I have offers from Bath, Sheffield, Manchester and Leeds
-I still haven't been rejected from Bristol

Does anyone have any idea why a candidate like me appears to be still hanging in there when better candidates have been rejected?

I know you don't do econ at A-level but you do have both FM and a humanity (which are factors I mentioned in my opening post).

That is true, but surely they are more likely to accept people who actually have at least some knowledge about the course.
But thank you.

1. Majority of people in this thread who have been rejected by Bristol's Economics course are not a representative of the entire population who applied there. It's great that their grades were good and unfortunate that they were rejected, but this is by no means enough evidence to suggest that Bristol rejects "better" candidates.

2. You need to realise that Bristol takes up A LOT of international students [mostly from China...] in this department. So you are competing with them too, you might be just as good as them, but remember they are paying MORE fees than you are, and as we know it universities do want to make money too so this could be a deciding factor.

3. There are still a lot of students from private/grammar schools [more than I had expected], but there are also many from state schools. Perhaps there is more emphasis on students from a not so great educational background - due to the disputes which happened in the past about Bristol rejecting too many candidates from state schools.

4. There is a huge emphasis on Mathematics [and preferable further maths too]

5. There are a lot of talented students [and Oxbridge rejects...] as well as those who make you wonder how on earth they got an offer. There is a mixture of both.

6. It is not always about your grades - many candidates who apply there will have similar grades, similar A2 predictions etc. It could be one thing you mentioned in your PS that put them off, it could be something in your reference that was not convincing enough.

7. They do not take many students, so there isn't a place for EVERYONE. Some will be rejected and some will be accepted. In rare cases, they will interview so it's not always the case that they'll base their decision solely on grades.

8. It is a very competitive subject so a lot of "outstanding" candidates do apply so even if one believes that they are brilliant, there will be someone better than them.

Thank you, Eternity. I find your post much more calm, sensible and balanced than some others in this topic. I think I'll leave the matter alone now.

Given the recent rejection by Bristol of candidates with Oxbridge offers, I decided to investigate.This is the edited highlights of the UCAS Bristol Economics Entry Profile, plus my comments:
indicate high value on FM?

Good stuff to show in PS.

Variable offer, less places than many other unis.

Want humanities as well as maths? High value on History/Geography/Languages at AS/A-level?

want evidemce of moving beyond A-level Econ?


Hence possible reasons for rejection that may be more likely than you think:
1)lack of essay based subjects at AS/A-level.
2)Lack of Humanities subjects at AS/A-level.
3)Lack of FM

(I think would not count Economics A-level as an essay based subject. i.e. it includes other forms of assessment as well. e.g. Multiple-choice, calculations, short questions).

Also check out the Economics School admissions guide:
http://www.efm.bris.ac.uk/prospective_undergraduate/admissions/2008_SchoolAdmissionsStatement.pdf

Dam! I wanted to do Economics at Bristol. But my AS-levels are Economics,Maths,Politics & Philosophy. Would you say its best to try and pick-up AS-level F.Maths next year?

Why not pick up the full A level? At our college you do maths in one year, then FM in the next year. In fact, that's how it is at most.

Ours is different you do...

C1,C2 and 1 of S1/M1/D1 and then if you do F.maths you do FP1 and 2 of S1/M1/D1.

Im currently doing C1,C2,S1 so next year I will do C3,C4,S2,FP1,D1,M1 hopefully.

Dam! I wanted to do Economics at Bristol. But my AS-levels are Economics,Maths,Politics & Philosophy. Would you say its best to try and pick-up AS-level F.Maths next year?

Well it depends on the opportunity cost.

The cost is dropping Philosophy and just having an AS in it.

really sorry to be a pain but when is the last actual day that bristol can reply?
or is there nothing official and most reply by march?