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University Applications

Finally heard from Bath. A* in Maths, A in Further Maths and A in anything else.

Since I'm practically guaranteed an A* in Maths I'd think I'd put this as my backup over Exeter, but since one of the As is specifically Further Maths, I'm not too sure since getting an A in that is haaaard.
 
Rasrap Smurf said:
Finally heard from Bath. A* in Maths, A in Further Maths and A in anything else.

Since I'm practically guaranteed an A* in Maths I'd think I'd put this as my backup over Exeter, but since one of the As is specifically Further Maths, I'm not too sure since getting an A in that is haaaard.
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Yeah, I got an A* in Maths and only a B in Further Maths. (But we might be with different exam boards...)
 
As of today, I am completely sorted with UCAS! I have Aberdeen ABB for my firm, and City London BBB for my insurance.

Was a bit disappointing getting soundly rejected by my other three choices, but oh well~ This means I get to spend time focusing on scholarships and bursaries and whatever for Aberdeen. :D It looks like a pretty cool city to spend four years in.
 
Cirrus said:
Well, the closest place I'm applying to is in London - I want independence too. But Aberdeen is so far away that it's going to be very difficult getting any help whatsoever from anyone if I suddenly need it, not to mention lugging all my belongings up there. :(
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Aaah, don't worry about getting all your crap up there - once you're on a train, you're on a train and it doesn't really matter how far you go, you just have to have a book/DS/MP3 player to entertain yourself.

And I can't imagine needing massively urgent help from anyone - I broke my leg at uni and coped just fine without help from people back home.

You'll be fine :D
 
So I've finally got all my university replies. FINAL SCORES:

Cambridge: Negative
LSE: Negative
York: Positive! 85% average, 85% in history.
Warwick: Positive! 80% average, 85% in history.
St Andrews: Positive! 80% average, 70% in history.

I've got my doubts on what to do. I was thinking of making St Andrews my first choice, but it seems stupid to put the easiest one as your first. I'm going to study history and political science, so I'm not sure St Andrews should be my first choice either :c hmmm. Maybe Warwick and then St Andrews, or the opposite?

What do
 
oooh choose York as your firm! we could be flatmates. :P

but in all seriousness, I dunno. both Warwick and St Andrews are usually ranked fairly closely in the league tables, with York a few places behind. St Andrews has quite a horrible reputation for poshness and annoying ex-public school kids whereas York and Warwick, while both having extremely good academic reputations also have a much wider variety of people and a much larger comprehensive intake. in terms of marks, going for the highest requirement for your firm and the lowest requirement for your insurance sounds like a fair bet.

also, how does this stuff with averages work? is it something to do with the IB?
 
I could be wrong, but I don't think UCAS even lets you put a lower-offer as your first choice and a higher-offer as your backup.

Congrats on your offers! :)
 
It's not a good idea to put the easiest one as your first choice because if you fail to get into that one you've failed to get into any of them and you don't get to go to university! Maybe do Warwick and then St Andrews. That's what I'd do, anyway!
 
Harlequin said:
It's not a good idea to put the easiest one as your first choice because if you fail to get into that one you've failed to get into any of them and you don't get to go to university! Maybe do Warwick and then St Andrews. That's what I'd do, anyway!
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Er, if you fail to get into the easiest one you've failed to get into all of them anyway. It doesn't matter what order they're in.
 
opaltiger said:
Er, if you fail to get into the easiest one you've failed to get into all of them anyway. It doesn't matter what order they're in.
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Yes, but it's like you're setting yourself up for failure if you put the easy one first! It doesn't actually matter, but surely it's better to be optimistic than pessimistic, especially if you'll get into the easier one if you meet its grades anyway? Like, if you get the grades for the harder one that's awesome because you go to it, but if you don't you always have a back up! There's no back up if you put the easiest one first.
 
Yeah, haha. My brother got an unconditional for Sociology (!! DANNICHU STOP INFLUENCING MY BROTHER) at Abertay and got AB conditional offers from Edinburgh (who is 2nd highest in league tables for Sociology in the UK) and Aberdeen. He could've made those offers easy as pie.

He picked Abertay, because that's where he really wanted to go. :3
 
So in the autumn this year I'll have to start applying to universities and such, as, you know, as you do.

I've looked through dozens of prospectuses and I think I've whittled it down to sixseven (Curse you for suddenly popping up, Sheffield) choices for now (I know you're only meant to pick five with UCAS! But shush).

Voilà:

Cambridge: French and ab initio Italian (and/with ab intio Greek)*
Bristol: French and ab initio Italian
Warwick: French and ab initio** Italian
University College London: French and [ab initio Italian OR Swedish]
Exeter: French and ab initio Italian
Newcastle: French and [ab initio Japanese OR German OR Mandarin] (and Linguistics)*]
Sheffield: French and [ab intio** Russian OR German OR Dutch] with [Linguistics OR ab initio** Italian OR Dutch]

* I'm not 100% sure if you can do these alongside the other subjects.
** Not 100% sure if you can take it ab initio here.

So yeeaah. Anybody who studies/has studied languages/linguistics at University know of any others that are particularly excellent for those subjects?
 
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Not entirely sure, I hadn't thought too deeply about it yet. Any you'd suggest?
 
Depends. Do you want to be cynical about it and second guess which are the easiest to get into, or do you want to go all the way and apply to one of the best colleges?
 
Well, I'd like to try and get into the best ones! But knowing some of the easier ones would also be good for back-up I guess.
 
I mean, I think the system works pretty well in making sure that which college you apply to doesn't really matter. I wouldn't try second guessing it, really.

It changes a bit depending on subject, but in general the best colleges are Trinity, Emmanuel, King's, Clare, maybe Pembroke... basically any of the ones in the centre, but those are the ones that stand out. St John's is very old and rich, but not so good academically.

I applied for a completely different subject, so I can't really help with subject-specific things, but if you need to know anything else about applying to Cambridge, feel free to ask.
 
opaltiger said:
It changes a bit depending on subject, but in general the best colleges are Trinity, Emmanuel, King's, Clare, maybe Pembroke...
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"Trinity and then, like, some others. Maybe. I'm at Trinity btw."

What about Jesus, Caius, Magdalene? I have the impression these are good.
 
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