Just how competitive is it to get offers for an economics degree??

Could you recommend any specific books / MOOCS/summer programmes???

Thankyou

Hi there, can I ask how Edinburgh dropped her requirements before firming? Did you have to do anything? My son has just had an offer based on getting A*AA. Is it possible that they might lower that?

Congrats on the offers and good luck to him getting his grades in the summer.

Great news, OP. Congratulations and best wishes to DC

Thank you

@Burpsandrustles never apologise for not knowing something, it does not make you stupid in the slightest. Unless it has been on your radar why would you know what it meant?

Adding to the Big 4 there are lots of online things for year 12s over summer, lots of summer courses they can do to expand their knowledge. Plus lots of things just online or podcasts or books to digest to see where their interests lie in the scope of economics. Is your child year 12?

@Burpsandrustles don’t ever apologise for asking a very sensible question! The big four are the four largest accounting firms: PWC, KPMG, Deloitte’s and EY. If you or a DC is interested in a career in accountancy or finance it is important to look at the various company’s websites and look at opportunities such as online seminars and internships etc.

@Lordofmyflies@Lordofmyflies? sorry to soun d stupid but what are the big 4

And how do you get on line seminars? Is that hard or just showing his interest

I think the personal statement has to be stand out. DS is currently 1st year economics at Exeter. He had offers from Durham, Birmingham, Cardiff and Manchester and 3A's. But he did ALOT of on-line seminars with the big four, work experience in the city and ran his own small business during sixth form which he could refer to in his PS.

Having studied at LSE and now doing an economics masters at Oxford I’d say it would be very tough to get in without at least an A in further maths. Maths is the language of economics and if you’re not confident in it you will really struggle in particular when it comes to the later degree stages.

Honestly, OP …. It depends. But last year there were a number of reports on this Board of DC with PGs of 4 A stars and no offers from Cambridge, LSE, Warwick and UCL. These are traditionally the top 4 mathematically orientated Economic programmes in the UK, so one assumes that in many cases one of those A stars was for FM.

A good TMUA mark could only help. How much, I don’t know.

The larger point in my mind, as an academic and former admissions tutor, is that each DC deserves their best chance of academic success. I wouldn’t presume to say what that means for your DS, but at my place we have a number of Oxbridge rejects. Sometimes that rejection was arbitrary, and it is perhaps a bit sad. Much more often I think it was a lucky escape: if the student had squeaked in, they would have been stuck near the bottom of the class. That’s incredibly stressful and often leads to MH problems. Much better to apply where you feel confident that you are on track to meet the offer and will fit in towards the middle of the cohort, at least.

Hello,
My son wants to study economics at LSE. He got predicated Maths A*, Economics A, Physics A,Further Maths B. GCSE grade 9 in maths, further maths, physics, chemistry, RE, Economics, geography. Grade 8 in English and biology, grade 7 in Spanish
He is also sitting for TMUA to make his application stronger and has also done senior maths challenge.
Please advise me if he stands a chance for LSE economics as he has predicted grade B in further maths? Thanks

@Tealfish this also comes down to what he has to put on his personal statement. It isn't just about any work experience, lots of places won't take any under 18s but what else has he done? Any summer schools? Any MOOCs? Entry grades are the lowest a university will take someone in on so look at getting a second A star for his predicted grade before he applies. My Ds is also applying for Economics but different universities.

Yes I very much suspect that is a one off where it would be.

it also depends on which uni, and how popular the course is at that uni

@Spirallingdownwards It depends where tbh. The new imperial course in economics, finance and data science is very competitive (5% offer rate approximately).

If your son is looking at Economics and Finance that is far less competitive than a straight Economics degree.

@Tealfish My Ds is doing Economics + Politics. No relevant work experience due to Covid.

I agree Economics is very competitive and certainly last year there was very little leniency on results day for dropped grades.

My Ds applied to Bristol, Leeds , Southampton, Manchester & Sheffield. Had similar predicted grades to your Ds. Had offers from them all apart from Manchester. Nottingham & Bath also good places to apply to.

I think your Ds should have a good chance of getting offers from the unis you mention. The ones that seems hardest to get into for Economics are Oxbridge, LSE and Warwick

Hi, OP -

Your DS is at the Exeter offer, 1 PG above the Leeds offer and, from what I can see, 2 PGs above the other 3 offers. (I can only see the Lancaster offer for 2023 so it may go up).

Because Economics programmes are so competitive, I think getting offers from Exeter and possibly Leeds will take some luck. A great PS and supracurriculars will definitely help. This is fine - these are his aspirational choices. The other choices are likely to come through if the wind is at his back; however because Economics is competitive, to be very safe DS could trade one of them for an ABB entry requirement.

I agree that lining up a relevant activity for Summer 2024 might help. Best wishes to him.

They do the extra maths at Birmingham too. I think Birmingham is quite a popular choice for those who love economics but who don't have FM (maybe - shock!-they didn't want to do it!) who sit at AAA- ABB type grades, as is York.

Lancaster does BA and BSc, too.

Quite a few unis are a bit deceiving. They don't say out loud that they want or require FM - but they get so may applicants this is how they sift (not all schools have FM as a 4th A level, so we are really reducing some kids to two maths A levels plus ANO under this model). I am not sure I approve of covert requirements... some people with the capacity to be brilliant economists are rejected in favour of pure mathematicians. I watched a webinar where an economist said it is changing the character and ideological leanings of economists, and not necessarily in a good way.

Btw, Bath isn;t mentioned upthread as a competitive big hitter and it is.

It’s all about targeting it right. “Top” unis for Econ are stupidly competitive so I’d only pick 1-2 of them (eg Warwick, LSE, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester).

Anecdotally Southampton seems to be less tricky. Not sure if Cardiff prioritise Welsh students. Lancaster def worth a punt.

DD1 did Economics at RHUL (maybe this isn't a 'good' university).

They had two streams - those with mathematics A-level and those without. -

I think they put the Mathematics A-level cohort into the BSc stream and the others into the BA stream. Basically, they taught the necessary mathematics to the BA people.

I don't think anyone needs to worry about further maths.

Lots of good advice here. Make sure you check out whether the unis he lists prefer FM - they may not specify it as not all schools offer it but many students may have it.

Friend's lad applied post exams with Astar AA in maths and similar, applied to UCL, LSE, Imperial, Leeds, Nottingham, only got offer from Nottingham much to friend's dismay.

Key thing is to have lots of good stuff on the PS related to economics and why he wants to do it, what he has learned and how useful it has been.

But yes it is certainly having a moment. I would advise some serious insurance (unlike my friend's lad who was very badly advised IMHO).