Maths at decent uni

[GrumpyOldBag]

School have just told us DS is predicted AAAA (with the A in normal Maths, only A in Further Maths).

There's no point in him applying to Warwick or Imperial is there? Both need an A* in Further Maths too.

Anyone got any experience of this? Don't want to waste our time going to Open days if they are going to be above his level. The school is pretty useless at advice.

Thanks.

Warwick and Imperial would be looking for higher grades, yes, and require MAT/STEP too.

But your title seems a bit misleading - there are dozens of more than "decent" maths courses at UK universities outside the ones you mentioned. Maths isn't a particularly over-subscribed subject and A star A A will get you into universities ranked from six and below for maths. All maths departments in the top 20 or so would be considered very good and have world class maths research.

Thank you haybott. I know, it was written in haste, and I know that missing Warwick/Imperial is far from the end of the world.

Warwick used to make their offer to anyone who might achieve it, so if things haven't changed they are likely to make an offer to your son if he applies (in past years they have been known to accept people who miss the offer too). So, it could be worth considering as an aspirational choice? But don't forget the Step/mat element of the offer too.

have a look at Exeter and leeds for maths courses. both good unis. am not a fan of Bath but that is on other grounds not the quality of their courses!

Thanks, we are already planning to go to the Exeter open day.

At the weekend I was having a discussion with friends. We had all done Maths at university (4 Cambridge, 1 Edinburgh). With hindsight, only 1 of us actually felt it had been the right course to do.

Maths at university is (or at least was in the 80s) very different from maths at A level.

We decided you need to look really carefully at the courses and at other options, and not just 'fall' into a maths degree because you are good at maths and enjoy it at A level.

I agree about looking carefully at all options, but maths at university is extremely different now than it was in the 1980s. It is much less pure maths based in most places.