(Ancient) History with lower grades

[Notsureabouthis]

Not really sure what my DS is going to get (sitting next year) but I’m helping him out with a bit of research/narrowing down the options before he goes to open days.

He loves the idea of Birmingham and I see Nottingham do a foundation Ancient History option which looks good.

ABB (Birmingham) is likely to be optimistic so I’m looking for other options to balance that out. Overwhelmed a bit!

He’s keen on Ancient History but will also look at History. He’s not really interested in joint honours.

Any ideas of good options? I’ve looked at the league tables but would really like to here some experiences from others. Thanks! 😊

Southampton offers a grade down (so ABB- BBB) for an A in the epq, if this applies?

Does he have any idea of careers yet? If so it can be worth looking at the linkedin profiles of new graduates taken on by companies where he might might to work to see which sorts of universities they went to .

Hi thanks both. I think he’s going to need to focus on his 3 A levels and isn’t self motivated enough unfortunately to do a decent effort at an EPQ (I may be doing him a disservice there but he’s not really shown much interest in doing one 🤷‍♀️)

No career choice in mind yet. He’s only 16 and young for his age so I’m pretty chilled about just letting it evolve.

I think with Ancient History you may have to do Latin and Greek modules at the best universities - for obvious reasons. If he isn’t keen on this, be careful about choices. A friend of DDs had to change courses because she couldn’t hack the language lessons.

What Bubbles said. I teach on a course where we get a lot of transfers in of students who can’t hack the Greek and Latin on the Classics or Ancient History course.

At almost no university is Latin or Greek mandatory as a unit for students on Ancient History courses now! They are required units if you do a Classics course, but not on the history side (and usually not Classical Studies, either). Having said that, Greek & Latin at university are a great option for students who are interested - most places can teach beginners' from scratch to their students, which many students then enjoy a great deal.

Kent, Reading or Leicester might be options to consider - they are all excellent courses (with entry requirements below ABB usually), and students have a great time on them. ManMet also have a great, newish course at a lower tariff, with lots of wide-ranging/thematic modules that build study of the ancient world into the modern world too (so, empires in the ancient & modern world for example), which is increasingly popular.

Wishing I could edit - ofc at Oxbridge the language requirements are still there for Ancient History, but I was talking in terms of the kinds of places that the OP's dc seems likely to be applying, given the grades suggested.

Dei is right. My daughter read this at Bristol (whch is a pretty good one) and did not need languages (although she had done some latin at school but not kept it on to GCSE).

In the WhatUni app you can put in your desired course and predicted grades and it will show the unis that do the course at those grade offers.

Super helpful thank you!!! He has done a few years of Latin but not to GCSE level.

I will look at Birmingham, Kent, Manchester Met ,Reading (although I saw it had a really lie student satisfaction rating). I was reading the thread in Aberystwyth but fear it may be too remote for my son.

Thanks again.

Sorry should proofread -low not lie and obviously on not in Aberystwyth 🙈

Student satisfaction is a bit of a weird one - numbers can vary a lot year by year, and sometimes they are significantly affected by things which don't have anything to do with the ongoing realities of the course (e.g. building works which disrupt a particular year, or strikes (among staff, or among students refusing to fill out the survey!)) - so if otherwise the course and campus seem good to a candidate, I would not place too much weight on them. It's also worth comparing the scores across multiple years to see whether things are, for example, on the up or experiencing a temporary blip.

My husband did his in ancient history and PhD at St Andrews. I think you need Ancient Greek though?

Hi thanks I’ll look at Reading again.

Tobeclear- St Andrews is AAA so much harder than Birmingham which is his optimistic choice. You definitely don’t need Ancient Greek or that would rule out most of the population! 😆

@Notsureabouthis you're right he had to learn it for his PhD not undergraduate

My DC is doing Ancient History at Exeter and Greek or Latin is mandatory for the first year. But requirements are AAA so maybe not for yours. We looked at Southampton but their department basically consisted of 1 lecturer at the time, and was based on the small campus (Highfield?), which looked and felt like a 6th form college.

You haven't said what A levels he's doing OP (unless I've missed it?) I'm assuming Classics is in the mix and History too?

DS2 is applying for Ancient History. His lowest offer is Kent which is BBB or BBC. Reading's standard offer is AAB. His favourite is Warwick; their standard offer is ABB.

He was very impressed by Kent and is thinking of putting them as his insurance.

Argh. Should say Kent is BBB or BBC if firmed.

Thanks again, this is all super helpful. I’ll look into Kent. He’s doing History, Geology and Business Studies. Classics aren’t mandatory for Ancient History - most state schools don’t teach them.

We looked at Southampton but their department basically consisted of 1 lecturer at the time, and was based on the small campus (Highfield?), which looked and felt like a 6th form college.

Southampton has branched out and now has a range of Ancient History lecturers and a range of modules; they also offer beginners' Latin and Greek. Though the lecturers have their offices at the smaller Avenue Campus, the teaching is divided fairly evenly between this and the larger Highfield Campus (10 minutes walk between them).

We were very impressed with Warwick - the department made a huge effort on the open day. Also, and this is entirely irrelevant of course, the very easy-on-the-eye lovely Michael Scott is a Professor of classics and ancient history at the University of Warwick - he presented the Invisible Cities tv programmes with Alexander Armstrong.

The only downside to Warwick is all that concrete... it's not pretty at all.

Thanks Twitterqueen -Warwick does look great. I think my son, for all his love of history, feels happiest in a more modern environment. Or maybe we’re a bit spoilt where we live (very historic place/old house) and he’s looking for a change! 😆

Thanks Twitterqueen -Warwick does look great. I think my son, for all his love of history, feels happiest in a more modern environment. Or maybe we’re a bit spoilt where we live (very historic place/old house) and he’s looking for a change! 😆

My older son read this subject at Reading. He missed his grades for his first choice Exeter offer. Reading was fine. It is obviously not as impressive as universities harder to get into but not bad. I don't know what offers Reading makes now for that but it certainly did not require him to have an A when he went.