This board can be a bit intimidating but ...

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what the hell - I'll give it a go 🙂

DD17 isn't naturally academic but she's a grafter and passionate about studying.

She wants to do French and History at University (neither DH nor I went to uni but are very supportive).

Her predicted grades at end of Year 12 were A (psychology) B (history) and B (French). French teacher says they will give her extra support to get A.

Most of the posters on this board have A* kids and I'm just wondering if DD is setting herself up for disappointment 😞

Has your daughter got the option of doing an EPQ in her second year? It may reduce some of her offers down to ABB (with an A in the EPQ) and May help her get in at some RG unis. They vary in how they look at it, but might be worth a shout?

@heddgiemum I think an Extended Project Qualification is a great thing for a pupil who is comfortably on track with their A levels. It sounds like OP’s DD might need to put in some work to bring her French up to an A. Although I am in STEM, my admissions experience says that is the priority. It will open doors and is better than ABB and an EPQ. So whilst I agree with you that an EPQ can be fab, in this case the question is whether the DD has the intellectual energy to do a high quality one (the only kind that is an asset) after giving French what it needs.

Grades AAB will give her lots of good options and grades ABB will still give her plenty to go on with. I agree the DD could discuss an EPQ with a trusted teacher, but only from the perspective that the goal of AAB comes first. Also, whether it appeals is a question of personal taste.

Lots of unis do campus tours on Wednesday afternoons. It will be on their website. It might be worth booking onto a couple and having a look. Just to get a feel and think about the city/campus thing as obviously you do have to live there for 3 years or more.

2 of mine went to non RG unis but had a good time. One of those dropped out of 6th form and ended up going via BTEC but is in STEM now.

one DC is off to RG this year. Oh the relief 😅 😉

It’s not just RG or not. It’s worth looking at the uni rankings overall and for history and I'm sure someone can recommend best place to look.

most unis are big enough so you can find like minded people but it is good to be with people who want to do well.

So I’d say aim for a some of the “better” universities for your subject that you meet the grade requirements for and is somewhere you actually want to live.

sorry rambling. She has great grades, great attitude and can go somewhere fab.

keep talking to us. We don’t bite!

OP: a lot of Unis run "widening participation" programmes targetting potentially disadvantaged local resident kids, trying to coax them to consider attending Uni. Neither parent attended Uni probably qualifies your DD for the WP programmes. They mean special seminars & events your DD could attend & just learn about the application process & types of courses to consider, help with personal statements etc. Not just for attending your local Uni, but any Uni.

Try emailing Uni admissions offices near you in early September to see if there are any WP events coming up that your DD could attend.

Southampton French and History has a standard offer of AAB and contextual offer of ABB and includes a year abroad. The French element is focussed on language rather than literature so depends where her interests lie.

Agree @HannahDefoesTrenchcoat re RG, not nec the be-all and end-all. Loughborough is not RG but is highly rated for lots of disciplines (perhaps not history and French as such but YKWIM)

Yes, @clary. Students think very highly of Loughborough and in STEM at least the RG end up competing with them for undergrads because of this. OP, I don’t know anything about the Humanities there but it is def worth your DD investigating.

RG type Unis. So ones that have excellent employment rates. There are many good non RG ones.

Do many non RG offer French? I know some will but if you want French you need a certain stature of university. Happily grades required for French won’t be stellar. The bigger issue might be History. I would check out what universities might be happy with a B to study History. If you qualify for reduced grades, and Bristol is generous on their criteria, you might be surprised where she could go. The reason some universities offer MFL without an A level in MFL is that they cannot fill the places. I would try and sim higher.

I have said that students turn up at university with decent MFL skills. My DD did French and Italian and, yes, some had parents who were a French snd Italian! However if you work hard you really can do well. Personally I would look for a wide curriculum. DD loved medieval French and as you can see above, others like Film! A top u unreality gives you this choice and it’s valuable. My DD didn’t get A* either! Didn’t make much difference and she has a great career.

keep talking to us. We don’t bite!

😁I'm so glad I started this thread. Thanks for all the helpful info. And for the nice remarks about my lovely DD.

She's not particularly bothered about RG - it's just that most of the MFL joint honours are offered by RG.

EPQ - good idea but she has 3 NEA this term so I think it might be best if she concentrates on them and tries to raise her History grade.

She'd prefer a city university.

Thanks for the tip about Southampton - she's definitely more interested in the language side of French than lots of literature so we'll take a look at that.

I’ve no idea which region you’ll be looking in but might be worth considering somewhere like Sheffield? Very livable, friendly city with lots of students and a grounded but upbeat atmosphere.

you can do French with history with ABB by the looks of it and they have separate language streams for post A level and complete beginners.

www.sheffield.ac.uk/slc/modules/french-francophone-studies

Does she have strong feelings pro or con about London? If she loves and can afford it, she might want to focus there. It is one of the world’s great cities. If she can get a suitable degree programme there, she’ll potentially have an incomparable experience.

For vibrant less expensive cities (bearing in mind that I know nothing about Humanities programmes) she might consider Manchester and Leeds. Also I have been spending time at Sheffield and am always struck by how great the vibe is. The city is lovely and lively in a smaller scale way, and both Manchester and Leeds are close by. London is surprisingly accessible by train, also. The Peak District is on the doorstep.

I would def investigate Edinburgh and Glasgow, also. Student satisfaction is generally excellent, and both are wonderful cities. I don’t know much about Manchester and Edinburgh students but my impression is that students at Glasgow, Leeds and Sheffield are friendly, and Leeds has a rep as a bit of a party school. (That doesn’t mean students don’t work.) Of course there will be loads of other good places, too. I’m just thinking about combos of good unis and cities. Highly subjective!

I also love Bath, city and uni, if Bath U has what she wants. Again student satisfaction is excellent generally.

Students at TheStudentRoom will be more than happy to give your DD candid answers to any questions she may have. Just beware that (in STEM at least) there is a tendency on the part of a few young males (I think) towards intellectual bragging. This should be ignored!

Maybe not if you live in Penzance though?
You don’t have to say where you live but something like you’ll be probably looking north of Birmingham or south of Liverpool for example?

"I also love Bath, city and uni, if Bath U has what she wants. Again student satisfaction is excellent generally"

I'd be highly surprised if Bath offered even history or French as individual undergraduate subjects, let alone as a joint honours. Bath is famously a STEM focussed uni and offers very little in the Humanities.

Great uni though!

Yeah, just checked. Bath does French but no history and therefore no combined French / history. Unless you meant Bath Spa Uni. That does both, but is a very different uni.

We're in the North. DD happy to go anywhere except London which we've vetoed on cost.

Sorry Bath spa does history

Get her not to put all unis in her choice as needing 3A• A levels and 85 GCSEs
uni is uni

WIWIKAU is helpful too OP for advice on specific unis.

Not sure what Birmingham offers are like nowadays but if your DD prefers language rather than lit modules, i did a brilliant russian degree at Birmingham which was almost no literature but loads of history, politics, some economics and social science as well. I had friends doing similar with french. I grew up in Yorkshire and found it straightforward to get to and from home as well.

Newcastle have a very good MFL dept, although I don't know about history, has realistic entry requirements, and I just love it as a city. I think you need to look at their Combined Honours BA.

Thanks, @heddgiemum I did say I am in STEM. I’ve learnt something today.

OP, @WinnysPinny touches on something really important. Your DD will very likely need an Insurance choice requiring ABB based on what you have told us. Otherwise she risks getting shut out. Once she has that back up she can make her Firm choice AAB, assuming she gets the offers, which I think she will.

Hopefully she has a trusted teacher who will discuss this with her in detail. Otherwise, we are here.