3 A* predicted grades - which uni for history / history & polictics?

[lifeturnsonadime]

Just as the title asks.

DS has nailed year 12 despite a strange secondary education. Previous school refuser due to undiagnosed sen) and was home educated for GCSEs so we find ourselves in a bit of a strange position where his likely A- levels mismatch his GCSEs (only did 6 - with 1 8, 1 7, 3 6's and a 5 in maths).

He has really excelled in 6th form and having spoken to the SLT he is going to be predicted 3 As if the trajectory continues, currently working at A A A

Obviously this opens opportunities that we hadn't imagined.

He has a preference for London location wise but I want him to consider other locations as well.

Anyone with kids on history/ history & Politics courses who can recommend as we now need to start thinking about this?

MTIA

Does the school have experience in supporting Oxbridge applications? If so I’d be considering this, the GCSE results can very easily be explained in the application.

Beware the additional expense of London Uni’s - that’s for you to consider how much you can support him financially over and above the loan he will be entitled to. I know the ideal scenario is to go wherever but this is an aspect that doesn’t get considered enough IMO

Otherwise he has the pick of the better RG and similar places (but for a very competitive course - so bear that in mind!)

I should have added you need to consider all the usual factors too eg

How far away from home, likely time/cost of travel
Campus or City
Cost of accommodation
Postgrad Employment stats
Content of course - will it cover all areas of interest?

Kings would be a good fit.

Hi thanks we haven't considered Oxbridge as from the very little I've read they do take into account GCSEs.

Finance in London is obviously an issue but he spent 2 years spending very little time outside of his bedroom when he was in a bad place mental health wise and REALLY wants to go and I'm not sure I want to deprive him of the opportunity on the basis of cost alone. We also have family in London which is a bonus.

I am concerned about the competitiveness of the RG options and am worried about the GCSE results meaning he won't get a place on that alone.

Thanks for this, really helpful. Just starting to look at course content.

Do you mind me asking why? We've always thought UCL and KCL are too aspirational but now that the SLT have indicated likely predictions of 3 A*s he now is starting to think about these options.

Well it depends on where you live and if your child wants to be able to commute home fairly easily. My DS was keen on Bristol for a while as he wanted to live in a city in the south of England. He got an ABB contextual offer (because he went to an inner city London comprehensive) but I think the usual offer was AAA or something like that.

Is that to study history?

We are in the midlands so not a million miles from anywhere.

I'm not sure that contextual offers apply for DS. How would I find out?

My husband had a similar history, with rubbish gcse results but predicted and got the top grades in his A levels. He was given a 2E offer at Oxford as he interviewed well and they understood his difficult past. I doubt they still give 2E offers but it would be worth applying to oxbridge. I would just phase it as don’t ask don’t get and also encourage her to pick some slightly lowers tier places to give her an insurance.
Has she been to any open days, have any preference for campus/city based?

My son is currently achieving all A stars and wants to study history - this is his current shortlist:

Cambridge
Durham
Exeter
UCL (we live in London so this is an option in case he decides to stay at home)
Leeds

He wants to be able to study both modern and ancient history and possibly some Latin options as well, so his shortlist doesn’t include York and Warwick. We also looked at Bristol, but he wanted more of a campus university in an unknown city. The Scottish universities, particularly St Andrews and Edinburgh are great but he doesn’t want a 4 year course.

History isn’t as popular a choice as it once was so there is less competition at all but the top few universities (but it is always worth having aspirational choices) - regardless good A level predictions will place him well. GCSE are sometimes taken into account but context is all important. I may be corrected, but I think the academic reference can include an explanation for specific reasons for poor past performance such as illness.

Outside of Oxbridge and London you'd probably want to look at Durham, Warwick for History, then perhaps Exeter, Leeds? (Not sure if they all do joint honours History & Politics).
York has an excellent reputation for History too. They nearly all ask for AAA.

It’s probably out of date but I’m my degree was history and politics and I got 3 a’s. I applied to
lse
exeter
Bristol
Lancaster
leeds

There is a specific international history and politics course at Leeds with options for gap year abroad or on placement. They also have modules every year in other subjects of your choice outside history / politics (eg you might be able to do a media module, art history module, philosophy etc) so it's a pretty broad course with lots of choice.

Campus is great. It's a cheaper city than some, though still pricy these days.

Worth a look.

Are Essex and Sussex still good for History and Politics?

Hi Jaxx, those combos sound interesting, DS is currently doing Modern History and Classic Civilisations but I think he's leaning more to modern history at the moment.

Time to start really looking into the course content.

He doesn't want to study in Scotland and I don't think he will want to be north of Birmingham if he doesn't end up in London.

I spoke to the SEN Co at the 6th form and she said she thinks academic reference will play a part in explaining the GCSEs.

He did so well to actually get those grades at the time as he had been so unwell and didn't actually do any curriculum work for the best part of 2 years so in the end I just focused on what he needed to get to the next stage. He has done so well at 6th form I couldn't be prouder.

@lifeturnsonadime yes, it was to study History otherwise I would not have replied to your question. I think Bristol publish a list of schools they give contextual offers to. I'm not sure but I'm guessing it's schools where fewer than 50% of pupils get 5 decent GCSEs or something like that.

I don't know, but I went to Sussex to study law and loved it in Brighton!

Wow that's an inspiring story!

Avoid Sussex if you care about academic integrity - that's the Uni that hounded out Dr Stock for believing in biological sex 🙄

How about Nottingham? Great module choices, great student satisfaction, great success in students getting relevant jobs after Uni.

Avoid Sussex if you care about academic integrity - that's the Uni that hounded out Dr Stock for believing in biological sex 🙄

I know, so disappointed in that, I studied there in the 90s.

Oxford 100%. I went for ancient and modern history and my less than stellar GCSEs were never mentioned. By now husband did history and one of our best friends (his best man) did history and politics. All of us loved it. Caveat that this was a decade ago now so things may have changed - but change is slow in oxbridge so I doubt it.

If London, I liked UCL and Kings in that order but that was for ancient history and history and war studies respectively so may be different. Personally though, I’m glad I didn’t go for London as (a) it’s a much bigger city and I liked that my first taste of real independence was in a slightly smaller, friendlier place (b) I knew I’d probably end up working in London after uni and wanted to spend time somewhere else first to get some variety and (c) no London uni offered the 1 on 1 teaching that Oxford did.

I applied to Durham but didn’t get in - I think because of my GCSEs. I think they can be a harder obstacle to overcome at places without an interview.

@lifeturnsonadime as others have said if (big IF) GCSE is taken into consideration by Oxbridge it can easily be explained in academic reference and/or personal statement

“my A level studies have really enthused me about X and Y and have inspired me to want to study these at degree level. I had a tough time academically prior to this because ….. but I feel I have shown resilience and perseverance in getting over that and finding my feet…..”

you get the drift….

As a previous poster has said, worth looking at IHP at Leeds
Course info

Why don’t you look at the Discover Uni website and search by subject according to the metrics that interest you eg career progression, teaching, student satisfaction . Respect to everyone but most of the info on here is anecdotal.

My DS has very high grades and is at Birmingham which no one has mentioned yet. Very strong department. Rejected from Cambridge after interview, partly down to GCSE grades.

He originally applied for a different course and swapped but would definitely have applied for Birmingham for history anyway. His other favoured course was York.