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

It's worth noting that some unis will offer His/Pol courses under the umbrella of degrees called (e.g.) Combined Honours, Liberal Arts, etc. Just something to be aware of when doing a course search as many RG universities do this.

@londonmummy1966 yes, I teach on this programme, thanks for alerting me. @lifeturnsonadime happy to answer any questions you or your DS have about it. It's a great programme.

My child is having a whale of a time doing History at Manchester! Can recommend.

I think Kings do a summer school but am not sure of the timings for applying.

Best of luck to you both :) Its such a positive story. I didn't mean to suggest he shouldn't go to London or wasn't ready to be away from home or anything like that at all. I just have been a bit shcoked and saddened by the amount of MH problems in HE in general and what a fraught/overpressured environment it can be, and so wanted to share the perspective that those things really need deep investigation at whatever institutions make your short list (they will all probably look good at MH or autism or dyslexia etc support on paper...)

I really appreciate it, the truth is, for him that any support needs to be oblique other than the additional time as he doesn't like being 'othered', so overt and open pastoral care is something that he doesn't engage in even in 6th form. I do have all of this on the radar though so will discreetly look into things myself.

Thanks for this perspective, I agree it's really important.

Wow the power of Mumsnet! He is at college right now so I will ask him if he has any specific questions later, but do you know if from and admissions perspective, his GCSE grades will be a barrier with 3 A* predictions? I appreciate you are not in admissions but just wondered if you have a view?

I've booked him onto the personal statement online event that KCL are offering but are there any specific things that you would look for in a student from an applications perspective?

Many thanks

One of mine (also autistic, and also has had severe mental health problems in the past, mostly related to appalling treatment at school) is at Oxford doing History and Politics. He is the happiest I've ever known him and is loving the course, the city and the social life. I was as miserable as sin at Oxford, but he is the complete opposite and is thriving there.

I think one thing parents (and indeed schools) often don't realise is that for most departments and most UK universities the admissions process has been very largely centralised, so the decisions are not being made by academics. From that point of view, Oxbridge can (surprisingly) give you a better shot if you have an unusual profile in some way, because those decisions are still made largely or wholly by the people who would actually be doing the teaching. I've been involved in admissions of all types: where we (as academics) had essentially no input; in another department where we had some (e.g. most offers made centrally, but an unusual case might be flagged to us for a decision); and in others where it was entirely our decision. But the latter model is now rare.

@lifeturnsonadime happy to answer any questions your DS has about the WS&H programme.

On GCSE grades etc, I don't deal with admissions but in any case @consideringachange is right - it's almost all done by administrators in the KCL admissions team, so I'm really not sure what my admissions tutor colleagues in the department actually do. I don't know if anyone reads personal statements any longer, but if they do then a clear indication of interest in the subject is what we're looking for: relevant books your DS has read and enjoyed, particular areas of interest (ideally something other than WW2 - everyone's interested in that), even things like visits to relevant museums.

There's really no point in doing War Studies or History & War Studies if you're not interested in the subject, so an indication of genuine interest is what we're looking for - as far as we mere academics have any say on admissions. One of the striking things about students on these two programmes compared with our other programmes and students doing degrees elsewhere in our faculty is how enthusiastic they tend to be about the subject. That's one of the reasons it's such a pleasure to teach them.

@WarProf in my experience of depts where it is very largely centralized, the nominal admissions tutor is mostly organising open days, keep warm days etc (rather than admissions as such), and occasionally answering questions from the central team, though when I was in that position I did have access to the admissions portal so could see how many applications and offers had been made, how many were waiting for replies etc. (Important in terms of knowing what the numbers are looking like for that cycle compared to others.) In one job like this, I was admissions tutor in a department which had complicated different tracks depending on prior skills/qualifications, which the central team couldn't always navigate accurately, so I was sometimes sent queries along the "are we right to have admitted this candidate for track A rather than track B?" sort of lines. But that was about it. I don't think personal statements ever mattered much but I have no idea at all why they are still made to write them (except possibly as starter-question fodder for the handful of places and courses which still interview).

Can I just say that when my DS swapped his degree for a history degree they definitely looked at his initial application and read his PS...

@WarProf and @consideringachange thanks for the insight into the selection processes, very helpful. I think what I am struggling is that if they are not sifted for Contextual reasons then it is hard to know how to highlight to an admissions team that for this person they have done well in the circumstances , this must happen in other situations such as bereavement etc. I know they can't give extra weight to SEN normally because adjustments are made such as extra time. If the personal statements aren't really used then the only thing they can go on is presumably GCSE results which is a worry for DS.

WarProf he's definitely not limited in interest in conflict to WWII, was talking about the conflict between the Persians and the Greeks earlier in the context of his classical civilisations A level. It is the conflict in any period which he seems to be most interested in. How wonderful that you are teaching to students who are so genuinely interested. He is going to have a look at the course programme in more detail this weekend.

This is absolutely my DDs experience - some unis leave admissions in the hads of the academics (who at the end of the day will have to do the teaching) and some - notably Birmingham and Manchester in my DDs experience are totally bureaucratic and only adminsitrators who do no teaching have a say - actually was a huge red flag to avoid these unis like the plague

Not my experience of Birmingham history at all, must say. Very kind head of department. Very human. Really went out of his way for my DS.

LSE