Hot to maximise chance of an offer at York or Bath

[Failingteenparenting]

DS very focused on going to York or Bath to study Politics with International Relations. At Bath he would do it with Russian as a new language.

Both courses seem pretty oversubscribed. Both have A*AB as average offer. He is predicted exactly that. His GCSEs aren’t great (3x8, 5x7, 2x 6). He has a great reference from his politics teacher and some work experience with an MP. He is studying AS French but nobody seems to count that.

anything we can do to maximise chance of an offer?

He could study harder to bring his grades up.

The A is in politics. He might get the A up to an A but he won’t get the B up. He’s a low B that he’s working to secure in Biology which is struggles with. He works really hard already.

Sorry. That should say “The A star is in poltics…”

My fairly average son got an offer from York for the same course with lower grades than your son. He was predicted ABB, the B in politics. York was his aspirational choice, he was hoping to up the politics to an A (he didn’t! 🤣). He got an AAB offer. He didn’t qualify for any contextual offers.

He didn’t have work experience with an MP, just a regular part time job.

He did talk about watching online politics lectures and why he found them interesting as well as the obvious stuff about why he enjoyed politics and the bits that interested him.

He decided to firm Lancaster in the end and went there and has just finished Y1, and has been very happy.

Based on my limited sample of one, I’m sure your son sounds well placed to get an offer!

Good luck!

I can't believe that no-one would count his AS in French, especially if he's wanting to study international relations.

From a language perspective, I'd be getting him to concentrate on the French, to ensure a good AS grade, but also start to learn Russian - do a beginner's Duolingo, for example (I assume there's one for Russian?). That will demonstrate his interest and also self-motivation. I'd also make sure that he's reading up on Russian culture and politics. Does he read a newspaper? Does he take an interest in what's going on at the moment? Does he have an understanding of the historical context?

If he's getting a B for biology, it shows he has some aptitude. Do you know why he struggles? Is it perhaps because he sees it as not directly relevant to his choice of degree, such that he doesn't commit to it as much as his other subjects? Frankly, I'd be making sure that he works harder/better at this subject to bring him up to an A, even if that means extra tuition.

When you say he has some experience of working with an MP, what did that entail? How else is he demonstrating his interest in politics?

York was also my DD's aspirational offer. Her offer was the same as her predicted grades and she got a B instead of an A in one.

Her sixth form college offers to pay for a remark but she decided to go to her second choice instead as she couldn't deal with the uncertainty of not knowing where she was going.

Some places don't read the personal statements. They just offer on grades.

It is really odd the so few unis even acknowledge AS levels now. He has stres Duolingo Russian. We have sponsored a family from Ukraine who live with us and they are teaching him a bit too. He’s learning a lot about the Ukraine situation from them and his A-level history project is on the Russian revolution.

The work experience with an MP was mainly just shadowing their team and watching them in select committees and in the House. He also spent a day with them preparing for a conference that supports international bilateral relationship building.

The language stuff sounds great! But the politics side of it looks a bit weak, to be honest. However it's a very long time since my DC applied to university, and I have no idea how much any of this is taken into account - especially if, as @QuillBill says, some universities don't look at personal statements any more.

So he's doing politics and biology - what are his other 2 A-levels?

He’s only doing three A-levels (Politics A star, History A, Biology B) and the AS French.

He is entering a politics essay competition this summer so if he wins that it will help but it’s a long shot. His politics teacher is a big fan and encouraged him to pursue politics at uni and said he’s done a great ref. What else can he do?

There was a huuuuge thread on personal statements last year with people who work in university admissions saying what happened when. When and if they were read and at what point in the process.

So few schools offer AS level French, locally I don't know of any that offer any subject apart from maths, so uni's don't take them into account as that would be unfair. (It's the same with 4 A levels as many 6th forms only offer 3).
My dd got an offer from Bath this year but it was a long wait as her course was oversubscribed, they start with offering to those with 3 x A star predictions and worked they way down the list until they got to A star AA which is the published grades (in psychology). I agree I don't think most unis read PS esp as this coming year is the last year they are being part of the UCAS form, GCSEs and A level predictions seem the main driver of offers.

Has he asked his politics teacher? And do they have a careers advisor (or similar) who can advise about his university choices/importance of a personal statement, etc?

How far off an A star is he in history? Could he work on that more to make sure he pushes his grade up?

@QuillBill I don't suppose you can remember what the thread was called? (I've searched and can't find it). We've been told (by the college) that the personal statement is massively important and when all students present with (optimistic) predicted grades from their schools which meet the admission criteria it's the statement that gets you the offer. Hard to tell if this is the case or just scare tactics from the college who wants the students to spend their entire summer break working on it

All the things he is doing wrt his subject interest sound great OP and he should start to draft a PS focusing on those, ie why he wants to study the subject and what he has done (rather than his DoE or music grades).

But the main thing that will bring in an offer is his PGs so he needs to maybe work over the summer on bringing the B up to an A PG. The grades are a lot more important than any extra curricular.

Wrt the AS, I imagine unis don't count them as vanishingly few students sit them now.

Btw those are great GCSEs - equal to BB AAAAA Astar Astar Astar. How sad that we are now in a place where those grades are disappointing. The vast vast majority of DC don't get all 8s and 9s, despite what you might read on MN.

So, in your world, if everyone studied harder, they'd all get A* grades ?

Your comment wins today's ridiculous MN comment of the day award and it's not even 10am. Congratulations

No, I think you'll find that yours is the most ridiculous. This boy already has good grades, one just shy of an A* and the other only a couple of grades away. How else, other than studying harder, do you imagine he's going to improve them?

@BIWI maybe he's already studying as hard as he possibly can ? Ever considered that ?

... and maybe he isn't?

York have some online courses you can do i think that take a grade down in your offer if you flag and prove that you have taken them. At least this was true last year for Philosophy.

No I can't remember what it was called and I don't mean to suggest it's not important either.

I can't even remember if it was after the deadline. Maybe start a new thread for this year. It was very interesting as I think people do think there is someone sitting there saying 'oh, James has done his Gold DofE in a canoe'.

Also, there was information about what percentage of the statement should be about you and what should be about the subject.

Some universities definitely don't read the PS. I think it would depend on if the course was way oversubscribed with applicants with high predicted grades. AS levels are likely ignored. However if he doesn't quite meet the offer, and the course isn't full, he may be considered as a borderline applicant and possibly his PS would be read and AS result considered. All universities are different, many have a centralised admissions team largely staffed by recent graduates with a policy of checking predicted grades only. Others are different.

My ds waiting for his A level results and wants to go to Bath for exact same course. His predicted grades are Astar, A, B. His offer is A, A, B.
He got a grade reduction for doing an epq. Need to get A to get reduced grade offer. York does the same thing with epq. His offer from them A, B, B though didn't firm or insure York.

The York course is in clearing this year so that is encouraging. Can’t see the Bath one so that is more competitive.

We need to draw a distinction between what extra OP's DS can do to secure an offer vs what they need to do to secure the grades next summer to meet their offer.

If DS's college or school has a policy of issuing predicted grades now and not changing them thereafter, then the focus needs to be on the Personal Statement. If, on the other hand, there is scope to show continuing improvement in, say, History, there might be opportunity to increase that predicted grade to Astar. This, at least, would put OP's further up the ranking of applicants by predicted grade (if that is a factor at either U of Bath or York).

In relation to securing grades next summer, then the priority is ensuring the Biology moves into 'safe' B territory (as a C would potentially harpoon both U of Bath and York). If OP's DC sat French AS this summer, then at least there is now extra study time released to focus even more on the Biology. After that, the priority is maintaining the Politics at Astar (otherwise Bath is harpooned).

A suggestion (note of caution: from someone not familiar with Pol&IR) might be to emphasise, in the Personal Statement, familiarity in and comfort with quantitative analysis (assuming that is true) as U of Bath's alternative offer appears to 'reward' Core Maths and AS Maths or Stats. U of Bath will be able to infer that from the Biology A-level but it perhaps does no harm to tease that out in the PS (without going OOT)?

Finally, there is a lot to be positive about and OP's DS needs to focus on that. As PP highlight, his GCSE profile is very good; he has been working hard on three content heavy A-levels and French AS; he is clear about the subject he is interested in and wants to study at uni; is very good at that subject; has secured relevant work experience; has predicted grades that match the typical offer of U of Bath and exceed that of U of York; and has displayed the work ethic to pull the Biology into B territory. That is a list to be proud of.

If his other trades are in doubt and he doesn't need it I'd drop As French and concentrate on getting the best grades he can in his three subjects as that is what his entrance will be based on.