Achieved A levels / applying for University 2025

[LydiaBee]

I wonder if anyone with more experience can help? DD has just received her A level results , she achieved AAA in Maths, Economics and Geography. Her GCSES were a mix of 8/7 and two 6's. She wants to apply for University entry in 2025 , the courses she likes are very competitive .She has the grade requirements but only just.She has a job (a years contract connected to one of her subjects) starting in September.

Neither DH or I went to university or grew up.in the UK.. Will.her achieved grades be a benefit?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

That’s a good plan, OP. The Complete University Guide (and possibly UCAS) will tell you the achieved grades of recent incoming cohorts in most degree programmes. (Remember that we are still adjusting from the distortion caused by the pandemic. Grades were artificially high for a while.)

OP, there is a degree at Bath called International Development with Economics - I think it's AAB (or was)? There is the option to do it in 3 years or in 4 years with an overseas uni year or industry placement. May be worth a look? Bath is a top uni.

If they're asking for A star then that's what they want

But you'll soon find that out yourselves

If they're asking for AAA then they'll offer her a place

If they're asking for A stars then they won't

Simple as that

It really isn’t that simple. If the typical offer is AAA then they may offer; but if we are talking a v popular course, as others have flagged, then they may hold out for A star candidates.

I think Bath is an excellent university, OP. FWIW (because I think the whole Russell Group thing is overrated) Bath is part of what’s considered the RG+. For a while I thought it was the hidden gem of UK HE but it’s been outed: the Times ranked it UK university of the year in 2023

@ClipTap As mentioned it is not so straightforward unfortunately. This year for straight economics the requirements were A*AA including Maths (Not FM and no external maths examinations ) However, upon submitting the application students were sent a questionnaire asking if they had taken both and what their scores were for the TMUA or Step. This was after being repeatedly told at the open day that the TMUA was not important and that results did not have to be shared if the student preferred not to. For 2025 entry it has now been made compulsory to take the test.

@poetryandwine Thank you for your explanation of tiered responses. LSE does indeed keep many applicants hanging on for a very long time. Some of the excellent international applicants that they keep hanging on are unimpressed that LSE is the only university that is unable to respond to them after many months have elapsed after applications were submitted when all other choices (often in several countries) were able to make much faster decisions. From the applicant's perspective, LSE gives the impression that its admissions system is inefficient and unenthusiastic about its applicants. Some excellent students therefore end up rejecting late offers from LSE because of the poor image that its applications process projects about the university.

Thank you, @Ceramiq .LSE is by no means the only elite university doing this. I hope that grades will stabilise post-pandemic. If they do, perhaps this trend will reverse - particularly if strong applicants vote with their feet.

I am aware that LSE is not the only culprit. However, since it is often international students' only real target university in the UK its uncompetitive response time is extremely visible among high achieving and desirable potential students. My personal opinion is that LSE is not actually very good at discriminating between applicants and it might do well to implement entrance tests rather than continue to encourage huge volumes of applicants which it cannot manage efficiently.

Which universities are considered RG+?

I agree with this.

Re your next post, the + in RG+ usually refers to Bath, Lancaster, St Andrews and …..?

Leicester or Loughborough, I forget which one. Mumsnetters? Loughborough is renowned for innovative Teaching and Learning as well as its famous Sports Sciences programmes. Both universities have other pockets of excellence.

BTW, another reason for making tiered offers is that all Home applications received before the January deadline must receive equal consideration. One way to do this is to use a culling method such as I made up. This demonstrates that you are evaluating applications according to a method and without favour. IME using historical data for each degree programme should usually mitigate the need for tiered offers, however.

Interestingly Oxford and Cambridge (with their Oct application deadlines) are not amongst the universities with a strong reputation for leaving applicants hanging.

Some universities/courses do a true gathered field and evaluate all applicants together after the January deadline and send out responses simultaneously. From a PR perspective I think this is a good approach and it certainly reduces angst among applicants who have read TSR/the university website and know when to expect an answer.

I prefer this approach also. I believe some think that early offers to top students may flatter those students and make them more likely to accept, as well as creating a stronger cohort in the unlikely event of an unexpectedly high yield.

IMO on the whole those students will not be swayed by such flattery

I agree, good students aren't swayed by superficial flattery - on the contrary, they tend to value universities that project efficiency, proper consideration and fairness across all applications and understand that the wide September-January window for submitting applications is there to give schools flexibility in managing the applications process. The unpredictability of responses does universities' images no good at all and only has negative impacts on student wellbeing in what is already an extremely stressful period. Many international students will also be applying to universities that have much clearer and shorter admissions processes.

The other worry about sending out all or most decisions at once is getting it wrong, and risking being under- or oversubscribed when results come out. We found that as we created better analyses of our past intakes we were able to minimise this risk, but it is always there.

Tiering is probably the best mitigation, not that this justifies the approach IMO

Maybe being more transparent about tiering would be the answer? Though I suspect that LSE engages in very sophisticated tiering in order to balance nationalities and perhaps transparency isn't an option when eg the system flags that the next set of offers for a specific course should go to Italians or French or whatever.

It is an interesting idea. Logically I suppose applicants not in the top tier should understand, and not be insulted. But I am not at all sure how it would play out in the real world.

RG + is usually Bath, Lancaster, St Andrews and Loughborough- of course lboro!! 😉
@poetryandwine I gather Leicester is looking to move to RG.

Thanks, @clary. Yes, of course 😃