Gcse weighting query with good predicted A levels

[Choisumwords]

Hi, my dd is in year 13 and applying to study French or German or Linguistics or a combination of the 3. She's predicted 3 As (possibility of going to A star for one of them before application).
She is applying to Lancaster, Manchester and York but can't decide on her final 2. She likes Edinburgh, Warwick, UCL and Durham but has been told by her school that her gcses are too low for those. She's been on the websites but can't see any gcse requirements. She got three 9s, (including French and German), three 7s and three 6s. We think they're fabulous grades and are immensely proud of her hard work. She's at a very selective state school so think they are low results compared to the rest of the year. Does anyone know if there is any point in selecting any of those 4? How do those university weight gcses? She doesn't want to waste spaces and also likes Sheffield and Cardiff so isn't sure what to do? Any ideas, suggestions, knowledge or experience gratefully received!

The first thing to do is phone the admissions teams in each of those universities and ask - she can call now.

My view is your school is wrong to dismiss out of hand, universities look at everything.

Book a meeting with school alongside your DD to discuss. Schools are becoming too controlling over this process and it isn't right. If she applies for two best-case options, two middling and one safe then her bases are covered - she may not get five offers, but she definitely only had the chance of an offer if she tries.

Hey @Choisumwords. My DC1 applied for MFL + Linguistics last year, at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and Oxford . Off the top of my head only Oxford was interested in GCSE results apart from the minimum number and having both maths and English. Everywhere else it was all about predicted grades and personal statement. With your DC being predicted all As/Astars I am sure she would be an attractive candidate. My DC had a nunber of ABB offers - MFL applicant numbers are falling and this is to the advantage of those who do want to study them! Best of luck to your DC.

I would stick 2 ambitious ones down - I think a lot of universities weight A levels much higher than GCSEs. I know one person studying a joint French degree at Edinburgh (with a humanities) and she got A*AA in A levels (don't know what predicted was) and had 5 9s at GCSE. Edinburgh says they consider the number of 8s and 9s for competitive courses - normally languages doesn't get so many applications so not sure they would come under that. Though is due to the dire state of languages in state comps so many applicants will be from grammar and private so GCSE average may be higher. I think its worth trying though. Might be worth calling admissions. I would have thought she would stand a reasonable chance of getting offers from them.

https://study.ed.ac.uk/undergraduate/entry-requirements/english-welsh-northern-irish-qualifications/gcse

Edinburgh here has offer rate for French (70%) and offer rate for German (83%) so very good chance of an offer.

https://study.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/2025-05/Rest%20of%20UK%20and%20Republic%20of%20Ireland%20admissions%20statistics.pdf

For MFL she would be in with a chance anywhere with those GCSEs I am sure particularly German. Bear in mind Edinburgh offer really late but generally will be ABB offer.

I think there have been fewer applicants for Modern Foreign Languages in recent years so I would have thought her GCSE grades were absolutely fine especially with those predicted A'Levels. It's a students' market at the moment with the reduction in Overseas students.

For languages and linguistics, she has a good chance at any of those universities. Languages at university are in decline. I know someone who got into Bristol to do a language with a C in the language.

Watching with interest. DD got 3 9s, 3 8s, 2 7s and a 6 at GCSE. She's predicted 2 A* and an A. She's aiming for Cambridge and I worry her GCSEs might be a stumbling block. Her school says not necessarily a problem and they're encouraging her with her Cambridge application.

Cambridge put far less emphasis on gcse results than Oxford.

And as MFL/MML is undersubscribed @Choisumwords I think your school is not advising your daughter well.

I think she is a viable candidate for ALL of the universities you've listed. But I would caution you to leave Cardiff off the list given they've slashed the MFL dept (or intend to).

Gosh @Choisumwords I agree with you that her grades are great. And yay that she wants to take MFL (my subject). And her PGs are excellent.

I cannot believe the school is saying that and whoever it is should get themselves updated tbh.

Some unis take account of GCSE grades. Notably Oxford (and Cambridge, anecdotally to a lesser degree) and places like LSE and Imperial for popular courses, also Bristol, yes indeed also Edinburgh also subjects like medicine at a lot of unis. But in any case your DD's grades would be perfectly good for most of those (mate of DS's went to Cambridge with a 6 in Eng lang).

DD had a very similar grade profile (she had a mix of numbers and letters, 9s in her best subjects, mostly As, couple of 6s/Bs). She got offers from two of the unis your DD has been told not to list. This was for English and back in 2018. If anything, MFL is a lower tariff (bc it is so unpopular, sadly) and 2025 will see IMO lower offers or at any rate, more of them.

I would just mention btw that Lancaster has cut a lot of its MFL courses starting with 2026 entry. You can still study MFL there but the fact that some specific courses have been axed is not a great sign IMHO.

@WhereAreWeNow so six A stars, two As and a B? Yes I think Cambs will be OK with that! Those should be considered excellent grades. Remember that this year about 1200 students got all grade 9s out of more than 650,000.

Shocked at MFL study at Bristol with a C in the MFL tho @GreyCloudsLooming. I went there and a B (in the days before A star as well) was essential in the MFL studied.

Yes, it’s all about what course she’s applying for. Those 2 unis probably wouldn’t offer if she were applying for Econ or Comp Sci with those predicted grades and GCSEs, but languages are a different story.
5 allow her an aspirational choice or two.
She should mention to her ucas advisor that languages are less popular…and then apply.

Thanks @clary . I still find the number system for GCSEs a bit confusing. When you put it in the language of As and Bs it does sound great! Fingers crossed.

The only way to be sure ime is to email
the admissions team. They’re generally very responsive and helpful.

Thanks everyone! She is going to contact admissions today. Such a shame that MFL courses are in decline at universities, I didn't know that about Cardiff and Lancaster.

I would just mention btw that Lancaster has cut a lot of its MFL courses starting with 2026 entry. You can still study MFL there but the fact that some specific courses have been axed is not a great sign IMHO.

Clary, I think Lancaster have streamlined their MFL + other subject joint honours degrees - tbf it was crazy the number of courses that they offered before. One of DD's flatmates is doing a joint Maths + Chinese course and I think it's those degrees that have gone. Of all the departments MFL is bearing the brunt of the redundancies (about 25 members of staff I think) but they're cutting staff from everywhere including STEM and business so nowhere is immune. Having said that DD says that there are loads of students in her Spanish lectures.

But Linguistics at Lancaster is still really well regarded (2nd I think in CUG rankings?), DD is absolutely loving it but says there is quite a lot of reading and prep for each lecture/seminar, you need to be on top of the work or you'll start falling behind.

I think it's possible to still do language modules in the first year with Linguistics but obviously it isn't a joint degree like it used to be.

@Sweetpeasaremadeforbees agree that it is still very possible to study MFL at Lancaster; but if you search French in the undergrad programme, Languages and Global Cultures is the only degree. I think it looks really interesting but French and politics, or German and drama, it is not. And the uni has cut a number of courses.

There are now two courses come up when you search for French there (BA and MA of the subject above) whereas there are 15 under business, just as a random example. I just think it's worth being aware of and maybe asking about at an open day.

And the uni has cut a number of courses.

Oh I agree, they seem to have axed the entire MFL + other subject programme, which is a problem if the OP's child wanted an MFL + Linguistics (exactly what my DD is doing). I guess if the OP's child is happy with just languages or just Linguistics Lancaster is fine but if they want to do both they'd have to look elsewhere now.

Excellent grades for GCSEs and A-levels

It’s all about supply and demand. For MFL degrees, at the moment literally only Oxbridge will consider GCSEs. All the others you mention will not care about them. It’s ridiculous if schools are assuming that universities will be placing the same entry requirements on every course. I’m an MFL teacher and UCAS adviser at a 6th form.

I'd say she stands a good chance with most of those universities but she does need a 'safe' choice in there. Universities usually say something like this is their admissions statement: Each application is assessed on its own merits and in competition with others. Selectors will consider the evidence provided in the application against the criteria for that particular course. This will include consideration of existing academic achievements and the context within which they have been achieved (including any verified extenuating circumstances), predicted grades, the personal statement, and the academic reference.

So as you can see - 'existing academic achievements' would usually be GCSEs in the UK. Just because a student has the predicted grades for A Level - doesn't guarantee them an offer. If they have lots of applications, they will filter on GCSE results potentially. I'd suggest using the UCAS website and looking at the 'Historic Grade Data' at the bottom of the page. It gives a % of applicants who get an offer for that course - it's a great indicator. MFL applications are declining across the UK so I think she will be fine! Good luck!

Agree with PP, check with uni admissions but the school advice is wrong because they are failing to take account of your DD’s subject choice. And those are great GCSEs, particularly since she has 9 in her languages.

When my elder DD (now on 3rd year abroad for Arabic, as it happens with the DD of another Mumsnetter 😀) sought advice on her MFL UCAS application, her advisor said how much pleasure it gave her to advise an MFL applicant because she would definitely get offers from all 5 places she had selected (they didn’t include Oxbridge or St A but did include Durham and Edinburgh). Elder DD is at Edinburgh and, as someone suggested above, got an ABB offer, as did younger DD for philosophy + French. The offers from Edinburgh didn’t come through until March/April.

As to subject choice, I’m an MFL graduate myself, including 1 language from scratch (Russian, not perfect but i still use it for work decades later). I think 1 language alone is a bit thin for a whole degree but 2 languages or 1 language + linguistics sounds like a great combo. Under the Durham Liberal Arts rubric, she may even be able to achieve both languages + linguistics, if of interest. Exeter also has a flexible combined honours rubric which may allow this. Newcastle also.

Younger DD is at Durham (Edinburgh didn’t offer her preferred subject combo) - she is studying philosophy + Arabic under the Liberal Arts rubric. The offer was A+AA so higher than for MFL (elder DD’s Durham offer was AAA for MFL) but sounds like it could be doable for your DD if she wanted to pursue it. A+AA was younger DD’s prediction so it was a bit nailbiting but she managed it.

@Choisumwords : just in case of interest, this is available at Newcastle Uni (2 languages plus linguistics) https://www.ncl.ac.uk/undergraduate/degrees/qt19/

A good friend of my DD is studying business + 2 languages at Newcastle and loving it.