Applying to the Edin/Glas uni

[Twix42]

So DD got AAABC in Highers .
She's off to college for 6th yr to do HNC Social Science (not interested in staying at school)
Wants to go to Uni
She meets Edinburgh/Glas uni requirements for some social science courses.
Happy to go into 1st year, not looking for 2nd entry.

She's not wanting to aim high (as in apply to Ed/Glas as thinks that she'll be competing against all the private school kids with 5As + and will have no chance, and she's lacking confidence in herself :( . This makes me sad.

She should do well in her HNC all being well.

Any thoughts anyone?
Thanks muchly!

Get her to contact admissions at the Uni and ask if they will use her HNC as entry qualification. She has 5 choices on UCAS so I always advise putting some aspirational choices and some with lower entrance qualifications so encourage her to apply to Glasgow and Edin as well as others. Many of my state school pupils get into Edin and Glas so please let her know it is not just the private schools that get offers.

Well done on her results!

I was a state school kid who went to Glasgow with lots of friends from the same state school and pretty much all the people I met there were state school kids. That was a long time ago but DD has just graduated and went to state school - and her experience was fairly similar. She did meet more international students.

Your dd's results are good - well done and tell her she only has no chance if she doesn't apply.

I went to Edinburgh in early 00s to study humanities subject with AABB highers.

I actually started the HNC but quickly dropped it and went straight to uni because at that time, not sure if its still the case, it counted as 1yr of your SAAS funding so i wouldn't have enough left for my degree.

I finished with a 2:1 but was an absolute fish out of water amongst the posh private school crew, that was hard and they do dominate, very cliquey. Although I loved the city and did have a group of good friends. If I was to choose again Striling or Strathclyde might have suited me better and I might have fitted in with the demographic there better. She should absolutely aim high and she deserves that space as much as anyone but also please listen to her very genuine concerns.

Without making assumptions, students that come from more deprived areas can get in with lower grades. This is to take into account the fact that their parents might not know the ‘getting into uni’ system as well as others, the schooling might be more disruptive, the parents couldn’t afford tutors etc. your daughter has as much of a right to be at these universities as any other kids with the same grades, so she should hold her head high and ignore the braying Tarquins / Camillas. There will be plenty of other kids just like her.

DD doesn't meet criteria for LEAPS eligibility, We live in SIMD4 area, so not deprived etc .. She's not a carer or care experienced, both parents went to uni etc etc.
I hate that she thinks she's not good enough 😔

My DD2 got into Glasgow for History and Politics on 3 Highers BBC and an HND. She started in first year and was glad that she did. They asked her to do summer school before starting, she's about to start her final year and is the only one out my 4 to go to a Russel Group university despite her rather uninspiring school grades. She took a while to grow into herself but now she is rather formidable when arguing passionately about neo liberalism and other concepts her wee maw doesn't really understand. Good luck to your DD.

I’ve been told at LEAPS can apply to whole schools. Edinburgh uni has loads of posh kids in humanities subjects but is more balanced in the sciences. I went there as did DH and wouldn’t think twice about DCs going there. I did a soc sciences and it was pretty mixed.

The student demographic is quite different between Edinburgh and Glasgow unis.
At Edinburgh only about a third of students are Scottish iirc, and they come in their droves from English public schools.
Glasgow Uni has a much higher Scottish contingent and way less students from English public schools.

Not that this should affect your DD applying but just something she may want to consider if these things are important to her .

All the private school parents I know are convinced Edinburgh and to a lesser extent Glasgow are prejudiced against Scottish private school pupils!
If she does well at her HNC shes in with a chance.
DS3 has just stated on an HNC at Edinburgh College with exactly the same grades, hoping to get into Edinburgh College of Art next year, he's feeling a bit lonely in halls atm, it's slim pickings socially and entertainment wise compared to uni!

Dd did an HNC, then HND and got a place at St Andrews, with a Sutton trust scholarship, she turned it down for Glasgow.

DD is at Edinburgh University doing a subject that comes under social sciences. She's from England and her course required ABB, she's there with ABB (just scraped the A and has a got a low B).

There's a real mix of students, English, Scottish and a lot of international students in her year which she likes as she enjoys meeting people from different backgrounds. She's loved her time there (just going into fourth year).

My DD actually went to a private sixth form school (on scholarship which didn't relate in any way to her uni course). Yes, some pupils did really well in their A levels, but there were others that got their Cs and Ds. Funnily enough, DD was the first in her year to get offers from Edinburgh and St Andrews, the others all had to wait at least a couple of months before they heard, despite the fact some of them had always been in private education or were forecast to get better A level results.

DD going into 3rd year of a social science degree at Edinburgh. Loving it. There are people in DDs class with similar higher grades as your DD so she should give it a go. HNC should make her stand out. Tell her to concentrate on her personal statement.

In 2021 state school pupils outnumbered private (64% to 36%). However since only 7% are privately educated in the UK there is an imbalance. DD thinks this is changing. Private school entry requirements no longer AAB for DDs subject now AstarAstarA. Scottish state school students tend to come from schools high in the league tables (Jordanhill, East Ren, Bearsden). DDs school was a high performing one too. However DD thinks that this might be changing too.

Just to add some courses eg IR are really competitive but others not so much. Transfers between subjects possible but are competitive. One of DDs friends got a transfer into IR at the end of 2nd year. Despite what they say at the open day it is not so easy.

Also Edinburgh not known for handholding. Generally under ten hours contact per week in social science. So you have to self motivated to do the readings yourself.

Ds has just completed a a PIR (Politics and International Relations) degree at Aberdeen Uni ( and managed to get a job in the field he wanted, Public Affairs ). He only went to the Open Day there under duress (in fact, it was the only one I went round with him) but he loved it when he visited. He hated St Andrews, as he felt it was too claustrophobic (which I said was fine: some people love it - as I did when I went there - a loooong time ago - but it can indeed be intense/claustrophobic).

He applied to Edinburgh (2 different courses), Strathclyde (but not Glasgow as he felt it wasn't as strong on his interests in IR as Strathclyde), Dundee and Aberdeen. He'd got, iirc () 3 x A (Maths, Geography and Physics) and 2 x B (English and Chemistry) for his Highers and was doing 2 Advanced Highers (Maths and Physics) and a crash Higher in Modern Studies. The latter was fortuitous as he changed his mind about what what he wanted to do at Uni between S5 and S6, from Maths/Physics/Astrophysics to International Relations

He ended up with two unconditionals: one from Strathclyde and the other from Aberdeen and rejections from the other two. But he was happy as he'd already decided he liked Aberdeen (and he got the Unconditional offer from Strathclyde very quickly which meant he could relax )

He was able to study a wide range of subjects in 1st and 2nd year alongside his Politics and International Relations modules, including history, philosophy, economics and sociology. He particularly enjoyed macro-sociology which he considered taking as part of a joint honours - but he was too interested in the range of PIR options (and his interest had shifted from IR to Politics).

Your dd shouldn't think she's not "good" enough . As others have said, there are 5 choices on the UCAS form, so she could include aspirational choices as a few of them. She should go to a few open days and find out what's on offer. Hopefully, she'll see that she can go to a good Uni and that they're not just for private school kids.

Have a think about Aberdeen - the ds of a friend I met on MN ended up applying as an aspirational choice after I told her about ds' experience and how much he was enjoying Aberdeen. Her ds got a conditional offer and he is just going into his 4th year/Senior Honours year (he's a year younger than ds).

Ds went to a Glasgow state school that has a very high proportion of SIMD1 and 2 - but it also has a very mixed demographic (so we ourselves live in a leafy bit of Pollokshields, technically not in its catchment). No tutoring and the school, although very supportive of and aspirational for its young people, does not spoon feed them and encourages them to be resilient. It was something that ds emphasised in his personal statement and he's convinced that that helped him get his offers. (He also described well why he'd developed his interest in IR, because of Mandela I have a South African heritage ).

This is all great stuff thank you all so much! 😊
She said last night that she doubts that she'll apply to Edinburgh, she doesn't want to waste the space 😕.
She fancies Politics / Sociology / psych at the moment.
And we are going to every uni open day we can!
Really appreciate your thoughts 🤗

Good that your DD is going to the open days. She has until the January UCAS deadline to decide on which subject combinations to apply. My DD found her interests changed the more she studied (she has changed degree 3 times).

Hopefully the college where she is doing her HNC will be good with advice as they will have experience where previous years students have got offers from.

My DD recommends doing as much maths/stats as possible before going to uni or in first year as it opens up social research methods courses. She did AH maths and then a first year maths course at uni. Those who only did maths to higher and had a years break struggled a bit.

Thanks, she's only just started her HNC ,. So really hoping that this fuels her fire for a subject.

Good advice re Maths, she got a B at Nat5 ,. But it's not her favourite subject, and she didn't do Higher Maths. I'm not a maths geek either, but liked research methods in my degree Weird!!

She should see if she can get a place in clearing this year and just go to uni now!

She'd stick out more coming from college than school. Can she go to another school or college to do advanced highers?

She sounds quite overqualified for an HNC!

Dd got a b in her maths Nat5 too and that was a resit.
She still got a place.

I'm so sorry. But it's highly unlikely that she will get into glasgow with those results. Instead of the HNC if you and she want to look at the year long access course (both glasgow & strath have them) I'm not so sure about them. Pass mark of 70% in that course gets you (Personal statement depending ) in to glasgow

Good luck to your dd

Dd got less than the OP's Dd, she did an HNC and an HND and got a place, and as I said up thread, turned down a Sutton Trust Scholarship to St Andrews.
She applied for 5 Unis and got 5 offers.
It is possible.

Aren't access courses just for adults who have been out of education for some time or widening participation?. OPs DD is neither. Agree place at Glasgow/ Edinburgh not certain but I believe those highers + her new HNC put her into the mix for consideration for an offer. College will be able to provide up to date stats of numbers who progress to these unis so she can manage her expectations.

Actually, I checked back and ds only got 2As and 3Bs for his Highers (big stushie about his Higher Physics assignment which only got 10/20 when his teacher - Head of Physics - looked at it and thought it should be 19/20). He still got an Unconditional from Aberdeen (and Strathclyde) for PIR on the basis of his Higher results, his predicted results and his personal statement (and probably also the statement from the school).

He ended with an A at Advanced Higher Maths, an A at the Modern Studies Higher that he crashed in S6 and a C in his Advanced Higher Physics (he admits that he didn't put much effort into it once he got his Unconditional and he should have got an A . An added "excuse" was that the AH Physica and H Modern Studies exams were a day apart and his priority was the Modern Studies exam as that was relevant for his degree).

4 years later he's graduated with a 2:1 and has a good job in the niche field that he was interested in.

She's doing HNC as it's Level 7 , iirc is same level as Advanced Higher.
She's not going to go to another school /back to school for Adv Highers or do an "Access course"
Seems Glasgow Uni potentially would take her with a HNC/HND a summer school (like@Lidlfix DD,. Thanks for the encouragement @Lidlfix 👍😀

We will see how this year goes.
Thanks all!

I wouldn’t get hung up on Glasgow or Edinburgh. Plenty of other places she can go, it’s not like they are the be all and end all. I went to Glasgow and it was nowt special, I’ll encourage my son to go wherever he thinks he’ll feel happiest. He currently fancies Strathclyde but the entry requirements for what he wants are similar there as for Glasgow