Part 75: Black Robe educates us on the intricacies of applying for university in the UK
Falconier111 posted:
If you know anything about Pokémon, you can probably guess this is where we pick our first Pokémon. However, I have already decided we’re going to be using a Scorbunny named Bruce. I also need some advice from the patriotic Britons in the audience. As we’ll soon find out, both Hop and Gloria are trying to get into university, but while Gloria’s grades are great across the board and she got in easy, Hop was a C or D student outside of a couple subjects he excelled in. I don’t know how that would affect their respective chances when it comes to applying for schools, and I haven’t been able to make heads or tails of the system from quick Internet research. So the first person to explain how Gloria and Hop would get through the British university application system gets to name Hop’s starter, plus credit and a link in the OP!
I got this!
It depends entirely on what degree they're applying for and, more importantly, where they apply.
You get to apply to six universities. Based on your grades up to that point, your predicted final grades and your personal statement, and how many other people are applying, they'll make you an offer (if none of them do, you pick another six and try again while your school's careers advisor offers no help whatsoever).
For someone like Gloria, she may well have received an unconditional offer - Motostoke's a reasonably big place, their university likely focuses more on STEM so their history department won't have been overfilled with desperate applicants, and chances are anyone applying has a genuine interest in the subject which would show in their personal statement. If they had space they'd want her to come.
Hop's more likely to get conditional offers - if he gets certain grades, he'll get a place. If he falls short he has to call them and beg to be allowed in anyway. You didn't mention what subject he was interested in - if it's STEM he'd need to target smaller places with fewer applicants, if not he'd need to target the bigger ones that are less invested in only picking the very best for subjects that aren't as much a priority. And if it's something generic like business studies, aka 'I don't know what I want to do', he'd need to really dazzle with his personal statement. Which I don't think he'd be able to do since all he ever talks about is his brother and he can't sell himself.
(For context, I wanted to go to a smaller university, and was applying for zoology. My first choice were perfectly happy for me to come and only wanted me to get two Ds and I didn't even have to pass anything else. They didn't have much of a biology focus and it was a smaller department. A classmate going into optometry applying to a much bigger and more prestigious university needed three As.)
The system is a little more complicated than this, there's something called UCAS points that you can earn from earlier grades and specific extracurricular programs which will generally mean you don't need as high final marks and some universities won't consider applications from anyone unless they have a certain number of points, but realistically this is generally how it breaks down.
Disclaimer: I am 33, the system may well have changed since I was 18.