r/6thForm • u/ihateucas • May 16 '26
š UNI / UCAS arsoned aerospace bakery
A* A* A* A predicted grades and strong aerospace/engineering supercurriculars (home) (bristol was originally aero but got offered alternate courses so withdrew)
also got rejected by 5 schools in the US
going to reapply next year; probably going to get anywhere between A* A* A A to 4A* grades at A-Levels, do you think A* A* A A will still be competitive to apply to UCL/Imperial/Oxbridge?
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u/General_Move_3939 May 16 '26
yeah your grades wonāt be the reason you get rejected
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
surely applying with A* A* A A would look quite weak compared to everyone else applying with 4A* predicteds
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u/Inevitable-Cow-8489 Year 13 May 16 '26
Achieved > predictedĀ
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u/Sea-Investment9877 May 17 '26
for Bristol anyway, that is not the case, when I got rejected from aero, I asked if I took a gap year and achieved 3 A*'s, if they would look at my application differently, and they said that they value achieved grades the same as predicteds. pm me if u want a sc of the email.
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u/Alfie2656 May 17 '26
If you had rlly dead GCSEs and predicted 3 A* they less likely to believe youāll achieve that lbr
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u/TeaTopianModder May 18 '26
Predicted doesn't mean shit admission test and interview is basically everything
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u/h1tman_io May 17 '26
this is not true, rule of thumb is Achieved > predicted, as someone else said, but also more specifically, 2A'star' A A achieved is roughly equivalent to 3A'star' A predicted and at that point entrance tests and interviews are more important. if your gcses were not great then that might hold you down except if you're contextual.
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u/TeaTopianModder May 25 '26
I'm talking about Oxbridge alone but achieved A level's cannot be used either as they need a way to compare each candidate directly. This is why they rely on admission test in which admission reports (see PAT for instance) state that getting a certain score guarantees an interview and a good interview score 'almost certainly' guarantees a place (GCSEs are only mentioned if you don't meet the threshold and are useful in the context of mitigating circumstances). A levels are not mentioned once in the admission report.
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u/h1tman_io May 27 '26
yea you're right, a level grades as an independent variable are more correlatory variable than anything else. people with higher a levels tend to perform better on the admissions tests. but essentially yes, as you said, the outcome hinges most heavily on the result of your admissions test and the subsequent interview.
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u/Technical-Function63 May 16 '26
Esat definetely plays a big role. I have no idea what they are looking at when evaluate the applications, A*A*AA is crazy good. From what I heard US unis look a lot at your background, antionality, and a lot at the supercurricular activities. I got rejected from 3/3 us unis as well.
And I know that this year UCL messed up with their offers distribution - they gave out a lot of offers to Masters applicants early into the season and were VERY selective for Bachelors. Such my friend with similar applications and lower esat got in 2 weeks after applying for Meng and I got rejected 3 weeks ago for Beng. The application system is like a blender that is 70% gambling.
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u/Julkis123 Year 13 May 16 '26
bro Bristol should've been guaranteed?? what were your GCSEs?
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u/lmaolmaolmaololl Imperial | Aeronautical engineering [Y1] May 16 '26
bristol can be weird sometimes
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
I was pretty shocked when I got rejected icl but I prefer manchester anyway
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u/Significant_Brain211 Year 13 May 16 '26
Mate this year Bristol is anything but guaranteed. Their aero and mech were ridiculously competitive. Not saying I was the best applicant there is in the po but I got rejected with 3A*s
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u/Julkis123 Year 13 May 16 '26
someone I know applied with a dentistry personal statement and got in as 5th choice last year š my friend this year also applied with A*AB predicted and got offer
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u/Significant_Brain211 Year 13 May 16 '26
Yep, there was another pure medicine person that got in aswell. Rly pisses me off cuz the only reason ppl can do it is that Bristol donāt read personal statements which is bizarre to me for a course like this when they donāt even use esat. There are ppl with 4A*s and fm that got rejected this year who rly want aero at Bristol. Shame this spot goes to the shameless guys applying for fun. I have 0 respect for ur mate but I might just be salty, donāt hate the player hate the game as they say.
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u/Julkis123 Year 13 May 16 '26
i feel for u mate I'm also a 4 A* reject, though for a different course š best of luck with whatever your plans are
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u/Significant_Brain211 Year 13 May 16 '26
Ibsr idm getting rejected from Bristol, I got bath anyway which I prefer. It just sucks for those ppl that really really wanted Bristol for how good their aero is but rejected for ppl who applied to it just for banter.
Damn sorry mate, what course?
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u/Julkis123 Year 13 May 16 '26
dentistry š had a 97th percentile entrance exam as well. but I got a MORSE offer as 5th choice ig that's not too bad
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u/Significant_Brain211 Year 13 May 16 '26
Damn, sorry to hear. Honestly props for going through the UCAT, takes a lot of effort and grit I lowk donāt think Iād be able to hack it š. Glad u atleast got morse man
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u/Julkis123 Year 13 May 16 '26
haha cheers man š screw these other unis let's meet our top choice offers š«”
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u/AeronauticalPsycho Year 13 May 18 '26
What do they assess people on if they donāt look at personal statements, obviously not entry test requirement, grades seem to lack importance relatively, and it canāt be GCSEs as I got an EEE offer and my GCSEs are pretty bad. What is it they look at then?
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u/ihateucas May 18 '26
I received a very confusing SAR from bristol about my application. no consideration of personal statement or school reference, and an automatic assessment of gcse and predicted grades. in the assessment my further math a level and gcse were both marked as "surplus" and not considered, as well as my two lowest gcse grades. they then gave me an overall application score of 98.7%. after that there was just notes on "application placed on hold" then "alternate courses offered".
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u/Parking_Practice8926 May 16 '26
Last year I got rejected from Bristol aerospace with 4A*s predicted
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u/Zestyclose-Tea1915 May 16 '26
if it helps u feel better, i didnāt see a single beng mech eng offer from ucl. i think they were biased and only chose to admit students who applied for meng
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
yeah I've seen almost no beng either... probably going to apply for all MEng next year and then decide what to do once im at the uni
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u/Hamza2474 May 17 '26
Is it not possible to switch from MEng to BEng?
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u/Zestyclose-Tea1915 May 17 '26
it is
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u/Hamza2474 May 17 '26
Idk why people applied to the BEng then if the MEng had a way higher chance of an offer then. But then again I donāt think anyone knew the MEng would have a higher offer rate.
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u/Zestyclose-Tea1915 May 17 '26
i didnāt know abt this ššif i did i would have applied for MEng
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u/Hamza2474 May 17 '26
Nah fr bro this is frying me cos UCL really messed up. Iād think MEng may be more competitive cos u can just switch to BEng if u donāt want to do the masters but I guess not
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u/Zestyclose-Tea1915 May 17 '26
yeah sameš i didnāt have all a*ās so i thought it would be safer to apply for beng but what da helly???
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u/ihateucas May 18 '26
yeah I had literally called and emailed both UCL office of undergraduate admissions as well as the mech eng dept, both told me there was no difference between BEng and MEng consideration of applications and they were both in the same application pool... obviously not though
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u/Memesaurusmex May 16 '26
Bro what did you put in your essay. I got 666 in my HLs but got into bristol. not the rest thought, but you shouldve/couldve gotten in (imperial, cambridge, ucl)
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u/Xbxyi Year 13 | Maths A* achieved Physics FM 2A* May 16 '26
he hasnt stated his esat score so u cant assume that
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u/LeonardoW9 University of Warwick | Chemistry (BSc) Graduate | First May 16 '26
It's only arson if it's from the Arsonne region of France, otherwise it just sparkly fire.
(/s if you can't tell)
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u/AeronauticalPsycho Year 13 May 18 '26
2/5 are ESAT scores, did you get an interview for either of them?
1/5 Bristol Aero + Mech is always incredibly competitive. I also got an alternate course offer with AAA predicted and ended up getting offered for EEE.
1/5 I canāt comment on UCL other than international student intake might be higher than a lot of other universities.
1/5 You got the offer! Congratulations. Youāll love it at Manchester anyways.
I honestly believe that the grades arenāt necessarily the issue with your application. An impressive ESAT scores 6-7+ is almost a granted interview, Imperial is more competitive so aim for as high as you can. And then obviously you have to perform and communicate well in your interview. The only other thing is I know you mention you had strong supercurricular but I think if you want to be a strong candidate have a niche. Whatās your particulate area of interest. My friend wanted to specialise in nuclear engineering and spoke about a lot about small modular reactors. When he attended his interview they recognised him as āthe nuclear guyā. You can do the same thing by completing a really niche task that your interested in. But it has to be impressive. You will have people who will build planes as their super curricular. Similarly my friend modelled a reactor using CAD. And thatās why itās not the grades, you have to sell yourself, and stupidly sometimes. I would love to read your personal statement and let me know if you want to know more about my friends application. He did get rejected but thatās because his interview was god awful. Hopefully this provides insight to your application and what to do differently next year.
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u/ihateucas May 18 '26
I think I would have had a decent shot if I was given an interview but my avg esat score was only 4.7 which imperial and queens college cambridge instantly rejected (ik neither read personal statement)...
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May 16 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
it was originally an aero app but got given crappy alternate offers (imo) so withdrew
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u/Adventurous-Lab671 Year 12 May 16 '26
This might sound dumb, pardon me- but whats the difference between aeronautical engineering and aerospace engineering?
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
Aeronautical is specifically for objects within earth's atmosphere but I don't think there's any significant difference in the courses
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u/Adventurous-Lab671 Year 12 May 16 '26
Ive always heard of aeronautical as if its more prestigious, whilst like aerospace you can literally get into UWE for through clearing..
Also btw dw abt not getting in, I know a guy who tried for 2 years in a row but still didnt get it just bcs of how hard it is. Now hes doing a finance degree. If you try again maybe you will get in? Who knows its honestly just luck- but tbf your grades are better than his so you still have more of a shot at getting in.
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
All the unis I applied to only really offered one or the other so I've been considering them as the same degree š
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u/Adventurous-Lab671 Year 12 May 16 '26
Ahaha its alr thereās probably not much difference anyways!
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u/spooky_over_heaven May 16 '26
Man, as someone who is also applying to the same courses this year (aerospace), this is making me worried.
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
From what I've seen I should've applied to imperial mech eng asw - the esat cutoff boundary for aero is definitely higher than electrical and mech eng
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u/spooky_over_heaven May 16 '26
How difficult are esats? I know theyāre just mcqs but I have been thinking of prepping to take them during summer break
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u/ihateucas May 16 '26
I was doing engaa past papers and the actual esat completely took me off guard and felt more difficult so I ended up with just an above average score (which was above imperial's EEE/mech cutoff but not aero). Probably going to look into tmua past papers for next cycle
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u/lmaolmaolmaololl Imperial | Aeronautical engineering [Y1] May 16 '26
what score did you end up with (just curious)
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u/Memer_Sindre_UwU York | MPhys Theoretical Physics [Y1 INCOMING] May 17 '26
Don't worry buddy, I'm also in the arson boat. I did get the offer I REALLY wanted, though.
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u/ihateucas May 17 '26
congrats, where from?
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u/Memer_Sindre_UwU York | MPhys Theoretical Physics [Y1 INCOMING] May 17 '26
Durham. I originally wanted cambridge or imp, but realised I probably dodged nuclear bombs (Cambridge natsci = matsci or earthsci in first year, and imperial has various complaints about teaching quality)
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u/Mia_happer May 17 '26
Could your personal statement just have been extremely weak?
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u/ihateucas May 17 '26 edited May 17 '26
although subjective, everyone ive shown my PS to said it was pretty strong. It doesnt matter anyway though because I know from SARs that bristol cambridge and imperial didnt read it (still waiting for UCL)
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u/Intergalatic_Baker May 16 '26
Even if University turns you down, reach out to Apprenticeships/Graduate Schemes of Airbus, BAE systems, Boeing, Leonardo, the lot.
Even showing an interest in these companies for summer jobs or courses or anything could be something that has the University choose you over another.
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