Apply for English with a 7 for English SL?

[jwander]

I'm an international student from Hong Kong and very interested in studying English in UK. However, due to various reasons, I have wrongly chosen to study English A1 SL, instead of HL, which now I regret so much. (But it'd be impossible to change subjects now. Plus I've got a very good teacher for English SL) I understand that most universities definitely want English HL but now I'm trying to do everything to compensate the loss. I will make sure to get a firm 7 for English SL definitely. And I'm doing my EE on English and planning to read a whole lot of books in summer. Hopefully I will be able to write a better PS to impress.

Subjects I take:

History HL

Philosophy HL

Chinese A2 HL

English A1 SL

Maths SL

Environmental Studies SL

For uni app I'm still in the beginning stage in thinking about where to apply. I enjoy studying English literature very much, more than anything else I would say. I would expect getting 40-42 points at the end and now start to consider Durham, UCL, King's, or even Cambridge (for a high reach). But I just want to know how much my chance would be to apply for English with English SL? (I know it looks so stupid...) I'm afraid that it'd be very dangerous for me to apple for English and I'd end up getting nothing.

Has anyone got any advice/experience to share? I'm kinda worried. Thanks

Edited March 26, 2011 by jwander

[Keel]

History HL, Philosophy HL, English A1 SL: all subjects which require good English and essay writing skills. I don't believe you are at a great disadvantage to those who take HL English. Oxbridge might be another matter, but as I said before, your abilities should be inferred in those essay orientated subjects.

[Sandwich]

Your biggest barrier at this point is reaching the entry requirements (if you fail to reach them, your application is basically binned) - many places actually require HL English as a pre-requisite for the course. For instance, UCL say that they want 18 points from your HL subjects, including a 6 in HL English. You can find out this kind of thing by reading their websites.

You should check the websites out, and if anything seems unclear the best course of action is to ring the admissions office directly

It's not actually too late to change the level of your English Lit., you still have at least a year of the IB left. You just need to work really hard to catch up - although it'll be a lot more possible if you actually have done some of the course in SL. Is there overlap between the texts you did in SL and the texts your HL class is doing? If there is, changing should be a lot less difficult!

[Guest Soiboist]

As long as you have a good reason why you did not chose A1 HL in your personal statement (you were not allowed by your school, it was not offered etc) I do not think the university will mind too much. However, if you are going to spend your summer reading books anyway you could just as well move up to HL as Sandwich suggested. I believe the most important part is that you need to show the universities that you are truly interested in the course you are considering to study, and having SL for that very course might cause them to be concerned.

[jwander]

@Sandwich

Yea I've read several school's websites and they all require English HL. But they also accept English Language & Literature from alevel students. I know that IB students are normally discriminated in UK. Just wondering how it exactly works

I don't think that I can change to HL at this stage. After summer in year 13 I'll already have my world lit essay done, not to mention IOP score last year.

[Sandwich]

@Sandwich

Yea I've read several school's websites and they all require English HL. But they also accept English Language & Literature from alevel students. I know that IB students are normally discriminated in UK. Just wondering how it exactly works

I don't think that I can change to HL at this stage. After summer in year 13 I'll already have my world lit essay done, not to mention IOP score last year.

Well if you do the same texts in SL as in HL (just less of them) then your IOP and WL will be = to what you would've done in HL anyway. The courses are virtually identical, except that you need to study more texts for the IOC and do another WL text so you can do your WL2 essay. If you really do want to get into University for English Lit. it's worth making an effort to move up, you're only harming yourself by not doing it, and by putting it off! Have you approached your english department and established whether it'd be possible and exactly how much you'd have to work on? I know at my school they tried to keep all courses identical for as long as possible before doing the extra HL stuff so that switching up and down was as easy as possible. For some subjects it's just too hard to do (SL--> HL Maths for instance!) but English is such an easy subject to catch up in that I don't forsee too many problems.

Re; the A Level, in the UK an A Level is considered roughly = to a HL subject. An AS Level = a SL subject. To my knowledge no University will accept you for English if you only did AS English and then dropped it, which is roughly what SL is considered to be. If any University fails to specify the requirements for the IB and only gives you A Level reqs, ring up their admissions department and ask for IB offers.