This page contains information relevant to you if you have made an application to us, via UCAS, in the 2012 cycle.
You might like to read our information sheet:
Our courses are oversubscribed and we are not able to make offers to all those who apply. To ensure that we give everyone fair and equal consideration we need to wait until after the UCAS deadline of 15th January before making most of our offers. This means that, if you are from the UK or EU, you may not receive an offer from us until February or March. Once you have received an offer via UCAS we will invite you to come and visit the School of Mathematics.
If you have applied for one of the joint degrees listed below, you will hear from the other School involved, not directly from us.
If you are a Scottish student studying for Advanced Higher Mathematics we urge you to complete the course, even if we have given you an unconditional offer. We find that students who drop out or do poorly at Advanced Higher rarely do well at university.
It is possible to go straight in to the second year (accelerated programme) for the degrees:
If you apply for the accelerated programme but do not meet the terms of your offer we will consider you for first year entry. You will need to have achieved the grades that would have been required of you if you had applied for the broad programme.
If you have applied for first-year entry but achieve the grades required for our accelerated programme, then you will be able to switch in to that when you arrive if you wish.
If you are planning to take a gap year and wish to apply for deferred entry then please speak to our admissions office (sciengra@ed.ac.uk) to discuss your application.
If you do take a gap year then it is important that you revise your mathematics so that you arrive at university ready to study.
It is best to arrive at university with a thorough command of the mathematics you have done at school. Take advantage of the time before you arrive to do some extra practice and to look again at things that you did not completely understand. This is particularly important if you are taking a gap year or have only done Higher maths at school. Foundation Mathematics by D J Booth (ISBN 978-0201624199) is a useful combination of revision and new material.
It is also a very good idea to start to look at mathematics from a university-level perspective. Mathematics: A Very Short Introduction by Timothy Gowers (ISBN 978-0192853615) gives an idea of the scope and spirit of mathematics and is not too technical. You may also like to read some popular mathematics books by authors such as Simon Singh and Ian Stewart.
In your first year you will take the following three mathematics courses. They will make up half of your timetable.
Semester 1: Introduction to Linear Algebra
Semester 2: Calculus and its Applications
Semester 2: Proofs and Problem Solving
The books you will need for these courses are, respectively:
You may wish to purchase copies before arriving but we hope to have an arrangement with Blackwell's Bookshop in Edinburgh which will allow you to purchase new copies at less than the normal price.
If you opt to do our accelerated programme you will take the normal year 2 courses in your first semester. Alongside these you will take Accelerated Algebra & Calculus and a short course in Proofs and Problem solving. These courses will cover key ideas from our first year programme that you will not have seen at school.
