Dentistry attracts top students

Dentists outscore doctors in A-level grades

Dentists are cleverer than doctors and all kinds of people are cleverer than lawyers, says a survey examining the degree options chosen by the highest-flying A-level students.

But the news is not good for social workers - because out of 170 subject areas at university, those studying for social work had the lowest A-level grades.

Researchers at Manchester Metropolitan University tracked two million applications over five years to a wide range of universities.

The highest-scoring A-level candidates chose courses in pre-clinical dentistry, followed in second place by classics and in third place, pre-clinical medicine.

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Other high-flying subjects included Latin, veterinary science, maths, genetics and pharmacy.

Law courses came in 45th place, well below subjects such as history in 24th place and English in 28th place.

Subjects such as law, English and history would also have a much larger and wider sample of applicants than subjects such as Latin and classics.

In the middle regions of the table, accountancy and business studies were ranked at 81st and 85th places respectively.

Relegation zone

And heading towards the relegation zone, sociology was in 120th place, in terms of attracting students with the best grades.

Tourism, one of the vocational subjects which has grown rapidly in many universities, is at 159th place.

At the foot of the table, social work was in last place, with librarianship one place off the bottom.

Professor Derek Leslie said that this research was more than just a "beauty contest".

In could provide information about the perceived attractiveness of courses important to the economy.

"One of the lessons to emerge is the strong diversity. Good students appear to spread themselves across a wide range of subjects, with no obvious bias towards the arts or sciences."

The full list:

Achievers

Rank

Subject

Accepted

1	A2 Pre-clinical dentistry	4,039
2	Q8 Classics	3,481
3	A1 Pre-clinical medicine	23,831
4	Q9 Other ancient languages	161
5	T9 Other or unspecified modern languages	4,729
6	Q6 Latin	74
7	D1 Veterinary science	2,645
8	G1 Mathematics	19,196
9	C4 Genetics	2,244
10	B3 Pharmacy	8,071
11	L8 Geography (see also F8)	13,248
12	F3 Physics	13,481
13	R1 French	4,210
14	QRT Combinations	19,178
15	C7 Biochemistry	8,541
16	H8 Chemical engineering	4,320
17	R5 Portuguese	6
18	V3 Economic and social history	1,201
19	F8 Geography (see also L8)	12,131
20	R2 German	1,519
21	Y1 Comb. of groups F and G	2,411
22	L1 Economics	18,998
23	R4 Spanish	1,188
24	V1 History	27,863
25	V5 History and philosophy of science	106
26	B5 Ophthalmics/Audiology	3,233
27	V7 Philosophy	4,728
28	Q3 English	35,315
29	J2 Metallurgy	117
30	Q4 American studies	3,814
31	F1 Chemistry	18,087
32	Y Comb. of groups L/M or N and Q/R/T	14,943
33	T3 Chinese	392
34	C3 Zoology	4,453
35	Y3 Comb. of groups Q/R/T and P,V,W or X	22,423
36	F6 Geology	6,856
37	F7 Oceanography	837
38	G4 Statistics	1,174
39	F5 Astronomy	873
40	R3 Italian	547
41	FF Combinations	2,780
42	H4 Aeronautical engineering	5,353
43	T4 Japanese	382
44	M1 Politics	12,196
45	M3 Law	52,552
46	C8 Psychology (see also L7)	30,909
47	C5 Microbiology	2,273
48	VV Combinations	3,686
49	B1 Anatomy/Physiology	5,884
50	D8 Agricultural sciences	214
51	C1 Biology	24,260
52	P6 Journalism	3,041
53	K1 Architecture	8,350
54	V4 History of art	4,378
55	Y2 Comb. of groups L/M and N	12,687
56	CC Combinations	2,406
57	Q1 Linguistics	1,775
58	Q5 Celtic languages	758
59	C6 Molecular Biology/Biophysics	779
60	T2 Other European languages	3,460
61	H3 Mechanical engineering	16,486
62	F2 Materials science	75
63	V6 Archaeology (see also F4)	2,886
64	H2 Civil engineering	9,207
65	L6 Anthropology	3,606
66	F4 Archaeology (see also V6)	1,535
67	LM Combinations	18,372
68	N3 Financial management	4,045
69	R8 Russian	382
70	Y1 Comb. of groups B,C and D	4,826
71	Y Comb. of groups L/M or N and P,V,W or X	26,662
72	Y1 Comb. of groups B,C,D,F or G and H/J or K	5,478
73	NN Combinations	8,127
74	GG Combinations	7,413
75	P3 Communication studies	8,103
76	H5 Electrical engineering	562
77	G8 Artificial intelligence (see also C8 and H6)	579
78	B2 Pharmacology	3,430
79	T7 African languages	115
80	W3 Music	14,297
81	N4 Accountancy	21,143
82	J5 Other materials technology	1,333
83	J8 Biotechnology	551
84	C2 Botany	238
85	N1 Business management	78,249
86	Y2 Combined Social Studies	2,618
87	K4 Town and country planning	4,617
88	Y3 Comb. of groups P,V,W and X	5,874
89	H7 Production and/or Manufacturing engineering	6,067
90	Y1 Comb. of groups B,C or D and F or G	5,458
91	V8 Theology and religious studies	6,207
92	Y Comb. of groups F or G and L/M or N	14,496
93	BB Combinations	2,727
94	X4 Junior only education	4,688
95	W4 Drama	17,875
96	Q2 Comparative literature	1,033
97	B6 Sports Science	16,704
98	C9 Other biological sciences	2,586
99	X6 Junior/middle education	1,059
100	L7 Psychology (see also C8)	10,305
101	N5 Marketing and market research	10,168
102	HJ Combinations	9,363
103	R6 Latin American studies	265
104	KK Combinations	424
105	B4 Nutrition	2,073
106	X8 Physical education	4,800
107	Y Comb. of groups F or G with P,Q/R/T,V,W or X	6,907
108	N2 Operational research	254
109	D2 Agriculture	7,141
110	Y Comb. of groups B,C,D,H/J or K and L/M or N	17,910
111	B9 Other subjects related to medicine-based sciences	31,138
112	Y Comb. of groups B,C,D or H/J or K with P,Q/R/T,V,W or X	11,576
113	K9 Other architectural studies	7
114	K3 Environmental technologies	1,163
115	F9 Environmental and other physical sciences	11,591
116	XX Combinations	23,782
117	J6 Maritime technology	1,046
118	B8 Radiography	4,033
119	X5 Primary all ages education	18,040
120	L3 Sociology	24,788
121	T6 Modern Middle-Eastern languages	367
122	PP Combinations	3,330
123	X2 Nursery and infants education	3,540
124	D4 Food science	1,611
125	J9 Other engineering and technologies	1,489
126	W5 Cinematics	8,559
127	Y3 Combined Arts	8,673
128	P4 Media studies	9,593
129	G5 Computer science	58,271
130	V9 Other humanities	131
131	H6 Electronic engineering	12,528
132	W1 Fine arts	14,566
133	X3 Infants only education	4,595
134	Y1 Combined Sciences	11,806
135	R7 Scandinavian languages	166
136	N8 Land and property management	3,081
137	M9 Other social sciences	1,589
138	Y4,Y6; Comb. of group A with anything; H/J with K	37,892
139	P2 Information science	1,382
140	J4 Polymers and textiles	2,407
141	T5 Asian languages	198
142	WW Combinations	4,969
143	N6 Industrial relations	902
144	W2 Design studies	42,246
145	Q7 Classical Greek	8
146	G9 Other mathematical and informatics sciences	713
147	T1 Slavonic and East-European languages	145
148	H1 General engineering	10,387
149	G7 Software engineering	8,683
150	D9 Other agricultural subjects	142
151	J1 Minerals technology	467
152	N9 Other business and administrative studies	2,148
153	L4 Social policy and administration	6,474
154	W6 Craft	1,317
155	N7 Institutional management	12,903
156	B7 Nursing	12,033
157	D3 Forestry	452
158	DD Combinations	81
159	P7 Tourism	6,790
160	P5 Publishing	492
161	W9 Other creative arts	3,407
162	X7 Secondary	2,972
163	W8 Creative therapies	256
164	K2 Building/Construction	10,222
165	Z unknown other general and combined studies	1,985
166	G6 Computer systems engineering	3,919
167	X9 Other topics in education	5,944
168	J3 Ceramics and glass	27
169	P1 Librarianship	57
170	L5 Social work	9,310

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