Unconditional Offer

[aroundincircles21]

My son is hoping to go to University this September. He has conditional offers from 4 of the Uni's he applied to and an unconditional from one, or at least he thinks he has! The revised unconditional offer letter came by post in January following an original offer of ABB in December but UCAS still lists the offer as conditional ABB. Is this normal or should he check that the unconditional offer is genuine? Also, his favourite uni (Birmingham) is a conditional offer of AAA. I feel quite proud that he is not just falling into the easy option (which would be his 2nd choice anyway) but also a little nervous as he's only predicted AAB. Also, he is on a group chat on The Student Room for his chosen course at B'ham and has told me that a lot of the students on it have unconditionals. I was hoping that if he drops a grade and gets AAB that they might still take him but with so many unconditional offers out there this seems unlikely! Is it really worth the risk?

[Allthebestnamesareused]

It will depend on on which course and which uni has given him an unconditional

[SentinelWoo]

I had an unconditional offer for my undergrad degree and it only changed on UCAS once I chose it as firm choice. This is going back a while now but I remember it being the only ‘condition’.

[BubblesBuddy]

Firm the one he really wants to go to. Choose the insurance as the second one he would really like to go to. If the AAA one is more prestigious, go for it. Don’t try and guess what might happen. ABB is quite a bit lower and I would suggest this should be the insurance. If he really thinks AAA is not attainable, then go for the lower one as firm offer. I would take the risk though. I don’t see what he has to lose if he likes both.

[GnomeDePlume]

Depending on the course they may well accept a drop from AAA to AAB. As I understand it a lot of the unconditional offers are 'unconditional if firm' so conditional really!

I understand your pain! We are going through this with DD2. She has had all her offers in but still hasnt decided which to firm.

[jeanne16]

I teach in a secondary school and I can tell you that unconditional offers are damaging our students’ results. Almost without exception, they take their foot off the pedal and stop working. They generally drop at least one grade in every subject. After 14 years of schooling, I think this is a great shame. They may well regret it as A level results live with them forever.

[aroundincircles21]

I’m with you Jeanne16, hence I’m glad he hasn’t just snapped the offer up. It does feel unfair that some students may walk-in on much lower grades than he could be rejected for. On top of that his maths teacher originally predicted him an A and changed it to a B at the last minute based on a Core 3 test set in November as he got a D. He worked really hard then to address the areas he was struggling with and got an A* in his February mock exam but too late as far as his uni application was concerned! I’m hoping he can now prove them wrong!!

[aroundincircles21]

We’re finding it so difficult because of the conditional unconditional! I wish they weren’t allowed to issue them then at least it would feel more like a level playing field, both for students and uni’s!

[Bobbiepin]

OP universities do that to sure up their funding. It's a marketing ploy, I'm afraid. It sounds like your DS is a hard working sensible kid. Put the uni he loves as 1st choice and a reasonable (AAB/ABB) as reserve. If this wasn't an "unconditional" offer, would he actually consider it?

[GnomeDePlume]

At the offer holder day Sheffield said quite openly for students not to panic if they slipped 1 grade as they would still get in. This was for Chemical Physics.

At the end of the day it will depend on how subscribed the course is. Getting the 'firms' in if possible is the best case scenario for the university as they will have accommodation sorted.

From what I have seen with DD1 and now DD2 the 'conditional unconditional' offers tend to come from the unis who would otherwise be the insurance choice. If that's the case for your DS OP then remind him that it was his second choice for a reason.

[YimminiYoudar]

Unconditional offers - especially those that are "unconditional if firm" are purely a marketing ploy by universities to try to tempt bright candidates that might otherwise be headed somewhere more prestigious.

It depends on the university but if it's an actually unconditional or "EE" offer they are specifically angling to be your "insurance choice" as someone who is heading for a top university with an AAA offer who mucks up their exams and gets BBB will nevertheless be head & shoulders above the bulk of their CCD calibre candidates.

The "unconditional if firm" are different and are usually slightly better calibre institutions than the above. Their offer means that they can see from the UCAS form that the candidate is of the right calibre to thrive there, but they aren't interested in being the insurance choice as the positive commitment to the course and the institution will make a difference. Students who end up at their 'insurance offer' institution can be more likely to drop out as they never really wanted to be there.