Applying to Uni with A Levels already achieved

[AnonAnora]

Good evening all,

DC is taking a gap year (long story from another thread) and will apply via UCAS again with A Levels results already in hand, rather than predicted.

She has got AstarAAA and is applying for courses asking for AAA - will she get offers? Not Oxbridge but the likes of King's, maybe UCL, Bath. Her PS is quite strong.

DC is really not sure because, she says, there will be applicants with even higher (predicted) grades and surely the unis would prefer them?

Would appreciate advice from knowledgeable people. Maybe even someone who works in Uni Admissions and knows first hand how applicants with achieved grades are considered.

Of course they are likely to get offers. Why is your dc so insecure. They will get unconditional offers. Not necessarily from every place they apply but the places you have mentioned are likely to be interested for sure.

She was predicted all A stars and feels that she was a more attractive candidate then. With actual achieved As she feels that others with predicted A stars would be preferred.

@bumbaloo that's just the way she is (

What does she want to do and where? What is the average grade accepted per ucas? Don’t forget she has he grades and everyone else is still a gamble.

They normally want some confirmed good students filling places ahead of those with conditional offers who may decide to go elsewhere or not meet it. With those grades she should get offers from those unis whose standard offers her results meet or exceed but the unis are not obliged to make an unconditional offer even so. Dd went through this process and had five offers to choose between.

Sorry just seen list!

Really depends on the course and how oversubscribed it is? But grades in hand is respected and these are v strong grades so they are very likely to get offers in some if not all of the selected unis.

Is standard offers the same as entry requirements?

She has amazing grades! She should be fine!

So DS was offered A*AA; he got AABB and was still offered his first choice. Your DD is a sure bet student with solid high grades: she will get offers from the unis you are looking at. I think standard offers are higher than what is offered not least because predicted grades are “best possible grades” and the whole system adjusts accordingly

Entry requirement is usually the minimum and standard offer is sometimes a bit higher. But depending on the course you may find they end up taking lower than even the entry requirements atm as unis are struggling to put bums on seats. Depending on the course, even the Uni’s age is looking at.

What is the course she is looking at?

I can understand that. It has been exactly the same for my DD. She is reapplying with ABB in hand which are good grades and in fact fair I think but not if you were predicted AAA.

@bumbaloo Politics

@ThePure they are so hard on themselves. DD was one - one! - mark away from a second Astar. I paid for the remarking because come on. One mark across all components combined. But no, came back with the result unchanged

Could always email admissions tutor. Get an idea what their thoughts are. If they say you must have all A* in hand then time to move on. But I imagine it’s very unlikely.

So standard offer is the the average predicted grades of those who got the offer? Or the achieved ones?

I have looked through some courses and indeed, on many with the AAA required, the standard is AstarAA.

Which she still has, technically. But it's a language subject so she feels it will not have the same weight.

On the other hand, if the standard offer is, say, AstarAA and it's a top Uni like LSE then why wouldn't they make their entry requirements at the same level? They are sure to get enough people with Astars as they are so competitive. Why set it at AAA?

She will pass the 1st wicket of has the grades to succeed.
If she doesn’t get an offer from one or two of the Unis on her list, it will be because of bad luck.
Some courses are so popular that they get more students with high grades like your DD than they have places. So it becomes a kind of lottery.

Tell her not to worry, she will get offers and if there is anywhere else she’d like to consider she can always look at opportunities in clearing.

Have her take the time now to look up and apply for scholarships. Grades like that- she may be able to get several thousands of £s to reduce her student debt.

The standard offer may be listed by unis as Entry Requirement. It is the grades they most often apply when making conditional offers, although may be lowered for contextual offers, and the actual grades they accepted in previous years may be different. As long as she meets the Entry Requirement/Standard Offer she stands a good chance of an offer. You are overthinking this as she must already have a good idea of where she wants to apply to and is likely to be accepted.

All the Uni’s want bums on seats. All of them. There isn’t a university VC out there that isn’t worrying about that right now.

Some courses are always oversubscribed but firm accepts are what they all want. Within reason they couldn’t get a flying fig about the difference in grades between A* and A.

@LIZS oh it's her who is overthinking, not me... I believe she will get at least some offers from the top unis to choose from.

LSE Politics and IR has AAA as entry requirements though but the standard offer is AstarAstarA.

I can see why she may be concerned....

So her grades exceed the standard offer – yes I am sure she will get offers. Isee the course is politics – honestly I would say no worries.

I have quoted before a friend's lad who had IIRC Astar AAA in hand with maths and FM and only got one offer, but he was applying for econ, which is having a moment, and the list included LSE, Imperial and UCL so it was a bit punchy.

I would honestly expect your DD to get five offers. If she is really worried maybe pick one out of UCL, LSE, Imperial (if that's on her list?), as they do seem to be able to be more picky.

When you say her A star is a language subject and so will not have the same weight – why is this not amazing? Really hard to get Astar in MFL! Or is it her mother tongue? Even then I think it is very challenging and an impressive achievement (esp as "mother tongue" is such a wide ranging designation) <feels hobby horse approaching and swerves it>

This sounds reassuring, thank you @clary
The MFL is not her mother tongue but it is mine. She is definitely way more fluent in English. And she worked hard on this second language, throughout her school years. So it is fully deserved.

Go into here on the ucas pages, and look for the courses she’s interested in (you can just search “politics” and all the related ones come up) and add 3-4 year course, and the unis she’s interested in. Then when you select one of the courses, and scroll right to the bottom, it has the 2022-2024 historical grades that students actually achieved who got accepted onto the course.

https://www.ucas.com/explore/search/courses-beta?query=

here’s more info about how it works https://www.ucas.com/applying/before-you-apply/what-and-where-to-study/entry-requirements/understanding-historical-entry

So it’ll tell you the most common set of 3 grades that students have on the course you select, plus the highest and lowest grades. Might be useful to see what’s normal.

You do realise that lots and lots Scottish kids apply with grades in hand as they do the majority of their university entry exams in their penultimate year. This is normal for the whole country. She's in a strong position and it's sad she can't see that.

Can you say what MFL it is @AnonAnora - not that I think in any way it should be given less weight (I really don't) but if it is an outlier like Italian or Russian or a home language like Urdu then I guess (based mainly on comments on MN) that it might give some people pause. I hope those people are not uni admissions ppl tho bc as I say, A-star in MFL, even if you hear it spoken at home or you have a reative who speaks it, takes a lot of work. As of course you know.