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.

It is a European language but not one of the common ones.

So yes, it's one of DR'S concerns.

On the other hand, her two friends from school did French and Chinese A Levels being born into families where it was the first language. It does sadden me that their MFL A Level may be perceived as "the proper one" even though their family circumstances are absolutely identical to ours.

Honestly – I cannot imagine that a university will say “no, we are not accepting this A-star in Polish because we suspect your mother speaks it.” But I suppose there is nothing to be lost by emailing (her not you ideally) an admissions tutor for a favoured university and asking them.

If it is Polish then it’s going to be pretty obvious why she took it, as IME anyway it’s rarely if ever taught in English schools. I agree it’s unfair if a friend took French under similar circs but it is not questioned. Which is why I don't think her A-level should be queried.

MFL is my subject (you may have gathered!) and while I no longer teach in schools, I assess a lot of A level candidates privately for speaking; inevitably lots of them are native speakers to some degree and I can for sure tell the ones who have done no work and thought they would wing it (they don’t do very well I’m afraid). And that’s speaking, which in many ways is the most accessible aspect for a native speaker. Your daughter could not have gained her A star without working hard and she should be proud of it.

I invigilated a portugusese exam. Girl was Brazilian so her native language. At the end she said she found that particular paper hard as was on film and books or something. You still need to work and revise and know what is being asked of you. No one would say English literature is easy just because it’s your native language.
Also just because you speak it doesn’t mean you know how to write it. My friends daughter speaks English fluently (they live abroad) but said it was hysterical when she started writing it as she was writing it phonetically.

Exactly. You can’t just rock up and write about a Truffaut film or a Brecht play without doing the work, even if you speak the language well.

I am baffled. Your daughter is amazing. Just choose her 5 favourites and apply. She will get offers.

@AnonAnora your post resonated with me so much that I ended up going down the rabbit hole of the Bristol saga. Your DD sounds so like mine, who makes decisions rashly, but then second guesses them continually and is prone to regret and if-onlys.

It's all very well saying let them make their own decisions and to own them, but as parents we ended up having to help them out of any of the messes of their making (which you put very eloquently in the other thread). It's exhausting. We had to hear every bloody day about how much better life would have been if she hadn't switched sixth forms, it was infuriating.

DD rejected her confirmed uni/course on results day, having exceeded her predicted grades. She's got three A stars (no EPQ and no fourth so not disimilar to yours) and is applying for various politics combos. And she gets irrationally angry about the fact that her achieved grades don't seem to count for more than others' predicted grades. Raging against the system, which might be daft, but that's life. She's now stressing that if she doesn't get anywhere 'better' than the place she rejected (which was vg), the year will have been a waste. I disagree as this all proves to me she needs to grow up and her crappy bar job will help her to do so.

Lots of people talk about gap years as 'wasted' but I think even if she just does her min wage job for a year, she'll learn things and life is long.

Sorry no useful advice and I share your (irrational) paranoia that she won't get any offers so I just wanted to extend my sympathy. DD has had MH issues too - crippling social anxiety, fear of rejection and how she is perceived to an extreme degree, overwhelming FOMO - all the usual teen things but ramped up to whole new level. I think if she ended up going to university and being happy there, I would wake up every morning feeling like I was on holiday I'm so hollowed out by trying to support someone who dumps on us but won't ever listen in return.

PS this thread might be better off in higher education so ask to get it moved?

What do you mean by standard offer in the above, and here are you finding it ?

@Michaelah It's on the UCAS portal, in the bottom of the course page. The average grades of the applicants that receive the offer. I am not sure though if it's average predicted or average achieved

You mention applying through UCAS "again", which suggests that she already applied for this year? Is that correct? Did she not receive offers with her results then? Presumably if this is a re-application she is now applying for different courses or different universities?

No, she hasn't applied this year yet, as in for September 2026.

How do I ask for this thread to be moved to Higher Education?

Hi @ClaireBlunderwood thank you so much for your post. It did help to learn that DD is not unique in her indecision but it sounds oh so stressful for you too.
Well done your DD with her amazing grades! Which unis is she applying to? And which firm pne did she reject? Sorry if it's too outing, you don't have to answer.

if applying for LSE read their website carefully. They are quite particular about their personal statements. Personally I don’t think it’s fair that some unis want their PS orientation towards one university but that’s the way it is. I do think she should apply but I would personally encourage her to put 3 or 4 on for now holding back 1 or 2 until later so she can see if/what offers she gets from them. One would assume as she has grades in hand that she will get unconditional offers.

Well - if she doesn't get offers from decent places with those grades then something is wrong with the world!

My DD took a year out and it was noticeable how less stressful; the whole process was for her than for my other chiuldren as she was not hanging on a string waiting to hear her grades.

Sorry my post probably wasn't very clear, I was asking if she had already applied to start this year – 2025. However, I've had a look at your previous thread and can see that not only did she apply, but she rejected her firm and insurance on results day in favour of going into clearing for Bristol, started there, but not on the course that she actually wanted and has presumably now withdrawn. Is she going to reapply to the same universities this year or a completely different set, and if so, why? Her previous choices were presumably based on her 4 A* predictions so if she didn't apply to LSE etc last time, what has changed now, given that her results, while great, are less than her predictions?

Does she really know what she wants to do with her life, or even really at uni? Does she actually want to go to uni or is she just getting caught up in what all her friends are doing?It all sounds quite stressful and uncertain for both of you. What is she doing with the unintended gap year - can she use it to get some decent politics work experience with local councillors, your MP etc?

@AlohaRose She already has experience with the local MP and will continue working for her during the year.
She didn't apply to LSE last time and is not planning to apply to London this time around either.
She is choosing some new unis and some previous ones. I am now trying to encourage her to aim high as her grades meet and exceed the requirements for all her chosen courses. But she is very apprehensive and wants to apply way down the league table as she feels that AAAA* is not competitive at all. I am at my wits' end...

Sorry, that was @AnonAnora, just posting from a different device which has my different account (apparently)

Thanks for the reassurance. What unis you would class as decent? Genuine question as I just don't know any more.

My friend’s son didn’t apply last year as he didn’t think he’d get the grades he needed for the course he wanted to do. Actually got them in alevels (exact requirements, not beyond). Just applied and now has place in hand. Very happy. I guess they know what’s he guaranteed of and better than those with predicted, could go wrong grades.

My DD is applying with results in hand this year ABB. She is just applying to a mixture the same as if she had predicted grades but more precise. She has got 2 for which she exceeds the grades, 2 that she meets them and one that she’s taking a bit of a punt on but understands this is a long shot. She’s working and doing some work experience stuff.

If your DD already dropped out of a ‘good’ place then isn’t it most important that she really wants to go to places she’s applying even if you think she could do better? I don’t think I would push her too much for things that you think are better if she doesn’t want them. There’s no harm in her putting down one or two that she can definitely get from lower down the league table to be sure of having offers and then putting some higher up ones for the rest is there?

DS was in a similar position last year. On results day, he declined his place and decided to reapply for medicine. He took UCAT and his previous school supported his application, as they had done in Y13. He had 4 interviews, resulting in 3 unconditional offers as he had grades already. He hadn’t planned for a gap year so got a job and has savings, which is great for the 5 year degree!

Decent depends on your world view. Russell Group plus Bath, St Andrews and Loughborough is what many people on Mumsnet seem to consider ‘decent’ but there are specific courses at other unis that have a very good reputations in their areas eg Sussex is supposed to be good for politics.

I think "decent" depends on the subject.

Hello AnonAnora, I'll dm you the more outing details. As for good universities for politics, the ones that jump out are Oxbridge, LSE at the very top end; then Warwick, Bath, Durham, Bristol, St Andrews, Edinburgh, KCL, UCL etc in no particular order (these is my thoughts, not verified by any league tables).

There's an annoying guy on tiktok called Chat University who claims that A star AA are the trickiest grades. Obviously that's idiotic, most people would kill to get those let alone your DD's even better ones. But his point is, I think, that although they should get you anywhere without a second thought, it's no actual guarantee. That said 3 A star achieved don't feel like it either - DD has already got a 'your application is on hold' from Bristol and is now panicking about how 'everyone' on the internet already has multiple offers.

Another annoying person on tiktok says make sure that your school's reference mentions if you've got a grade just below the grade boundary. Mind you, dd told the school to include her course work marks. They didn't. But they did say her politics essays are A standard. FFS, how is that helpful when she's now got an A star?