DDs dreams in tatters

[OneHandFlapping]

She's been predicted AAA based on her AS results, so the unis she most wanted are out of reach. I don't know what to advise her to do.

1. Accept her limitations, and apply to the 2nd tier unis - and to be fair, I'm not sure to what extent her problems are academic or motivational
2. Work her socks off, get kickass grades and apply next year - she may not exceed her predictions, and a year would be wasted, except she could do with growing up a bit
3. ??

Has anyone got any advice? The school don't seem to.

Did her friends get a* predictions?

I just don't understand. I've looked up the grades required and can see now that others have, too. They are asking for AAA, which is what she's predicted.

Did she want to do the M.Eng? That could still be her first choice, given she has every chance of getting an A*. Even if she didn't get onto that course, she could do the Computer Science degree and take a Masters afterwards, which is what virtually all students who take MAs do anyway.

A good approach to selecting courses for UCAS is to pick to high but still realistic grades, eg A*AA, to lower but still realistic, eg AAB, and one much lower, eg BBC.

Universities do not necessarily reject candidates on teacher predictions. They may ignore them all together and offer A*AA, or they might decide based on her personal statement, teacher reference and GCSE results to give a lower offer.

There are five choices on UCAS, so she should feel free to put down the place she really wants.

BertrandRussell
I didn't realise she met predictions, I assumed as Op was upset that she must have just missed them
In that case tell her to apply to Warwick!

I would be a bit concerned about the d in further maths though. Have her teachers said anything about that.

She has the predictions matching the course she wants, but would that lower grade be better blended in with actual A level results given its a maths related course? (I don't know, I am pre AS vintage)

bereal7

Nothing wrong with having high expectations, I have them for myself and for my children, BUT, using language like "dreams in tatters" "accept her limitations" when she is predicted 3 A's is ludicrous, especially given that is exactly what the university the DD wants to go for wants.

I would be a bit concerned about the d in further maths though

For CS? You need further maths or an acceptable alternative for Imperial and for a couple of Cambridge colleges. Not for anywhere else. So that's a non-issue.

I don't think it is a non issue. I am not talking about a requirement for the grade. I am meaning the perception admissions will have of a student with a D grade on their form. Given that students are very similar, with similar grade predictions and personal statements.

I'm worried about the D in further maths - it's slightly different from not doing further maths at all.

Yes. It is. (And, IIRC from a previous thread a poster was told that you couldn't just leave it off).

Can't she resit the maths modules she did badly in?

I am meaning the perception admissions will have of a student with a D grade on their form.

In an AS that isn't being taken forward?

Students applying to courses without hard numbers caps (like medicine has) who have predicted A Level grades which match the entry requirements for the course will and have the published floor for GCSE will pretty well all be given offers. Only in MN land are such courses rejecting people based on lower grades in qualifications which wouldn't form part of the offer. The idea that someone with predicted AAA plus some other AS at a lower grade wouldn't get an AAA offer for an AAA course in an RG university is making drama where there is none.

Can't she resit the maths modules she did badly in?

There are no resit opportunities between now and the UCAS deadline. The only way someone could resit and get results which affect getting an offer would be to not apply this cycle and take a gap year. That would be a wild over-reaction. Once they have an offer of AAA, then retaking maths modules to use for further maths is pointless (unless it's helpful towards the A in maths).

It's a course that requires AAA. The predicted grades are AAA. Where is the problem?

Gosh. So there is no competition for places such that almost identical students have to be decided between?

You are really suggesting that almost everyone with the predicted grades gets an offer? Wow. Things have changed since a whole pile of family went through it 4 years ago.

Fair enough, Pneumo - though surely some of the point of the FM modules is to learn or brush up some further maths that might be useful later.

This has reminded me that DS was intending to do some FM this afternoon but all I can hear from his room is motor racing noises.

Libraries - the cap on numbers has been removed so yes things are indeed different from 4 years ago. I don't know how many offers Warwick makes, but typically a university will offer 4 or 5 times as many places as it has available. A competitive university like Warwick will also cull first, probably based on subjects and predictions - the number of applicants who apply with the wrong subjects, and/or predictions that are below those advertised as required will sadly be significant.

Four years ago was horrible - it was the year before the fee increases. Everybody wanted to go that year!

The year after people were getting in with lower grades (or if they'd slipped a grade) because they had virtually no places filled with deferred entry students. And now the caps have gone, so even more places can be offered.

I agree with Pneumo (and wonder if we work at same place?).

Think you are over reacting somewhat, obv not all applicants are given an offer but the predicted grads and AS results are just one of several things considered (including rec, personal statement and interview poss too). If all the rest fit then the d is no reason not to offer, normally the standard offer for the course that will either be met or not.

Thanks for the explanation (I didn't mean just four years ago, some were a year or two before. I remember that year was brutal).

Gosh. So sort the grades and subjects and most people will be offered. How things change

Things have changed since a whole pile of family went through it 4 years ago.

There have been substantial changes to student funding since 4 years ago. Crucially, there is no penalty on "over" recruitment.

So there is no competition for places such that almost identical students have to be decided between?

Two good students who meet the entry requirements? Offer to them both. Nice problem to have.

For CS at a mainstream RG university I bet that almost all their admissions are done centrally; certainly that's true generally. Everyone who meets a fairly coarse set of requirements given by the department to the central admissions team will be made an offer, and if they meet the offer, fine. The only exceptions will be courses that are wildly over-subscribed (CS isn't one of them, generally) or where there is a hard cap on numbers (NHS funded stuff, for example). The only time when the overall application might come into play would be when offers are missed and someone has to decide if they're worth having even having missed their main offer.

I would be encouraging my child to look at all the options as you never know what life is going to throw at you. There is always more than one option in this kind of circumstance and you should encourage her to understand this.
Working hard and doing the best she can do is important but having a back up plan in case things don't work out exactly as you hope is also important, as well as understanding it's not the be all and end all of things if life throws you a curve ball.
I am a perfect example of this I got glandular fever whilst doing my a-levels and meant I effectively slept through a chunk of crucial time as I was very ill. I had to resit some exams which was a hard decision BUT I did well and ended up going to a fab highly rated university. Unfortunately I was struck down with a lifelong disease (which I now know has links with GF) in my second year, I had to take a bit of a break in my studies whilst I adjusted and had some aggressive treatment.... I went back to it and ultimately did very well. Life threw me some serious curve balls and I had to learn to adjust to non perfect circumstances very quickly but once qualified I was the youngest in my year group to be offered a directorship and became an international expert in my specialism. The route to how I got here really didn't matter in fact it probably helped with my success as I learnt a lot on the way that made me stronger.

AAA is bloody good and she will have plenty of choice. Celebrate her good grades and help her to find a good university, there are plenty out there who will snap her up.

I must say I didn't realise that it was no longer so competitive to get an offer. I thought it was a lottery, even if you met the published requirements.
I will talk to DD tonight.
Thanks all for the help.
.

I thought it was a lottery, even if you met the published requirements

Hence, I suspect, the over-concern.

If you apply for courses where you comfortably meet the published criteria, including the "most successful candidates..." stuff you will get an offer or an offer of an interview (medicine or wildly over-subscribed stuff at Oxbridge excluded). If you apply sensibly there is absolutely no reason why you won't get five offers/interviews, as most well-advised candidates do. Were it a lottery then well-prepared candidates would routinely be turned down; they aren't.

A department which rejected students who were predicted the standard offer would do so at its diversity peril, too, unless it could very clearly articulate the criteria it was using. If it has some other objective criteria, it should publish it. If it doesn't have objective criteria, what is it using to make decisions? That's why claims that there are secret handshakes for getting offers are not credible: a department that did this (which would be hard, given central admissions doing most of the work) would be challenged.

Do you meet the published criteria? Then you'll get an offer. That's pretty much the end of the conversation.

Glad my ignorance helped bring out some clarifications on the changes.

Making a fool of myself so others don't have to since 2007.