2025 A Level Results Day and Sept Uni Starters - All Welcome

[SlightlyJaded]

I couldn't see board specifically dedicated to results day for our DC who have sat A levels this spring. And I know some of us STILL have questions about Uni starters.

DS has Liverpool as his first choice and Notts Trent as his insurance - both to study History. Anyone who recognises me from previous boards might remember the hell we went through with DD a couple of years ago, so DS has applied quite a lot of caution to his choices - perhaps too much, perhaps not enough. Neither of us have any idea what to expect with his results. He has genuinely fluctuated between a D and an A in some of his mocks....

I still haven't done anything about accommodation which is one of the reasons I am starting this thread.

But mostly, it's for nail biting, relief, tears, support, advice and all the other things needed to get us through the next few weeks.

Welcome :)

Joining and waiting on Lancaster for DS2. Reading as his insurance but Lancaster generally drops slightly in clearing so I suspect that if he misses Lancaster he will also miss Reading and need to look at clearing. ABB for Lancaster and BBB for Reading.

If we miss Lancaster all will not be good here since hes wanted Lancaster since he was 9...

@3bluellamas Reading will probably drop a bit too - so missing Lancaster (even if they drop a bit) doesn't necessarily mean missing out on his second choice. Lancs could drop to, say BBB but Reading might go down to BCC - there are no guarantees, but it's more than possible.

I get that he feels a bit Lancaster or nothing at the moment. If you are genuinely worried that he might not make the grade (even with a drop), it might be worth really working on him opening his mind to alternatives now rather than later.

Two years ago DD was Leeds or nothing. Her boyfriend was there already, she loved the Uni, loved the city, her best friend was going, she couldn't see past it. They wanted AAB. She had a nightmare A Level week and her best friend got in and she didn't. And because her insurance was ABB (and wasn't budging) which she ALSO missed, she ended up in clearing and had to seriously reframe her whole thinking. It was really hard - there were tears, feeling of failure, self-loathing - the works. And I think that things would have been easier for her if she hadn't been so single minded about Leeds. She ended up with some really good offers (including a RG Uni and some other great Unis like UEA) but she just couldn't get excited because it 'wasn't Leeds'.

Not saying your DS won't sail in to Lancaster, but worth considering if you have any concerns.

I’m in ! Glad to find you x

Can I join you? My daughter has a place at Plymouth. Newcastle is insurance, but she will only accept Plymouth. Although I'm trying to be confident, she struggled with one biology paper, so who knows.
But, she's booked accommodation, paid a deposit and even bought her tickets to freshers events. Got to love her optimism!

@TheTurn0fTheScrew thanks so much, Manchester is a great city! Good luck to your DC too, these triple A offers are tough…

@BiggerBrighterBetter Plymouth is lovely, I went there a million years ago. I know it couldn't have always been sunny, but my overriding memories are of sunshine! I like a city campus by the sea. And DD must do to as her firm and insurance are both in Belfast. Less sun though.

Thank you! Yes, we went to the offer holder day late Feb and it was just lovely and sunny! Glad to know you had a great time 😊

Another prospective Bath mum here … if DS gets the grades! Less than two weeks to go …

A potential Bath mum joining. 🤞for the grades as DS doesn't want his insurance.

Hi all! Wishing all your DC luck from one of the uni staff who’ll be processing results from next Friday. I’ve just done a big mail out to the parents of the students I work with (I do a lot of pre entry work) so thought I would share it here too. Whenever I’m on this board it always warms my heart how supported your DC are.

• fully charged phone and powerbank are essential. If there’s ever a day a brand new phone will suddenly decide it can’t hold a charge, it’s results day.
• pen and paper, while old school, also essential - if they end up needing to call a uni, it’s a nightmare for them having to go on speaker and type into their phone at the same time as having a tough phone call
• have their UCAS ID number to hand - on a bit of paper in the back of a phone case, set as their screensaver etc
• there’s a lot of debate about results first v ucas first. Unless you are really close to school to get your results after you open ucas, I would always say results first. They won’t be able to do anything about ucas/clearing without results.
• if your YP needs to go through clearing, I’d recommend doing it with a parent/carer on hand. Quality of advice in schools will vary and if you’re financially supporting your child, you don’t want them panic selecting a university that isn’t affordable.

Good advice @AelinAG

It seems a lot of schools do the results by email now. Although the email does seem to come after the uni congratulations email from your firm or insurance!

Hello, a prospective York mum here with Surrey as insurance. DD is desperate to go to York so I’ve got everything crossed. We had to apply for special consideration from the exam boards and York as, very sadly, FIL died after a long and debilitating illness in the middle of May Half-term and DD was slap bang in the middle of exams. It was a truly stressful time and knocked DD for 6.
DD is going to look at UCAS first and then go into school, that way if it is bad news she can compose herself first and get her head round it all. Really hoping that wont be the case and we will be going into school smiling 🤞. Good luck to everyone for 14th!

Don't forget, there will be Clearing, so make your plans C, D and E. Make a list of unis he could call up on the day to ask about spaces, think about what other alternative courses he could apply to. Get telephones numbers all ready to press because the best places ad the the best unis go in a flash. Good luck!

Hi all. Joining ready for 14th. Arrggh. DS is fine but I feel sick! I have a couple of questions I wonder if anyone can answer:

• If they meet their grades and get their firm choice, do they need to accept it through UCAS or not?

-if they miss their offer by one grade and find out they were a mark off, do they call their firm choice uni through the clearing line and tell them about a remark?

• Is it worth them calling the firm choice and begging them if they've just missed out?!
• how many unis should they shortlist for Clearing? For example, if predicted and have an offer AAA and insurance AAB, do they shortlist 5 ABB Unis? Or 3 ABBs and 2 ABC?

Hello, thought I would join the throng of us waiting on Lancaster places. DS loved it at once.
His reserve is Sheffield which was the only offer with the same grades. He was highly motivated by the 2k offer for anyone getting 3As at A levels at Lancaster and tells me he thinks he has done it. He's bright but very laid back so we shall see!

Those people looking at NTU, my older child has just graduated and I have been extremely impressed. She absolutely blossomed there. We arrived via clearing after she didn't get the grades on results day and she graduated with a first! We went for private accommodation - because of clearing there was wasn't a great choice via uni. We opted for Trinity House which is in a fab location. She didn't make great friends in her flat but did on the course.

So the universities get the grades the Friday next week - they look through them all and decide whether to give those who firmed them the offer. So you don't have to do anything on the day, just log on and you'll see your place. But you can decide to reject the firm/insurance place if you decide you don't want to go to your firm uni - you can reject the place (and go into clearing because your firm accepted you and you said no - you won't just fall into your insurance uni. People may do this if they find out their grades were higher and want to change uni (I'd say only do this if you have have a place confirmed through the phone or online with another uni).

If you miss your grades by one offer, the uni will have seen this - they may still let you in and accept you.
If your firm does not do this though, you will fall to your insurance who will also decide whether to accept you (based on their grade requirments). This will happen before results day - so you might log into to UCAS and find out your insurance has accepted you not your firm. Again, you can choose to reject your insurance place and go into clearing.

However a firm may choose to let you in, even if you miss the grades (depending on how many people meet or exceeded grade requirements and competition). If they don't and your insurance also doesn't accept you - you shouldn't bother calling because they will have already decided they aren't willing to be lenient. This also applies if you're rejected by your firm and also your insurance - they would have decided not to be lenient.

However grade boundaries only come out on 8 on the 14th (which means universities don't know how close or far away from a grade you were) so maybe if you were very close to the grade boundary (and you may be planning a remark your teachers think you can go up - then you should contact them and ask if they will hold on for a priority remark to let you in).

I would have 5+ courses that you have written done beforehand and checked the grades in case you end up in clearing. I'd have a few of different grade offers but definitely some lower than your firm and lower than your insurance just in case. Hopefully this makes sense.

@TheLivelyViperThank you, yes very helpful! Fingers crossed he's made the grades for his firm and I don't need it, but I think it's best to be prepared with a plan anyway!

@TheLivelyViper Another brilliantly helpful post - thank you
@AelinAG Also super useful.

Our 'Clearing Plan' which I hope we don't need to execute is that we have a list of four Universities/Courses written in a notebook together with UCAS number, course number and clearing hotline number. DS has listed them in order of preference and will start at the top and work his way down.

We've also written clearing hotlines for his firm and insurance and will hit these to see if there is any flexibility if he misses out. For example, he has applied to do History at Liverpool but Ancient History (less popular) has a slightly lower published grade boundary, so DS might call clearing to see if he can get into that - worth looking at courses that are similar but slightly less popular so come with a lower grade boundary, but at your first choice Uni. There is also a small possibility that you could get yourself on Ancient History (to use my example) and do very well and apply to move across to History... Just a thought.

Another ex-Plymouthian @turkeyboots although it was Plymouth Poly then (I'm that old!). Also had an amazing time.

DC2 wants Nottingham for Economics so high grades needed. Every exam was 'all right" so not a clue here! Loved Nottingham so debate is whether we choose a different course there in clearing or go for the Insurance/clearing.

Still trying to pin DC down to a time to formulate a Clearing Plan!!

We are worried because DD's course is languages and that's what she wants to do, so the clearing route is not so simple. She needs B's to do the language because of the difficulty level, but the exam stress could have affected her.
She is predicted A/B but it's one of those courses that I don't think they drop in clearing.
I suppose she ought to have some other courses she would consider ready to call about.

Hi all- getting myself confused because not seeing courses on UCAS clearing that I am seeing on individual uni websites and also only seeing reduced entry grade tariffs on one uni web site- when can I expect unis to show the reduced tariffs and will UCAS clearing site show them? Hope this makes sense!!

Hi joining with a September starter but thankfully grades in hand. Ds took a gap year as has to move quite far away for uni (no choice - subject isn’t offered any closer) and wasn’t too well last year so wasn’t really up to it. Got a relevant job though and has saved hard and now feels more ready to go. He’s fairly quiet and hoping halls aren’t too “party”.
Halls are applied for but he won’t hear what he’s allocated until after results day.

I’ve been through it twice and last year was def the worst as Ds was not confident at all after being ill during exams so know how those of you are feeling who are waiting for results.

@badasscafe1 You are doing everything right. Individual uni sites will have much more accurate and complete info than anywhere else. Some uni's which have been mentioned on MN as having already posted lower grade requirements include Nottingham, Liverpool, Keele and Southampton. Those grades might change nearer to the 14th.
Remember some institutions will not lower their tariff at all. They may have a small amount of places to offer, and students who have done better than expected can trade up, or others may just have changed their minds about course or location since they applied.
Many places will have their clearing grades up by the evening of the 13th. Some don't do this until the Thursday am.
Some uni's will lower their requirements as clearing goes on. So Friday morning grades might be lower than Thursday, and lower again if they still have spaces on Monday afternoon.

Thank you so much for replying- that is hugely helpful info!

I have been discussing clearing plan and so far he has 2 unis he will be happy to go to if all goes pear shaped - Bristol or Durham.

I have said these 2 unis may not be in clearing so really it's firm choice of Bath or nothing. Gap year and possibly reapply. No plan for gap year plan/job either.

Lancaster and Loughborough are good backups but he couldn't see himself there. Doesn't want to go to Scotland or London as we are probably self financing.

Bloomin disaster if he doesn't get A*AA or AAAB. Good luck everyone.