Unconditional offers

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DS was lucky enough to get 5 offers and had pretty much decided on his firm (Exeter - AAA) and Royal Holloway (ABB). Sussex has now changed their AAB offer to unconditional - if he firms them. Which, whilst very flattering, has put the cat amongst the pigeons.

DS is predicted A*AA and we've just come back from parents' eve where, of course, the importance of working really hard from now until May was really emphasised. He's currently working at ABB and all 3 teachers said he has to up his game to reach his predictions - but they all said he was more than capable of doing this.

However, DS is a natural worrier and I'm wondering whether accepting the unconditional would be a wonderful way of taking the pressure off or whether I should encourage him to stick to his guns and go with his original choices. He's looking to me for advice and if I get it wrong it will be my fault!

He's not the sort of boy to take his foot off the pedal completely even with an unconditional. But he is the sort of boy who may not completely pull out all the stops to get his predicted grades. I'm already stressing the importance of maximising his A level grades in case he decides uni isn't for him or he needs good grades at a later stage.

He's booked himself on a Sussex offer day so he can rethink. I've told him to put it out of his mind until then and bask in the luxury of thinking he's got a guaranteed place if he wants to be cautious.

Any advice?

If some universities are making unconditional offers to attract higher-achieving students, it presumably follows that those who don't make such offers have higher-achieving students in plentiful supply. Does that make them better universities? I'm not sure it does. It certainly means they are more popular but I'm not sure that necessarily equates to better does it?

I think this is an interesting point. Quite a few universities are trading on age old reputations which are not actually in line with their performance over the last ten years or so. Universities can also be very strong in some subject areas but not so in others - for example, Exeter doesn't appear above 15 and is often below 25 in the 2014 research assessment for maths, physical sciences and engineering subjects, which is line with my experience (maths/physics there are not strong at undergraduate level). While Exeter seems to be a very popular choice on here for humanities etc it wouldn't make the top ten for STEM and offers for STEM are not that high. I don't believe that somebody recruiting maths/physics graduates would be particularly impressed by an Exeter graduate, however strong Exeter is in humanities.

Meanwhile there are other universities which don't appear in Mumsnetters "top ten" but which consistently appear in the national top ten for specific subject areas. For example, Southampton is clearly top ten (maybe top five) for engineering and engineering employers know it.

Not all mumsnetters terms have the same top ten. Dd wasn't interested in Oxbridge, didn't want to go to London or the remote (for us) southwest, Norfolk or Scotland. Sadly she wasn't offered a place at Durham. But that only eliminates about ten out of over 100 universities. She is looking at 11 & 12 for her subject, I don't think either of those are desperate for good students.

I feel your pain. A bit!!

Until last year DD wanted to do agriculture, then suddenly this year everything changed and she wanted to do English Literature.

She gets really good grades, like your son (A* AA) but decided no way was she applying to Oxbridge. Not interested.

Applied to UEA, Exeter, Bath, Durham and Bangor. All made offers.

She totally fell in love with Bangor on the open day. Adored the course content (lots of medieval choices and Arthurian legend, which is her EPQ subject). They offered unconditional and she has accepted that.

Part of me wishes that she had firmed a higher profile uni (her father and I both went to "better" ones). But then part of me realises that I am just being snobby. She has to choose somewhere she feels she will be happy.

She is an outdoorsy girl, not into the night club scene at all. Bangor seems to have lots of outdoor societies and she is close enough to the surfing beaches of Anglesey to keep her happy. She also plays harp (there is a quite famous harpist who works at Bangor) and she wants to learn Welsh.

I know she has made the right choice for her. Your son will have to do what he thinks is right for him.

Serin - well done to your DD for knowing her own mind and making what sounds like a very good choice. I also went to a 'better' university and very nearly transferred to Bangor during my first year because I wasn't particularly taken with the way my subject (Eng Lit) was taught at my 'better' university and I thought Eng & Drama at Bangor sounded great. I stayed where I was in the end and had a ball at my 'better' university - but the course was really not very well put together. If I'd had to pay for it I would have been furious!

I'm also very pleased with my DS for sticking with his original choices (Exeter firm, RHUL unconditional) despite the tempting unconditional offer from Sussex. He can't normally even decide what to eat or wear so this is ground breaking decisiveness for him!

Unconditional offers are a marketing ploy of course ( sometimes wrapped up as a personal gift ' we want you so much, we're particularly impressed by your PS etc).

Students should approach then as they would special offers in the super market. Ignore if they were never what you wanted at the start. If you were already going to buy, then all to the good.

I would echo what uilen has said. Choosing a university based on its reputation in general (which is often often outdated), is not the best way to proceed. It depends on the subject.

MrsRhod Birmingham pioneered unconditional offers and have continued them because they were a successful tactic, increasing the proportion firming them from a quarter to a third. The top tier of unis like UCL took advantage of the relaxation on quotas to increase their numbers and the remaining unis really were chasing fewer bright students, with the fees hike adding to the pressure, my older DDs peers were applying in a very tough year pre those developments and it really did completely change in the matter of a couple of years. They were saying then, and presumably still, that there was a real chance that some big names may disappear because they fail to attract the students, so if unconditionals worked for Birmigham it seems to me it isn't desperation but part of a successful marketing strategy in the new environment they find themselves in. A couple of DDs friends firmed them on the strength of their unconditional offers so for some it does work. We visited Birmingham because of the offer and it has a lot to offer students, lovely campus etc and they have clearly thought through making the courses appealing to students, especially those who might find the most academic universities intimidating. So the unconditional offers are part of a consistent marketing strategy designed to make Birmingaham more attractive to students. I think any academics (and I include those in my own uni which is rather losing the race sticking with it's reputation as it's main marketing tool) who are having a problem with that perhaps need to look to their own unis and think through how they can do the same.

Having said that DD also got a letter from Surrey relaxing her offer to ABB and saying if she didn't get that they would probably take her, and the way it was worded did come over as a bit desperate, and she did not even go and look. There has to be something more than just copying the tactic. She stuck with her first choice uni because it is ranked top for research for her humanities subjects and the academics impressed her and the courses are right for her but she made Birmingham her insurance, over her number 2 choice, even though it was a higher offer and I did feel it would have been a safe choice if things had not gone her way.

She rejected Exeter because the course didn't appeal and it was not highly ranked for her subjects, in fact very poorly ranked for one of them (joint honours), so students do take all factors into account, overall rankings really are only one factor amongst many.

Sorry Sussex, not Surrey....