Oxford/Cambridge and the RG Universities that give out A* offers

[busymummy3]

High achieving DD - all A at GCSE (12 ) predicted grades at A level A A A did not want to try for Oxbridge and similarly after 3 visits to Durham (Summer School, Open Day and Offer ) does not really like the academic slightly public school type atmosphere there. She has 5 offers ,all from RG Universites : AAA, AAA, AAB, AAB( from Unis who offer range AAA-AAB) and AAB.She wants to go to the RG university with an AAA offer loved the course , loved the Open Day and Offer Day loved the city felt comfortable from first walking in on the Open Day and felt it even more when went for Offer Day.
We just sometimes feel that there is an expectation that with the grades that she and others have already and predicted grades, they should only consider Oxbridge or Durham , Bristol , Exeter et al which offer A A A in her subject (History).
Does it make sense to have Firm as AAA and insurance as A*AA when really she preferred one of the AAB unis to Durham , again for the same reasons she prefers the AAA uni.
What would she be potentially missing out on?
Is it so wrong not to consider them or is this just a Mumsnet thing?

notquiteruralbliss I completely agree. Do you really think there is that assumption? I don't.

have, not has.

My closest friend from uni went on to do a PhD at Cambridge and is an academic at a non RG uni and would give a first class education to any student. All I'm saying is that there's no need for parents to have to defend their DC's choice of opting for less well regarded unis - it's actually quite irritating, the inverse snobbery. Why not just accept the more tolerant mantra of each to their own without having to insist on how clever the DC is? Does it matter that much, unless the parent actually questions the choice and is unhappy with it, for themselves?

I do not understand the logic of firming AAA and insuring A A A. The insurance place only activates if the firm place is missed. If the firm place is missed, in this case, that will involve a B. An insurance offer of A A A is unlikely to come through for someone who has ended up with a B unless it's one of those mad national scandal situations like English a few years ago. In which case the lower firm university is likely to accept the kid anyway. In the old days of 2 E offers, one didn't bother to insure because it was pointless. I would have thought that it is similarly pointless to insure an offer from a notoriously picky university for higher grades than the firm offer. From universities that are known to drop requirements or are fixtures in clearing, sure, worth a gamble. In this case, not so much.

My DD1's choice of university will be constrained by the particularities of her application (only a handful of places will accept her instrument as a first study). The fact that Uni application is going to be a backup for conservatoire is by the by - her list of potential places has raised some eyebrows from those who don't actually know what they are talking about. It's been instructive.

Incidentally busymummy, the point about expecting even higher predictions was to emphasize the point that I quite see your DD is most unlikely not to meet her offers, rather than anything else.

Gently DS has an e-mail sitting in his Inbox stating in black and white that the Durham History department will not look at near miss candidates who merely insure them. But how sharing that info gets to being ticked off for implying the DD might miss her grades, I'm really not sure!

There is no point insuring a higher grade. I think the OP should reflect a bit on her expectations of the lass though. Anything can happen at A-Level and is she does drop a grade she needs you to be resilient. You need to give her the message now that it will all be fine whatever comes or is she does drop the grade she'll be doubly devastated - about the grade and about 'letting you down'. The post to Molio about 'have you clocked' worries me rather.

Northernlurker There is no point insuring a higher grade unless a student has for perfectly rational reasons chosen to firm the lowest offer, which won't necessarily these days be from a less well regarded uni, or at least may be one they might actually achieve a better degree on because they will be happier. Then there is no point not having an insurance, unless they know definitely to the contrary, there is still the chance that a uni will take them if it all goes wrong?

My DD firmed an AAB offer, but it was a pretty good chance they would not have taken her if it had gone wrong, it was a lower than normal offer and if she had missed it she would have failed to meet her prediction by some margin and a lot of Oxbridge candidates made it insurance and turned up on one half of her joint honours course. Her insurance was AAA. However it had reverted to an AAA offer from unconditional and was a less regarded course so it was reasonable to assume her application might be looked on favourably if it all went wrong, which it does sometimes, for even the brightest students. Which is why wise parents come out ad nauseum with the usual homilies. "you can only do your best" "if it all goes wrong there are lots of other options" "these things have a habit of turning out for the best" I bored myself

There are just so many variables in this process, especially in recent years with the bunfight that goes on to fill courses with good applicants that it is hard to make any categorical statements about how things will turn out unless you get advice from the horses mouth, in the shape of the admissions tutor on the precise course at the precise institution.

That was the very information I passed on Poison, though obviously anyone with any sense would check it out themselves, especially before insuring at a university with a recent reputation like Durham. The OP is asking whether her DD should insure Durham for History and the info I had was square on. As I said, DS3 asked precisely this question from the Admissions Secretary in the Durham History Dept a few weeks ago, and she said unambiguously, in writing, that those who were near miss insurance holders would not be considered. Approximately thirty near miss candidates who had firmed were passed on last year to the central team for consideration, of whom five were accepted. The competition is such that they've decided on a policy which precludes considering near miss insurance applicants. Obviously that way they'll miss some Oxbridge offer holders who miss their grades, but that's something they've obviously considered and decided isn't a deal. It was very useful that the Admissions Secretary was so swift and clear in her response; it allowed DS to make an informed decision in an instant.

As I noticed, I was addressing Northernlurkers advice which would have been perfectly sound in the days when DD1 applied and it was rare for a candidate who missed their offer even by 1 UMS to be taken. It was important that the insurance was a lower offer. These days it is a different environment and a lot more confusing and universities have all sorts of different practises, both on offers and how they treat those who miss them, including obviously Durham. I know of several who had higher insurance offers than the one they firmed. So difficult to give any sort of blanket advice but to check out the exact circumstances as far as possible though my DD was "too embarrassed"

Yes, I agree Poison. DS is in the position of having only AAA or A*AA offers and wrote to two departments on the grounds that he had absolutely bugger all to lose. The responses were both very friendly, but also very different in terms of substance. No uni is going to categorically say that they will take a near miss because they can't actually know what their situation is going to be on results day (or rather the Monday before). But they can make ambiguous noises, or they can rule it out completely, and both those things help - very obviously insuring Durham would have been pointless.

I get your DD's thinking completely - there's a lot of intelligent guesswork required for this, and not a little luck!