Clearing queries

[WhiteChocolateMagnumPlease]

For example, a course where according to the University website the typical offer is ABB - if it still has places in clearing does this mean they might take you with ABC? Would you just ring up and ask and they'd say yes or no there and then? How far would they bend the requirements to fill places....ACC? ABD? I know there must be many variables but would be interested to gear of any experiences. DS is virtually assured A or A* in the subject he wants to do but the other two are a bit less secure.

I'm thinking ahead as he is only just going into A2 year.

IME, at the Uni I work at (it is RG, but I don't know if that would make a difference), we would consider one grade below (ie if typical offer is ABB we would consider ABC/BBB), as that is our 'near-miss' agreement, but not less than that unless there had been mitigating circumstances. If the applicant had ABB, the offer would usually be made pretty quickly by the Central admissions team; if they had ABC the personal statement would be taken into account and there may be a discussion between the Central team, Faculty and the course Admissions officer, so the decision might take a bit longer. Hope that helps.

Thank you yes it does help especially to think of the 'near miss' phrase.

We were told at RHUL open day last summer that they would almost certainly take students who dropped one grade in one subject. A friend of DS2's got AAB instead of AAA required for his firm at Exeter but didn't get a place. Another friend had an AAA offer for Durham and got AAB but was still accepted.

I read a thread somewhere on Mumsnet where someone's DD had been accepted at a RG for English despite missing her offer by one or two grades in each subject.

DS1's girlfriend tells me that there were people on her course who had also missed their offers by quite a bit but where still accepted.

Sorry, "were" still accepted!

It's supply and demand really. DS was made an offer of AAB for Comp Sci in Soton. He missed his offer (got BBC).
They didn't accept him but offered him Chemistry, which had he applied for initially, his typical offer would have been ABB. Chemistry was in Clearing and I'm guessing they were struggling to fill places, hence his offer.