UCAS Firm/Insurance query

[TheMarchionessOfUckfield]

Hi

DS wants to put uni choices as follows:

Uni A - Firm - AAB
Uni B - Insurance - ABB

If he gets ABB could he still go to Uni A if they'd have him? Or does this mean he would definitely be going to Uni B?

If I've understood correctly the firm have to accept/reject first. The odd grade difference is not unusual.

I agree with LIZS.

Yes certainly last summer lots dropped a grade (or two) and still got their firm. Depends on the course though

The "if they'd have him" is the important bit. But, yes, if they decide to accept lower grades then he can still go to University A.
The trouble is that you never know - until August - if they will have him because there are so many variables (number of applications, number of offers, number of acceptances, what grades DS got, what grades everyone else got, etc, etc)

Thanks. This is what I hoped, but the school is giving him some conflicting information (or he is in a muddle).

So - how does it all work in practice on results day? I think I understand it if he gets the grades for Uni A - UCAS track will confirm the place. Otherwise, does he keep checking UCAS to see if Uni A will have him? And if they reject him but he meets Uni B requirements, then that place would be confirmed?

The root of all the angst is that he got AAAD at A1 and he's dropped one of the A subjects School thinks the D was a blip (got paper back for analysis and knows what went wrong). School is confident he will get AAA. But if he gets AAD again or bit better at AAC this still doesn't exactly fit the bill for Uni A or B.

On results day if he gets AAB he deffo gets place at Uni A, if he gets anything less than this he may still get Uni A confirmed to him on the morning of results day by logging into his UCAS account or visiting his sixth form but this would depend upon what all the other applicants for his preferred course got. If they have no room for him at Uni A based on those results and his results were ABB he would deffo get Uni B. If he got less than this then he may still get a place at Uni B, but this would depend upon what all the other applicants for his preferred course got.

If he met neither Uni A nor Uni B offers, and neither had room for him on the course, he could go into Clearing.

Hope that makes sense.

Added to say, when DD got her results last August against her Insurance B choice it said:

Your place is confirmed at this university or college if you're NOT accepted at your firm choice

(Unconditional offer (held as insurance))

against her Firm A choice it said:

Congratulations! Your place at University of xxxx to study xxxx is confirmed.

(Unconditional offer (firmly accepted))

If he misses Uni A offer they will have already had his results for a few days (and everyone else's) and had time to consider whether to take him anyway, so if they do decide then Track will be updated with unconditional for A, even though his grades weren't initially good enough.

Also, dont forget that if he exceeds his firm choice he can then go into adjustment.

It would be hard to get an A at A2 after getting a D at AS but if he is retaking papers and works extremely hard you never know.

It would be hard to get an A at A2 after getting a D at AS but if he is retaking papers and works extremely hard you never know.

If he's not retaking any papers, it would be impossible I think!

Lol, i should probably have said 'retaking ALL his exams^... Basically retaking his AS

... Still not impossible though. He is clearly a bright lad if he got 3 As at AS and if he choose to take the subject to A2 then he must be very motivated. (hopefully)

What others have said, especially Titchy.

But I have to say I don't think the offer would be "relaxed" enough if he only got AAD. Even AAC is cutting it fine. Unless he's aiming for universities that do tariff pints, rather than grades. But those universities don't usually require AAB.

it's partly because this ghastly government regards student numbers entering with ABB or better differently. There's a huge incentive for universities to take only ABB or better.

Not any more multishirking - all universities are free to recruit as many students at whatever grade they want now.

Oops, thanks for that correction, titchy! (I'm just a head of department, not Admissions Tutor). It's probably a good thing for the OP's DS then, although a D or C would still be a worrying anomaly. A university department might think a bit negatively about a student whodoes so well in two subjects but not the third - a lack of applying himself when he's obviously able?

But Multishirking you are assuming that the department can afford to be fussy which a lot of even highly ranked RG departments simply cannot be, for relatively undersubscribed subjects such as MFL or many STEM subjects.

A lot of RG universities would have had to take ABB, AAC students for subjects such as physics and chemistry over the last couple of years (published grades AAB and AAA), to reach their target numbers. Even ABC/AAD students have been getting to subjects such as chemistry which are very under-subscribed.

Academics would absolutely have concerns about the low grades in the second and third subjects (particularly e.g. if the subject is chemistry and the third subject is maths, a C at A level maths is not a good sign) but they have to get the target numbers....

disquisitiones - whats the situation with geology? is that over or undersubscribed?

Undersubscribed dreaming. Have heard of very low acceptances - three grades below initial offer....

thats helpful titchy thanks. all the places DS wants to attend want ABB on paper so his insurance offer will be the same as the first option. he's currently debating between birmingham, leicester and manchester, but has only visited birmingham so far.

dreaming Birmingham Leicester and Manchester were all in clearing for geology in 2015, 2014 and 2013.

thanks eatyourveg......i guess thats good news; they all look like well respected courses from what i can tell, which isn't a lot.

My son got into his firm despite dropping a grade, he also went from AS grade C (borderline D!) and got it up to an A. This was for a geology related degree. To clarify - firm wanted AAB, insurance wanted ABB. On results day, he got ABB but he got an email confirming firm. Happy days and a big relief!

thanks katkat and others for geology feedback. nice to know there might be a bit of slack here. my oldest was the last of the cheap tuition fees intake and that was a total nightmare... though had a happy ending.