Am I Missing Something?

[BaconAndAvocado]

DS1 has applied to study Chemical Engineering and has recently been on several open days and interviews. He currently has 3 offers and is waiting on a 4th following interview.

DS, DH and Grandparents are all getting involved (in a very lovely, positive way) in deciding which university might be best for him.

However, all the courses he he has applied for ask for AAA grades and in his recent mocks he achieved AAB, so surely all the chat and excitement is a bit previous until, and more to the point IF, he gets the requisite results.

One out of the four Unis made it clear that they wouldn't allow anything less than AAA, not sure about the others, but they may be the same.

Is it a given that a student will replicate or be very close tol what they achieved in their Mocks?

Btw I am a professional worrier

He will have to decide on a firm then work hard. It's a shame he didn't have a couple on unis on his list with lower entry requirements to act as insurance but too late for that now.

Sounds to me like he's on track for AAA if he keeps the momentum going. Were his mocks just based on A2 work? If he got very good AS results then it doesn't sound like he should have too much difficulty. He should really have applied to somewhere with less than AAA as a typical offer, but as 2rebecca says, too late now!

I imagine (but don't know) that universities offering AAA can afford to be choosy and may be less likely to relax grades. DS2's firm offered him AAA or A*AB. He got the second of these. His friend, who had the same offer, for the same course, got AAB and didn't get a place. But at DS2's insurance offer day, everyone was told it was unlikely to matter if they dropped one grade from the standard ABB offer.

Lots of accounts on here though of students who have still got their places despite not meeting their offers. If I were you (or him!), I'd be trying to find out which universities were most likely to relax their AAA offer if necessary (though what they did in previous years may not apply to future years) and put one of these as an insurance.

I would have a look to see which Chemical Engineering courses go into clearing. Some will. Even if he does not get a place, then clearing may well be able to help. I think very many engineering courses are AAA these days so lets hope he gets what he needs. It is difficult to know if year after year a university will lower grades. It will depend on other students. If they all get the required AAA then there are no spare places anyway. Offering to those who just miss the grades probably avoids clearing and it sounds like most of these universities will not expect to be insurance, although the grades required are no doubt lower than the top top universities where an A* (or two) may be expected.

in his recent mocks he achieved AAB

I thought half the idea of mocks was to scare them into bucking up their ideas.
You shouldn't assume that he will get AAB and more to the point he shouldn't assume that he will get AAA. He needs to aim high and have self-confidence but make sure that that self-confidence is grounded i.e that it is based on work. The further up the tree you go, the more results are based on how much effort you put in.

Thanks all.

I completely agree that he should have chosen a wider spread of grade requirements!

stonecircle how would I go about finding out which universities would relax their grades? Do I just phone them?

I really feel in the dark about UCAS!

What is "insurance offer day"?

Don't worry at all if he seems motivated.
Last year a family member got AAAA in their mock A2s. They needed AAA for their uni offer and thought they had the best chance of an A in subject 1.

In the real exams they ended up with "only" an A in subject 1 but got A* in subjects 2, 3 and 4.

i.e. they went up a grade from mocks in all subjects apart from what they considered their best chance for an A* where they stayed at an A.

I think going up a grade is fairly common, but it's hard to predict exactly what will happen. He'll be fine if he is analytical and assesses why he dropped marks in the B subject. The Unis obviously have confidence in him.

I think the Which? uni website has stats on the grades students actually starting on courses at particular unis have. They should give you a good indication of which unis mean AAA and which are more relaxed and use AAA offers to position themselves and attract more students. I'm not sure if this applies to chemical engineering but it does for some courses apparently.

Thanks LessStressy I will definitely look at the Which website.

I didn't know going up a grade was common! That's encouraging. He is analytical and is doing loads of past papers then using the marking to fill any gaps.