urgent advice about grades lower than offer

[whichuni]

My son has an to do Bsc Economics offer from Bristol A* AA including an A in Maths and from Leeeds AAA - no specific subject requirements. Doing A levels in Maths, History and Economics.
He really wanted Bristol as his firm choice but we now know he is highly unlikely to get the A in maths. He is also not confident of getting an A* in one of his other subjects as predicted - although it is still quit possible that he could.
He feels he should not do Bristol as his first choice as although they may consder narrow misses he might miss the offer on more than one count. of course with a B in Maths he would also have missed his offer - but not potentially by as much- also they don't hav the A in Maths requirement.
The official line from Unis is that they may welll still accept you if you narrowly miss the grade. But are bristol likely to condside the worst case scenario of AAB to be a narrow miss? I know it would qualify as a narrow miss for Leeds but of course there is still no guarantee of getting in.
I know none of you can predic what would happen - but would be intested in hearing from anyone with similar experiences - particularly at bristol or Leeds

If you are struggling with maths at A level, it won’t be fun taking a maths heavy course at University

This

My DS didn't get his required grades for Bath, but still got a place due to his UCAS points, not sure how they are calculated to be honest, but it does show all is not necessarily lost.

Hadalifeonce. But Bath economics is less mathematical and more business orientated.

Maths can be a bit binary (pun). Regardless of how much work you do you either get it or you don’t.

I spoke to the economics admissions tutor at Bristol who told me you had to get an A in maths to be accepted on the economics course. I’d go with the earlier advice, to put it as his first choice and hope he gets the grade, safe in the knowledge that he has Leeds as a back up.

I know someone who got into Bristol 2 years ago for this course with ABB ( missed the A*AA offer). Saying that I know from someone else on this course who did get the grades that there is a lot of maths. He got an A in maths and is finding it hard.