Offers are in but one is a “conditional unconditional “ what to do?

[jenthehen]

My son is hoping to study computer science at university. He’s predicted AAB but his mock exam results for maths and physics were D’s so the A’s and B’s in those subjects seem like a pipe dream. He’s received offers from all of his unis: Leeds and Birmingham needs A’s, Loughborough and York need ABB and then he’s been offered unconditional from Notts Trent (if he puts it first). His plan is to see how his grades go right up until the May decision date then decide but with the current situation he’s thinking of accepting the unconditional but if by a minor miracle he performs well then he could decline the offer, take a year out and reapply with (hopefully) better grades. Does this seam plausible? (Thanks for any advice as this is my first child applying to Uni)

I'd go for the higher offers too and, if necessary, see what he can pick up in clearing. I think we're still in a low birthdate year so there are probably more places than children to fill them.

One of my daughters turned down two unconditional offers. One was from her second choice university but she held out for the first, knowing that if she just missed her grades the second would probably take her anyway.

I second the suggestions to go for the favourite and consider NT as insurance in the hope they might accept a dropped grade - but just want to caution against assuming all subjects are the same. Due to shortage of CS spaces at the moment and increased demand none of DS 5 choices for CS were in clearing last year (Good Russell group but not highest tier). We were also told on offer day that his firm choice had not accepted a single dropped grade for CS in the last two years.

For most subjects clearing is a great option but please guard against giving advice for different subjects based on your own.

I'd ask that he really researches what each course at the different uni actually involves.
All grouped together under the same degree heading but very different elements depending on the Uni and I'd put first the one that I feel I would enjoy the most and be able to competently meet the requirements of ( personally I'd keep away from the maths heavy for eg)
Just because a student doesn't get the AAA requirements doesn't necessarily mean they won't get in. You don't know the other candidates issues, results, could be a lot of the candidates haven't met requirements etc..And there's always clearing.
Put your number 1 as number 1 and don't throw the opportunity away.

I'd also second looking in detail at the courses if he hasn't already, they are all very different

Agree, I actually think there would be a lot less students who had to drop out after their first year or switch subjects, if they took the time to research the actual degree content and teaching style at each uni.

So many pick on reputation, location, where their mates are going, social life etc, without really thinking of the work involved. A degree is very different to A levels, uni is very different to school, you need to effectively pass each year to continue to the next. The work escalates in complexity, reaching its peak in the final year. The degree result you come out with can be critical in terms of the type of job you can achieve. A first v a third has very different implications in many industries.

So many students my daughter went to uni with had to drop out or switch subjects, either they failed their first /second year exams and were not competent enough for the work involved, or realised that the actual subjects the degree consisted off, and what was involved, was not for them, they hated it and struggled. Leaving thousands of pounds of debt, often for the parents.

Understanding the degree focus, the support, the teaching style is really critical and schools should be doing more to point that out to kids.

I would personally go for one of the universities I really wanted and take a year out if I needed to or look at clearing.

FWIW Nottingham Trent is a great uni and my DS chose it over Loughborough. It may be an ex Poly but the teaching has been excellent.

Mineaswine, that’s great to know. Although I’m sure teaching varies between courses. Was that for a Computer Science course? (Keeping fingers crossed that it was)

We had a similar situation last year for dd. Got an offer which was unconditional if firm for one uni and conditional offers for the others.

All unis were about the same level in terms of being ex polys, none being great unis. She liked one of the other courses better but the unconditional offer was actually from a higher ranked uni so she followed her head rather than her heart and firmed it.

Which was lucky because she pretty much bombed her A levels. Had been predicted BBB and got CDD, maybe it was CCD....can’t remember. I know there’s the train of thought that if you accept an unconditional offer then research shows you do worse in your A levels as you switch off. Don’t think that was the case for dd, she was working hard but was also very ill for 5 months prior to A levels and spent a lot of year 13 in and out of hospital.....so for her I was glad she got into uni after her results.

Do his teachers think he can pull up to As from getting Ds? Can you see which unis have been in clearing last year, the year before and that might give him an idea if he could get in via clearing. Though remember just because there are spaces doesn’t mean they will accept people who they still don’t feel have the grades. Dd knows people who got better A levels than her who didn’t get into her course when they rang on clearing day.

Thanks BeaverLaViva, A levels are really hard and so many factors can affect how they perform. So glad your daughter is well and got her uni place. I think we need to speak to his teachers nearer to decision day.

NTU open the accommodation booking very early in the cycle, and you can only apply with a firm offer in hand. The best accommodation gets booked within hours on the relevant day, which is usually even before the offer holder days. They do this to pressurise applicants to firm offers. Therefore if for whatever reason he decides to go for NTU then he would be ill advised to wait till the last minute to accept the unconditional offer.

Thanks Vancleef that is useful to know. Even more pressure though:(

Pick the place he wants to go to.

If he accepts the unconditional but does better then he can be released from his unconditional offer and apply for the other universities through clearing. Most universities also drop there required grades once in clearing if theres space on the courses! So he dosent necessarily need to take a year out if he does better then predicted!

Thanks Little Dragon Girl, I didn’t realise that.

That’s true for most subjects littledragongirl but just a word of warning there were very few CS places in clearing last year. He could still decline he unconditional on results day and apply again for 2021 with good grades in hand though

Not an expert on comp sci so consulted league tables, which place NTU higher than lots of the other unis some people are suggesting are 'better' so please take this with a pinch of salt. NTU is perfectly respectable, it's a long time since polys existed but, even with that, NTU has always been considered top tier of those. It is comfortably mid table for comp sci.

People are correct that accommodation at NTU is a nightmare. It's the main reason DS's offer from them last year was rejected. Most of the accommodation gets booked up within a couple of hours of their portal opening which is really stressful if you haven't made decisions by then or have NTU as insurance.

NTU has a very good reputation for certain courses. I wouldn't assume that the course is automatically worse because it's an ex poly.

Really useful to know about the accommodation going quickly and yes it does have a pretty good reputation for computer science. Thanks everyone for taking the time to read and comment, I feel he has options and can make a considered decision.

For what it's worth, DS crashed out in his maths mocks and his other two mocks were average. He worked like a Trojan doing paper after paper. Came out with an A and two Bs. Currently at York which was his first choice.

So it's very possible that your son can achieve much higher grades if he puts the work in now.

Thanks Dazzling Deb, well done to your son, great to hear it is a possibility too.