Firming up an offer

[Kayjay2018]

My son has just received 3 offers for uni, to start in September (he was a very late entry).

He applied for 2 courses and Uni A and one at Uni B.

Uni A has come back on both courses with a conditional offer of 112 UCAS points and if he doesn't meet that, have confirmed they offer a foundation year at 56 UCAS points which they will automatically consider him for if he doesn't achieve 112 (he is predicted to obtain this and maybe a little more).

Uni B have offered a conditional place for Year 1 entry at only 48 UCAS points (was advertised as needing 112).

Reading through the info about firm and insurance choices, we think if he made his choice of one of the courses at uni A (as both offers from here would go to the same foundation course), we need to decline the second Uni A offer and the one from Uni B because the course he puts as firm will in effect most likely lead to a foundation course anyway?

Sorry if that's waffled, as he applied so very late we have had minimal support from the school and we don't want to delay in responding to the offers.

Any advice much appreciated and sorry if it's a stupid question.

Which uni does he prefer?

How I understand it that if he firms up on one, that's the end of the process with the other Uni.

Which one does he like best?

Oh without doubt he wants to go to Uni A is his favourite. And the way I read it he will most likely be able to go there either as Year 1 or foundation, so assume we need to decline Uni B and the second Uni A course, which will leave his favourite uni, favourite course and that he will be considered to do the foundation at Uni A if his points don't match.

He can still put both at uni A down, in order of preference.

Do you get an insurance choice with late entry? If so he can put B as his insurance.

If not do some research and see if the courses are likely to have places in clearing anyway. It sounds like uni B will have places in clearing with an offer like that.

How long has the foundation year course been running?

Do you mind saying what courses he is interested in and which unis? PM me if you like

That tariff sounds similar to where I work and we have some courses that are too popular to have clearing places and some that have plenty of space. Our foundation years are quite new so always have spaces.

Sorry just saw you had mentioned insurance

My understanding from what I have read is that when you put an insurance then if you don't meet the grades for your firm you automatically get passed to the insurance one. But in this situation Uni A are saying that if he doesn't meet the conditional offer they will consider him for their foundation, so it's almost like they are offering the firm and insurance in the one offer and he has not decided he really doesn't want to go to Uni B.

My other thought is whether he puts a Uni A face course as firm and Uni A second course as insurance

You were correct in your original post, and yes it is a good strategy. If he misses Uni A yr 1 offer they'll offer him yr 0. Then he'll have the choice between that and yr 1 of uni B.

Well done to your DS getting offers for his first choice!
What exactly do they mean by automatically ‘consider’ him for the foundation year? I’d double check exactly what that means. Will he be considered but possibly not accepted or will he automatically be offered the foundation? Does this apply to course 1 or course 2 or both?
If it’s course 1 and guaranteed then he would firm this and not really need an insurance. Whereas if he is only ‘considered’ and nothing definite then he still needs an insurance.
Are both courses at uni A the same offer? If so, there’s little point in having a firm and insurance at the same university with same tariff. Having said that, if course 2 is a lot less popular they may accept him into yr1 with a lower score anyway. It may be worth giving admissions a call and asking all theses questions.

@NotDonna Uni A have sent the following for both courses, requirements are identical and they share a foundation course, at the end of year 1 you could go onto either course.

This offer is subject to you obtaining A total of 112 UCAS Tariff points from Level 3 qualifications. Please note that we also offer a Foundation Year route to this course for which we ask for 56 UCAS Tariff points from a minimum of 1 Level 3 qualification which we will automatically consider you for if required.

We contacted the uni ahead of submission and they had advised him to apply for the Year 1 entry and not foundation year (his start of year 13 predictions meant he wasn't due to meet the entry requirements for Year 1 but he has worked really hard on all 3 courses to get his grades up)

He is really worried about selecting Uni B as insurance instead of a straight decline as his preference would be foundation at Uni A rather that Year 1 Uni B and doesn't want that option taken away by a system that automatically pushes to insurance option if he doesn't meet the 112 points

The universities get A level results several days before the applicants do - if university A sees that your DS doesn't have the points for Year 1 (if that is the case), they will decide on what option to confirm and communicate the outcome via UCAS - if the decision is to confirm the Year 0 option, then this is what he will see as his Unconditional Firm on results day. (I think the actual wording is something to do with a change from the original course offered - it's all explained on the UCAS website). Only if University A decides not to confirm either option will his insurance come into play.

If he has no desire to go to uni B then it shouldn’t be an insurance. An insurance Uni should still be somewhere he’d be happy to go. There’s no reason why he can’t firm course 1 and insure course 2 at uni A. Or have no insurance at all given he’s the foundation year to fall back on. As KayJay says the universities receive results first and often adjust their offers on Ucas on the day. It’s quite common for people to miss their grades and assume they’ve not got in when actually the university has accepted a lower result.
it’s all very positive for your DS!

Regardless of his results, the firmed uni always has first dibs. The insurgence uni will also get the results and will change the offer to firm. But that won't actually get logged as the final decision until uni A has made an active decision to reject entirely.

Yeah don't put down uni B if he doesn't want to go there.

Former Admissions Tutor here. @MarchingFrogs is correct. If your DS firms one of his offers from Uni A and doesn’t make it, they will consider him for FY before informing UCAS of their decision.

If his insurance choice is the second degree programme at Uni A, it is possible that the first degree programme might pass his application over there first. If they are having a slow year and your DS is close to the offer, there is a chance they would take him. But it is very unlikely to be a slow year.

The FY programme is not guaranteeing to accept your DS, only to consider him. But if he exceeds their entry requirements, usually chances are good they will accept him. A more important question is: what is the rate of progression into Year 1of one of the degree programmes your DS is interested in? Sometimes this is very good, sometimes it is poor. Someone ought to be able to give you this information.

Because it is not likely to be a slow year, and either one of the degree programmes at Uni A will trigger the FY referral, I think the most sensible option is to make Uni B the Insurance choice. This assumes he would rather go there than miss out entirely.

But I think at worst he will get the FY offer from Uni A. The only question will concern progression rates. Even so, he can reapply to UCAS during the FY, expecting new offers on the basis of his FY results. Good luck to your DS.

Put both uni A courses down as choices with his preferred as firm and the other as insurance. This will show them he is keen tk go there and if he does miss his grade they only have committed to consider him for foundation. By showing he is keen to go there it may sway that consideration in jis favour.

So my son has decided he really didn't want to go to uni b. (I'm not sure why he put them down in this case, but he did). He has put one of Uni A down as firm and the other as insurance and has now filled out his accommodation preferences. As he has done 3 vocational courses the teachers are fairly certain he will achieve the number of points, if not and they don't accept him on foundation then he will have to see about clearing. Thank you everyone for your opinions, I have everything crossed he gets to go where he wants as they also offer a language elective that he would love to study!