Offer from Bristol but they want higher grades than typical offer.

[FraggleRok]

DD put her application in last week and heard back from Bristol (her first choice) quite quickly. The course she wants usually asks for ABB but they’ve said she needs AAB… Is this a standard thing? She thinks she can achieve the grades, although is only predicted ABB.

Yes, the University can ask for whatever Grades they like. The "typical offer" is exactly that - based on what happened in previous years.
If this year they have had trillions of applications from pupils predicted higher grades than the "typical offer" was last year, then they will raise the bar. Equally, another course might have had fewer applications with predicted grades to make their "typical offer" from previous years, and might offer places to pupils predicted lower than their typical offer.

Of course, come results day, some of the spaces might not be filled, and they might accept people with lower grades than the offer.

Last year DC’s experience was both Edinburgh and Newcastle made offers higher than typical for MFL which isn’t even meant to be a competitive course … it is how they manage demand

Ultimately they can ask for whatever they want. Universities have been giving out offers for a while now and may be managing demand on popular courses at this point. Is it likely to be very popular?
DS has had a couple of lower than expected offers and a couple as expected. Still waiting for one, but he’s not so fussed about that one.

Thanks all, it’s good motivation I suppose!

Ds has been offered three As from Bristol

I know last year Edinburgh was demanding things like A-star, A-star, A for humanities courses

Last year quite a few places changed their standard offer to higher than what they had published due to demand.
What course is it?

Any University can ask go whatever they want. My dc got a much higher offer from Edinburgh - there must have been a lot of competition for the course that year.

Universities want TBW 'best' students they can get, so if there's huge demand they'll just demand higher grades

The (not TBW)

@Pinkdafodils @Rejects
If you look at another Higher Education thread about Law at Edinburgh you will probably see why they are different. The Scottish government is, in effect, controlling access to courses. They need overseas students more than UK ones. They pay a lot more. So the university must control who is offered places to counter the Scottish government fees and deprivation policies. It fluctuates: but when DD was applying for university for 2010 start, her school said exactly the same. Don’t apply to Edinburgh. Hardly anyone is getting an offer. It’s wasting a space on the form. There are, fortunately, other great options.

@TizerorFizz yes, especially as my dc applied as an EU citizen (meaning free tuition)! Thankfully she got the grades and is now in her third year at Edinburgh.

Even if it's competitive, it's still worth a shot imo.

Are you sure that your dd wasn't looking at what the contextual offer would be. Often it will say AAB/ABB with the second being what a contextual would be. But as others have said if it is a popular choice with many presenting with A* then they may make a higher than standard/typical and take a chance on you if you hit the grades.

Bristol does have a huge number of sixth forms that it does contextual offer for. I've no idea why but DDs college was one of them despite being in an affluent area.

Sorry that's the wrong way round to what you are asking...ooops.

Yes thank you, I saw that thread - it made for depressing reading. My dc's school said only apply to one Scottish uni for same reasons. It's all very frustrating as my ds has been rejected by Oxford (as the Oxbridge thread knows!) and is really pinning his hopes on StA when it seems chances there are extremely slim if not slimmer than Oxbridge now. If he doesn't get an offer, he may have to start from scratch and reapply next year, because even though Bristol is fab and he is confident of getting three As it isn't 100 per cent the course he wants ...

To be honest, does he need to be so choosy on course content? I haven’t seen what he wants to study but Bristol is usually known for plenty of modules on offer. No one gets 100% what they want. StA still might offer! Don’t give up @Rejects

DDs have friends at Bristol. Accommodation was a shitshow last year, with not enough available and no one getting what they asked for. Also, everything is so expensive, they say going out is London prices though they don’t get London grants. Something to be aware of.

I think they give contextual offers to those sixth forms in the bottom 40% for A level results. A comp near us which sends 24% to Russel Group Unis does not get contextual offers. Dds comp which sends 10% to Russell Group Unis does get contextual offers from Bristol.

It's a complicated story - ds is under pressure from his school to reapply to Oxford and a gap year MAY be quite helpful to his longer-term career ambitions, so it might make sense if he doesn't get his first two choices but his four predicted A stars to start from scratch, as the Bristol option isn't a perfect fit in the way the other two are. But it's not a big deal in the scheme of things, I only joined this thread to give the context that his Bristol offer was three As and Scottish unis seemed to be offering even higher. He has more achievable offers from Newcastle and Leeds, which are also both fab

Yes. I see. Not a fan of reapplying for Oxford . Just more stress!

Bristol isn’t cheap but it’s not London prices. Lots of universities ran out of accommodation. It was a fact of grades snd COVID.

Her course may be one with a number of deferred entries from last year - things are still shaking out post covif

I agree with not reapplying, why put yourself through that ordeal twice? So does ds but it's all very raw atm so I am not pushing for any decision in any direction ...

@Rejects
I totally understand what you are saying but there truly are other great universities that don’t hinder your career. DD found that out. And she messed up an A level!

I agree! I see it for myself every day with the people I work with