If you miss the grades, will they ever let you in to Uni?

[Peverellshire]

Just pondering this for one of mine. I think they may miss by a grade in a couple of subjects, guessing that means , generally that you lose the first choice, Uni place?

If your offer is A star,A and B an you get A star, A star, C - and the C not in the subject you are studying, is there broadly, some flexibility these days?

That's a how long is a piece of string question! Some institutions will take a miss, others won't. Will also vary by subject within an institution as well. But that's why insurance offers exist.

How popular is the course? Is this a bulge year or a waist year (demographically speaking)?

There will be places in clearing for many arts and Humanities subjects, and at some institutions places in all disciplines. Need to know subject area to comment.

Hi, OP - broadly, yes.

Some institutions cap some subjects due to placement or similar capacity considerations (e.g. medicine) and some due to institutional strategy around size and shape.

But in most subjects, if you are willing to be flexible around location, you can almost certainly find a place - through Clearing, doing a Foundation year as access (whilst these still exist), or often institutions will "cross sell" courses, i.e. offer you a place on a related but less popular course. It is sometimes though not always then possible to transfer onto the original degree later as people inevitably drop out.

Op - seriously?

It depends on the other applicants too , my son needed 3B's . On the morning of collecting his results he looked online first and could see that he had got into his first choice Uni. He went to collect his results thinking he had at least 3B's and maybe even an A . Turns out he had 2B's and a C .

Have a chat with your child. They will know the answer and then you can chat options

My son missed his grades by a small amount but was offered a place for his first choice.

Unis would rather have someone who is a few points down who wants to be on that particular course rather than someone who would have preferred to be somewhere else.

But it does depend on other things too as PP have said.

You can look on UCAS website (I think-if not I'm sure someone will say where) and see what grades they have taken in the past-but yes-in my experience they do but obviously courses and Unis vary.
Clearing also hugely helpful so don't despair!
Good luck

These are good answers, OP.

Here is what happens from an admissions tutor’s perspective. The universities get A level results at midnight on Sunday, a few days before pupils. Admissions teams throughout the land convene on Sunday morning. Everyone who has made their offer is accepted.

Clear rejections are made and Insurance offers from early Rejections elsewhere begin.

For any programmes that still have open places, we look carefully. All close calls, first within the programme and then across our programmes are analysed. If you drop one grade in your third subject we will probably let you in, or offer you this other programme. After that we call another STEM School in our uni requiring similar subjects and grades and ask them to offer the programme(s), if their School is full. This is a reciprocal arrangement. Luckily that is as far as we need to go.

Students who have four A levels abd drop two grades are a subject of lively debate.

Lining up the emails to go out on Thursday and doing the same for Overseas students, who tend to have much more complicated situations, makes the beginning of the week fairly intense. It is much more complex now that the cap on numbers has been lifted. I am glad to be away from the job.

Ultimately you don’t want your DC to be the student with the weakest A levels on their degree programme. This is true even if they underperformed because of personal circumstances. It too often leaves them underconfident as they begin uni and need to be feeling good.

Depends what you’re planning to study. With vet med, for example, if the uni really like you they may offer you a position on their 6 year degree rather than 5 year

Good point, @PastaPup We also refer to Foundation Year.

This is an ongoing conundrum for my DS over where to firm: Exeter with AAA, which he prefers; or Bristol whose offer is AAA or A*AB

90% leaning to Exeter but slight doubt as someone he knows from a year ago who didn't get in with AAB for the same course.

It's all so shit isn't it. Basing everything off a single exam

I can’t think of any subject where it is just one exam only

DS got all grades one grade below his insurance offer but they still confirmed his place.

If your offer is A star,A and B an you get A star, A star, C - and the C not in the subject you are studying, is there broadly, some flexibility these days?

My friend's DD acheived those grades and ended up at Sheffield University instead of her first choice. She achieved a 2.1 and now has an excellent grad scheme job.

As others have said, the uni may accept him anyway, but if not then he should be prepared to go through clearing. Lots of students enter university this way these days (as opposed to 30 years ago when I went to uni - clearing was a much less common thing back then). Make sure he's prepared to get on the phone first thing on A level results day if he doesn't get his grades.

Depends on the uni and the course.

Dd needed AAB for stem subject, got AAC. Was not accepted at that uni for any related subject, uni was oversubscribed with those who had got the grades. Wanted the course at that uni. Took a year out, resat (with a tutor), got AAA and unconditional place.

Whatever happens it is not once and done... there are so many options.

I assume at this stage they already had their conditional offers with their mock results? How common is it to do better at the final exams than at the mocks? Dd is about do her mocks and worrying she won't get the grades she needs for the uni she wants, but thinks maybe with more time she'll get there.

It all feels so final a the mocks stage with everything decided before the actual exams....... or am I missing something?

Last year my DS needed AAB for first choice and ABB for second. He got AAC and the C was 4 marks from the B. He was rejected from both. So not always. Depends on how competitive the course is and whether they filled the course with those who got the grades.

It totally depends. For example my son needecA*, A, A for UCL and got AAB and they wouldn’t take him but lots of the students I’ve taught - secondary school teacher and 6th form tutor, have been accepted with lower grades. Unis have to essentially take a gamble on how many students will accept their offers in the first place and then how many will get the grade.

It depends, dd had and offered of a*aa including physics she was taking 4 a levels

She got those grades in 3 subjects but physics slipped to a b. She got her place confirmed about 11am, a tense wait!

A friend of hers slipped to 2 BB's plus 2 a star and they didn't get in, went to their insurance offer

@LaCerbiatta they get offers on their predicted grades, which may or may not be their mock results.
My daughter got A star, B, B, on her mocks, her predictions are A star, A, B.
Since then she's had coursework grade of A star for the predicted B (which may then inch her over to an A if she does ok in exams), and an A star for her non exam subject (which has yet to be moderated, but she's comfortably above the 2019 boundaries) that she was predicted and A in. So if she goes from current standing, she may well get A star, A star, A. Getting that A star in her coursework boosted her confidence which has helped spur her on.
Students can do worse of course - which is why I think it's awful the decisions are on a few exams rather than a few years of coursework, and in only three subjects.

And the lesson there is don't do four when your offer only needs three!