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?

Yes, I think in theory someone could be rejected early by both firm and insurance if those unis are confident they won't need to accept dropped grades. And they might then be offered a place in clearing at a uni which knows they will end up having to accept dropped grades, so is already on the hunt for good people iyswim. I don't know how many that would apply to, just wanted to check that people with early rejections are free to negotiate if they want to.

Definitely. Once your F and I have rejected you, you are free.

So I’ve been told. In all the years I’ve worked there we have never taken anyone on an insurance offer…..I find it unlikely nobody has never missed their firm and then wanted to come to us but I promise it’s never happened.

we currently have x amount of students who have firm accepted and x amount who have put us down as insurance but in a meeting with SLT got told “ignore them we don’t have to take them”.

we’re an allied health profession course with a limited specific number of places. If we have for example 20 places due to placement capacity and 25 firm offers and 10 insurance. We can’t take 35, we wouldn’t be able to give placements to them. 🤷‍♀️.

Universities over offer, as they know on average how many will make the grade. If they've got that wrong and too many have made the grade they'll breathe a sigh of relief at anyone they can turn away. If they've got it wrong in the other direction, they'll be flexible. you can't know until you ask.

I have said for years that I thought we had to take them if they miss their firm and want to come but I keep getting told that’s not the case. From people who are senior enough for me to expect them to know.

Depends, u won’t know until results day, but some unis don’t accept C grades.

I technically missed my offer but broadly equivalent like your scenario OP (offer A star AA, received 4 As) and still got into Oxbridge so I wouldn’t rule it out as a possibility. It depends on how many offers they made per place and how other people did.

Your institution would have been all over the daily Mail with the sad faces of applicants who'd met their insurance offer and still found themselves rejected by you if that was the case. I suspect there are misunderstandings going on. For one, UCAS changes the offer to unconditional for all your applicants who have met their offer regardless of whether they firmed or insured - there is no physical mechanism for them to not have their place with you shown on their TRACK. Probably someone thinks that this means you don't take insurance people because they can no longer see them on the system as CI.

I am guessing your standard offer is at the top of the range and that therefore if people miss their firm they have also missed their insurance if it's you. Medicine have a cap and they weren't able to just withdraw insurance offers when they were massively over-subscribed during the pandemic.

@SoTedious yes it happens, but it general its tiny numbers. I work in an international school and our kids do IB. On occasion, an international student misses their firm and insurance on IB results day (July 6th ish) and can enter clearing straight away, and gets sorted quickly. They need to do this to have time to get a visa generally. Our UK passport holder kids are always told to wait until A Level results day before any uni will give them an answer on clearing, as they wait and compare them to the rest of the possibly cohort. So yes some get sorted early, it really is a small group though; not least because I think IB students are morel likely to meet predictions (it's easier to predict tbh), and international students are more likely to be accepted with a missed grade anyway.

@QuintanaRoo that's so weird as UCAS is very clear that you're guaranteed your insurnace place if you make the offer. Unless they're only getting unconditional offers at their firm choice for some reason, I can't see a situation ever arising that you've described! Not calling you a liar, just saying it's surprising and sou ds very niche...

Yes this is so weird. I've just looked at my DCs UCAS hub and it says:

Your firm choice - Waiting for confirmation. Your place will be confirmed at this university or college if you meet the conditions of this offer.

Your insurance choice - Waiting for confirmation. Your place will be confirmed at this university or college if you're NOT accepted at your firm choice AND you fulfil the conditions of this offer.

So I really don't see how an institution could not honour an insurance offer of, say, AAA, if the student gets AAA instead of the say, AstarAA they would have needed for the firm. If they get BBB they simply get neither and go into Clearing. Surely?!?

It also says: Waiting for confirmation from your choices. You have replied to your offer(s), if you meet the conditions of your offer(s), the university or college will confirm your place.

I dont see how anywhere can refuse a place to someone that is a) refused their firm choice but b) meets their insurance choice. Unless this is the world's nichest course with about 20 students on it, as others have said, there would be scores of outraged students going to th epapers saying such and such place wouldnt let me in even though I met the conditions of my insurance offer?

I’d say we’re more mid to upper range in necessary ucas points

“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.”

this is such good advice, thank you @poetryandwine

It is good.advice.but only for courses that have similar a level requirements.

Dd is doing one language amd two sciences. She has applied for a language degree. Realistically whatever she gets in her sciences will have no bearing on her ability to do her course. She regrets taking chemistry and thinks would have done 1 million times better if she had picked another language or virtually any other subject..she has found chemistry very hard and has struggled to.engage with it.

Unfortunately she is stuck with it now but I won't take the advice that if she gets an a star for her language and a c for chemistry, she won't be able to excel in her course.

Of course.

I like the statement as so often you read that students should aim as high as possible and if they think there is any chance to always go for the highest entry option. This flies in the face of that and suggests sensible caution.

That's true

Last year on WIWIKAU someone missed their Cambridge offer by one grade and still got accepted immediately.

You never really know what will happen.

This. This happens more than students realise.

I got in through clearing. I put such high expectations on myself, my undiagnosed anxiety skyrocketed and I essentially messed with my exams and missed the grades I needed.

I now have 2 science degrees and work in industry in a very technical role.

if you are heading to one of the more competitive unis and to a very popular course absolutely if you miss your grade you are unlikely to get in. Neighbour who wanted to go to Durham missed AAA and got A*AB but it was still a no😱
last year lots of kids at top unis who missed a grade didn't get in as the unis were oversubscribed from 2021 when no one missed their grades! Make sure you have a back up plan so you can press the button if you go into clearing. Try to find a course that has lower grade requirements which you like the look of as the earlier you are firm in clearing the easier it is to find accomodation- which can be a nightmare!!

But they won't know if they are the weakest. It's not like they publish everyone's grades at the start of the course.

@powerrangers they'll know once they start falling behind others on the course, e.g. struggling to follow lectures, participate in tutorials and do their assignments

The students with strong A levels talk, and the students with weak ones listen. This goes for both grade and subject. Many courses have recommended subjects.

A becoming modesty about your AL grades is rarer than we as their personal tutors would wish. Relying on them (if they were good) isn’t even particularly helpful on the whole.