predicted grades and actual conditional offer

[dazdaz2]

Would any of you be able to advise on the following for a UK applicant who does NOT qualify for a contextual offer:

1. For medicine and engineering, what were the predicted grades your child got and what was the conditional offer, for universities such as UCL, Imperial, Bristol, Warwick, Sheffield, Bath, Birmingham?

2. I've heard that although a 'typical' offer for a popular course maybe advertised as A*AA, you need to be predicted above this to stand a good chance of being considered. Is this correct?

3)If you have predicted grades for 4 subjects, do you ever get given a 3 subject offer?

I can address your second and third questions.

In a very competitive year , yes, a School or unit of admission will internally set a floor higher than its written requirements. This is why last year most Economics students at the top 4 Schools for mathematically orientated Economics programmes seemed to have 4 A star predictions, and many predicted 4 A stars were shut out of those programmes. A supracurricular or possibly a truly outstanding extracurricular can make an impact with this type of thinking, also.
And Schools will continue to make contextual offers and take account of special circumstances, but it may all be relative.

We and others do sometimes make 3 AL offers when 4 ALs are taken. Keep in mind that if one is dropped all unis must be informed. They may wish to make new offers and could theoretically void the old one at any time.

My DS is doing 4 A levels. His predicted A level grades are A*AAB (B for Further Maths).

His medicine offers are A*AA from Birmingham and AAA from his insurance choice. If I recall correctly he can't use both the Maths and FM grades but either will do. All non contextual.
Hope that makes sense!

@dazdaz2 I can't answer medicine specifically but an entry grade is an entry grade ie the lowest grade they will take someone in on. So for some that A star AA is an aspirational level for others predicted 4 A stars it might be an insurance choice.

Over subscribed universities and courses can of course choose the top applicants and more than likely will. Ds is at a top 10 uni with an entry of the A star AA above and if my memory serves they took in less than 5 applicants with the entry grade. All other applicants got higher grades. Ds got 4 A stars.

Ds got 4 offers and they were just on 3 A level grades. Medicine only needs 3 A levels, better to ace out 3 than risk any lower with 4. I believe some university courses will specify 4 but it is rare.

Medicine doesn't work purely on predicted grades- applying for medicine is a but of an art form and involves entrance exams and interviews.
Pop over the the medicine thread for further help!
My DS2 achieved 3 medicine offers and one medicine offer with predicteds if 3 A stars and an A.
Birmingham offered Astar AA and Sheffield and Exeter AAA
His none medicine offer (ICL) was A Star A star A.
Rejected by Cambridge.

One none medicine offer....

Question 2 - definitely. This was an aspect my DS's school fully failed to understand, i.e. that wrongly or rightly, predicted grades are to get you into the competition, not necessarily what you'll need or get.

For medicine, a few universities don't look at predicted A-Level grades at all (Aston, Keele & Nottingham off the top of my head, but there are others). Some (Barts/QMUL and Exeter) place a huge emphasis on them for non-contextual applicants. Most others set a minimujm requirement for predicted grades but then select for interview primarily on UCAT scores, so whether you have predictions of 3xA or 3xA* makes no difference.

Standard offers are based on 3 A-Levels, because that what most applicants do. It's very unlikely you'll get an offer based on 4 grades. (Birmingham used to make different offers - AAA or AABB - but I don't think they do this any more.) However, if your application says you're doing 4 A-Levels and then you only receive 3 grades you might get pulled up for dishonesty, which is something medical schools take very seriously.

Engineering (mechanical): predicted 3 x A stars. Rejected outright from Bristol, rejected from Bath but with the offer of a different engineering course (which he didn't want so we didn't get as far as seeing what the offer might have been). Offer from Warwick, one A star and two As.

thank you lovely people! that was very useful.