Applying for Uni with A level grades

[andwhy]

We've had a change of circumstances at home and my Daughter is thinking of rejecting her uni place and applying again next year. Has anyone had experience of applying with grades in hand and did most of the universities make an offer if your grades met the entrance requirements.
Thank you

Please also bear in mind who is providing the reference. If she applies by the October deadline it is more likely her reference is added by the school on time, as tutors will be less overwhelmed than at at the start of December when they are working on them for the vast majority of students.

DS spoke to his Teacher as soon as it was apparent that he was taking a year out so that he had plenty of time to sort out an alternative.

Should be fine. But apply as early as possible. My DD deferred but then changed her mind after the UCAS deadline. She had to reapply which I found stressful but she got her place.

If you are applying grades in hand at well above the usual offer is that basically a shoe in? Say AAB typical offer but you have three A stars, and the university says they only look at UCAS application (no exam or interview)? With relevant A levels for the course obviously. I just remember a couple of friend's kids who had (predicted) better than published offer grades but didn't get offers - though that was in pandemic years.
There seems to be a chasm between Cambridge requirements and other unis for the course my daughter is looking at (as she doesn't want to stay in London so that knocks out a few). Looking at Bath and Bristol (Exeter too far). Not even sure if that matters as to the actual course quality - particularly at Bath - seems to rate highly.

It's unusual that they've declined to defer a year as normally it isn't a problem. I was rejected by my uni but they later accepted me once I had my grades and talked my way onto my course.

It depends on the course. Grades in hand take away one element of uncertainty for universities but if there is a lot of competition then grades are only one of the things they may consider.

In Scotland offers are normally based on Highers and the vast majority of people apply after their Higher results - so grade in hand. Unconditional offers are very common, though it seems to be getting more common for universities to make a conditional offer based on a ‘token’ result in S6 (Highers/Advanced Highers) to stop students falling off their S6 studies. But even with grades in hand and being given unconditional offers these offers may still take months to come through.

I applied to uni twice after receiving a level results. Received unconditional offers both times.

My daughter turned down her place studying history at St Andrews, after they refused to offer deferral. Applied again with 3 A* grades in hand the following year after taking an art foundation course. They were the only place she applied to that year that didn’t offer a place. Hard to believe her decision the previous year wasn’t the reason for this.

My daughter also applied to Cambridge second time round (October deadline I think) and was accepted there. As soon as she knew the outcome of the interview she was able to accept the place on UCAS. No short cuts on accommodation though. She didn’t get first dibs for that!

What subject?

That can make a big difference.

For courses that aren’t particularly competitive and just looking for a certain grade level then it should be reasonably straight forward to get offers with a recycled application.

For the more competitive courses, then the grades won’t necessarily be enough.

The existing offer not being willing to defer is a bit of an alarm bell that these may be very competitive courses.

They didn't even ask her name or what course it was for. She phoned and asked if she could speak to someone about deferring and they said it was too late they weren't doing any more deferrals. She has emailed them, but not heard back. Although that was on Friday morning and I guess they've been off for the long weekend.

I think most places let you just defer for a year rather than reapply, assuming she still wants to go to the same place next year anyway

My daughter needed a break after A levels despite doing well
and getting A, B, B and getting good offers which she got the grades for and then she worked in a nursing home for a year. She reapplied for a different subject after a change of heart to 5 unis and got unconditional offers from 4 of them after interview - it was really good not to have to wait for grades and be able to take her time to decide which offer to accept. She goes on 9th Sept.

Has anyone had experience of applying with grades in hand and did most of the universities make an offer if your grades met the entrance requirements. Thank you

Yes and yes.

This was in 2018. DD was unsuccessful in applying for medicine, got an offer from Nottingham for something else that she didn't want and decided to take a gap year. She applied to her favourite university, plus a couple of others and got two immediate unconditional offers. The third university dragged their feet in getting back to her so she withdrew her application.

Her school were supportive in providing references, and the whoe thing was pretty straightforward. She graduated last year.