University offers coming in?

[WombatChocolate]

Just for nosiness and due to excitement about DS’s application going in, wondered if we could have a thread with people sharing offers as they are received, during this early phase.

Has anyone had an offer yet? Who will be first?

And totally realise that most won’t have applied yet and won’t do so for months and that’s absolutely fine and more normal.

Absolutely :-). Probably does no harm to have a "real" ABB too, as more likely to take slippage. What a great offer she has

@Revengeofthepangolins It is, and really takes the pressure off for her. If she gets an offer from Edinburgh that would be her firm, if not it will be Bristol. She knows a lot of people got much poorer grades than expected last year, though, so she is taking nothing for granted!

The people saying that you're being offered lower grades if you firm, is there a deadline on this? Do you have to do it earlier than you would ordinarily, or can you still wait for all your offers to come in before you say yes to this offer?

I know for Leeds my daughter would have to firm when she has all her offers which is usually by May and complete their online course to be granted the contextual offer of BBB.

I haven't heard of such offers having early drop dead dates. DS1 had one a couple of years ago - the timing was just the same as any other offer. It caused him a bit of angst in the run up to A levels as it was not his first choice uni, but was very tempting when the stress set in, which is presumably the intention.

Ds2 has had an offer from Loughborough to add to his Nottingham one. So 2 in 3 to go. The Nottingham one has an alternative offer too, so A star AA standard offer and an alternative of A star ABB! Some students do drop down from 4 A levels so they are stating that the Bs are reliant on him continuing to take his 4 A level subjects.

@Rollergirl11 @PumpkinKnitter if it was contextual they would state it was contextual. A grade drop usually means they want you, they know you will probably attain higher than the grades they offer but they know it takes the pressure off and makes them a very appealing.

Ds1 was predicted 4 A stars, Durham's standard offer is A star AA, we come under contextual for Durham but no one else because of POLAR postcode ie where we live. Some unis want several criteria for a contextual offer.

Durham's offer was AAA so already a one grade drop. It stated alternative conditions of A star AB to include an A in maths, and also a contexual offer but only if you put us as your firm choice of AAB, again with the A in maths. Fortunately it was Ds's first choice and any insurance offer would be above that but he had to put one. Firm choice was AAB and insurance A star AA. Ridiculous but all he could do.

I have never heard of a firm me before x date. I know there is panic when unis start pushing for people to make accommodation choices (looking at you Nottingham) when not all offers are out forcing some to withdraw their application from other unis so they can complete the process and lock in their firm and insurance.

DS got his first offer today from Warwick.
But I am also wondering what happens if he gets his first choice too and this (while definitely his second choice) would then not be valid as an insurance either.
Why does this have to be so complicated!

@UniDaysAcoming why wouldn't it be valid? Firm one (his first choice), insure the other (Warwick). If he doesn't make the grades for the firm he gets the insurance (if he makes the grades for that). Offers don't expire until you've got them all then choose two which will then remove the others.

@UniDaysAcoming It is completely your DS's choice which two he chooses from his offers. If he got offers from - say - numbers 2, 3 & 5 on his list he could choose 2 and 5, that's completely up to him.

@UniDaysAcoming Warwick was never intended to be his insurance against missing grades surely? It is his insurance against not getting an offer from his first choice.

I think this is something people miss when going on about one aspirational, 2 achievable etc strategies. The choice of applications has to give a decent chance of getting a "first choice" offer to firm as well, ideally, as producing an offer at lower grades as insurance against a grade slip. For candidates aiming for very competitive courses, it may well be necessary to use most of the slots on target firm universities - if offer rates are say only up to 30%, there need to be quite a few of such targets on the list. If the candidate gets lucky, they then have to choose which one to firm - this is a nice problem. And the the last slot will hopefully produce the grade insurance offer.

Assuming the teen in question doesn't just rant about retaking next year and refuse to put such an insurance option on the slate ......

DD has applied for History and Spanish. Has had offers from Bristol and Belfast. Also applied to Oxford, Edinburgh and Durham so not expecting anything else for a while.

Yes, completely agree with this. DS effectively has four in the aspiring category, fully aware he is very unlikely to get all of them (very competitive course, his first choice is Oxford). They will all want similar grades. His insurance is a grade set lower.

@Revengeofthepangolins it's an interesting one re: firm and insurance, many moons ago when I applied to university you had 8 slots so it was much easier to apply for a broad range (if they were available) and the accepted wisdom was that your insurance should be a lower offer to protect in case of a disaster on results day.
Now with fewer slots and more competition for places it seems to be a slightly different conversation with the insurance element being not just protection from grade slippage but also in case of not getting an offer from your favourite. DD's 5 choices are based mainly on course content - in her head Leeds is first and Cardiff is second........but we've only seen 2 of them so far and I've tried to impress gently that she may not get offers from everywhere so to keep an open mind. Plus we have two different friends who studied in Cardiff and both have said that she'll love it there so hoping that she'll not get too hung up on Leeds yet.
Her application has gone in (woop woop!!!) but only so far as UCAS............school still need to add her reference in which we hope will be this week!

@mondaytosunday

Sensible! My DD's friend applied to Cambridge straight a*'s in hand plus was eligible for widening participation (first in family, school in special measures, low achieving neighbourhood and mixed race, you would think she was a poster child) but no offer, the college system means they pick who they think would fit - as it happens we knew someone who got a place at that college and everyone on that course was white, male and from the SE (or had a Home Counties accent at least!)

Anecdotally everyone non-contextual gets the triple A offer, if you put them first choice you get AAB. Both History and English were in clearing this year, but only "with" options. The straight courses were not in clearing.

Do you mean that nearer the time of choosing which to firm and insure, they contact offer holders who have AAA and tell them they can have AAB if they firm, or that when making the initial offer, they make 2 offers of AAA and AAB if firmed?

They need to switch to a system that does not rely on 'predicted' A Levels. It really just creates too many inefficiencies and too much confusion and kinda forces students into becoming sort of academic gamblers.

No other country in the world relies on 'predictions'. Students simply apply with all of their admissions criteria (exams, grades, letters, etc) in hand and wait to hear back.

Right. I wonder the same.

My son received an offer of AAA from Exeter but no mention of reducing it to AAB if he firms

That may have changed then. Sorry if I have misled. DD now in third year of History, but that was certainly the case with her initial offer. Having received a post interview rejection from Oxford, she then firmed Exeter, which became AAB, and her insurance was Warwick AAA.

@UZS AS grades at the end of Yr12 offered greater certainty and seemed to work well.

DD1's form went off to UCAS on 30th October.

She received 2 offers yesterday (31st) both AAB from York and Cardiff for Biomedical Science

I think the AAA-AAB thing is partly to appeal to as many DC as possible, so it works as a firm choice and an insurance and appeals to people with predicted grades from ÅÅÅ-ABB.

Or, it might be that AAA is slightly inflated to try and induce people to firm them. Plus the higher the offer the less likely the DC will make it, which leaves it up to the uni to decide whether or not to take them. I think for some courses admissions must be a bit of a tightrope - they need to get as close to the maximum number of students as possible without going over, especially if there is a limit to eg lab space.

That’s depressing isn’t it. Surely a wider range of students would make it more interesting for everyone, lecturers too

Has anyone heard offers from Newcastle or Lancaster yet ?

It's another side to the problem of applying with predicted grades I think - it's so stressful for students but I'm sure it's no picnic for the universities either, their margins are so small they need a certain number of students on each course, but have no idea who / how many are coming until 3-4 weeks before term starts.

I guess Oxford are in the best position, as their offer holders are very bright and standard offers not too high. All the others are at the mercy of exam results, and if an insurance, whether the firm university wants them or not.