Unconditional offers

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A work colleague told me her daughter got an unconditional offer for a uni course, and is no longer working as hard as she was on her A levels. Nevertheless, apart from that obvious downside, she''s very pleased with the offer, suggesting it means her daughter must have really impressed the uni with her application. Is that a reasonable conclusion, or is it just that the uni needs to get bums on seats? (Obviously I congratulated her, etc etc, but can't help but wonder).

I don't know which uni it was, but it was a music technology course.

@DietrichandDiMaggio How do you know they didn't have to keep working hard? Were you one of them, or is this just speculation?

Very interesting thread. DC has an unconditional offer for Art Foundation leading to an Art degree, but actually their place was offered after portfolio and interview, so not as 'unconditional' as it seems. It's just that their place was offered on work already done, rather than final exams. I will say that it does reduce the stress levels now a bit though (as we had all that in February for the interviews).

Every year we see a number of applicants at our open days who have unconditional offers from other universities for humanities subjects.

We don't make these offers. We signed up to the code mentioned above. Local colleges were relieved: the offers had a dreadful effect on their completion rates.

Not making these offers has damaged our recruitment, unfortunately. Anxious students will accept them even if they prefer other universities. They are incentivised further with accommodation etc.

These aren't outstanding students or people in particularly difficult circumstances. They are solid achievers - maybe predicted Bs - sometimes but not always from areas with lower participation in HE.

It's a difficult situation. We lose out by playing fair. It's a very obvious bums-on-seats ploy and it's not about highly impressive applications. It's a "computer-says-hits-profile" case.

Very hard to have the confidence to refuse these offers. I suppose, knowing the system, I would encourage my child to accept if they must, do their best A-levels, and get back to their real first choice first thing in clearing.

A variant on the theme of unconditional offers is the UCAS point threshold required for some degree-level (L7) accountancy apprenticeships.

These can typically be 112 UCAS points (BBC) or 104 UCAS points (BCC). In reality, candidates receiving an offer are on track (and attain) much higher grades and really the job offer is dependent on performance in the employer's recruitment process.

Obviously such students are likely to be self-motivated generally and keen to avoid marking their card negatively with HR by underperforming against predicted grades even if they come in over the technical UCAS point threshold - so that is probably the balancing force. The UCAS point threshold also enables a Widen Participation aspect and some wriggle room at exam time more generally.

I am from the Oxbridge EE offer era and I knew someone who did well enough in the entrance exam and interview to secure a place and a scholarship but went on to bomb their A levels. They still got in and then limped through their course but clearly the EE offer triggered an unhealthy psychological reaction that was not helpful to any of the parties involved.

This is fine and not unusual for Arts Foundation. Well done to him. UK university application system is stressful.

Dd had an unconditional offer a few years ago for architecture. She’d attended interviews and had to discuss her portfolio.

she was predicted BBB and got something like CCD but had been very poorly in year 13. So for her it was a god send. She got a 1st class degree.

She’s just been turned down by Cambridge after interview for a masters. I’m not sure how much her low A level results might have affected that decision. I’d like to think not but if you have two similar candidates it might do. so I would very much advise any student not to slack off due to an unconditional offer.

Unfortunately not me - straight As at A level were quite unusual in the 80s and I would have had to work much harder than I did to have got them, but surely you know that some people find it a lot easier? Not saying most people who gets top grades don’t have to work for them, but some very able people really don’t - either because they understand things clearly first time, or they easily retain information or even just because they just ‘get’ things.

I had an unconditional offer doing MFL from a Russell Group uni back in 1990.

It took a lot of the pressure off however I found that I enjoyed the studying/revision more & I was more motivated because of the lack of stress. I like doing exams anyway so I realise I'm a bit weird...

Ds got an unconditional offer for a science degree. Did he slack off, maybe a bit but he did achieve high grades and would have met the other conditional offers he had. It did take pressure off and he is now doing a research masters. The risk is that they pick this offer and go somewhere that would not have been their first choice. Ds is happy where he went but he chose this over a Russel Group uni.

My DD got an unconditional but she didn't slack off, continued revision at the same pace. It was a massive stress reliever for her as she was unlikely to achieve the grades needed for her offers, and this Uni was in her top two anyway.

I had several EE offers in the 1980s but didn't slack off (much) as I didn't want to lose face on results day...

DC1 had EE offers for conservatoire and did slack off massively - including dropping their least favourite A level subject completely. They are a slightly odd case as they saw academic work as something that ate into music time - some of the other musicians in their year had a similar view.... so the OPs colleagues daughter may be slacking off their academic work to spend more time on their music. Mumsnet can be a bit of a bubble where academics are the be all and end all but it is important to remember that not everyone (or every teen) thinks that way.

DD2 got an unconditional offer for a STEM degree if she firmed it in 2019. Once she accepted it and chose her accommodation, the uni contacted her again to say that they knew some students treated unconditional offers as a free pass to slacken off. They offered DD a bursary if she achieved the points value of (I think) 4xB grades. DD worked hard, smashed that and the bursary was given in February of year 1 which paid for her accommodation in year 2. She is now completing her Masters and hoping to graduate in July, having spent 4 years there and one studying on a cultural exchange abroad.

A-level results may still form part of a job application or cv in the future. Moreover, some companies are using university-blind recruitment, in which case the only way they have any idea of the sort of university you went to may be the A-level grades.

@lanthanum I don't think that's right about A levels being part of job applications after graduation, maybe for internships and jobs before graduation it is the case though.

Hi @ wornoutlady. In my workplace for graduate jobs we ask for a minimum in terms of A level grades, and we see what they are.

@Otherunichoices That is nuts though, isn't it? I worked in recruitment and it rarely featured, on anyone's CV (apart from very recent college leavers) And definitely not on any job spec we handled. Maybe this is a new trend...

If we're asking for someone degree-level at my place of work - what matters is the degree, we wouldn't even look at A Levels as a factor. (That's in IT).

I got unconditional offers (art schools) in the 1970s. My A level performance definitely suffered as a result.

The post from @Looksgood echoes what I’ve heard too: unconditional offers are used to lure candidates to less popular universities or courses. (Portfolio or audition based courses aside).
Given the financial constraints on some universities, these might be best avoided these days as it signals problems with student numbers. Add in the reduction in international student numbers and it’s concerning.