Has your dc received any uni offers that’s are different than the standard entry requirements

[JennyTals]

My dc hasn’t yet, but some friends have

weird ones like if you pick us for first choice…. We will lower the entry requirements

is this normal ?!

Yes, not weird as in ‘put us down as a firm’, but a lower offer if dd epq had a certain mark, and a contextual offer we didn’t realise was relevant. Dd has unique extenuating circumstances but nothing based on that.

Yes , normal to incentivise for firming them and give early access to accommodation applications.

Couple of years ago Dd had a “if you put us down as a firm we’ll make your offer unconditional “. It was her first choice anyway so was an easy decision.

I thought a lot of this blatant marketing from bums on seats unis was supposed to stop. Shame it’s coming back as unis get desperate for students. It’s shameless marketing and not in the best interests of the student. Back in the day lots of unis used this tactic (and unconditional offers) and dc stopped working for A levels. It’s really saying the unis don’t care about who they get as long as the student arrives and pays up. It’s manipulation really.

Depends whether you think students actually need particular A level grades or whether it's just a handy sorting mechanism for the over-subscribed.

Yes, you probably need to have good grades in Maths to do Maths as it's sequential. Do you need great grades in History in order to read German?

Dc had a put us first and we will drop the grade offer from Durham so hardly a bums on seats uni. Entry was A star AA and he was predicted 4 A stars. It took the pressure off massively but it meant his insurance choice was a hard one as all the uni offers were higher grades than the dropped Durham grades ie Warwick with 2 A stars.

@SpanThatWorld As most unis don’t interview, we all know A level grades are what they look at. As I assume you haven’t done a MFL degree, I think you might not know History is very useful for MFL. As is English! We don’t use other measures to differentiate between students and haven’t for decades! Who would have the time to evaluate what might be a good alternative for a degree?

If DC choose all high tariff unis, they don’t have an insurance one @ShrugGood Thatx their choice though.

No, I did MFL at A level but not degree. Obviously they're all inter-related but what I meant was that the specific content of another A level isn't essential for most degree courses. So, a student taking an easy ride through their A levels because they have an unconditional offer isn't necessarily going to be less able to do the degree.

I did a degree that very few people did at A level so most people were starting it from scratch. Not sure how hard we had worked for our A level results determined a great deal.

I think to some extent it’s attitude though. If there’s no jeopardy, why bother? Research did show this happened and then dc have to get up to speed again.

The content of many arts A levels might not be used again in their pure form, but the skills learnt are, eg good essay writing skills and evaluation of evidence. Not to mention reading!

In Scotland offers for Scottish Universities are generally based on Highers, which you get in S5. This is why Scottish degrees are four years long. Most students then stay on for another year to study a mix of more Highers and/or Advanced Highers at S6. But when they apply to university, because they already have their Highers, many get unconditional offers. This can be very demotivating for them to continue studying in S6.

What subject was that?
DC got lower maths offers in terms of A level grades if they achieved certain STEP Grades from several unis, but I wouldn't class that as a lower offer! Ditto some unis offer lower grades for Stem subjects based on FMas a 4th A level.

@BigSilly It was computer science, his 4 A levels were maths, further maths, computer science and physics, his GCSE grades were mostly 9s with a couple of 8s. His personal statement was packed because he knew what he wanted to do since year 10 and had been doing stuff.

Due to where we live he got a contextual offer. It is a joke because we live in a really nice area, it was only on the POLAR postcode which covers a wide area which does has some cheaper housing areas in it but all these children went to the same outstanding secondary and Ds also went to an outstanding sixth form. He only had a contextual offer from Durham, no other uni.

HIs contextual offer was AAA or A star AB, his put us first offer was AAB. They don't for one minute think you they are going to get AAB it just makes it an attractive offer compared to Warwick with their 2 A stars. He was on a Cambridge outreach and his personal statement was in before the Oxbridge deadline. He also sat the TMUA maths entry exam but all his offers were with him before mid November except Cambridge who were waiting on the TMUA results.

He did his rough outline personal statement in the beginning of July which was the school deadline, he followed the Unifrog guide and then 2 days later he had to rewrite the entire thing because Cambridge outreach provided a template including prompts and the number of characters they wanted for each part. Ds2 followed this same guideline, his personal statement is being used as an exemplar by the sixth form.

Just had friend and DH over and yes, she mentioned that for both her boys if you accepted a place as first choice they all came back with lowered entry requirements. In both cases it meant her sons got their preferred unis despite slightly lower than predicted grades.

Am relieved if this is the case, but not telling my DC this incase it builds an expectation!