Do unconditional offers come from not so good unis ?

[JennyTals]

Or can you get them from RG units etc ?

I don't think Newcastle has a reputation for this. When I was on the WIWIKAU Facebook group the two universities that cropped up most often for unconditional offers were Lincoln and Portsmouth.

My son had an unconditional for Edinburgh last year. We are in Scotland though and he had 5 As at higher

I think the OP is talking about the Englisk/Welsh education system here, so what happens in Scotland isn't really relevant to her concerns.

As far as I know English students applying to Scottish universities still only receive conditional offers.

Just found this article.

https://thetab.com/2024/01/23/these-are-the-easiest-russell-group-universities-to-get-an-unconditional-offer-from-in-2024

I would suspect that these students had achieved the required grades however had taken a gap year so were applying with grades in hand.

I'm inclined to agree with you. DD applied with grades in hand and got an unconditional offer straight away from Newcastle.

Yes, I went to a RG university 1992-1995. I got higher A level results than they asked for overall, however with a lower grade in one subject than required. They sent me a letter saying that I would be accepted but with the place deferred for one year. I worked abroad and went one year later on what would have been an 'unconditional offer.'

My DH had a pretty much unconditional offer from Oxford, as pps have mentioned, he had to sit an entrance exam (stem subject) and so sometimes that happened then.

But Scottish students applying to English universities get unconditional offers. Seems relevant to me. Regardless of what people consider having the appropriate results in 5th year is (which is NOT equivalent to a GCSE 🤦🏻‍♀️) these are called unconditional offers.

Because highers are a higher qualification than GCSEs.

I think you misunderstand me. An English or Welsh student with GCSEs is unlikely to get an unconditional offer because they haven't "proved themselves", unlike a Scottish student who will already have highers in hand. So, it is relevant where they apply from, or irrelevant if you are Scottish. (I don't have the face palm emoji or I would have inserted it here)

She should perhaps have said that then, incidentally I do know some Scottish kids get unconditional offers based on s5 results for English RG universities also

I expect that is because they have already met the university's conditions?

I agree that there is often confusion on these boards because there is the assumption that people are talking about GCSEs and A levels.

Am I right in thinking that apart from the very prestigious universities in England most Scottish students stay in Scotland because students don't pay fees there?

I don’t think Scottish students with Highers in hand but yet to sit Advanced Highers often get unconditional offers from English universities?

English university degrees that require specific A level subjects will generally still require AHs in those subjects too.

I know a few Scottish students that went to English universities (not just for COWI) for particular courses (they still needed AHs), but most of my DC’s cohort stayed in Scotland and saved on the fees.

DD got an unconditional offer from Lancaster together with a £2k pa scholarship.

She didn’t accept as had her heart set on London.

Yes also some of the requirements for Scottish AH are excessive compared to A level requirements. Eg an A at AH is equivalent to an A star at A level and a B at AH is equivalent to an A at A level but there are courses that will ask for eg A at AH and A at A level as if they are equivalent

I agree with you. I am in a STEM field, in England. Our offers to Scottish applicants are Conditional on their AH results in relevant subjects.

In Scotland pupils typically graduate after Y12. A Bachelor’s degree is four years long, with Y1 being a generalist year but somewhat analogous to Y13 of the English school system in terms of the level of learning.

Hence the need for a Conditional, higher level offer for Scottish applicants to English unis.

Has she sat her A levels yet?

DD applied grades in hand in 2018 and was offered a £1k scholarship, but she wasn't really fussed about going there and went elsewhere.

@RampantIvy This was about 5/6 years ago - she hadn't sat her IB at that point so didn't already have her grades.

I’m not sure how many Scottish students skip AHs and go straight to uni from Highers these days - they’d be 17 or possibly even 16 if not deferred.

Am I right in thinking that apart from the very prestigious universities in England most Scottish students stay in Scotland because students don't pay fees there?

Scottish students do generally stay in Scotland partly due to fees, partly because it is far more common to stay at home to go, partly because unconditional offers are more attractive…. But it is actually pretty cost neutral when you look at a 3-year course with fees vs a 4-year course without. If you do a 3-year course in England then in your fourth year you would (hopefully) get a full-time graduate job and earn in salary what you would have paid in fees, plus be one salary increment up on where you would have been at the end of a 4-year course.

The other issue with lack of fees in Scotland though is the cap on places for Scottish students, so there may be places at the Scottish university for English and international students but not Scottish students.

My DC went straight from S5 to uni aged 17 as did about 10% of his year group (others went to S6, college, apprenticeships, work, NEET, etc). I don’t know if any were still 16 - I would have tried to insist DC stayed for S6 if he was only 16. It is pretty common for freshers to still be 17 (and university bars are very alert to this in freshers week)

None of my DC’s year went to uni straight after Highers - a few were doing medicine / vet med so not an option anyway, a few were applying to English and Irish universities so needed further qualifications too, and the rest were doing 2 or 3 AHs.

That just goes to show not all year groups and all schools are like your school.

It would be interesting to see if there are stats on how many Scottish students go with Highers only, and if there is a breakdown on course type. I think many STEM courses would be tough without the additional maths and science knowledge gained at AH, as I don’t think the first year is necessarily just a catch up year.

I taught a female student who was offered an unconditional place on an engineering course. She was actually predicted lower grades at A level than some of the boys I taught but they wanted girls to get into engineering so she got an unconditional offer not the boys. It took the pressure off of her and to be fair to her she worked her socks off and got good grades anyway.