Oxbridge - what happens if you don't quite meet the offer?

[quiltofstars]

I've noticed on the website for both Oxford and Cambridge there's information for what happens on results day that suggests that if students don't quite meet the grades, there's a process where the college will make a final decision based on how 'close' the results were.

Does anyone know how this works in practice? For example, if your offer was Astar, Astar, A, but you got Astar A, A...are you still in with a chance?

Not sure I've ever head of anyone actually getting there without meeting the offer grades exactly! Thanks in advance x

See above. Oxford doesn't have a reserve list. In a sense, individual Colleges do (the "open offer" candidates) but courses as a whole do not, as all open offer candidates are guaranteed a place somewhere.

Cambridge has the August reconsideration pool, for WA students. Who will have made their grades.

I don't think the two groups are necessarily coterminous. If you're one of the applicants with missed grades but with no mitigating circumstances, but you've impressed the tutors at interview and scored well in any aptitude tests, then accepting you is merely a recognition that sometimes things don't go well on a particular day. If you've scored highly on two separate occasions (aptitude test day and interview day) but fluffed on a third day (A level in question day) then it makes absolute sense to still take you. On the other hand if you're just over the threshold on both of the former and then go onto miss a grade as well - equally pragmatic to say probably not quite strong enough.

Do unis and colleges have access to the details of the grades? My 6th form teacher told me I'd missed out on the next grade up of one of my A-levels by 2%. I wonder if you were that close whether you might be accepted.

@quiltofstarsAs they over offer, they might offer a near miss a place if there’s a space because too few benefits the offers. It’s rare though. . DD was a near miss and got her insurance. Didn’t matter in the end. But it was hard at the time. Just one exam question going wrong is all it takes. Make sure insurance is where dc can see themselves at. DD loved her insurance.

I know a case with twins where they both missed..one was accepted..one wasn't. Sometimes even if you're a mark off they don't accept.

I've heard way more stories of kids missing their grades and not getting in recently than I ever have before, but maybe that's just because of the age my children are. These include:

1. Four places given for a subject with very high acceptance rates in a particular college. Only two students actually made the grade and were given a place. In other words, the department at the college that year was tiny.
2. Pupil who had to get two a stars and an a - got one a star and three As - didn't get in.
3. Another who had to get AAA and got A star A B - didn't get in. Very well resourced, academic parents rung up and spoke directly but there was no persuading them.
4. On the other hand, a fair few that did miss the grade by one and were still able to go.

I think there may have been a few years of hit-and-miss because people's GSCE results weren't as accurate as they might have been due to TAGs. Plus I think a lot of children were over predicted on A levels after the 2020/2021/2022 boom years made getting all A stars feel almost commonplace when it's really really hard.

Family 3 above were particularly devastated. They felt the place was 'theirs' (particularly the parents) and they'd somehow had the prize snatched away from them unfairly. But in reality, the same could be said for a child who didn't get offered the place in the first instance. My son and all his friends got rejected, were absolutely fine about this, but then all way exceeded the grades they would have needed. I don't think they were any more or less deserving than the kid who got offered the place and didn't get their grades.

I would say, though, that it all feeds into my strong belief that the pre qualification admissions system is crap.

Dd missed by 1UMS which was equivalent to one mark out of 280 ( very high scoring year and tight boundaries in Eng Lit) and they didn't take her before the remark bumped her up. She had to personally send in the grade breakdowns to her college. Other places/courses may be different, of course.

DS missed an A mainly because he had been seriously ill. He had the support of his school and had done a very good interview. We had to wait a few days but then he got an acceptance.

5 years ago a friend's dd was one grade off a STEM offer at Oxford. She saw her grades on UCAS site, assumed she hadn't got in, sobbed her heart out and then later looked at her emails. They still made her an offer and it came same day.

A little out of date, but in 2019 my DC missed the A grade for Oxford due to the (insanely) high boundaries required then for Eng Lit - how is 88.4% not an A!!

@Keepcominghome not OCR, by any chance? DD had a similar experience with English Literature that year. Not a problem for her - hadn't applied to Oxford or Cambridge in the first place and had an unconditional offer from Birmingham based on her predicted grades - bit she was a little sore about it.

@MarchingFrogs I’m afraid I can’t remember but sounds likely. So much water has sailed under the bridge since then.

That would only be the case if your school chooses not to release results at 8am when the embargo is lifted .

The UCAS site does not show grades. She may have received the grades from her school but they wouldn't be on UCAS at any stage. UCAS updates as the embargo is lifted and would show whether she had got in. I am assuming you mean she didn't check UCAS until later but school had given her the grades.

2% wouldn't be close though when the grade boundaries are close together. 2 marks would be

Universities get the results early under embargo so that they can confirm places. If someone doesn’t make their offer grade, there may still be places available at the university, so they might take the person anyway. However there are no guarantees on this. Universities make the number of offers they think they will need to fill their places, but it isn’t an exact science (depends on how many people accept those offers and then how the people who accepted actually do with their results).

There’s just no knowing. I’ve known people miss their offer and still get taken (if the missed grade was the least relevant) but also to not be taken. It all comes down to numbers and how much flex they have and I guess if they need to take heir own ‘open’ offers because other colleges can’t take them. It’s a big jigsaw of filling the places and shuffling and sometimes you’re lucky as a missed grades offer holder and can still be taken, and other times there simply isn’t room.

I think you can assume that if you miss one grade in a less relevant subject and especially if you over perform in the more relevant subjects (ie in humanities where the standard offer is A) they take you if they can. But they do over offer as people miss grades, those with open offers are put out to other colleges and might be preferred over the candidate who missed their grades. The missed grades candidate might be someone who ranked top in interviews and they really don t want to lose, or might be at the bottom of the list. But if there is space, I think they will take you if they can because you’ve shown you’re capable.

Not sure about someone with an Open Offer who is a near-miss. I suppose they will be less attractive to other colleges, but again, the offering college will take them if they have enough space.

@Spirallingdownwardsapologies - I made an assumption about where she received her grades. I know it was online, so assume if not UCAS it must have been an email from school…

My experience too! I got in for Maths in the mid-90s. They let me in despite getting a B (in my one irrelevant subject) and nearly failing the STEP paper.

They do over-offer on Maths at Cambridge, knowing a number won’t make the grade, so it can be very black and white on decisions made. But Oxbridge invests so much in the admissions process and sees the potential in candidates, so the pooling of those who miss grades is important. Clearing is only ever used in exceptional circumstances.

For Maths my understanding is pretty much half of those with Cambridge offers won't make the cut after the STEP ranking Remenber there isn't a pass mark per se for STEP but they rank them and take them based on that and reject the remainder. This is why some prefer to opt for Oxford because MAT is taken early in the cycle and helps decide who they will interview.

DD got in having missed a grade. This was 6 years ago for a STEM subject. She was very close in terms of UMS. It was also the 1st year changing from modular exams to end of A’Level exams. She was also the 1st from her school to go to Oxford.
She graduated with a 1st so did well.

Yes this is my understanding as well. Cambridge offer I believe up to twice the maths places they will accept and simply rank the Step marks and top half get in.
I know people who've got in missing their grades and people who haven't despite ringing up etc. Often depends which subject they drop in. Is it relevant to their degree or not. Ie if you have an AAA offer and want to read History and drop to a B in History then unlikely to get in but if you got Astar in History and a B in Biology they'd take you.

@titchy does the insurance uni know they have been rejected ?
Does it hinder that second choice penalise them by going for Oxbridge ?

Insurance (and the others previously applied to actually) know as soon as the firm has rejected or accepted and then makes their accept/reject decision. Once the insurance has rejected the applicant is moved into clearing.