Is it worth calling Manchester (first choice) if you miss offer by one grade?

[thestudio]

Hello - would be very grateful if anyone can advise. DS has an offer for a joint honours humanities degree at Manchester Uni. If he gets a B instead of an A in one of the subjects, is it worth contacting Manchester directly to (effectively) beg them to reduce their offer?!

Would this only be the case if he has missed the grade by a few marks (and will he be able to tell from his results?)

And if so, which department would he call and who would he be trying to contact?

Thanks v much in advance for anyone who has advice or experience. I know he is anxious so although he might already have this info himself I would rather not prod him too much.

There's a line on an old Frasier episode that goes 'if the shoe doesn't fit, that's not your shoe'.

Good luck to all the kids on Thursday.

As I and plenty of admissions colleagues have explained, it is not worth a call.

All that does is waste time you could be spending on clearing. For the most popular courses, things move very quickly so half an hour wasted on a call could matter.

Clearing offers are out today

Honestly they won't be. For one it's a buyers market at the moment, and applicants have a lot more power than they have in previous years. Second, you can't actually start adding a clearing place to your UCAS Track until 1pm and all unis have a margin for error - they don't expect everyone who says yes on the phone to actually add them as a clearing place, so there's plenty of time for applicants to phone round and talk their decisions through. Tutors need time to digest the results and think about how they're going to support students in the morning.

All I can say is that last year, a number of top unis had updated their Clearing pages by 9.30 to reduce the courses available in Clearing and say that a number were now full and only x weee still available. I remember this being the case at Warwick, UCL and Durham.
At 8am they had spaces (probably v few) on some pretty popular courses, but by 9.30 they were no longer taking calls about them. Other unis were posting similar messages about courses full by 11am.
Yes, this is a small no of unis and some of the more selective ones and just some of their more popular courses. Most will have still had places available.

The point is, it should be a level playing field with access. It maybe the case that few will qualify for these courses in Clearing, some of which had grades the same as standard offer (but both UCL and Warwick were offering History, as just one example, at grades lower than the standard offer) but everyone who wants to go for them and who has the grades should be able to. Why should someone who gets good grades find they can’t ring until after 9.30 because their school or college didn’t put their results in a portal or let them access them in school…and by that time, those few really top courses are full.

I understand most will phone at 10 and 11 and find places. And I understand most in Clearing might be a bit more flexible about exactly where they go. But some are seeking the top courses at the top places which have a handful of places, even in a buyers’ market. They really ought to have the same opportunity.

And the thing about not adding to UCAS track until 1pm doesn’t matter. In order to do that you need to have received a verbal and email offer. The unis which said some Ckearing courses were full by 9.30 would simply have stopped having conversations with students about those courses and issuing verbal and email offers.

And one final thing, schools and colleges have the results on Weds. most have meetings and digest the results then. They identify who might not have made their offer and look at what their Insurance is etc. They work out possible support then, so they can offer it as early as possible….if needed.
In reality, many near misses get accepted by their Firn anyway and schools and colleges know this in increasingly the case. But those that support strongly have stuff in place for those who need it. They aren’t doing this analysis on Thurs morning at a time when the kids could be ringing Clearing. They’ve done it already. They have the data ready on grade boundaries, which papers might be worth a review of marking etc and have staff ready to speak to specifically assigned students who might need some advice about next steps.

I find it so disappointing that at this vital, last point of contact for schools and colleges with their Sixth Formers, that some just don’t give their students the best opportunity for the best uni outcomes as they either haven’t done the analysis on Weds or haven’t got the staff available and results ready to give out by 8am. It won’t make much difference for most students but for some it really can make the difference between getting a place at a middling and a top uni.

With all due respect
" But some are seeking the top courses at the top places which have a handful of places, even in a buyers’ market. They really ought to have the same opportunity."

If that's what they're seeking and committed to, then they would be much better advised to take a year out, concentrate on self-development and apply in the coming year's main cycle, than gambling on Clearing....

A great post

Perhaps. But they still deserve equal access, or opportunity. And this entirely ignore the situation of those unexpectedly in a position to trade up.

Some of the large 6th form colleges struggle with the logistics of issuing 1000+ results all at once and so stagger release in batches. They may prioritise those who didn't get grades for their main and insurance choice. Some people have a very safe insurance offer and may well be able to trade up but can't until they know their grades. Having a bit of time to consider all the options if things haven't gone to plan and not rush into a 3+ year commitment makes sense to me. Also adds to fairness.

I missed my university place by one grade. There wasn’t room for me on the course I’d chosen but the university offered me a joint honours course with my original subject and another subject. I accepted it and after the first year was able to transfer to single honours directly into the second year. There are many routes to the same end point!

Ds has grades in hand after a gap year thankfully but things were def easier for us in previous years as students could sign up to receive results online at 8am. This included a full breakdown of each paper.
Not a new thing as dd had this at AS and she’s 23. I’m in NI.
Seems unfair that some will have to wait longer than others for actual marks and may miss out on clearing places.

I understand that it’s hard for colleges with thousands of students. It is up to them however to manage this extremely important day in the academic calendar.

Without a doubt, some students will be disadvantaged in terms of access to all courses available if their grades are only made available to them after many have them available and after Clearing has already been open for an hour and some courses already filled.
That isn’t down to their own poor planning or lack of preparedness. They shouldn’t need to be post-qualification applicants taking a year out if they don’t want to.
There are families in MN at the moment, researching Clearing courses and preparing for better and worse case scenarios, who will be ready to ring and chase down great opportunities soon after 8 tomorrow morning. But they can only do that if they have been given their grades by their school or college.
Some will miss out anyway as places will go so fast or because better qualified Clearing applicants will receive the place, after some unis hold a few Clearing applicants before deciding. But most places will offer verbally immediately as they want places filled - and it’s a shocking shame or travesty if some well qualified candidates are denied access because the results were issued too late.

@WombatChocolate They won't be as the places CANNOT be filled until 1pm. UCAS will not let applicants confirm their clearing choices until then. So if a course is showing on the website as full at 9am, applicants should still call the clearing line as their details will still be taken.

But universities are stating their courses are full. Candidates looking at uni websites will not call places that state they are full. They will move down their list and call other places.
Applicants do often call Clearing, even for courses still showing as having places, to be told there are no more places. Unis do not take calls until 1pm. They do not hold all applicants from 8-1pm to decide who to offer to. They often make offers over the phone and confirm by email. Yes, applicants may not be able to upload onto Track until a bit later, but they key us to be able speak to someone and receive an offer whilst places are still available. Some have very few and they are snapped up fast. Everyone should have an equal chance to know their results and hit the phones before the places are gone.

You might not even need to call them. Dd got confirmation of her place from her 1st choice uni about 30 mins before got her results, and she'd missed two of her grades! But otherwise yes, absolutely worth calling!

Interesting what pp are saying about not phoning the department. At an offer holders' day, my DD was told by the head of department to give him a call if she didn't quite get the grades! I'm hoping that won't be necessary but that comment has kept her going these last few months.

I see Manchester clearing vacancies have now been published. None available for economics. Just have to keep fingers crossed my DD's grades are good enough that they have accepted her. I know it is a very popular course but I was still half-hoping it might appear in clearing with reduced grades...
No vacancies for economics on Leeds Uni's clearing page either.

Most Unis offer verbally over the phone. They may conduct a short phone interview with a relevant course lecturer.
They tell you if you’ve got the place over the phone and then confirm

If they’ve not been offered their first or second choice and therefore put into clearing they may not know their results but they do know what they didn’t achieve

If mine were in this situation and they hadn’t received their results I’d still tell them to phone their next best course that’s on clearing

With their UCAS reference clearing at the Uni may be able to see what their results are.
I wouldn't want my kids losing out so everything is worth a try
What you want is an over the phone place agreed so don’t hang around for the college to get their act together.

But the uni won’t know their actual results either. And without those they will not be able to offer.

Universities receive notification of all their applicants' grades a week before results day. They look at "near misses" and decide to accept or reject . UCAS track will be updated accordingly. No point in calling unless grades in clearing for the course match your DCs and they have been rejected in error. (Happened to my DD btw).

www.manchester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/applying/clearing/

@thestudio did he get in?