UCAS actual grades obtained by students v entry requirements

[Bufftailed]

Starting to have a look for DC. Not the v competive unis. There seems a gulf - eg BBB entry requirements, but accepted CCC. Or ABB accepted BCC. Any insight into how reliable this is? And doesn’t it make it a bit of a game to get higher predictions??

In that case I think applying with one predicted grade below published admissions is likely to be fine! His offer might be at those published grades though, which shouldn't freak him out as, as we've already discussed, there's a good chance they will accept one dropped grade.

Aim high though, you'll be surprised.

Remember that the majority of students ( something like 75%) DONT reach their predicted grades so having a range of realistic choices will also help.

Well my DD got an offer last year for Lancaster of ABB if she firmed them (standard published offer for the course AAB). She actually got ACD and was still accepted, maybe because the A was in a subject closest to the course she wanted, who knows.

But she must have completely screwed up the Beta data on the UCAS website!

This is useful. Lancaster is an option for DC. What were they predicted?

From recent experience Lancaster will often drop a grade on the advertised requirement if you firm them.

My daughter is a recent History student where the requirement started at AAB, became ABB when firmed and then got in with BBC - must have been only just though!

You also have to take into account that some of the lower accepted grades might be contextual.

My daughter didn’t get the grades asked for on her course at Lancaster and got in last year with no issue. They did like her personal statement. She is doing a great course too where she will go to Madrid for years 3 and 4. I can really recommend Lancaster. Safe little town (city), lovely campus, great accommodation and she is really happy there.

That sounds amazing. What were there predictions?

This is useful. Lancaster is an option for DC. What were they predicted?

She was predicted AAB, with the B in Spanish but she completely screwed up the speaking exam (got an E luckily the other papers got it up to a C) and got a D in Psychology (don't get me started on the Edexcel grade boundaries compared to the AQA ones.....).

But presumably like Rachel2409, my DD is doing a MFL (+ humanity) joint degree and unis are desperate for MFL students so that may have made them relaxed about grades.

Sadly Lancaster have drastically cut back on the joint degrees that they offer, DD's definitely isn't available this year.

the UCAs accepted grades can be a bit deceptive as they include the grades of students who have been offered lower grades for reasons (free school meals, certain programmes etc) ie not necessarily because the uni was needing to attracted bums on seats and dropped entry grades for that reason.

If you son wants to do modern languages he can also consider liberal arts degrees which are flexible degrees which offer language streams. Exeter dropped grade entry for their liberal arts degrees last year (ABB I think?) if student confirmed as first choice. Both Nottingham and Exeter Liberal arts went into clearing so grades would be lower than that potentially.

Thanks all. DC is doing MFL but looking at C/B - not planning to do if at uni atm. He wants to do social sciences. Course at Lanc asks for BBB maybe BBC if he does well in EPQ. He might be predicted ABC / BBC/ BCC. But some unis with higher entry requirements have much lower accepted grades reported on ucas so that is confusing me a bit..Lancaster looks great - will hopefully get to an open day.

Lancaster dropped their grades a fair bit for a lot of courses last year in clearing as my daughter has applied there for 2026 entry so I checked their website for clearing grades required in August last year . She was then looking at Marketing which dropped from ABB to BCC. For Psychology which she is now applying for, according to the WIWIKAU Facebook page, it dropped from ABB to BBC I think. It's now AAB for entry to both these courses but I think it wss ABB last year.I really like the university and hope she decides to firm it.

Wow such a drop in clearing! Would that make accommodation difficult at Lancaster, going through clearing 🤔

I've made a note on my clearing notes that Lancaster was offering accommodation through clearing last year . I think they have quite a lot of accommodation for first year students

Wow such a drop in clearing! Would that make accommodation difficult at Lancaster, going through clearing

I'm not sure actually. My DD applied for accommodation as soon as she'd firmed Lancaster (around April I think) and when it was confirmed she had to pay a (refundable) deposit to secure it. Other unis don't even allow you to apply for accommodation until after results day. Personally I always think clearing sounds far more nerve wracking than the usual application, mostly because of the accommodation issue. Maybe ask at the open day?

Many Universities are scrabbling for numbers, the RG University I used to work at shut a course in my dept a couple of years ago, unthinkable a decade ago. We were turning down anyone who didn’t have triple A grades back then, not now as far as I’m aware, still have friends working there.

@plasbks those not being accepted it will be because that’s dept will have hit their target numbers. It’s all about the numbers.

Does anyone have any experience of grades accepted v grades offered at University of Manchester for modern history and politics?
Dd is in a flap. The offer is AA Distinction, and she was offered after a late application. They allowed her to apply late, submit an alternative personal statement, and offered on the day applied, so that’s a good sign I think.

Conversely some universities ask for higher grades in order to attract more applicants as prospective students then think they are more prestigious courses.

It really depends on the cohort that were given offers. They expect a proportion to miss their grades so over offer and if more miss their grade than expected they will either drop grades for candidates they have already offered to, or go to clearing. If more than expected achieve grades then they won’t need to accept those with dropped grades. So there is no guarantee they will accept dropped grades.

I just wonder how to find out if it’s a popular, oversubscribed course, or not so much. I can’t really work out where that type of subject and that uni in particular fall within the tiers and so on. The standard offer is 3xA for pretty much everything I think, but in mind that’s aiming high for Manchester as it’s not up there with the likes of Durham etc.

Have you looked at the UCAS page showing accepted grades/ lowest grades etc?

i have now !
it seems the most common grade is AAB with lowest ABB. I just feel sorry for them all, panicking won’t help the pressure