Leeds engineering offer seems high, is firm choice too risky?

[GhostPrincess]

My DC is wanting to study engineering at university.
They have conditional offers from 5 universities they applied to.

They're predicted A, A, B.

Leeds wants A*, A, A

The one they liked 2nd of all and wants to put as insurance choice wants A, A, B

Others want A, B, B/ B, B, B/ B, C, C

DC has their heart set on Leeds... Looking at last year's intake info on UCAS, they accepted like A, B, B. It also appears to have gone into clearing.

if they did it in previous years, are they likely to do it again this year? Or will that have been one of the contextual offer students allowed that grade?

Insurance offer is still a good university, but then I worry if they have an off day and don't get the A, A, B they will be left with nothing. It seems risky....is it risky?

It's all confusing as he's the first in the family to go to university....I'm totally just winging it and hoping for the best at the minute.

Your dc can make the choices they want but then be prepared to use clearing if they don’t make AAB. If they really want Leeds it is a good motivator to study hard and get better than predicted grades.

Do some research on courses that were in clearing last year just in case.

Good luck to your dc!

Do some research on courses that were in clearing last year just in case.

This is not easy tho – there is no kind of master list. There is another thread on here where an OP is trying to find it out and the only way that has been suggested is asking MNers who made notes last year.

@GhostPrincess I would say this; about 80% of PGs are an over-estimation – understandably, teachers tend to predict "your best day". I know numerous YP who have not achieved them and who have had to find other routes.

Tbh with PGs of AAB I am a bit surprised that Leeds have offered A-star AA as that’s two grades up from PGs. Does that mean the uni would accept AAB? Who can say. Is there an offer-holder day where he could perhaps discuss flex (I recall grades being mentioned at one of DD's offer days)?

The insurance is not ideal either as really it should be lower than PGs. Ideally they would firm the AAB and insure the ABB or even the BBB. I do see that this may not be enticing though.

It’s their decision. There are no rules.

DS's insurance was the same offer as his firm (it was Leeds actually; I highly doubt it would have flexed tbh but this was 2021 which was a very specific set of circumstances).

If your DC firms Leeds and insures the AAB they may indeed end up with no offer on results day, so they need a plan of what to do – whether that be clearing (in which case they need to be looking at that carefully in advance of results day <voice of experience>) or maybe taking a gap year and applying with grades in hand, or maybe retaking (but check the target unis are OK with that).

Is this for an 'MEng, BEng' course? If so, in what way does the offer 'seem high'? Some pf the engineering courses at Leeds do have a typical offer of A*AA.

If its one of the courses for which the typical offer stated is this, then surely all they're saying is, 'Okay, meet this and we'll have you'? They could have just rejected the applicant outright. Applying for a course with a typical offer of two grades overall above predicted must always have been an 'aspirational' choice?

If it's one of the branches of engineering / level of qualification for which the typical offer is e.g. AAA, or the applicant believes that e.g. they qualify for the lower Access to Leeds offer, then yes, A*AA does seem high, and could be queried.

Some pf the typical offers for quoted in the requirements for Access to Leeds applicants are AAB, or ABB for some courses. Were the ABB applicants accepted last year contextual (so possibly only one grade dropped) or non-contextual with up to 3 grades dropped overall?

Some universities do drop requirements a lot on results day eg Newcastle dropped 3 grades effectively for DD’s friend. Even DD’s top rated course (as in top in U.K.) let her in on one dropped grade effectively (she was taking four a levels but dropped to b on a stipulated grade a subject though had an a in a different subject)

There are lots of ways to approach this. Personally, as your DC has their heart set on Leeds, I would firm it so that they at least have a shot at getting there. They may well accept him even if he doesn't quite get the grades. Then have a serious think about second choice. If they put the AAB option and end up not getting either, they are very likely to be able to get something through clearing, but it may be less stressful for everyone to put the ABB option.

@MarchingFrogs I took it that the offer “seemed high” as in, it’s a challenge for the YP as it is higher than their PGs, rather than that Leeds has pitched the offer unfairly high. But if the OP meant "why is it so high" then your query very much makes sense.

@clary as the typical offer at Leeds is A*AA for the MEng, BEng option in several areas of Engineering, it doesn't seem strange that this should be the offer, regardless of the predicted grades. I assumed that the OP didn't think that the university should match lower PGs regardless of the typical offer (how low would one expect them to go...?), so I did wonder whether either of the scenarios I posted applied here.

If, though, 'high compared with the 'same' course at other universities', then the answer is that Leeds is a popular university with, as far as I am aware, a good reputation for Engineering.

I have looked on the website whatdotheyknow.com for freedom of information requests for clearing statistics. Leeds in 2024 had many engineering courses on offer at ABB including civil engineering, electronic and electrical engineering, materials science and engineering and chemical engineering.
Automotive and Mechanical engineering were on at AAA.
I can't see a request for clearing statistics for 2025. Number of places change every year but the data from 2024 suggests that they might accept your son with AAB for certain engineering courses. If he is prepared to take the risk of clearing it might be worth it.

Clearing opens on 2 July 2026 for courses with places still available. That’s quite a bit before results day so should be an opportunity to prepare for worst case scenario of no offer by looking to see what is available. See details here in the advuce from UCAS

I’d probably try for Leeds and hope they want bums on seats if he gets lower grades. Seems they have given the standard offer. However insurance should be a bit below his predicted grades so maybe ABB. There’s very many excellent Engineering courses at lower tariffs. Leeds might also offer him another degree in August as well if he’s rejected from what he applied for. He should not be afraid of the former polys or non RG unis either. Aim for MEng though.