How flexible are universities if your grades miss the offer slightly?

[MediumHigh]

Are universities really strict with the entry requirements for degree courses if you don't quite get your predicted grades?
If the entry requirements were ABB and you got A*BC would they make allowances or would they just say no?
Or does it vary?

I think from what I've read Unis will accept the contextual offer before going to clearing, and some do points rather than specific grades, so in your example if they hit the points they are OK but it depends on the uni and course

@channellingalexis I doubt that. Various others? You apply for 5. You named 4. Then you firm 2. So they cannot have been accepted into 4 courses.

Former RG STEM admissions tutor here, very high tariff School.

It’s all about meeting Home and Overseas Admissions targets, which are usually set School by School or even programme by programme, aka Bums on Seats. In the current climate there may be pressure to exceed targets.

So PP saying it depends are correct. Occasionally we do take someone with the type of profile @SheilaFentiman mentioned in her post today at 7.42.

As PP (I’m sorry to have forgot the name; I don’t think it was from Dorothy Sayers) suggested, in times of need for BoS we would much rather do this than go into Clearing.

Different friends - accepted on results day to their Firmed Uni choice having dropped a grade.

Nail on the head there. They're not going to reject an AAB for an AAA course if they typically go through clearing for that same degree on ABC. (As long as the student has the A or A in the most relevant subject, i.e. for a Maths degree, they'll probably accept the A* in Maths and the B in geography (rather than A), as the Geography is irrelevant, but they'd never accept a B in Maths for a Maths degree if their usual minimum entry requirement is A in Maths as they'll know someone who can't get the A in Maths will struggle with a Maths degree. So subjects are also highly relevant.

With our DS, we looked on Uni websites during clearing the year before to get an idea of what they were accepting through clearing for the degrees/unis he was interested in.

Clearing gives you their "baseline" of what they think is the minimum that prospective students can start with and still hope to get through the degree course with a relatively good grade.

Anything more than that is simply supply and demand and the Unis wanting the best they can attract. It's all a competition really between students to get the degree courses they want and between Unis to fill their course spaces (and accommodation if they are campuses with their own student flats). They don't want spaces on courses nor unoccupied flats, so they'll ultimately do what it takes to fill them, even if that means accepting students well below their preferred standard of intake!

Apologies to @Desperatelyseekinglazysusan who had mentioned the policy we follow, as our contextual offer drops one grade.

Universities work in what is effectively a market. They want to fill places, but they also want students to complete the course and preferably achieve a 2:1+. Additionally, what grades they ask for influences reputation. Lower offers can influence applicants perceptions and also league table positions. Together these factors will influence the grades asked for when offers are given out and the extent of any drop accepted.
Subject and university both matter in terms of setting the grade offer. Popular subjects at post 92 unis can ask for higher grades than unpopular subjects at some RG unis. For some courses a specific level of base knowledge & skills are needed for a good chance of sucessful completion (e. g. a particular level of maths skills for engineering). This can reduce flexibility as recruiting students who will struggle to complete is problematic for the uni going forward.
Unis and specific courses have different recruitment strategies. Some give out high offers knowing they are likely to accept grade drops because they think giving offers at a 'realistic' level will cause reputational damage. Others set offers at a level that is likely to be less flexible.
Once the results are known to unis they make decisions. If a high proportion of students holding offers have met the grades, then flexibility is likely to be limited. If you have filled (or exceeded) your intended cohort with applicants meeting the offer there is no motivation to accept drops or go into clearing.

If many have missed the offers and the quota isn't filled then flexibility is likely to be greater. There can be some favouring of offer holders who have just missed - they know the uni was an active considered choice for the student (this can support retention) and it is more predictable than looking to clearing applicants. However, if you have a course that is attractive you may not take any grade drops even if places are not filled by offer holders. If you judge you can get applicants in clearing that match the original offer, unis may choose to do this rather than accepting offer holders who have missed grades. What grade is dropped may influence decisions. For example, an engineering course may reject all applicants who drop to a c in maths, but accept those who get a b in maths but drop to a c in a less related subject.
Decisions are influenced by the results of the applicant pool. It is impossible to know for sure before results day. Two sources of info can give you clues though:
*Did the course enter clearing last year. What clearing grades did they ask for if they did. I dont think official records are kept, but sometines internet sleuthing can find the info.
*UCAS used to have a tool you could view the range of accepted grades. You can see how this lines up with their standard offer. I'd link, but i can remember where you access it.

Took me a while to write (was doing 2 things at once) - realised other posters have basically said the same thing. Apologies for repitition.

Chanellingalexis, can I ask which subject for Durham were they lenient on as my DS is thinking of firming Durham for physics but the offer is high at AstarAStarA! He is predicted higher but clearly nothing is guaranteed when it comes to needing top grades!

Depends dd had an aaa including maths and physics offer but got a star aab (4 a levels) with physics at b, she got in but had 2 hours from results to confirmation of the place

DD had an AAB offer from Durham in 2023, results day she got A star BB, and thought all was lost, then checked her emails and saw she’d been accepted.

And she then had one paper reviewed and gained 14 marks taking her from a B to an A, so she actually achieved the offer in the end.

@Getbackinthebox- I honestly can’t remember and don’t want to guess and get the wrong course! Pretty sure it wasn’t Physics though!

Thank you all, that is interesting to know!

It was a few years ago, but he was fine. Didn’t struggle particularly. Went on to do a Masters. Still love the subject although doesn’t work in the field.

It was a few years ago, but he was fine. Didn’t struggle particularly. Went on to do a Masters. Still love the subject although doesn’t work in the field.

The degree course my son is applying for is Fine Art at Edinburgh which has ABB as entry requirement.

He thinks he will get A* in Art and A/B in Maths and B in Chemistry but slightly worried that the Chemistry might slip to a C.

Any thoughts?

Would the A* in Art compensate if he gets C in Chemistry?
Or the fact that the other 2 subjects are STEM subjects?

@MediumHighI think you are missing the vital role his portfolio will play. It’s not just A levels and few people here can guess what Edinburgh might do regarding a dropped grade or a higher grade. We don’t know what his portfolio is like and that will matter a lot. Their web site gives a huge amount of info on that and what they look for so pay close attention to it and look at the video they produce.

They also say they don’t require any specific A levels which, if I’m honest, I thought was odd but it might tell you how important the portfolio is. So his science A levels are neutral but so is Art it would appear. I’d be trying very hard to meet the offer criteria though and I’d also check what grades have been accepted historically. They suggest working on the portfolio in good time as submission is Dec and January only.

Hi, OP -

This is exactly @SheilaFentiman ’s example. If the course is full, it’s full. If not, this is the first sort of situation where we and I think almost anyone would be flexible.

Best wishes to DS.

I’m a uni counsellor, last year we had 4 students who didn’t get their grades - all either were accepted or offered another, similar course. I wrote letters to support them (if they had an unusually low grade or some difficult event like family death around the exam days) no idea if that helped.

DD very sadly got r@ped before her A-Levels. She had an offer of AAA from Bristol and AAB from York. She was predicted AAA but got ABD in the end.

BOTH universities turned her down. I remember clearly talking to the people on results day, begging them to let her in, and crying. They both said no.

I don't know if I had been a teacher, not just a sad and desperate mum, maybe they'd have let her in.

I will forever feel anger at this as it wasn't her fault 😥 and then being rejected by the 2 universities she wanted to go to fucked with her mental health so badly. She felt it was her fault, felt lots of shame, fell into a deep depression.

(And yes, before anyone says anything, I know her back-up offer was "too close" to AAA, but she is autistic and had her heart set on these 2 institutions only.)

Sorry, I should have said that he already has an offer based on his portfolio and predicted grades.

I had a look on UCAS but I don't think it shows what historical grades have been accepted

Here is an example. Scroll down to the historical entry grades data section. For this course you can see the offer is AAA, most students do have AAA, but the lowest held grades that were admitted were ABB. If you enter the ABB grades into the ‘how do you compare’ tool, it tells you that 33% of students with those grades have historically been accepted.

www.ucas.com/explore/courses/ae756965-85ec-1f21-6b70-563160b1ae2b/mechanical-engineering?studyYear=2027

Googling “UCAS university name course name” should get you to right page

My daughter needed AAA to study Chemical Engineering at Sheffield, her first choice. She got ABB and got in. Her B grades were only a couple of marks off the A grades. She went on to get a first and loved every minute of her life in Sheffield.