UCAS tariff points and Scottish universities

[storminamooncup]

I'm confused by Scottiish Universities and UCAS tariff points. It seems some universities dont use tariff points so that makes it harder to determine if DC has the grades or not for the course they want to do.

DC currently has BBBCC and is doing 2Hs and 1 AH this year. DC's courses of interest have varying grade requirements (DC would be contextual) ranging from AABBB to BBBB.

Its difficult to ascertain if DC has the required grades or what more they would need to achieve if the university does UCAS tarrif points or not.

Under UCAS tariff points, they may meet the BBBB requirement as an example as the tariff points they currently has seem to add up. But the university may still want DC to achieve another B? I'm utterly confused and yes did try to email the university admissions and they didn't respond?

DC attended a Glasgow online talk where the snobby man said if it says 4 As you need 4 As although he was talking about business which DC isn't applying to. The online talk was a general admissions talk.

Does anyone have any insight into points that they could share please?

Many don’t use tariff points but state typical offer grades. Glasgow for example will state xxxx required in S5 to be considered xxxxxx will be required by the end of S6. There is normally a standard offer example and a contextual if your DC qualifies for a contextual offer, i.e. SIMD 20 or lower postcode,

See this example, achieve ABBB S5, typical offer AAAAAB by S6

I this example if your son qualified under MD20 he would need AB in his highers, or a B in his AH plus two Bs in his highers (assuming his AH is one of the current Bs. and you can’t count the AH & H). The Cs aren’t adding anything. Please also note the additional requirements re Maths & English.

I'm not sure Scottish universities use tariff points.
Can't think of anyone who's had an offer on tariff points, everyone has been H and AH grades

My 2 had unconditional offers from their S5 results before they even sat their S6 exams. Ds had a conditional from Glasgow Uni where he needed a B at AH maths to get on the course. No mention of UCAS points

Also, even if they meet the minimum offer requirements as laid down by the university they are not guaranteed an offer.

They should still publish the grades required though?

I think some Unis might publish UCAS points alongside grade requirements, my 2nd is only in s5 now but I was looking at UWS and I think they may do x

Not all unis dismiss the higher when upgraded to AH. Ds's girlfriend's S6 offer at Glasgow was one A at Higher or one B at AH. It did not negate the S5 higher when she sat the AH and require another A.

but what's confusing me is if DC has BBBCC and a course is asking for BBBB just for talking's sake, do the Cs not count at all?

Yeah Glasgow double count but I don’t know if they all do

I would say probably not towards the 4 B requirement, but may get a conditional offer

I think some universities just don't accept Cs so you won't get any credit for them. They want Highers and AH to be at a higher level than that

https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_1105685_smxx.pdf

Glasgow publish details by degree (see above). Presume others do similar.

I agree, I find it quite confusing. The Unis that have the higher grade requirements tend to say what is required by the end of S5 but most of the others don't. If a Uni states that they need AABB for example, is that by the end of S5 or the end of S6?

Some universities/courses (the one my DC is at) just have minimum entry requirements and they don't care whether they're taken over 1 or 2 sittings.
So they say a course needs min AABB and that's by end of S6

However other unis have a minimum achievement in 1 sitting so they usually state that. So the course may also be AABB but you must have at least ABB by end of S5. I reckon it's basically to make sure the results weren't mainly achieved in resits

Thanks. That's reassuring. DC didn't do as well as hoped in S5 and so will probably need to get more results in S6.

DC meets the Glasgow MD20 criteria which means the requirement is BBBB but has BBBCC hence the confusion over whether the Cs count or not.

I don't believe they do. Why would they?

They don't use tariff points so the C's don't count for a BBBB requirement. Unless the course is under subscribed and they drop the grade requirements.

If you really want to know you could ask the uni if they are likely to accept with BBBCC before he wastes one of his 5 choices.

Is there an open day coming up. One of mine went to the admissions stand and they were really good. Were able to look at stats from previous years for specific courses. They might say your DC wouldn't get a guaranteed offer but in previous year x% of students with same grades got an offer. In my DDs case it was 11%. She choose to give it a go (but didn't get an offer). However at least you knew the odds so was less disappointed.

Glad I spotted this thread. It's been interesting to read as I didn't realise that UCAS tariff points were not factored in when applying with Highers for uni.

I didn't realise this either. I got BCCCC years ago and got accepted to uni (through clearing because I dithered about over what i wanted to do!) - left with a degree three years later. Didn't realise having Cs was classed as a failure status for students.

UWS do tariff points but Strathclyde, Glasgow and Stirling don't seem to.

Not sure about other universities.

No I wouldn't expect the C grades to be considered in an offer. At Glasgow for a subject like History for example, a typical offer would be made for 5 A's. If you meet the requirements for MD20 then they have already decreased this to 4 B's so I would expect them to made a conditional offer to your DC of at least another 1 B to meet the requirements. The Cs are a bonus to have but not in place of still having to get the required 4 B's. Hopefully your DC is doing more highers this year so could get that and meet the conditions.

Where my DD wants to go, they accept C’s as part of a contextual offer. She’d need BBCC. Normal offer BBBB. But it is quite a creative degree so a lot goes on interview and portfolio, rather than just grades.