UCAS applications - quick info needed please!

[SalVolatile]

DS1 has received his first offer for Uni today (proud mum emoticon) but they want 270 points. Can anyone tell me what that translates as in terms of grades please? He is taking 3 A2s, a further AS and has one AS behind him (a low B I think but not sure). Also two of his choices have contacted him to say that they have his application but it will not be considered until all applications are in (presumably January). That sounds only fair to me, but hopefully is routine, not sinister......?

If he already has a B at AS, then he has 50 pts. Assume his AS this year is another B - then that's another 50.

That means he needs 170 points from his 3 A2s - an average of 3 Ds would give him 180 points.

What does he expect to get in each subject?

Sorry, got figure completely wrong - he needs 340 points from 3 A's or 370 points from three A's and 1 AS but still don't undertsand what that means

Sorry Squeaky - he has 4 AS behind him, three of which he is carrying on with, and one of which he has dropped but swopped for a new AS. He got sort of A/BB/C I think but the school doesn't claim the points yet so I don't quite know.

If he is continuing with the subject, ignore his AS grades. For the subject he is dropping, you can cash in his points.

An AS A, B, C, D, E gives you 60, 50, 40, 30, 20 points respectively.

For his A2s, he gets twice as many points for each grade.

If he gets Bs in each of his stand alone AS grades, then that banks him 100 points. That leaves him needing 270 points from his 3 AS levels, so an average of 2 Bs and a C.

If one of the AS subjects that he is continuing to A2 yielded an A, he is going to have to pull his socks up at A2 to get a better grade than that.

It doesn't actually matter what they get in individual modules - the important figure is the aggregate mark. If they get an A on one module and C on another, they would get a B overall. The A2 modules are weighted exactly teh same as AS.

meant to say in the first sentence of the last post - if his AS module yielded a C (not an A).

The not making offers till January is quite common - in fact at Warwick (where DS is) a lot of departments don't make offers till after the final deadline - it was March before DS got his offer.

Not sinister at all re offers til Jan. The universities are bound not to make all offers until the after the official deadline of Jan 15.

Those that make earlier offers must still have to hold spare places to offer after Jan too. I suppose some universities offer places earlier than others just to get some out of the way.

Two As and a B for the A2 results.
Agree about the better universities often not making offers until later - the reason is (I think) that they are waiting for the Oxford/Cambridge offers to come through at the beginning of January.

The UCAS website has a tariff table that you can look up different qualifications on and add up the points.

The UCAS website states that everyone who applies in time for the 15 January deadline is treated with equal preference re offers.

That said, the Oxbridge deadline was 15 October so other universities will guess that the applicant has probably applied to Oxbridge if they have received their application by that date (they are not meant to know to which other universities they have applied).

The Oxbridge offers are usually made end of Dec/Jan. Other universities quite often make offers before then but MUST continue to consider applicants up until Jan 15.

Wow, you are all so helpful - thank you . Lilymaid, that makes sense. No, squeaky, the C (in Chemistry) is the AS he dropped, and took up Geology instead. Looks like he is going to have to focus hard to get two As and a B in the bag, and if Durham (his first choice) is waiting to see what Oxbridge shakes out then I guess he may not get an offer from them at all (Earth sciences). Ho hum... it seems like only yesterday this was me.....

We are biting nails awaiting offers here as well

So far, only acknowledgements and an Interview at Southampton. (DD also has applied to Durham)

I am confused by the current system of UCAS points as you need to work out whether a certain offer is based on the A2 results or on A2 plus any extra AS results plus other "qualifications". DS2 gained 70 points for having completed a World Challenge expedition but says that as far as university entrance is concerned these points are meaningless as any university for which there is competition for places will make offers based on academic results only.
Not sure whether things have changed in the 4 years since DS1 applied but he got two offers almost by return of post (Exeter and Southampton), two around a month later (Bristol and York), a rejection from Cambridge at the beginning of January and an offer from Nottingham (where he wanted to go) in late January. No doubt different departments in each university do things differently.

All DD's offers were for specific grades at A2, rather than points, DS got one offer, from Coventry for 240 points, the rest were for grades.

Milliways to you and DD - it is a bit tense here too...., Lilymaid I know what you mean about the points as although DS has points for other things on his form the letter from Reading says that they only consider points from A level exams.....[hmmm]

I think some universities specify 'points' on their websites re. offers and others 'grades'. So depends on where you are applying and for which course.

Sympathise with all going through this. Have done it twice now, fab when offers come through, not so fab when rejection comes through! However, it appears to be the easier the course, the more offers. DD (predicted 3 As, applying for harder course) got 3 offers, 2 rejections, DS (predicted 1 A, 2 Bs, applying for easier course) got 5 offers straight off!