University application question - R.E. Resits & offers.

Has it been known for universities to hold out giving rejections/offers until results from resits are published?

e.g. I've applied to Warwick with AA--, AS
and predictions of 'AAAA' but I've just resat the two AS's (extenuating circumstances), would there be a possibility that Warwick would wait for these results which will be published in March, before they decide if my application is successful or unsuccessful?

Reply 1

joe_ex

10

this is exactly what i'm worried about! :s-smilie:

Reply 2

oxymoronic

19

Universities won't be informed of the results of your resits in March unless you tell them, so in short no, they won't be holding out for these results to come through. They only get confirmation of your final grades in the summer.

Reply 3

Jakko247

OP

2

oxymoronic

Universities won't be informed of the results of your resits in March unless you tell them, so in short no, they won't be holding out for these results to come through. They only get confirmation of your final grades in the summer.

Woah! are you sure! That is fantastic news hahaha!

Reply 4

oxymoronic

19

Jakko247

Woah! are you sure! That is fantastic news hahaha!

Any offer you get is subject to you getting the grades by the summer of 2010, meaning the universities are informed of your final grade rather than each individual module grade as soon as you've taken the exam. It would be a logistical nightmare for the universities to be informed of every single March module result and attach it to your application as obviously, you can resit the March exams in June anyway so what would be the point of them knowing, as you could get a bad grade now but then have an excellent grade by the summer meaning you'd still fulfil your offer by the August exams which is the main thing.

Reply 5

Jakko247

OP

2

oxymoronic

Any offer you get is subject to you getting the grades by the summer of 2010, meaning the universities are informed of your final grade rather than each individual module grade as soon as you've taken the exam. It would be a logistical nightmare for the universities to be informed of every single March module result and attach it to your application as obviously, you can resit the March exams in June anyway so what would be the point of them knowing, as you could get a bad grade now but then have an excellent grade by the summer meaning you'd still fulfil your offer by the August exams which is the main thing.

Indeed, I see your point, but I don't think the top universities are really so sympathetic to people who resit exams 2, 3 or more times in order for them to get the grades to satisfy their offer. I think if universities were given the chance to distinguish between people getting excellent results at the first sitting they would do so, and factor it into their admissions policy.
I am curious as to how they know the AS grades for candidates then; when I was filling out my UCAS application, a rather impatient UCAS officer at my college said filling out the qualification sections was pointless, so do they get the acquired AS grades from the academic reference or something?

Reply 6

joe_ex

10

oxymoronic

Any offer you get is subject to you getting the grades by the summer of 2010, meaning the universities are informed of your final grade rather than each individual module grade as soon as you've taken the exam. It would be a logistical nightmare for the universities to be informed of every single March module result and attach it to your application as obviously, you can resit the March exams in June anyway so what would be the point of them knowing, as you could get a bad grade now but then have an excellent grade by the summer meaning you'd still fulfil your offer by the August exams which is the main thing.

thanks you so much for the info, this is a major relief!

Reply 7

oxymoronic

19

Jakko247

Indeed, I see your point, but I don't think the top universities are really so sympathetic to people who resit exams 2, 3 or more times in order for them to get the grades to satisfy their offer. I think if universities were given the chance to distinguish between people getting excellent results at the first sitting they would do so, and factor it into their admissions policy.
I am curious as to how they know the AS grades for candidates then; when I was filling out my UCAS application, a rather impatient UCAS officer at my college said filling out the qualification sections was pointless, so do they get the acquired AS grades from the academic reference or something?

I agree with you in terms of the fact that yes, a student who gets the grades the first time around should be favoured above one who does resits (unless there are special circumstances etc) but the way it works is that as long as you meet your offer by the summer of 2010 then you're fine, meaning theoretically you could retake everything in March then again in June and the universities couldn't do anything about it. I remember feeling very put out about the fact I didn't do any resits yet wasn't differenciated from other people who had resat multiple times, but such is life.

Whether they know your AS grades or not depends on whether you've put them on your UCAS form or not, depending on whether they're cashed in by your school. There isn't any other way of the university knowing, they're not informed of the grades externally.

Reply 8

Jakko247

OP

2

oxymoronic

Whether they know your AS grades or not depends on whether you've put them on your UCAS form or not, depending on whether they're cashed in by your school. There isn't any other way of the university knowing, they're not informed of the grades externally.

So how is it that universities are able to get your June results like 2 weeks before you are able yourself to get them. Surely if the university desired it, they could use the same channels to find out AS grades, if not individual modualar grades. I only mention it because I saw in the Law Applications Thread the following:

"Thinking that Warwick & Kings are waiting on resits, which I'm ok with, my Law exam in Jan went ok, and my resits in History and English were good."

surely she means that Warwick are waiting on resit results before they offer or reject her ?

:smile:

Reply 9

oxymoronic

19

Jakko247

So how is it that universities are able to get your June results like 2 weeks before you are able yourself to get them.

Because this gives them time to work out numbers etc so that come results day they are ready for the bombardment of phone calls from applicants who have missed their offers/are asking about clearing/want to be released. If the universities only found out on the same day as you, it would be even more chaotic than it already is because everyone in the university wouldn't be on the same page meaning the people answering the phones would have no idea whether it was okay to let Bob who missed his offer by 2 UMS points in or if there wasn't a place for him.

So basically, the universities find out before you then they can make decisions on applications in advance. Therefore if you miss your offer and call to beg on results day, its highly likely that they will have already made a decision on your application. This is why occassionally people get letters from their firm university saying well done we've accepted you on the morning of results day, then go to collect their results and find out they've actually missed the offer but have been accepted anyway.

The applicant you're quoting may be a resit applicant (as in she completed her A levels last year and resat a few modules in Jan) as then she would have affirmed her offer conditions by March and could get an unconditional offer.

http://www.ucas.ac.uk/students/results/examresults

^^^ They only process the overall result and pass this on to the universities, meaning in March you do not have the overall result of your A levels as this isn't until the summer. Therefore the universities don't need to know about it.