Decisions - Firm & Insurance

I'm unsure of which university to put as my insurance choice.

I'm sure of which university will be my firm choice and the requirements are ABB. The other universities I'm interested in require ABB and BBC. Should I put the ABB one as my insurance choice or BBC?

I was originally going to do this:
# Firm : ABB
# Insurance : BBC

but everyone I told was shocked at the massive difference.

Is it normal to choose something like this?
# Firm : ABB
# Insurance : ABB

If I don't get the grades ABB, are both my firm and insurance choices going to reject me? (Let's say I get BBB or BBC)

Reply 1

oxymoronic

Forget the grades and pick the one you like the best - this is somewhere you are potentially going to live for 3 or 4 years of your life meaning you can not base it on grades alone. Which one of the universities is actually your second favourite? then put that one as your insurance.

In an ideal world, your insurance university is lower than your firm one but this isn't the case for many people as your personal opinions don't follow such a logical manner. Many people have an insurance choice which is equal or higher than their firm and some don't have an insurance university at all. Even if the grades are equal or higher to your firm, just because your firm rejects you for not meeting the offer it doesn't mean that another university will follow suit - they may accept you even though you didn't meet their offer. Therefore you may as well put your first and second choice then hope for the best... there is no point at all in putting a university you don't want to go to just because their grades seem to be more logical. Once you've got past results day the grades are arbitary and its the university and course which matters.

Reply 2

Magma828

Well these are the universities:
St Andrews - ABB
Birmingham - ABB
Keele - BBC

I'd rather go to St Andrews by far, so that's definitely my firm choice. Birmingham is a lot better than Keele and I like Birmingham more, but Keele is very close to where I live so that'd be advantageous. At the end of the day, I wouldn't be too bothered if I went to Keele or Birmingham, I just want to make sure I go to one of them. (There's no point going into clearing to go to a uni similar to Keele but far away from where I live).

Reply 3

LearningMath

It wouldnt really make sense to have an insurance with the same, or higher grades than your firm. I understand there are some exceptions.

Reply 4

Jack Anthony Cox

Go for Keele. If you like them same, and the offer for Birmingham is the same as St. Andrews, you might as well play it safe rather than risking clearing. Good luck on your firm though :smile:

Reply 5

oxymoronic

LearningMath

It wouldnt really make sense to have an insurance with the same, or higher grades than your firm. I understand there are some exceptions.

Why? It makes even less sense to have an insurance that you don't want to go at all but you've put it as they've got lower grades.

As I outlined above all universities have different policies on results day so its perfectly normal for someone to get ABC then be rejected from their firm that wanted ABB, but be accepted by their insurance choice which also wanted ABB because the insurance choice happened to still have a spare place etc. Similarly, you could get ABC and be rejected by your firm as they wanted ABB, but your insurance wanted AAB and they might still accept you on results day.

Magma828

Given you live close to Keele have you checked that you would still be eligible for accommodation? Similarly, check with both of them that insurance applicants are still eligible for accommodation as some universities don't guarentee it for insurance offer holders. If you see little difference between the two, something like this might sway you one way or the other.

Reply 6

Magma828

If Keele don't give me accommodation then living at home for the first year isn't an issue. I'll email Birmingham and find out about their policy, I forgot about accommodation guarantees completely!