There's one factor that could have an impact on Durham's decision-making for near-miss candidates this year. The government now levies huge fines for Universities exceeding the number of students they're contracted to enrol - e.g. de Montfort Uni was fined £3.4 million last year. As a result, all unis are dead scared of taking on too many students, which makes it less likely they'll take near misses. One less obvious consequence of this is that the need to land on a pinhead means it becomes critical what's happening with those applicants where Durham is the insurance choice and the applicants are near misses elsewhere. Universities get the A-level results on Sunday the 15th August with the aim that all near miss decisions are made by Thursday 19th, when applicants discover what they got. The need for the Uni to know what's happening elsewhere means that not all decisions were made by the Thursday last year and that is likely to be the case again this year. Thus, there is a chance that you could miss the grades and not have a decision when you look on track or ring up on the Thursday. If that's the case, you'll have the option of getting yourself released immediately to your insurance choice if that's what you'd prefer - just ring and ask - or you can wait to see what the final decision is. Here's hoping this all turns out to be academic and you get the grades anyway. Good luck.