Russell Group university GCSE requirement and having grades higher than typical offer

I believe Birmingham Medical School; AND Economics [+ w/ maths); Law at LSE are obsessed with GCSEs, i.e 8/9A* +, but for most other courses, you should be fine, however, I'm not 100% sure about other LSE courses. Do you have any A* grades at GCSE? I know some people with 2-4A* going to LSE for one or two courses (not Economics/Law, though).

They will not give you an unconditional offer unless you have obtained those grades already, no matter how good your predicted grades are.

I've heard some accuse universities of doing that (rejection due to insurance thing), but I think it's quite rare or simply a rumour.

I only got 1 A* and only 3 As at GCSE but still got 4 Russel Group offers, including UCL. Don't worry about GCSEs, especially when your predictions exceed the requirement.

Do you think mentioning Birmingham in my personal statement will help? (I do definitely want to go there)

no the other four choices might be quite upset and you can't guarantee an offer from Birmingham.

I got offers from 3 out of the 4 Russell Group universities that I applied for with okay GCSE's, not an A* in sight, as did tonnes of my friends. This was only this year - so unless they're going crazy for next year, I doubt it'll change

Excellent news, define 'okay' if you don't mind me asking cos TSR 'okay' seems to be pretty high.

Oh dear. I only got 3 As, 6 Bs 4 Cs..... and I'm applying to Leeds, Sheffield etc
But my AS result were AABB, predicted AAA. I'm worried now

I can't really remember, to be honest (because I'm not a massive TSR dork, probably) I think they were mostly B's with some C's and A's though.

Don't worry, I've never been into being the best and revising 19 hours a night and I got offers of achievable grades and I'm starting a Russell Group uni later this month (the one of my choices that typically gives the highest offer too...).

It's not scary attempting to get in one unless the course is ridiculously over applied to and even then, you'll probably still get a few offers!

I have 4 A*s (and 3 As) at GCSE and managed to get offers from Bristol and Southampton. I did get rejected from Warwick but they are regarded as a top 5 uni for Economics. What is probably just as important as the quantity of A*s is what subjects they are in, so core subjects and those relevent to your potential degree will be given priority. On a side note, I was predicted to exceed all of said universities' offers though mind.

Don't worry at all your GCSEs are much better than mine (as in you have 5 more than me and none failed lol) and I'd only heard bad things about Birmingham and LSE in terms of GCSE so you should be fine and dandy ahah. What course?

I have 0 A* so no subjects for them to be in really :P but my A's are in English lit, lang, R.E (which I'm predicted A* for at A level so..) and history which are vaguely related to my course but I didn't do the one subject (sociology) that has direct links with my course at GCSE or A level so it's not a problem of that. By how many grades did you exceed?
And my course is nowhere near as competetive as an economics degree luckily.

What were your GCSE results if you don't mind me asking. I'm re-applying to birmingham, for sociology and sociology and social policy. I don't think that they are that strict for GCSEs. I got an offer last year and did not get 5 A*/A although I did get all A to C. Why not email them and ask whether your GCSE grades will hinder you. Include the grades and your predicted grades. I think that its just rumours you should be fine.
Last year critical thinking was part of my offer so they should accept that too. Don't worry. If you need any more advice feel free to pm me.
They don't give unconditional offers if you don't have the grades.

For said universities the typical offers are: Warwick I needed AAAb-AAAC, Bristol AAA and Southampton AAB (I think). I had at AS aaacc(including General Studies). I was predicted A*AAb or A*AAa, I forget. The prediction excludes General Studies, I either wasn't predicted or told what I was predicted.