[neverloggedin]

My question is

I applied for

Firm - A*AA offer
Insurance - AAA offer.

Can my firm university accept me if I get an AAA? Or will this show up in the UCAS as a change and so leave me a decision to either accept my firm or insurance. This is because I want to go to my insurance if I get an AAA (due to financial reasons - A*AA gives you a grant).

[FranticMind]

If your firm choice accepts you then thats it.

Otherwise you insurance gets a chance. What grades you get isn't important its the universities decision - that might let you in with three Es (highly unlikely).

UCAS doesn't do anything except act as an agent to communicate with both sides. So yes your firm can and might do.

Competition is tough and if you don't make the offer chances are, you won't get accepted.

[modini]

Doesn't make sense. You want to go to your insurance if you get AAA but then you say that A*AA gives you a grant.

[Cirsium]

(Original post by modini)
Doesn't make sense. You want to go to your insurance if you get AAA but then you say that A*AA gives you a grant.

Maybe OP prefers the insurance choice but the firm university offered a grant if he got A*AA?

[Ice_Queen]

You can call up and ask to get released from your firm (as it is effectively a binding contract) but I am not sure if that would mean you lose your insurance. I doubt it, so you could try that. Definitely check first!

[neverloggedin]

(Original post by Cirsium)
Maybe OP prefers the insurance choice but the firm university offered a grant if he got A*AA?

Yup that's what I meant. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I prefered to go to the insurance choice (UCL) but my firm (CASS) gives me a grant if I get an A*AA. So if I get AAA, I want to go to my insurance choice, not my firm.

[sharp910sh]

If you get AAA and you need A*AA you wont get in.

[sharp910sh]

(Original post by neverloggedin)
Yup that's what I meant. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I prefered to go to the insurance choice (UCL) but my firm (CASS) gives me a grant if I get an A*AA. So if I get AAA, I want to go to my insurance choice, not my firm.

That is the whole point of the system. They give you a requirement to get if you dont get it you wont be in. These seem like top uni they wont even blink an eye. so no need to worry if you get aaa you wont get in to the a*aa choice, or they would have offered you aaa...

[Good bloke]

(Original post by Ice_Queen)
You can call up and ask to get released from your firm (as it is effectively a binding contract) but I am not sure if that would mean you lose your insurance. I doubt it, so you could try that. Definitely check first!

It would, and the OP would end up in clearing.

(Original post by sharp910sh)
If you get AAA and you need A*AA you wont get in.

This is rubbish. Please don't post if you don't know an answer. As others have said, the OP could certainly have his A*AA offer confirmed if he gets AAA.

[Llamageddon]

(Original post by sharp910sh)
If you get AAA and you need A*AA you wont get in.

This isn't in the slightest bit true. Back in the dark ages of 2005 my offer was AAB at UCL (not a particularly low ranked university) and a number of my friends got in with ABB despite their offer being the same as mine. It is however purely at the universities discretion and depends upon how many places they need to fill.

[tehforum]

(Original post by Llamageddon)
This isn't in the slightest bit true. Back in the dark ages of 2005 my offer was AAB at UCL (not a particularly low ranked university) and a number of my friends got in with ABB despite their offer being the same as mine. It is however purely at the universities discretion and depends upon how many places they need to fill.

Back in 2005.

[sharp910sh]

(Original post by Llamageddon)
This isn't in the slightest bit true. Back in the dark ages of 2005 my offer was AAB at UCL (not a particularly low ranked university) and a number of my friends got in with ABB despite their offer being the same as mine. It is however purely at the universities discretion and depends upon how many places they need to fill.

Rubbish, if there is a lot competion which therer would be for an A*AA offer, he wouldnt get in with AAA. Or they would just offer AAA in the first place. Its 2012! they offered A*AA for a reason.

[Llamageddon]

(Original post by tehforum)
Back in 2005.

The principle is the same. Universities give more offers than they can take at higher grades than they expect those students to get because they have funding for x students and get royally ****ed over sideways financially if they get x+y students.

[Good bloke]

(Original post by tehforum)
Back in 2005.

And still relevant now.

(Original post by sharp910sh)
Rubbish, if there is a lot competion which therer would be for an A*AA offer, he wouldnt get in with AAA. Or they would just offer AAA in the first place. Its 2012! they offered A*AA for a reason.

Universities frequently do allow in candidates who don't attain the requirement, even competitive ones. In this case the requirement is set to give the candidate a grant along with the place. The university may well confirm the offer while not giving the grant.

[neverloggedin]

My Firm - A*AA - CASS Actuarial Science. (Not very competitive as most people go to ucl/lse/imperial/oxbridge with those requirements although Actuarial Science is generally regarded as a competitive subject). CASS gives me a grant if I get A*AA (nothing below it)

My Insurance - AAA - UCL Economics & Statistics. (Very Competitive, so an AAB would not get me a place).

Problem is I want to go to CASS ONLY if I can get a grant. Now I get an AAA, and CASS still offer me a place in their A*AA course - will it automatically reject my insurance or will it show up as a message or something as a change so I can accept either UCL or CASS.

[StacFace]

(Original post by tehforum)
Back in 2005.

It can still happen now though and it's important the OP understands that so they're not on here complaining on results day that they got AAA and have lost their insurance offer.

(Original post by neverloggedin)
My Firm - A*AA - CASS Actuarial Science. (Not very competitive as most people go to ucl/lse/imperial/oxbridge with those requirements although Actuarial Science is generally regarded as a competitive subject). CASS gives me a grant if I get A*AA (nothing below it)

My Insurance - AAA - UCL Economics & Statistics. (Very Competitive, so an AAB would not get me a place).

Problem is I want to go to CASS ONLY if I can get a grant. Now I get an AAA, and CASS still offer me a place in their A*AA course - will it automatically reject my insurance or will it show up as a message or something as a change so I can accept either UCL or CASS.

If you got AAA on results day and CASS accepted you it would just show up as them accepting you and you would have lost your UCL offer. It would only come up as a change if CASS offered you a place on an alternative course (e.g. a course with a foundation year or a course similar but not the exact one you have the offer for now) or offered you entry for next year etc, if this happened you could decline the offer and go to UCL instead. It won't come up as a change if they accept you for what you applied for though.

You need to decide if it's worth the risk, as you may end up getting AAA and CASS accepting you which means not only are you not going to your first choice university but you also wouldn't get the grant. If you decide it's not then you could ask CASS to reject you and UCL to become your firm, or you could ask CASS to become your insurance and UCL to become your firm. You'd need to do this before UCAS closes down for results though which they do about a week before. I would suggest trying to swap them as you say CASS isn't very competitive so this may cover you if you end up getting A*AB for example which CASS could accept but UCL may not.

[Good bloke]

(Original post by neverloggedin)
Now I get an AAA, and CASS still offer me a place in their A*AA course - will it automatically reject my insurance or will it show up as a message or something as a change so I can accept either UCL or CASS.

Once the firm has confirmed an offer the insurance disappears and your only access to it would be via the risky route of clearing.

This illustrates the perils of not accepting as your firm the course/university you would most like to attend.

[Gridiron-Gangster]

(Original post by neverloggedin)
Yup that's what I meant. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I prefered to go to the insurance choice (UCL) but my firm (CASS) gives me a grant if I get an A*AA. So if I get AAA, I want to go to my insurance choice, not my firm.

This is what I've interpreted from your post (please clarify if I've got anything wrong):

- You've put Cass as your firm and UCL as insurance.

-Both universities are asking for grades of AAA.

-However, Cass have stated they would award you scholarship if you achieved at least A*AA in your exams.

-For that reason you put Cass as your first choice.

-However, you feel that if you didn't get A*AA and subsequently missed out on the scholarship/grant, you would instead prefer to go to UCL (who in effect made the exact same offer of AAA).

-Hence, you're asking that if on results day you got AAA, could you withdraw from your offer with Cass and attend UCL instead?

The answer to this is a bit tricky. Obviously Cass and UCL will know the results a few days beforehand to help them allocate places. If you got AAA and kept the choices as they are Cass would confirm your place and in that effect UCL would assume that you are no longer interested in them and you'd effectively "no longer be on their books". They would therefore allocate places in the instance to those who put them down as a fist choice and then anyone who put them as an insurance (who didn't get the grades for their firm offer).

Whilst you are at liberty to contact institutions on results day and ask UCL if they would be willing to consider yoou give the situation I outlined above it could be incredibly tricky as UCL would be under no obligation to accept as you didn't stipulate them as a first choice. It's not impossible or unheard of but could be potentially tricky. Even then there is also the likelihood they may not be able to provide you accommodation as all of this would have been allocated to those who put UCL as a firm and internationals (I had this issue a few years back with a London University).

It might be best if you start making enquiries now although I'd recommend you just focus on yourr exams and get the grades you need. Obviously you'd be in a better bargaining situation with the grades tto hand. One alternative would be to ask UCAS (and the universities) to reverse your choices i.e. put UCL as your firm and Cass as second choice. I'm sure that might be feasible at this point but then obviously you'd be missing out on the potential grant from Cass if you did end up getting at least A*AA and attended UCL instead.

Hope that was helpful.

[maturestudy]

Stumbled upon your thread. Though it doesn't affect me I'm interested by it.

(Original post by neverloggedin)
My Firm - A*AA - CASS Actuarial Science. (Not very competitive as most people go to ucl/lse/imperial/oxbridge with those requirements although Actuarial Science is generally regarded as a competitive subject). CASS gives me a grant if I get A*AA (nothing below it)

My Insurance - AAA - UCL Economics & Statistics. (Very Competitive, so an AAB would not get me a place).

Problem is I want to go to CASS ONLY if I can get a grant. Now I get an AAA, and CASS still offer me a place in their A*AA course - will it automatically reject my insurance or will it show up as a message or something as a change so I can accept either UCL or CASS.

(Original post by Good bloke)
And still relevant now.

Universities frequently do allow in candidates who don't attain the requirement, even competitive ones. In this case the requirement is set to give the candidate a grant along with the place. The university may well confirm the offer while not giving the grant.

I understand that people who miss the grades frequently get on the course for various reasons. However, on the UCAS website it says

(my emphasis):

"If you accept a conditional offer, you are agreeing that you will attend the course at that university or college if you meet the conditions of the offer. You can accept another offer as an insurance choice."

Now, to my untrained eye, it looks like, whilst they always have the option of allowing you to attend, they can't force you to attend if you do not meet the conditions of the offer. At least, this is how I read it when I replied to my offers. If there is something in the small print that contradicts this, I would be particularly interested in seeing it.

[thetobbit]

Why have you only left 1 grade between your firm and insurance choices?

Edit: Thanks for the neg btw