Narrowly missing your offer...

I was at an open day at bradford today and the standard offer for my course is bbc. However they were saying if you make us your firm choice and say you got bcc or abd then we would stil let you in no doubt.

My questions is I am thinking of making them my insurance and having UEA as my firm. Now are most unis like this so say if you miss the grade by 1 will they still let you in 90% of the time?

Reply 1

Angelharpist

13

Well one of my best friends at Bristol had a BBB offer for French and Music (mine was ABB!) and even though she got BBC, with a C in Music, she was still given her place. She did spend several days begging in letters, phonecalls etc!

Reply 2

jesus_navas

OP

what so you can persuade them on results day?

Reply 3

kellywood_5

17

Angelharpist

Well one of my best friends at Bristol had a BBB offer for French and Music (mine was ABB!) and even though she got BBC, with a C in Music, she was still given her place. She did spend several days begging in letters, phonecalls etc!

Reminds me of a girl on my course at Exeter. She had a BBB offer for French and Spanish (mine was ABB, which surely proves that the whole positive discrimination thing is exaggerated because she went to a private school and I went to a bog standard comprehensive, yet I got a higher offer!) and she was let in with BBC, the C in French.

OP: I think most unis will generally let you in if you drop a grade, but it obviously depends on how many people meet their offers. They've usually decided by results day because they get our results a few days before we do, but unless you get an unsuccessful on Track or a rejection letter by post, it's still worth ringing up and trying to get them to accept you.

Reply 4

vector

15

It does indeed depend on just how popular your course is. For example, Warwick/Durham/Imperial will not shift on maths offers at all...

Reply 5

espo

7

.....and you know this because? I think some courses that you think wouldn't budge might well. It's not as much of a seller's market as you might think....

Reply 6

vector

15

I know of 1 person who missed an A by 1 mark in physics and was not able to go to durham (that was their only offer shortfall). Also all 3 of them said that they cannot be flexible when I asked if I could get a lower grade in further maths.

Reply 7

jesus_navas

OP

kellywood_5

Reminds me of a girl on my course at Exeter. She had a BBB offer for French and Spanish (mine was ABB, which surely proves that the whole positive discrimination thing is exaggerated because she went to a private school and I went to a bog standard comprehensive, yet I got a higher offer!) and she was let in with BBC, the C in French.

OP: I think most unis will generally let you in if you drop a grade, but it obviously depends on how many people meet their offers. They've usually decided by results day because they get our results a few days before we do, but unless you get an unsuccessful on Track or a rejection letter by post, it's still worth ringing up and trying to get them to accept you.

woudnt you phone them up after being rejected anyway?

Reply 8

kellywood_5

17

jesus_navas

woudnt you phone them up after being rejected anyway?

You could do, but decisions aren't put on Track/sent by post until they're final, so I doubt it would do any good.

Reply 9

Toasted marshmellows

2

woah no - if you miss your offer should definatley ring them up asap and get someone the phone who you can try and persuade to give you a place - sometimes they have a policy enforced if it is oversubscribed etc. and other times tis more flexible.

Reply 10

Juncture

16

Toasted marshmellows

woah no - if you miss your offer should definatley ring them up asap and get someone the phone who you can try and persuade to give you a place - sometimes they have a policy enforced if it is oversubscribed etc. and other times tis more flexible.

Generally you should ring them up, but if it already says unsuccessful on track then you have a much much less chance of them taking you

Reply 11

cdcg88

with uni's such as Oxford, there is generally no budging if yo miss your offer because they make open offers to other students who take your place in the college if you miss the grades. most of the time the higher ranked/more popular unis are less flexible as they have so many other students who did meet the conditions of their offer, so your place won't make that much difference

Reply 12

Angelil

19

Depends on your course, the uni, and how well everyone else did.
Might as well ask how long a piece of string is.
Like kelly_wood I'm at Exeter, and one of my friends dropped a grade on her offer and was not allowed in (this was for geography) - not the case for Kelly's friend.
It really depends on what's happening elsewhere on the day.

Reply 13

Greenmile

9

There is no guarantee, but it is definately worth a try. A lot of people who narrowly miss grades do get accepted, but then there are also a lot that don't. If you don't try you will never know. Just think positive that you will get the required grades in the first place, and then all this will be irrelevant!

Reply 14

Jonah Ramone

19

My firm choice was Leicester. They wanted 320, I got 280 but they let me in. If they want you they should be quite lenient.

Reply 15

jesus_navas

OP

wonder what uea is like as thats my first choice in terms of missing grades.

Reply 16

tomdav

10

I dont think Warwick will budge for Politics...so I pretty much need AAB.

Reply 17

kellywood_5

17

jesus_navas

wonder what uea is like as thats my first choice in terms of missing grades.

You could ask in the UEA subforum, or even phone/email the uni if you're that curious.

Reply 18

espo

7

Found this on a uni site about a Biochemistry course that has standard offer of AAB. Thought it was quite interesting :smile:

. I have heard this from another very reliable source for a similar scientific course, so it must have some truth in it.

Any conditional offer is what we would hope that you could achieve. However, the number of students who will meet the target is not predictable. Therefore we have to adopt an approach that is not ideal but is a system used by most departments in most universities. The system aims to avoid one of the most difficult situations for us to deal with - too many students for the places available. Hence the offer is pitched such that we expect to fill about three quarters of the places with those meeting or exceeding the offer. The flexibility we need then comes in how we fill the remaining places. We prefer to take students who have put us as first choice but have not quite met the grade, rather than going into Clearing. How many we take and how much below target we go depends on the numbers that meet the offer.

Gives us all hope! :biggrin:

But don't rely on it :wink:

Reply 19

x.fiore.x

14

Yeah as others have said, the better the uni, the less likely they are to take you if you miss your offer, as they don't need more students. For example, my friend needed AAA plus the top grade in the STEP papers for maths at Cambridge. She got the AAA by miles, but missed out on the STEP and they wouldn't take her. You also have to remember that say they ask for an A in French, and you get a B, you may struggle when you get to uni, so they are doing you a favour almost.

Narrowly missing your offer...

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