The Student Room Group

Have you been given an offer reduction?

Poll

Has your university offer been reduced?

Been hearing recently about a few universities emailing applicants who've yet to select firm and insurance choices, offering reduce entry grades if the applicant places them as their firm choice on UCAS.

Is this something you've experienced?
Post below if you have, and let us know which universities are doing this.*

This comes after universities have been criticised for giving out Unconditional If Firm offers to lots of students.

There are also cases of some universities reducing offers if you attend one of their offer holder days.

Are you aware of any other recruitment "tactics" that HE institutions are using? Post below with more details.



*you don't have to reveal the university if you don't want to.

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Original post by 04MR17
Been hearing recently about a few universities emailing applicants who've yet to select firm and insurance choices, offering reduce entry grades if the applicant places them as their firm choice on UCAS.

Is this something you've experienced?
Post below if you have, and let us know which universities are doing this.*

This comes after universities have been criticised for giving out Unconditional If Firm offers to lots of students.

There are also cases of some universities reducing offers if you attend one of their offer holder days.

Are you aware of any other recruitment "tactics" that HE institutions are using? Post below with more details.



*you don't have to reveal the university if you don't want to.

Last year my sister got 3 reduced offers for psychology. They were from Sussex, Exeter and Southampton. Each of them reduced her entry requirements one grade lower if they were her firm. However, this year I've applied to Southampton and got an offer but it wasn't reduced if they were my firm, only if I got an A in my EPQ.

Hope this helps.
Original post by 04MR17
Been hearing recently about a few universities emailing applicants who've yet to select firm and insurance choices, offering reduce entry grades if the applicant places them as their firm choice on UCAS.

Is this something you've experienced?
Post below if you have, and let us know which universities are doing this.*

This comes after universities have been criticised for giving out Unconditional If Firm offers to lots of students.

There are also cases of some universities reducing offers if you attend one of their offer holder days.

Are you aware of any other recruitment "tactics" that HE institutions are using? Post below with more details.



*you don't have to reveal the university if you don't want to.

Ignoring the dont know results in the poll.

38% of students are now getting reduced offers. Is it just me or is this insane, quite frankly I would have said 10% is too high... (@ 10:45 18/2/20 ... might still change)

I think it just goes to show advertised required grades on websites are no longer honest imo, I dont mind unis which ask for AAA then say AAB or ABB in clearing as applicant numbers and quality will fluctuate and the uni want to air on the side of caution.

But dropping grades 5-10 months before results are released its clear you cant trust what the real grade requirements are at half the unis anymore, these offers are part of techniques to apply pressure on candidates to put them as firm choice for UCAS rather then whats actually in an applicants best interest.
(edited 4 years ago)
I voted yes before reading the discussion and thought it meant lower contextual offers... If other people also made this mistake, it would mean the polls are a bit inaccurate.
Just checked and uhhh no :frown:
Original post by bfm.mcdermott
I voted yes before reading the discussion and thought it meant lower contextual offers... If other people also made this mistake, it would mean the polls are a bit inaccurate.

Can I ask what the context of your contextual offer was?

--
I think reduced/contextual/attainment offers or other types have all been increasing over the past few years, so I think its still useful to see the data with contextual offers included, perhaps splitting what type of reduced offer is a different debate which may follow later.

I think this pole has been made following a perception that offers with reduced grades are increasing.
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by mnot
Can I ask what the context of your contextual offer was?

--
I think reduced/contextual/attainment offers or other types have all been increasing over the past few years, so I think its still useful to see the data with contextual offers included, perhaps splitting what type of reduced offer is a different debate which may follow later.

I think this pole has been made following a perception that offers with reduced grades are increasing.

I'm only a contextual candidate for 2/4 of the unis I applied to. I believe it was based on where I live (a low participation area).
(edited 4 years ago)
Original post by bfm.mcdermott
I'm only a widening participation candidate for 2/4 of the unis I applied to. I believe it was based on where I live (a low participation area).

Interesting to here, congrats on your offers!

No doubt a variety of factors in play
I suspect unis may use a lot of window dressing but I suspect its still part of their plan to put more pressure on candidates to select them as 'firm' choice on UCAS.
Exeter have been doing lots of AAA, AAB if firm.
I'd be embarrassed as a University if I had to resort to these underhand tactics to fill the places on my courses.

Not only is this totally against UCAS regulations, it's doing real harm to students. Students are choosing their University place because the offer will be lowered, not because it's the best University for them. These bribes are normally tied in with an artificial deadline set by the University, earlier than the official UCAS deadline for replying, designed to make applicants reply to those that send offers early rather than wait for replies from all their choices and make a fully informed choice instead.
UCL reduced my offer after I went to a visit day back in 2016. I don't have any other experience of this happening.
Original post by Edminzodo
UCL reduced my offer after I went to a visit day back in 2016. I don't have any other experience of this happening.

I think its an older tactic that was occasionally used on a handful of high achieving candidates, whereas now unconditionals are reduced offers are rife and used as tactics to put pressure on candidates to firm them.

The reduced offer is more noticeable this year, I think the theory is unis then dont have as large a 'unconditional if firmed' percentage which is far easier to compile for people looking at the UCAS data.
I'm applying post-results this year so they SHOULD all be unconditional (unless they want me to do my grade 8 exam or something).
Last year when I was applying though, I got a reduced offer. 56 UCAS points, down from 64 (this was for an FY). I ended up firming it BUT I would have firmed it even if the offer was higher. It got reduced because I went to an offer holder day (no interview or anything, just attendance).
If it's of any interest to anyone, I did end up dropping out (hence my reapplying this year) and my grades WAY exceeded my offer (I got Dist A B in a BTEC SubDip, as-level and a-level, which is 108 UCAS points).
(edited 4 years ago)
3 years ago University of Hertfordshire gave me an Unconditional if firm offer.
It was nice of them i guess but they were never my first choice so i declined it in the end.
Oh also i just remembered, University of Suffolk gave me a conditional offer but said it would be changed to an unconditional offer if i attend an interview. This was quite weird as I've never heard of any universities doing this before. Though tbf it i wouldn't class it as a proper interview, it was more like a casual conversation and the course leader at the time was really nice.
(edited 4 years ago)
One of the nicest things that happened this university cycle was my offer from Exeter was updated from AAA to BBB and a scholarship :smile: This was for Law and it can even by my insurance!
(edited 4 years ago)
Exeter offered to lower my offer from AAA to AAB if I firmed (for Maths).

Bath reduced my offer from A*AA to A*AB for Maths because of my MAT score.

That's about it in my case. The Exeter situation is really dumb and makes them seem rather desperate tbh.
Original post by ohdearstudying
One of the nicest things that happened this university cycle was my offer from Exeter was updated from AAA to BBB and a scholarship :smile:

Congratulations! Can I ask what course that is for?
Birmingham was my 5th choice for maths and they gave me an offer a few months ago. It was CCCC if held as firm and A*AA if held as insurance. I wonder why... :wink:

(I also got a reduced offer from Warwick due to my MAT score where it went from A*A*A and 1 in STEP to A*A*A but that doesn't seem to be what this thread is about).
I know I got a reduced offer from Reading for Computer Science a couple of years ago but only if I had them as my firm.
Reply 19
York bumped me down from AAA to ABB for maths because I do further maths and attended an offer holders day. Surprised me considering they are allegedly a prestigious and high requirement university. In some ways it's been counter productive for them since I was deciding whether to put them as firm or another AAA uni, but now they lowered it I feel comfortable insuring them.

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