How generous/lenient are universities?

Was just wondering about this... I have heard from several sources that sometimes universities offer you a place even if you haven't quite met the conditions of their conditional offers, e.g. you just failed to achieve a particular grade. How often does this happen and under which circumstances? Has anyone here ever been accepted into a course even after abysmally failing to meet the conditional offer requirements?

Reply 1

mollymustard

Yes this does happen, I've had a few friends who have slipped a few grades and been let in. But on results day, there were lots of people who actually dropped a grade and didn't get into their first choice too...
Someone I know even got AAB and still got into Cambridge!

No one can say what will and what won't happen as this changes every year, but there is a chance you can get away with slipping a grade. Obviously it depends on course, university and more importantly how many other applicants have met their offers.

Reply 2

hobnob

There may be a handful of exceptions and no doubt people are going to post "I know someone at Cambridge who got ABC, but then again he's a genius"-type stories, but on the whole it'll be a great deal safer if you don't abysmally fail your offers, particularly with courses like the ones you've applied for. :wink:

Reply 3

jelly1000

Really depends on the university and the course. You've applied to very competitive universities for a very competitive course, so I would say that the chances of you being let in if you dropped a grade would be slim.

Reply 4

gladebayor

I see... well thanks for your responses people :yep:

Reply 5

SpursGlenn

Well I hope they do!

Reply 6

westlake

I know of someone whose Cambridge offer was AAA in 3 specified subjects - however they got a B in one of those and were still let in.
(THeir grades overall were AAAAB)

Reply 7

westlake

innnnteresting i see someone gave me bad rep for that post saying "of course" :s-smilie:

Unless I'm being stupid it's not THAT common for unis to let you in when you don't make the offer..

Reply 8

chriztina27

hmm seeing as you're applying for English, i'd say its unlikely unis in the top 15/20 would be too lenient based on my own experience.

I missed my offer for English at Nottingham by mucking up just one module in Philosophy (getting AAAAAE so a B overall in it instead of the A i needed.) I phoned up Nottm, explaining that it was just one bad module, that if it was a D instead of an E even, i would have got the A and made the offer. But they wouldn't budge! There just weren't enough spaces on the course for any near misses.

So i'd say don't rely too much on unis being lenient when it comes to English!