KCL admissions - grades..

International management: A*AA
Contextual offer: AAB

I’m eligible for a contextual offer at kings because of a programme I’m in (if I pass the essay they mark) but my grades received are CC at AS level and art doesn’t have AS level. I thought I would drop art but turns out I dropped psych instead. I want to take the opportunity of this reduced offer (if I get it) but is it even possible?

I don’t see any other courses I can apply for or am interested in.

I got a B in a mock exam in yr12 and ended with a AS grade C, can I be predicted an A? And in art too?

Could I make up for it in the mocks in November? Would they change my predicted grade JUST before I send it off? (They do give the grades before Christmas starts right… usually?)

There are all questions for your school / college. They decide what you predicted grade will be, and they decide what evidence they will use to arrived at that predicted grade. A rule-of-thumb I've seen some schools use is to take the AS grade (or end-of-year 12 grade if it's not a formal AS) and add one grade. Your school/college may use a different approach. They may be happy to adjust any prediction they have now in time for your UCAS application to be submitted, if you should a significant improvement at the beginning of the upcoming school year. (Some schools set specific tests at the beginning of Year 13 specifically for those who received "draft" predictions at the end of Year 12 and have spent the summer working to improve them.)

BTW, when you say "I don’t see any other courses I can apply for or am interested in", is that just at King's. Or is that at other universities too?

I see, I’ll definitely ask them when school is open, but I’m just panicking for now because I’m not sure whether I should apply or not.

It’s the only Russel university I’m applying to because I’m limited by the fact that I can only stay in London and that I don’t have A level maths, also grades. I feel like not applying to at least one Russel will fill me with regret.

also, has it ever been possible for someone to be predicted an A if their actual grade was a C (so the predicted for that would be B realistically) ?

Understood. With respect to your "I’m not sure whether I should apply or not", you realise that all applications received prior to 31 January 2024 are considered equally, I assume? There really is no rush. Take you time. Make the right decision.

As for, "has it ever been possible for someone to be predicted an A if their actual grade was a C" that would be "Yes", according to other posts I've seen here on TSR.

OHH you’re right I completely forgot about the deadline, I’m just afraid my teachers would push me to apply early like before January though. I hope it’s true that all applicants are “considered equally,” but for reassurance and paranoia I think I’ll email King’s because I find it hard to believe because people know their results at different times so would that mean there are less and less places?

Also, thank youu!

Some schools will absolutely encourage students to apply way ahead of that deadline. If you have mock exams in November though, it seems daft to make you apply before they've had a chance to review those results and potentially adjust your predicted grades.

BTW, it's a UCAS rule that universities must consider all applications received before the deadline equally. They can do this in a few ways.

1. They can make offers as and the applications arrive. This only really works if, from experience, the uni knows that the particular course is never oversubscribed and so won't run out of places.
2. They can not make any offers until after the "equal consideration" deadline. This is typically called the "gathered field" approach, where only once they have all applications in can they start making offers to the best.
3. They can take a hybrid approach. They could set a grade threshold above where anyone who applies with those grades (or above), regardless of when their application is received, gets an offer. Anyone who applies with below those grades, it put into a pile to review after 31 January. This still counts as "equal consideration" because when you apply doesn't impact whether you get an offer of not. Your grades dictate that.

(King's take approach 3, generally, looking at this spreadsheet for 2023 applicants which shows "date decision received" in column E.)

The only real benefit you get from applying early is that (depending on the approach you target unis take) you might get an offer earlier than you otherwise would. For some, this "peace of mind" justifies applying earlier.

In the third point, when you say “anyone who applies with those grades (or above)” gets an offer, they take into consideration how strong your personal statement is right?

Also, would they still give an offer even though my predicted grades are one grades below, or would they take the predicted grades seriously and give no offer?

I just looked at the spreadsheet, a lot of them have A*A*A predicted but still got rejected I’m guessing it’s down to personal statements.

Does conditional offer happen if your predicted grades meet the grade requirements?