year 11-13 contextual offers thread
so, I'm posting a little thread where I link resources for students from low income/low higher education progression areas, students who are carers, students who have been *in* care and students who may have been disadvantaged in many ways through their education and personal lives, so they have information for when they apply for UCAS. this is why this thread is targeted for students who are moving on up to alevels and students who are in their first year of alevels, and for those who (like me) will be applying in September.
knowledge is power!!
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What is a contextual offer?
A contextual offer is a university offer that factors in a person's background as part of their offer.
Let's take for example: Law At The University of Bristol.
A typical Law offer stands at A*, A, A.
A contextual Law offer is A, A, B.
Contextual offers will lower the initial grades shown on the application, and the best part is, UCAS will flag you if you meet any of the requirements to get one!
This can even apply to degrees such as medicine, I will list the medical schools that do contextual offers for the subject here:
*
•
University of Aberdeen:Lower contextual offer of AAB (or AAAB for SQA) + 10% increase in UCAT score and potentially a guaranteed interview.
•
*Anglia Ruskin:Lower contextual offer of ABB.*
•
Birmingham: Lower contextual offer of ABB.*
•
Brighton And Sussex: Lower contextual offer of AAB and GCSE requirements of 5/C+ in English and Maths. Reserved 30% interviews for those meeting criteria. *
•
Hull York: Lower contextual offer of AAB or ABB (if completed their WP programme).*
•
Imperial College: Lower contextual offer of AAA.*
•
Kent and Medway: Lower contextual offer ABB or ABB only if from partner school. Furthermore, predicted results are contextualised against the school’s average and used in interview selection. *
•
Lancaster:Lower contextual offer of ABB.
•
Leicester: Candidates may be advantaged over similar candidates when selecting for interview and giving offers.*
•
Manchester: Situation taken into consideration for personal statement and interview as well as lower contextual offer of AAB (potentially ABB if in care or refugee status).*
•
University of Nottingham: Lower contextual offer of AAB.*
•
Oxford: Taken into consideration when chosen for interview (provided appropriate BMAT performance) and further in application process. *
•
Queen Mary / Barts – Lower contextual offer (not specified) and taken in consideration if final grades are short of offer.*
•
Sheffield:Lower contextual offer of AAB.*
•
Southampton: Lower contextual offer of AAB.*
•
St Andrews: Lower minimum grades of AAB.*
•
St George’s: Lower contextual offer of ABB.*
•
Sunderland: Lower contextual offer (unspecified).*
•
UCL: Lower contextual offer of AAB.
There are variations depending on your uni choices but usually they will include:
Where you live, so if your area has a history of low progression to higher education or high rates of poverty
Your school, so if you went to a low performing secondary school/sixth form
Free School Meals: if you've been receiving free school meals or not.
If you've been in foster care
If you are a refugee
The Universities of Exeter, St Andrews, Lancaster and Sheffield include young carers in their contextual offers, but there may be more--I will check.
It's no problem!
I figured that because a surprising amount of people don't really know how to navigate contextual offers i may as well compile what I find out
The Sutton Trust.
https://www.suttontrust.com/
The Sutton Trust works to improve social mobility and one of these ways is through their university programs.
There is Sutton Trust Online, a large online forum community with regular talks on streamlining university applications, but the thing they're more well known for is the Summer Schools program.
I've personally applied for Durham Summer School, but here are the list of UK unis that Sutton partners with for summer schools:
Sheffield
Bristol
Cambridge
Cardiff
Durham
Edinburgh
Glasgow
Imperial College London
University of Nottingham
Royal Veterinary College
University of St Andrews
UCL
University of Warwick
Universities that give a contextual offer/guaranteed interview if a program is attended are:
Bristol, Cardiff, Durham, Glasgow, Nottingham, Sheffield
RVC gives you access to the gateway program,
and you will be eligible for the minimum grade requirement at St Andrew's.
These are definitely a road to look into, so keep an eye out for when 2025 applications open!
thank you!
I'm trying to compile things that may be useful for people who want to do medicine and law and basically any competitive degree so I'm gonna link UCAT past papers when I get my hands on them
I'm trying to compile things that may be useful for people who want to do medicine and law and basically any competitive degree so I'm gonna link UCAT past papers when I get my hands on them
That is such a good idea! Hopefully people stumble across this and see all the amazing resources you’re putting up 😊
that's the plannn
as a law girlie I'm not one to fully describe the UCAT but what I do know is that this is one of the many, *many* hurdles people who want to apply to medical school will have to jump through to even think about getting in.
so, I'm going to link the ucat website's practice tests so that you know what you're up against:
timed:
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_A
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_B
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_C
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_D
untimed:
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_U_A
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_U_B
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_U_C
https://www.ucat.ac.uk/umbraco/surface/pearsonpracticetest/launch/PT_U_D
the lnat is the pre-application exam you'd have to take to even have a chance to get into law at the following unis:
UK:
University of Cambridge
University of Oxford
London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
University of Glasgow
Durham University
King’s College, London (KCL)
University College London (UCL)
University of Bristol
SOAS University of London
(Nottingham has dropped the LNAT for 2024)
International:
Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), Singapore
IE School of Law, Spain
tbh as someone looking to do the LNAT the LNAT website has been the best source of info:
Here is the official guide:https://lnat.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Your-Guide-To-Preparing-For-The-LNAT.pdf
this is something I thought may interest people if they want to go a bit further from home!
the Irish application system works as follows:
CAO is the body that processes university applications in the Republic of Ireland and putting in an application is *so* much different than UCAS
For example:
You apply to 10 University courses based on preference and then the grades you get are converted into "points"
See here:
https://www.cao.ie/index.php?page=scoring&s=gce
The deadline for CAO applications are typically much later than UCAS applications and cost €30 (£25.61)
And for medicine students:
There is no interview from the universities, you take the HPAT exam instead.
If you want to apply for uni in the ROI pm me for more info!
What is a contextual offer?
A contextual offer is a university offer that factors in a person's background as part of their offer.
Let's take for example: Law At The University of Bristol.
A typical Law offer stands at A*, A, A.
A contextual Law offer is A, A, B.
Contextual offers will lower the initial grades shown on the application, and the best part is, UCAS will flag you if you meet any of the requirements to get one!
This can even apply to degrees such as medicine, I will list the medical schools that do contextual offers for the subject here:
thanks for this
no problem at all!
most unis need you to go to a state school plus be contextual but depends on each uni
*
•
University of Aberdeen:Lower contextual offer of AAB (or AAAB for SQA) + 10% increase in UCAT score and potentially a guaranteed interview.
•
*Anglia Ruskin:Lower contextual offer of ABB.*
•
Birmingham: Lower contextual offer of ABB.*
•
Brighton And Sussex: Lower contextual offer of AAB and GCSE requirements of 5/C+ in English and Maths. Reserved 30% interviews for those meeting criteria. *
•
Hull York: Lower contextual offer of AAB or ABB (if completed their WP programme).*
•
Imperial College: Lower contextual offer of AAA.*
•
Kent and Medway: Lower contextual offer ABB or ABB only if from partner school. Furthermore, predicted results are contextualised against the school’s average and used in interview selection. *
•
Lancaster:Lower contextual offer of ABB.
•
Leicester: Candidates may be advantaged over similar candidates when selecting for interview and giving offers.*
•
Manchester: Situation taken into consideration for personal statement and interview as well as lower contextual offer of AAB (potentially ABB if in care or refugee status).*
•
University of Nottingham: Lower contextual offer of AAB.*
•
Oxford: Taken into consideration when chosen for interview (provided appropriate BMAT performance) and further in application process. *
•
Queen Mary / Barts – Lower contextual offer (not specified) and taken in consideration if final grades are short of offer.*
•
Sheffield:Lower contextual offer of AAB.*
•
Southampton: Lower contextual offer of AAB.*
•
St Andrews: Lower minimum grades of AAB.*
•
St George’s: Lower contextual offer of ABB.*
•
Sunderland: Lower contextual offer (unspecified).*
•
UCL: Lower contextual offer of AAB.
Just so yk this is a bit outdated some do hold but some are wrong like exeter is now AAB for this year QMUL would be AAA Leicester is ABB if done a specific programme
Thanks for telling me!
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