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Can I insure Imperial?

Hi guys, for some context I take maths further maths, physics and chemistry.
I received an offer from Imperial today to study physics - the offer is A*A*A and in maths, physics, further maths respectively.
However I'm in a very fortunate position to also hold an offer from Cambridge. The offer for Cambridge is A*A*AB with the only specified grade being a B in further maths
I don't really know how insurance works on UCAS but does this mean I cannot have imperial as an insurance as the offer grades are very similar to Cambridge?

(I would like to say that I know this is a very privileged problem to have!)
If anyone has any advice, it would be really appreciated :smile:

Reply 1

JamieBurns

Congrats, that’s a great position to be in. From what I understand about UCAS, your insurance doesn’t have to be lower; it just needs to be an offer you’d still realistically meet if you missed your firm. So you could still put the University of Cambridge as your firm and Imperial College London as your insurance if you wanted to.
That said, because the offers are very similar, it doesn’t provide much safety if you miss the Cambridge grades, which is why many people choose a slightly lower offer as insurance. But if you’d only want to go to Imperial or Cambridge anyway, then it still makes sense.
My only advice would be to think about how confident you are in hitting the grades and whether you’d actually want a “safer” option just in case. If Imperial is the only other place you’d genuinely want to go, then it’s a solid insurance. If not, it might be worth considering something with slightly lower requirements, so you’ve got a bit more security. Also, congrats again - those are incredible offers.

Reply 2

shaggy-delicacy

Original post

by Anonymous

Hi guys, for some context I take maths further maths, physics and chemistry.
I received an offer from Imperial today to study physics - the offer is A*A*A and in maths, physics, further maths respectively.
However I'm in a very fortunate position to also hold an offer from Cambridge. The offer for Cambridge is A*A*AB with the only specified grade being a B in further maths
I don't really know how insurance works on UCAS but does this mean I cannot have imperial as an insurance as the offer grades are very similar to Cambridge?
(I would like to say that I know this is a very privileged problem to have!)
If anyone has any advice, it would be really appreciated :smile:

What supercurriculars did u do?

Reply 3

allied-immediacy

Original post

by shaggy-delicacy

What supercurriculars did u do?

hiya, here's a list of the supercurriculars I mentioned in my personal statement:

•

I watched a video series on youtube about Fermilab's Muon G-2 project, I talked mostly my opinions on the outcome of the experiment

•

the books I talked about were "Why e = mc^" by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw - I talked about some of the mathematical derivations explored in the book. And I also talked about Stephen Hawking's Black holes and baby universes - particularly focusing on black holes in a quantum context

•

I did a few summer schools/ projects: Oxford's Physics summer school where I got to work on a biophysics project, Sheffield's Physics experience week, and Bristol's Quantum in the Summer programme.

•

I mentioned a presentation I gave about Noether's theorem and linked it back to some further maths topics that related to this principle.

•

I also did the Caius Explore Essay competition which let me research a bit into dark matter

•

I watched a few lectures by Christ Lintott (all virtually) - you can find a bunch of his lectures on the Gresham College website! I would definitely check them out :smile:

•

ofc like most people I did the maths challenge, Cambridge chemistry challenge and the senior physics challenge but I didn't get more than a silver in any of these so this might not have been as strong of a super curricular

•

This might be more of an extra curricular but I also founded a STEM online newspaper and I took part in a house of lords select committee program focused on nitrogen pollution

I hope this helps!!

Reply 4

jelllyfiiish

Life & Style Forum Helper

Congrats! My friend who has also gotten into Cambridge (for physical Nat sci) has gotten a requirement for A*A*AE, with the E being maths and the A in further maths 😂

Original post

by Anonymous

Hi guys, for some context I take maths further maths, physics and chemistry.
I received an offer from Imperial today to study physics - the offer is A*A*A and in maths, physics, further maths respectively.
However I'm in a very fortunate position to also hold an offer from Cambridge. The offer for Cambridge is A*A*AB with the only specified grade being a B in further maths
I don't really know how insurance works on UCAS but does this mean I cannot have imperial as an insurance as the offer grades are very similar to Cambridge?
(I would like to say that I know this is a very privileged problem to have!)
If anyone has any advice, it would be really appreciated :smile:

Reply 5

allied-immediacy

Original post

by jelllyfiiish

Congrats! My friend who has also gotten into Cambridge (for physical Nat sci) has gotten a requirement for A*A*AE, with the E being maths and the A in further maths 😂

wow what!! I've never seen an offer like that before, can I ask what college that's from?

Reply 6

LJMUStudentReps

Official Rep

Original post

by Anonymous

Hi guys, for some context I take maths further maths, physics and chemistry.
I received an offer from Imperial today to study physics - the offer is A*A*A and in maths, physics, further maths respectively.
However I'm in a very fortunate position to also hold an offer from Cambridge. The offer for Cambridge is A*A*AB with the only specified grade being a B in further maths
I don't really know how insurance works on UCAS but does this mean I cannot have imperial as an insurance as the offer grades are very similar to Cambridge?
(I would like to say that I know this is a very privileged problem to have!)
If anyone has any advice, it would be really appreciated :smile:

Hi,

First of all congrats, those are amazing offers to have.
With UCAS insurance choices, the main rule is that your insurance has to be easier to get into than your firm. In other words, the grade requirements need to be lower so that if you miss your firm offer, you still have a realistic chance of getting into your insurance.
In your case, the Cambridge offer (AAAB with B in further maths) is technically lower than Imperial’s offer (AAA with specific grades in maths, physics and further maths). Because Imperial is asking for higher grades, you wouldn’t normally be able to put Imperial as your insurance if Cambridge is your firm.
So the realistic setups would be: Firm: Cambridge, Insurance: a lower offer elsewhere or Firm: Imperial, Insurance: somewhere with lower grades than AAA
UCAS usually won’t allow an insurance that has the same or higher requirements than the firm, because it wouldn’t actually act as a safety option. Also worth thinking about whether you even want an insurance if your only other offer you’re considering is Imperial, since lots of people in that position either firm Cambridge or Imperial and then use Clearing if needed. But yeah, the key thing is the insurance offer generally needs to be lower than your firm conditions.

hope this helped and goodluck!

Anthony
Student rep

Reply 7

artful_lounger

Clearing and Applications Advisor, Universities Forum Helper

Original post

by Anonymous

There is no formal reason you can't choose Imperial as your insurance - however, the way it works is thus:

On results day, if you meet the requirements for your firm offer (so A*A*AB with B in FM) then your conditional firm offer from Cambridge will become unconditional and you will go to Cambridge (unless you decide not to enrol or something for some reason). Meanwhile your insurance choice (Imperial or wherever) will automatically disappear once your firm choice becomes unconditional.

If you miss your firm offer then while they can consider you as a near miss applicant, if they reject you after you miss your offer, then essentially there is a logic check to see if you meet your insurance offer. If you miss your firm offer and are rejected by them, but meet your insurance offer, then the same process as above for your firm offer happens except for the insurance offer.

There is a situation here where you could miss your firm offer from Cambridge but meet your insurance offer from Imperial here. Namely if you get A*A*A in maths, physics, and further maths, but a C in chemistry. That would not meet meet the Cambridge offer (as while you'd meet the requirement for a B or above in FM, and A*A*A in the first three A-levels, the fourth A-level you would have a C and not a B in). At that point you would be getting considered as a near miss applicant by Cambridge, and if they rejected you, then you'd be accepted by Imperial instead.

The thing to consider is how likely that situation is to occur as in the situation where you miss the B in FM you would also then miss your Imperial offer for example, and if you got less than A*A*A in maths/FM/physics at all you'd miss the Imperial offer as well as the Cambridge offer.

So it is possible to choose Imperial as your insurance choice but you need to make a judgment call for yourself if that's a level of risk you are willing to accept (i.e. that you may end up with no offers on results day potentially). If you're confident you can get the grades in maths/FM/physics but are less certain on chemistry then it might be a very reasonable and calculated decision because actually, you might have a good chance of meeting the Imperial offer but the Cambridge offer might actually be more up in the air :smile:

Reply 8

jelllyfiiish

Life & Style Forum Helper

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