Offers vs Places

**Nestea** · 07-02-2008, 10:11 PM

I've always wondered:

how is it that universities always make more offers than there are places available?

for example,

__ university make 300 offers for __ course, but there are only 150 available spots in that course.

anyone know why?

and I've heard the universities do that because they figure they lose about half their offers due to the people going to other schools or for some other reason, but what happened if, for some strange/completely out of the blue reason, every one of those 300 people accepted the offer, then what?

**Arch_Angel** · 07-02-2008, 10:17 PM

I've often wondered that. I guess they're under obligation to accept them. Statistically it's unlikely though.

Also, (probably) they make conditional offers like this, perhaps they are slightly more conservative with unconditional offers.

**Hardrada** · 07-02-2008, 10:20 PM

Originally Posted by Nestea

I've heard the universities do that because they figure they lose about half their offers due to the people going to other schools or for some other reason, but what happened if, for some strange/completely out of the blue reason, every one of those 300 people accepted the offer, then what?

Well the excess of offers will depend on the university. Like e.g. Cambridge will make pretty much offers = places as no one really rejects them/misses their offer, but Birmingham make about 2* as many offers as places as a lot of people use them as insurance/turn them down.

The whole point is they carefully analyse the system so that your "out of the blue" situation will never happen... If it did then they would be legally bound to take them even if they didn't have room.

**Steve1234** · 08-02-2008, 03:06 AM

They are definately obligated to take anyone who they've givan an offer to. They work it out from experience of past years and the statistics. It costs something like £250,000 to train each student. If for example a university has 250 places and they undershoot with applicants to places (240 for example), the med school receives 240 X £250,000 funding for the training. If however they overshoot and 260 students are admitted, the med school still only receives funding for the maximum 250 places.. and apparently sometimes a fine. That's why it's so important to unis. This is what i've heard anyway!
Steve

**469er** · 08-02-2008, 04:34 AM

Originally Posted by Steve1234

If however they overshoot and 260 students are admitted, the med school still only receives funding for the maximum 250 places.. and apparently sometimes a fine. That's why it's so important to unis. This is what i've heard anyway!
Steve

Yep, spot on. It happened at BSMS a couple of years ago. Their planned intake is about 130, but one cohort has about 160 students. They are obliged to honour offers, but there are financial penalties for getting it wrong. That's why I find it hard to believe the rumours flying around on the BSMS forum that they've 'made too many offers already' this year - you wouldn't think they'd do it again. I've heard it said that some schools make an effort to get rid of any excess numbers at the end of the first year by being particularly harsh on resitters, but I don't know if that's true or not.

**LeonKurosaki** · 08-02-2008, 01:59 PM

"out of the blue" eh, thats when statistics becomes a supportive tool, rather than a proving tool =)

**smicha** · 08-02-2008, 03:14 PM

And if you're in an oversubscribed year, don't give them any reason to kick you out; they might be more inclined to do so.

**Katie_** · 08-02-2008, 04:01 PM

When I was at my Sheffield interview, the students leading the tour were telling us that in their particular year more students than anticipated put Sheffield as their firm. So the university were very keen for people to defer and take a gap year, and now were putting pressure on more students than normal to intercalate, so they would graduate a year later and Sheffield wouldn't be fined.

**dreaming_princess** · 10-02-2008, 12:32 AM

I expect how over/under subscribed they are can also affect how they respond to missed offers. Ie an over subscribed uni will not allow anyone with a missed offer in...
Thus it meanst that stats give an estimate of how many offers they give and the exact nos can be reached by what proportion of people with missed grades they need to get.
I know that most people probly will get them, but I expect enough won't they can tweak the nos..

**LizzieTB** · 18-02-2008, 08:51 PM

does anyone know if unconditional offers are ever made because I was talking to another girl at my Dundee interview who said that she'd heard of a lot of people being offered unconditionals without any Adv. Highers but I've never heard of this happening