A Head Start for UK Applicants – UCAS's New Offer Rate Calculator (NORC)

A Head Start for UK Applicants – UCAS's New Offer Rate Calculator (NORC)

The last year of high school is challenging and overwhelming for most students with consistent uncertainty prevailing about their chances at securing a place at a preferred university. With regards to UK universities, UCAS has now enabled students to tame their anxiety levels with the New Offer Calculator (NORC) tool.

                                                   

Figure 1: 3 Steps for the New UCAS Offer Calculator

                                           

Figure 2: Example of Step 2 for students

This new inventive tool offers students a chance to gage the likelihood of whether they will receive an offer from a specific university or for a course they are interested in. Students can achieve this through 3 simple steps that are listed on the UCAS New Offer Calculators' site. As this tool has recently been launched, it only covers students chances of getting into those universities or courses for which UCAS has sufficient data. Also it is specifically useful for students doing A-Levels, which are the grades the tool uses to determine a students chance for an offer, and no other international qualifications as yet.

Now you may be wondering how the tool works to determine results for the student. While the NORC cannot give a specific answer it will give a range displaying the likelihood of the applicant getting an offer from the university (ie. Either less than 10% chance or more than 90% / <10% or >90%) after they complete the 3 steps required and provide their grades. Students can also request a results summary, which can be emailed to them.

                                       

                                        Figure 3: Email summary sample 

The NORC is a useful tool for all students applying to UK universities, as it is essential for students to make choices that cover a range of scenarios- with only five universities to apply to via UCAS, they have to ensure that they have enough "insurance" options (likely admit) to balance out any "reach" universities (universities at which the student has a less than 50% chance of admission). Thus it is significant to raise awareness about the consequences of only choosing universities or courses that students may face difficulty getting into. The NORC tool will thereby help student's come up with a balanced list of universities to apply to.

Daniya Sardar
(BSc. U of Warwick, MSc Imperial College London)

Chief Operating Officer and UK Admissions Head- The Edvisory