2019 Applicants - still waiting to hear from unis

[ifonly4]

Just wondering who else has a DC still watiing to hear from unis. DD applied 31 October, had offers from Edinburgh November, St Andrews and Birmingham December. Still waiting on Durham and Warwick.

Luckily she's not worried, as she's more than happy with her present offers. It would just be good to know to enable her to make a final decision and then decide on accommodation.

[ShanghaiDiva]

Once she has heard from Warwick, be prepared for another long wait for accommodation to be sorted out! Ds is in his first year there and I think accommodation selection opened in June which seemed quite late compared to other universities. Overall I think Warwick was pretty poor on the admin front.

[MarchingFrogs]

DD applied at the beginning of December, has had offers from Birmingham, Exeter, UEA and Leeds, but still waiting for a decision from Warwick. For BA Politics, International Studies and Modern Languages, specifically French. We have been encouraging her to hang on, even though she is 99% certain dhe wants to firm UoB, but if she doesn't hear from Warwick by the time she gets back from her third applicant day (she has ditched Exeter), I for one won't try to hold her back any longer.

[marine04]

My son finally heard back from Warwick ten days ago, UCAS having forwarded his application on the 16th December. He'd heard from the other four within three weeks. I do remember some of my daughter's classmates having to wait until mid-March to get their Durham offers two years ago.

[Danglingmod]

I think all of ds's friends who were waiting on Durham have now heard. There may be outstanding applications to St Andrew's, I believe.

[Danglingmod]

D'oh. I meant Durham and Warwick.

[ifonly4]

Warwick uni must have read my post, and turned around and gave DD an offer three hours later! They gave the last batch of offers out for her subject a month ago, and looking on tsr someone else got one yesterday as well, so for some subjects it looks like they give their decisions in batches monthly. Just waiting on Durham now.

[Gettingthroughtheweek]

My DS is still waiting to hear from St Andrews. SOAS and Exeter offered in Oct/Nov, Edinburgh last week. He wants to hear from all before he firms and insures, even though in practice he has decided. It’s a shame there isn’t a clear way to reject the least preferred so then universities would have a better idea of who was genuinely interested (and might then in turn be able to offer more quickly?)

[MarchingFrogs]

It’s a shame there isn’t a clear way to reject the least preferred so then universities would have a better idea of who was genuinely interested (and might then in turn be able to offer more quickly?)

But one of the principles of the system is that, like the main round state school applucation process, it is an equal preference system. So the individual universities only see that a candidate has applied to that university and so they are required to judge each candidate on that basis only. Not, Oh look, they've applied to Univerity of X as well, so we must be their back-up choice, so let them wait, or whatever. And whatever order you list universities on your application, UCAS does not interpret this as a ranking of preference.

Yes, perhaps some people would find it useful to be sble to decide on whether one now actually wants to go to a particular university or not without waiting for all their responses and yes, of course one may change one's mind after applying, but

• why apply at all, if you know from the outset that you really don't want to go somewhere at all? and
  
• plenty of people would cause problems by turning down places, then not getting an offer after all from their favourite(s) and wanting the offers they refused reinstated.

[Gettingthroughtheweek]

I do get that they’re equal on paper at application stage, but each candidate has their preferences and when they get offers from their preferred universities (but not yet all) they could reject their least favourite even if still waiting for other offers of the system was different. When I applied years agai I remember accepting and then rejecting offers quickly because we had to either accept or reject within a certain time; I accepted my bottom choice while waiting for more preferred options and then released it when I got an offer from my preferred ones. That way the least preferred university wasn’t hanging around thinking I might accept - they knew quickly and presumably could then make offers to others. It just seems a bit odd that candidates are holding onto offers they have no intention of accepting because they’ve got better offers, but they don’t have to let them go for months which makes it difficult for the universities to plan, and may hold universities back from offering to others. Just a thought.

[Fazackerley]

Yes dd still waiting to hear from Bath

[BringOnTheScience]

DC1 had an interview at Manchester today. Edinburgh made their offer only a week ago. Sheffield, York & Newcastle had all offered ages ago.

Manchester is the favourite, so it's been a long wait for the interview. Hope that they make a reasonable offer promptly!

[Itscoldouthere]

Waiting for Bath too 🙄

[burnoutbabe]

I thought you could withdraw from any university? I have one on ucas that arranged an interview, I asked to postpone as could not make it and a month later it still has not got back to me. I can definitely withdraw from it on the ucas track as have 3 better unconditional offers (but think I may as well wait and see how they play it)

[Ingles2]

my ds is still waiting to hear from St Andrews for Physics... So far he's been rejected from Cambridge, had offers from Durham and Birmingham ..and withdrawn from York as we didn't want to go to interview. Just too difficult from the South coast for his last choice. He applied on 4th Oct so it's been 5 months exactly... surely they know if they want him or not by now.

[LosingHerMissMarbles]

*Ingles2 if it's any consolation my DS did not hear from StA about physics until mid March a couple of years ago. They do get back to you but live to take their time 🙄

[Ingles2]

thank you for that info @LosingHerMissMarbles ... hope you dont mind me asking... was it an acceptance then? did your son go?

[LosingHerMissMarbles]

Ingles2 It was a rejection although we never found out why despite asking and despite his projected and actual grades being above their stated grades. After the disappointment of the initial rejection he wasn't too upset as he had decided 5 years (applied for the MPhys) was a long time in StA.
He was unsuccessful with his Oxbridge place too but very happy at his final choice. Hoping your DS hears soon and can then make his final decisions.

[Ingles2]

had a feeling you were going to say that... I think maybe it's the borderline candidates that hear last... where did he go in the end? and did he have a good experience?
I would actually like DS to go to Birmingham... I thought it seemed like a happy, inclusive, diverse group of strange mathematical types :D I'd actually like him to have some fun, and not just crunch long strange equations... not my decision tho unfortunately :)

[LosingHerMissMarbles]

Ingles2 - DS went to Lancaster. A great fit for him as they do a specialism he is particularly interested in. He's loving it, found lots of like-minded people, working hard (long days and labs etc) but enjoying all aspects of university life. They need to find the right place for them. I hope it works out for your DS this year. Good luck!

[Ingles2]

I totally agree, as long as they're happy and have a good friendship group I think...well, we'll see :) thanks for your help.

[LillianGish]

Dd has had offers from Cardiff, Sheffield and Bristol, but still waiting on Edinburgh and Exeter. We live in France and so she is classified as an EU student - not sure whether this makes any difference - but difficult with regard to offer days (or second visits in general) as it’s not just a question of driving up (or down!) for the day. She has a good, achievable offer from Cardiff (which she really likes), but is the sort of person who doesn’t want to rule anything in or out until she has the full picture.

[ifonly4]

LillianGish - I thought it was bad enough DD applying for unis 350-400 miles away. Which unis has your DD visited? The only uni DD hasn't heard from is the one she hasn't seen - typical. Too late for DH to get time off and I need to give a minimum of two weeks notice - offer holder days are 26/27 March so only have a few days before it's out of the question to get her there.

[LillianGish]

My dd has visited all her choices bar Edinburgh (she doesn’t think she’ll get an offer from Edinburgh - it was more an optimistic roll of the dice in the absence of a fourth choice, also as an EU applicant she should have no - or at least low - fees). If she gets a realistic offer from Edinburgh we will visit. I think it is important to see where she will be living. She hated the campus at Bath (though obviously the city is lovely), didn’t like Leeds and didn’t even want to get out of the car when we pulled up at Warwick. I’ve tried to tell her it’s not just the place it’s the people and also the course, but as she won’t be able to easily pop home for the weekend I can appreciate she needs to like the feel of the place (she loved Cardiff and felt at home on the campus at Exeter where there seemed to be a lot of French speakers!) We are back in the U.K. for the Easter holidays so can do some return visits (even if not actual offer holder days) so hope to have all her offers in by then. It won’t be easy to get back after that as she will be deep in exams.

[Ingles2]

we've had 1 weekend visiting Unis in the Midlands, that had their open days together, so Birmingham, Warwick, Cambridge. Haven't seen Durham or St Andrews as we thought we'd wait to see if ds got any offers.. so were going to the offer visit for Durham at the end of the month. Who knows when it comes to St Andrews..
My elder son is resitting this year, so I'm going though it all twice.. He wanted Loughborough.. and missed out on the grades last year (he forgot to revise!) so is trying again this year. luckily they gave him a 2nd offer...
What are your dc going to study? @ifonly4 where does your dd want to go?

[ifonly4]

Ingles DD has applied for three courses in sustainable development as there aren't many courses available. Also Liberal Arts & Natural Science and Combined Honours in Social Sciences courses where she can incorporate geography, politics and one or two other subjects that might link with with SD longterm.

Now we have done St Andrews (yes, 400 miles away). If your DS does get an offer, one thing that might be worth doing is a talk and tour (can be booked online), it's a tour with a student for an hour and an hour with admissions explaining how the uni and courses operate which we found very useful. We also requested to meet a lecturer (not guaranteed) and DD had over an hour of quality time with her. Their spring vacation is early so their open during our Easter hols, so iit's something that could be done then without time off school. It'd also be worth looking around St Andrews - it does have some main shops but no large department stores. Life is pretty much centred around uni and societies. There are takeaways, a couple of pizza places and local pubs. Students are all in the same boat and will want to socialise, it just won't be the same as some major cities. DD does have an offer from St Andrews, which is now a firm favourite and luckily is encouraging her to work her socks off for her A levels.
Still waiting on Durham which might throw things out though (especially as I've seen slightly reduced offers being made to match that of St Andrews), and the one we haven't visited, she's waiting on.

Glad it's worked out for your other son.