New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

kitten can you tell me which thread it is on MN that admissions staff are talking about early applications?

I think I may be mixing up general contextual offers with widening participation type schemes run by several unis. Bristol does have a scheme for local students which takes additional social factors into account though such as whether parents went to university. It is a bit controversial that some independent schools are included in the scheme.www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2017/03/01/bristol-university-criticised-disadvantaged-pupils-scheme-offers
Other unis have similar schemes too. Here is the one for Newcastle uni where Looked After children are one of the criteria (if that is why these dcs are having their school places funded). www.ncl.ac.uk/schools/partners/eligibility
Hope that helps with your questions fantasy

OYB
Yeah I suppose, I suppose I just feel for some of dds friends she has two friends who are funded from the social services to go to school? Would that be taken into account for them even if they are at a private school? Curious

Well it’s our birthday today! 19 years have flown by

Many university courses don't use contextual offers - they take school results, Polar data etc into account for near misses. (The UCAS form does display GCSE and A level scores from the applicant's school, thus enabling you to put into context their results and their predictions.) Courses that do make contextual offers will combine polar information with school result information usually.

Bristol uses a strange approach where they make contextual offers (one grade lower) to pupils from schools in which results are below the national average. This is imo a recruitment tactic as it is clearly not fair: a school's results are to a large degree set by its intake. A pupil in top sets at an outstanding school whose results are below the national average is not at a disadvantage to a pupil in a requires improvement school with above average results.

It's difficult to take into account parental education because not all pupils fill this in on the UCAS form - and of course it would be hard to verify.

Pupils from private schools would almost certainly not get contextual offers - the exception is again Bristol, which I believe includes private schools with low results on its list.

Dd starts her ucas stuff tomorrow
To add to more stress
It seems to be constant testing and more essays this year it's our birthday Thursday so I'm hoping she can relax a bit
I don't think dd would qualify for a contextual offer

What other factors user would affect a contextual offer if you don't mind me asking?
We live in a level 1 area, but am under the impression that as DH and I are both graduates, this means that dd wouldn't be eligible.

It gives a score of 5 (the top) but our area has a lots of student residences and houses let to students. Surely that will skew the figures in this and similar areas?

No, because it is looking at those in your area who turned 18 and then participated in higher education, see Hefce:

www.hefce.ac.uk/analysis/yp/POLAR/

BTW in practice there is really no significance in terms of university admissions whether you are polar 3, 4 or 5. It is only the lowest two categories that may play a role - and even then it is not only polar data that is used in contextual admissions.

People on MN also seem to over-estimate the grade discounts allowed under contextual offers - it is rare for the discount to be more than a grade in one subject, not least because studies indicate that students coming in with significantly lower grades than the average are more likely to drop out/do poorly, particularly for high tariff courses. Of course in practice many courses do also allow grades to be dropped in any case in August so e.g. an AAA course may give an AAB contextual offer but then accept ABB. Contextual information is used when deciding about candidates who missed offers.

Yes I feel so much better having read the applications thread.

DD started her personal statement in the car on the way from Newcastle to York.

Anyone know anything about Liverpool? I get totally confused between the two Universities. DD is going on Saturday but that is to Liverpool University, not John Moores. Is one better than the other for particular subject areas?

kitten definitely book that holiday up & have a second emergency contact in UK whilst away. Hello to all the new posters

I'm getting very nervous with all the early UCAS applications talk, as we have 3 more Unis to visit (I too am completely over open dayed too!) Despite e-mailing teachers for predicted grades I'm getting nothing back. DD's PS has been OK'd by subject teacher & HoD still not given any input 3 weeks on & yet saying school deadline needs to be met by mid-October - so frustrating!

I just looked up our postcode on the polar map. It gives a score of 5 (the top) but our area has a lots of student residences and houses let to students. Surely that will skew the figures in this and similar areas?

The Polar map was interesting. We live in a former mining village next to a collection of naice leafy villages. It didn't tell me what I didn't already know, our area is split L1/L2 (the lowest levels of HE participation) and a mile down the road is L4. On a scale that runs 1-5 we have 1-4 within a mile or two.

DS is following a vocational route, to be on time his application has to be sent off at the end of next week. Someone in the household is somewhat stressed and it isn't him. Is it finished? Has his tutor seen it? Has his subject teacher seen it? That would be no, no and no. I appear to be unreasonable for asking, don't I know that he has it all under control? If it were under control DS the answers would be yes, yes and yes and you'd have submitted the dratted thing already.

On the positive side (because heaven knows I need one) he has spoken to one of his referees who would be delighted to write his reference and is in danger of doing it before DS has submitted his application.

Inchy, my DD is at Warwick, about to go into her third year and she loves it there. Living on campus in the first year was a great intro to uni life. She's now in a houseshare in Leamington where there's a thriving student community but a few too many tempting shops and eateries!

The only downside is the bus journey in rush hour which can be tough when they need to get in for early lectures!

DS is going to the open day there this weekend.

But if they have enough good applications before the deadline to which they make offers, are they not then already 'full'?

Off to find t'other thread.

Ooh well done Shanghai's DS, the first to send their application!
Hopefully he'll get some lovely early offers - good luck!

DD has sent hers onto the school system but has been warned it will be the end of this week at least before school have added all their bits and officially send it to UCAS.

The early applications thread is a fascinating read - lots of insight into the application process.

Ursula - as I understand, all applications need to be treated equally and therefore there should be no detriment in applying one day before the deadline. Ds applied early as we are on a slightly different timetable to the UK - eg have 2 weeks national holiday in October, three weeks at Xmas and then Chinese New Year so it made sense to submit in September. Also his school has students applying to UK, U.S., Australia, Europe, Korea and Canada - all with different requirements and deadlines so the school encourages students to plan ahead.

There's another thread about whether applying early gets you a jump start on the places. It is a UCAS requirement that all on time applications are treated fairly so an early applicant may get an early offer but they would have got that offer whenever they applied.

As your son applied to English universities does he get offers before our applications are even in?

It's £24 for the application. I paid last night then form goes to school who fill in predicted grades and details about student - ds's school calls it a letter of recommendation and then the form goes to UCAS.
Ds's school sent the application to UCAS this morning so the waiting begins.

shineyshoes quite a lot of universities have quiet flats. They don't all mention them up front but if you ask you will find that they exist. A few have whole quiet halls.

DS (ASD) was in a quiet flat which was good for him. Although it may have been a bit too quiet as he didn't get to know his flatmates at all but that is probably just him.

MrSlant college include the predicted grades in their bit of the form together with the usual phrases on attendance, punctuality and attitude to learning. How and when they are communicated to students seems to vary hugely.

Here when the student hits the button to complete the form it doesn't vanish off to UCAS, it goes to college for them to complete their part.

Mrslant, I didn't know about the fee either-best factor it in to next months budget!

www.hefce.ac.uk/postcode/

This link should tell you your polar number. It doesn't help much with funding (as far as I know) but may help with applications. It applied to ds1 for his Sutton trust application and goes towards some courses aimed at getting dc from poorer backgrounds into higher education.

I know this will be very useful for ds2 and may come into play for Dd. Have a look into it. Some contextual offers refer to it as well.

Well this thread is educational, I didn't know what an EPQ was until now and also was clueless that there was a fee for the application. So, educate me further, DS1 looked blank when asked about predicted grades, how do we find these out and where do they go on the form [clueless emoticon]. Also looked at the POLAR map, how much of an influence does this have on grades asked for, we are in a L3 area but bounded to the south by a L2 and east by L1. One of the poorest areas in the UK apparently, hard to quantify personally when it's where you live and what you are used to!

Kitten book the holiday but keep an eye on the weather .