A level results day 2021 support thread

plus first year hall costs when they do get to go covered as well.

Good luck Clary I think it's worth ringing and speaking to someone. I'm glad DH rang earlier. DS is actually much calmer now, and planning what he can spend the money he'll be saving on the cost of halls on. Plus, knowing there's a sink in his room has helped. I'm still disappointed for him, and I don't think it's been managed well but I'm calmer too.

Someone told me that one reason there's fewer rooms on offer is because there's a higher number of students staying in halls another year, because with covid they couldn't go looking for houses in town to rent. Makes sense. Add in the over subscription and it explains why so many haven't got any of their choices.

GCSE results tomorrow will be a breeze after today!

Well if that's true and the ballot only offers catered rooms, then we literally cannot afford for DS2 to go.

I think he was unable to get the portal to work for him to request the room he wanted as he was on there at 2.30. Going to ring them tomorrow and have a moan as you would think they would want to encourage disadvantaged students to go, but a catered room is basically going to more or less wipe out his loan and we can't afford to sub him ?£250 a month or so.

Yes the one that really got me was the girl with AAA*C and was rejected from both Leeds and Exeter to do geography. The C wasn't in geography. I am not sure where she ended up in the end - no doubt somewhere really good though.

The bit buried in the detail was that one of the A*s was her EPQ, so she didn't meet her offers from Leeds or Exeter which offer AAA or AAB.

Better to start with simple set-up and “upgrade” later if possible

I told DS that as a student he has to slob it a bit, so he knows what he’s working for

No en suites in my day at Uni, you just had to wear flip flops and not look to closely at the drain/floor

It’s character building

marlene I think it's because he gets nagged about spending too long in the shower here! I think he just wanted the privacy, but now he's realised there's a sink in his room he's a bit happier.

@frugalkitty and @clary that is all so interesting

I only read on this very thread that people had already started booking rooms, so I called down DS to say we had cocked up and needed to get on the ball. We then logged in an nabbed the only non catered room left. In Harry French. It’s a small room, but the hall itself is quite popular with students for a reason.

Then an hour later he gets the mail, but by then we had done it already (thankfully, thanks to you MN guys)

We are just grateful he has a room

@frugalkitty is there a reason the en-suite matters so much to your DS? Sorry to hear it marred his day

Had a quick catch-up on here earlier and saw all the accommodation talk, said to Ds 'so have you checked your email today?' He said 'no, why' I said 'well, you know, uni? Accommodation?' he trotted off and came back and said 'errr yeah I have got an offer actually .....' it's no wonder I worry about him going, the muppet! Thanks all for the heads up!

I just read that out to DS and he'd well up for that if it was offered!

Anyone else hear a story that Leeds are offering £10k to students (I assume on certain courses) who agree to defer for a year 😮😮

Loughborough have a 30% return rate of second/third plus years opting to stay in halls which won't have helped this year. I'm just sad for DS who's gone from excited to rather despondent in the blink of an eye. Never mind. I've told DD she's not to put it on her list of uni choices next year, I can't go through this again

I get the sense that Loughborough may have been caught out a bit in terms of numbers making their offer grade. However all my elder DCs friends who been / are studying there now love it. Having been on a couple of pre-covid Open Days and been in several of the halls; the room sizes seemed pretty standard whether shared or en-suite bathrooms. Different size beds though. The Loughborough accommodation videos are pretty good www.lboro.ac.uk/services/accommodation/halls/videos/ ; and Falk Egg looked a very good price. Although there then seemed to be quite a jump from that to the next self catered price band.

Despite being guaranteed University accommodation for my First Year, I ended up in a University sublet - not exactly what I had in mind and my flatmates whilst perfectly lovely were not my type - they were all extremely square and hard working and I wanted to be a hell raiser!😂
So I hot footed to the accommodation office and got my name on a list for a transfer - loads of people drop out in the first couple of weeks - don't get stuck in shit accommodation because that's what you were given to begin with...ask there are options, but you may have to wait a week or two.

clary DH was told that all en-suite rooms have gone. That might be why no bathroom choice was available for your DS. I think part of the problem is that so many rooms are available for second and third years, 30% I've read today, which must impact availability for newbies.

DS is coming round to what he's been offered, the bonus is that it's cheaper than en-suite which he's beginning to realise might be a good thing.

The experience has ruined the joy of yesterday though. It's completely deflated him and has put him off a bit to be honest. He's going to ring on Monday to see if anything SC has come up on campus, but honestly I think he's going to have to just take what's been offered and get over himself. It's not a good system in reality, for all it sounding fair beforehand. Someone on fb was told over the phone that's it's just luck of the draw!

My son went to Loughborough. He's lobbied for changes that your dc will benefit from and I feel very proud. Tomorrow we await GCSE results. Seven consecutive years of exam days. Eek. Just one more child to go for A levels in two years but then we still have the 2dc degrees to come in then dc3 if he goes to uni.

A salutary tale not to do four A levels!

OK well I really am baffled by this accommodation thing.

DS logged on at time told, no possibility to book anything, had to choose three areas of campus and could specify self catering but not bathroom preference.

He was a bit upset (as a mate yesterday was able to choose a hall) so I had a long email convo with someone at the uni with the following conclusions:

A very few people will be lucky enough to book a room at once (seems unfair)
Everyone else (the majority) will go into a ballot for which the preferences provided will be used
They will allocate a room and you will hear 6pm on Friday
There are rooms in all areas and halls kept back for this so nothing is sold out
If you don't like what you are given, there is a portal where you can swap
Students should have been allowed to state bathroom prefs (but DS was not).

It's really taken the shine off for me tbh. What a silly system. We can't afford for DS to go if he gets an ensuite room. Also she told me that they are 30% oversubscribed - surely that can't mean they are admitting 30% more students as that would really damage their experience I think.

My ds opted for catered (at Nottingham) much to our surprise. He loved it and made great friends that way. He was put off shared flats with people he didn't know by a bad experience a friend of his had. It worked out really well and he got to know a much bigger pool of people.

So apparently, all the self catered options are gone, also the en-suite options. Anyone with no offer or anyone trying tomorrow onwards (insurance choice students) have only got catered with shared facilities left to choose from.
DS has been offered a SC, shared facilities option that's not on campus so he's gutted, but at least it's cheap!

Oh, a little Lboro clique @clary @frugalkitty @I8toys 👋

DS got in too, but when logged onto accomm only cheap small rooms free so he booked that, as better than nothing

He wanted non-catered. There were nicer rooms available but they were catered which he did not want

What’s the Golden ticket thing?

I keep being worried about not clicking the right button or link somewhere and the whole offer vanishing before our eyes

Also not sure when/how rooms need to be paid (don’t think it says in the e-Mail?)

(Am not from U.K. myself, and I have found the whole Uni process a bit daunting)

IME by the way the expensive en-suite halls are the most popular (in general I mean) so hopefully DS will be OK as that's not what he wants. It's odd anyway as he couldn't log on to book before today but a mat eof his did it yesterday

Yes, he wants self catered. Oh dear!

Hmm DS has been on to book accom this pm and says they are going to get in touch with an offer - no suggestion that everything is full but also doesn't sound like he was able to book or even request specific halls. That's all a bit confusing. He got really grumpy with me when I asked about it