support thread for those of us who have DC submitting UCAS applications in the next few months

[mumoverseas]

Thought we should all get together and calm each other down/mop fevered brows/hand around glasses of wine etc. We've seen other go through it over the past few months and it will be our turn soon.

DS has just got his AS results which were not too bad. AAAB. The B suprised him as it was for maths and we'd expected a B for french which he had not studied for a few years as sat his GCSE early. He says he will re-sit one of the maths modules and one of French ones to get a higher A

He (we!) has been considering various Unis over recent months and has visited 4.
PS is all in hand as is extended project (whatever all that is about) but time is creeping by and not long now til his mid Oct deadline (one of his choices is Oxbridge)

There has been so much in the papers over recent days about the lack of places at University at the moment and stories of how so many good students did not get places as they didn't put 'insurance' choices.

How is everyone else coping and how do we get our children to make realistic choices?

Congrats to oldmum as well!

DD2 has managed to put her frustration aside and has spent the week relentlessly socialising (An 18th birthday party and staying with DD1 at uni so far this week with another party tonight). I have banned her from doing anything at the weekend or she may collapse with exhaustion. Hopefully her application will be in at the beginning of next week (from the student room 3 of the unis she's applied to have given out offers and the 4th has been inviting people to visit first, so the sooner it goes in the better)

oldmum congratulations, glad all ok and your little man is adored by 1 to 3. Thankfully my 1 - 3 love DC4/DS2. I get very confused by names (old age!) so tend to call them 1 - 4. Was very pleased yesterday at Universal park to be able to buy T shirts with 'thing 1' to 'thing 4' on

JGB thanks for that link. DS and I have just had a good read through. Interesting to note one of his choices (Southampton) has started making a few offers. Will be eagerly watching that one.

PS, sorry if my seasonal namechange has confused

Whoops yes, Bmat on wed, not tues! (blames baby brain and lack of sleep).A whole extra days study.....

MorticiaOS - ha! I frequently go through the full list of 4 names before getting to the right one...... "dear, son and darling" are easier!

PONDERS, DS1 just told me - when asked if he'd been allocated a college by ox, like your DC, that oh yes, Lincoln College. Hadn't thought to pass on that little bit of info to his dear parents. Away to look it up now.

I agree with the posters suggesting the student room as a useful resource - as long as you check the facts elsewhere to - excellent for seeing who's getting offers and with what grades, and when.

oooh, Lincoln looks lovely, oldmum - proper grassy quad & everything

I've been amazed, looking at the studentroom thread JGBmum linked to, at how high the conditional offers are for Maths/Physics - at least 1 A* usually required - do they need to be at an incredibly high level before they start, because they couldn't cope otherwise?

Ponders - I think Physics courses are hard - my DD1 got a place at York in 2008 with AAA grades. She failed 3 modules at the end of her second year and had to resit them this summer - she had found the maths in particular heavy going (and it was always easy for her at school).

agree that student room thread very useful. Have been perusing it first thing in the morning and then waking DS up and making him check his emails. He has been taking his blackberry out to all theme parks and checking for updates at regular intervals. I suppose now its the weekend we can relax/stress a bit until Monday. Just one little tiny offer would be lovely

The reason Maths/Physics offers are so high is because 40% of students who take Maths A level get a grade A so it isn't differentiating between who is really good at maths and who is quite good at it. Making the requirements so high is supposed to help to find those who really have the ability to stay the course. The really top Maths unis are asking for STEP/AEA papers as well as A levels because these give a better indication of Maths ability. Me and DD2 got excited when we found a good Maths uni that only(!) asks for AAA.

Hope your DS hears something soon Mum/Morticiaoverseas.

No news here, just thought I'd pop in, glad that people are finding the link useful. So far, still no offers showing from the Depts that DS has applied to.

DS will be away all next week as he is going on work experience at BA at Heathrow (mind you after the bomb scares last night, I thought it might get cancelled). I KNOW he won't check his emails every hour day like I remind him he should.

Congrats to everyone whose Application is moving forward, and Webwiz I hope your DDs gets off v soon.

I'm SO glad to have found this thread! I've been popping into the further ed topic section and didnt know you were all in here.

So its not just me thats a bag of nerves! My DD has applied for English and/or English with creative writing and we've had 3 acknowledgements and 1 request for written work and 1 not said anything yet. And she sits the ELAT for Oxford on Wednesday.

With her older brother, I dont think he had any offers until December and I simply cant live with the state of high anxiety in the house right now. DS was much more laissez faire.

So many of her friends already have one or more offers I'm feeling very jealous (but pleased for them nevertheless of course). I shall pop over to the student room (thanks for the link!) and see if anyone has any offers for the places we're interested in... mind you, that way lies even more anxiety!

I got addicted to student room last year when DS1 was applying. One thing that I eventually noticed however was that alot of the early offers were to foreign students and/or those who were getting unconditional offers (they had already done their A levels). So don't get too worried if offers are coming in and your DC has not got one. Alot of courses had a sudden flood of 'home' student offers in short period and then went quiet for a month or so.

I'm glad I'm not involved again this year. Good luck to you all. I'll be doing it again in a couple of years.

I was there last year too lazymum - DS started uni in September, and DD is going through the UCAS system at the moment. Don't know that my nerves will stand up to it!

Good luck everyone.

woo hoo, DS has his first offer. Just got in after a really busy day out (retail therapy in Orlando!) and he has checked his emails and apparently has an offer from Southampton. No idea what it is as hasn't actually had that info through yet but imagine it is their 'standard' offer of AAA. Thank god he has at least one offer and a prod up the arse to get on with his vacation work

Yay! Well done MOS.

Hopefully the start for us all now

Hi
I'm so glad to have found this thread! Anyone else with DC applying for medicine? Nightmare! DS applied last year and got no offers :( He got 3 A grades (Chem, Biol & Maths) and has reapplied, this time to Sheffield, Keele, Leeds & St Mary's. His insurance is Biomed at Southampton and thankfully they have made him an unconditional offer :) so that bits sorted. In the meantime he's just about to start work as a healthcare assistant at our local hosp.
Fingers crossed for everyone!

Oh that's great, MOS! It is a comforting feeling, isn't it?

Hope everyone else gets one soon too!

Well done to MOS's DS!

Best of luck for your DS Byblyofyle - one of DD2's friends is applying for medicine and the whole thing is completely nerve wracking.

I'm sorry i haven't had time to read the whole thread. I have, however, worked as an admissions tutor at institutions at various points in the scale (post-1992, 1994-research heavy but small-and Cambridge). The following are some rough points of advice:

1. Ultimately grades matter immensely. It is not that low predictions are discounted, just that they are looked at closely. Think of them as like a CV for a job-if you are obviously under-qualified or lack experience you are unlikely to be considered. If you fall comfortably within the expected grade range for any institution you are likely to be accepted. Bear in mind the sheer number of applications that cross desks-we are not going to investigate those who see 'sureties' if they wish to come. Re-sit grades are treated somewhat more sceptically, unless there are good reasons why performance was curtailed.

1. Think about the COURSE very closely. You will need to write a personal statement, covering all courses, so applying to 'good' universities with very different teaching structures will be hard. The statement is like the 'covering letter'-a chance to shine and edge the application favourably. We think about course structure a lot, and will notice if a candidate is applying to lots of different courses.

1. In the statement, think about your course academically. We all understand that most students want to get a job at the end of it (and help them to do so), but we also need a sense of how they will respond to teaching. Even if doing something basically vocational like business studies or medicine you need to show engagement with the subject as taught, not as practiced outside academia.

1. Question everything you put on a form. Do not write 'history helps understand the present' unless you have a real example in mind. Give that example. At interview (if it happens) you will be grilled on this.

1. Bear in mind that the more 'elite' you go the poorer a guide current performance will be. Nearly everyone applying to most universities has a string of As, and most Oxbridge rejects have at least 4 or 5 (and we're still right to reject them).

1. Cross fingers and hope.

All this is personal and based on experience, but admissions are not an exact science. Other tutors may write different things, and institutions and courses vary. But, I think, these are common factors in most places.

DD2's UCAS application has finally gone in today. Thank goodness for that!

Oh good, webwiz!
Hooray!

Good news webwiz.

I don't understand some of the procedures schools use for UCAS forms.

MY DD2 sent hers off to school over half term, but her tutor has said she will have to wait till next week (when all the pupils' applications have to be in) before her reference & predicted grades are added.(This is despite the tutors reference already having been written, as DD2 has seen it.)

It seems odd to save up all the applications for one big batch, rather than doing them as they come in from the pupils - hopefully it won't take as long as at webwiz's school

Webwiz - really pleased for you

DS1 came back from his week at Heathrow this evening to find he's got an AAA offer from Southampton for Aeronautical Engineering. He (and we) are sooo plesed
Perfect excuse to open a bottle of wine methinks

Hope everyone else gets equally good news very soon

plesed , pleased

We are very glad to be at the fingers crossed stage at last (DD2's predictions were AAA in the end so she was pleased with that too as school have been VERY conservative in the predictions this year.)

Seimum - hope your DD's application goes in soon.

webwhiz fab news, bet you are very relieved

seimum how frustrating for you and DD, hope the application goes in soon.

JGB fantastic news! Wonder if our DSs will bboth end up at Southampton