Anyone want to join a year 13 UCAS THREAD?

[JesusChristOtterStar]

We can join in stressing about ucas forms interviews etc?

I am finding it all a very steep learning curve - we could support one another - celebrate and commiserate?

DS1 has just found that UCAS track is showing that he has a conditional offer for Bristol. But 'we' don't know how to find out what grades it is conditional on. Anyone there to help us.

oooh lazy mum congratulations to ds!

we had to wait a few days (infact a week) from one and two days from the others to get the actual offer which ia quite annoying although when they came they were as predicted

We've found the offer letter on UCAS. Its for ABB, excluding Biology which is a bit of a blow cos he wanted to stop doing History and he has been doing virtually no work for it in last month.

what are his other subjects lmumof teenagers??

(nice grades though)

He's doing maths, biology, history and RS. It looks like they want 2 essay writing sbjects. Its for Sociology and the Bristol website says that entry requirements are not based on any particular subjects. They can obviously do what they like though. He'll just have to start catching up with the history although Durham is his first choice.

durham did specify 3 subjects for ds whereas ucl were generous and gave him offer of three out of four - you never can tell. Wait to see what Durham say before starting to swot up on the history. Is Bristol his number 2?

He's actually applied to 2 courses at Durham. His first choice is Combined Honours in Social Sciences which asks for AAA and 2nd choice is Sociology and Anthropology which asks for ABB.

oooh ! which college?

Van Mildert, cos it is the only catered college where you definitely don't have to share and some rooms are en-suite. He's not bothered about the 'castle' one which everyone tries for, prefers something more modern and in better condition (less draughty).

probably wise

Hello all
Just popping in to say hi - so busy (work, mother, dcs concerts, tests etc) that I havent been on MN at all...

DS even busier than me with various 'stuff' and is off to Manchester this week. Cool as a cucumber

Have a good week!

good luck to him soya hope it's relaxed!

hello all, soya good luck to your DS

Just had a text from DS saying he has been made a prefect (proud mummy alert!) Hopefully this will come in useful on his application or PS next year?

Well done to Master Overseas.

The affect of that sort of thing on PS is a mystery to me. Actually the whole admissions prcedure is looking more and more like a lottery.

I don't want to give away too much in case someone knows the school/boy in question. BUT, an exceptionally academically clever/sporty/musical boy at probably the highest achieving school in the country, also holding the highest position in the school has just been turned down for Oxford without an interview. In previous years they interveiwed all of them. I cannot understnd it. There was an entrance test.I wonder if the school will look into what went wrong or he'll probably apply next year with a string of A*s un der his belt.

Thanks Lazy.
I'm sure I read somewhere about the PS that you/they should put in as much 'boastful' stuff like that as possible, ie positions of responsibility etc.
DS is the least sporty person you will ever meet so no achievements there therefore anxious to find other strings to his bow

OMG, makes you wonder exactly what they look at when they are considering applications.

DS1s school does not advocate putting that stuff in, unless you've won a very prestigious prize. They fill their PS with stuff that shows you are passionate about the subject you want to study without actually saying you are. If you are then left with 3 lines to talk about yourself then so be it, they do not put alot of emphasis on the extra curricula side unless it is important to the subject you want to study. I have no idea if this is the way to do it, I will tell you by next march when he will have heard from all the universities.

lazymum (no such thing!!)
We had the same thing - conditional from Warwick and couldn't initially find the grades. We shall all know what we're doing next time around!

ajandjj, did you find your offer letter on ucas track? If so were the grades as expected? Whats he/she going for?

lazymum - we went against a lot of the stuff we were told about PS

DS1 did put lot of stuff about himself even about home life and has had a very positive response to his personal statement

There are no hard and fast rules about 80% academic 20% other interests and when ds tried to manipulate his to fit such criteria - we thought 'hmmm it's alright as it is actually'

school told him to cut some stuff but he left it as he felt it was 'him'

re the rejections OMG!

DS school has had some shock oxford rejection without interview as well , i wonder if numbers are up?

DS1 wouldn't have had the confidence to go ahead with a PS which didn't meet their criteria, so well done to your son. Anyway, DS1 has avoided doing any extra curricula stuff since year 9, so he wouldn't have had anything to put in!

I think Oxbridge are not interviewing in the same number as previous years. But some very border line kids seem to have got interviews and then there are the shock rejections.

When DD1 was applying to university the school got someone in from one of the universities to talk about what they wanted to see in the personal statement. They just wanted nearly all of it to be about why you wanted to study that subject at university and then a bit about extracurricular stuff etc. I know some extracurricular stuff was included in DD1's school reference ie she played the piano in school concerts, assemblies and contributed to the life of the school etc etc so she didn't need to include it again.
The university tutor showed us examples of good personal statements and I was surprised at the time as to how "academic" they were. After the session it gave DD1 the confidence to go on about the bits of biology she loved without feeling like a ninny.

lazymum
DS has applied for Physics - he's had offers from Sheffield and Warwick and they're both as they've said on their websites grade-wise.
On UCAS track I think he had to click on the course reference no. that's in red to access the offer, and then somewhere else for the letter. Didn't seem very logical to me!
It's taken some pressure off as he has a potential firm and back-up - just have to see how the UCL interview goes in January . I feel really sorry for people who are still waiting to hear - they should be focussing on A levels, not waiting for universities!
There was quite a bit of extra curricular in his PS - I suppose some like it, some don't!