Thread 18 - Corona Cohort Enrolling to Year 13 2021, Invasive Infections & Uni Uncertainty

[Orangecinnamon21]

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@NCTDN I thought AS were cancelled this year? Ours did mock AS but they aren't official grades.

@BlueMarigold that should say all his GCSEs. Not 4 GCSEs 🙈

Some courses give unconditional offers because they don't care about A level results - a friend's DD who is doing drama at Southbank got unconditional offer after audition. Birmingham had a reputation for making lots of "unconditional if firmed" offers, but I think they have stopped or reduced the number.

I think that unconditional offers can be great for anxious students, but for my lazy boys I think a bit of pressure helps to focus them!

Sorry if this is boring but I have had another university FOI response.

This is for a course DS is interested in at Nottingham, needs AAB.

In 2018, they were looking for 35 students, got 373 applications and made offers to 315 of them.

The number of firm offer holders who achieved or exceeded their offer was 13. Plus they let in another 18 who didn't meet the offer conditions, and a couple through clearing.

What I'm discovering is you're more likely than I thought to get an offer, about 85% of people did from Nottingham. At Exeter it was 90% and again they let in just as many people who had missed the offer as those who achieved it, and then the same amount again through clearing.

I'm sure there are places with much tougher stats but these are some of the places on his list, so I'm quite heartened

Disclaimer: 2022 is probably going to be mayhem and none of this will be relevant! Neither Nottingham nor Exeter are in clearing this year. Or at least, they were in July but had gone by yesterday.

@singingstones where did you get that information from? It's good to know.

Also how can they go from 35 places to significantly more?

Yes, @singingstones as a veteran of medicine applications, it is easy to forget that in a normal year most people make 5 choices and many will get 5 offers, so you would expect all but the top tier to over-offer.

Medical schools have been using waiting lists for the last few years and after this year's carcrash I am wondering whether they will use waiting lists more heavily, effectively making a lot of decisions post results.

I did some FOI requests, @NCTDN
I'd never done one before but it's easy and didn't take long to do.

I don't know whether/how they could cope with more than 35 but I'm not sure that's an issue for them. Even this year they were both in clearing early on, along with Leeds, RHUL and Cardiff. I think they both disappeared from the clearing list just before the A level results came out.

Ok really sorry to keep asking questions but what's an FOI request? It sounds like it could be useful?

@NCTDN

Ok really sorry to keep asking questions but what's an FOI request? It sounds like it could be useful?

Freedom of information. If you google university name and FOI, you'll find info about how to put in a request to them. It's best to be quite specific or they come back with follow up questions. They have a certain amount of time to respond, I think it's four weeks.

Yes, it must only be Oxford and Cambridge who know they will always (or nearly always) be the firm choice if they make an offer. Everyone else must have to manage the ratio of offers made : firms : insurances : neither, also factoring in how many people achieve the offer and how many don't. I guess some places are insurance choice for many (St Andrews / Durham etc) and some maybe less so, it would be fascinating to know. (To me anyway )

I saw a video the other day, maybe on this thread actually, talking about how unis inflate their grade requirements so that they're more likely to be firmed. There's all sorts going on that I don't understand!

I'm gonna talk to Ds1 about it tomorrow night. He seems completely unfazed. I'm the one now concerned, only in the last couple of days. And I never worry. about anything. Reading MN, this thread, has made me think that it's just gonna be a right ball-ache next summer.

Ds1 has recently announced that he's not sure he wants to go to uni at all. Not sure about an accountancy apprenticeship either. Thinks his trading activities will be making £1000's before long. FPS. God give me strength. He is still intending to keep all his irons in the fire.

He then announced that he'll be able to buy a house outright and will buy one near Leicester where girlfriend wants to go to uni, and trade from there.

As you know apparently he was only interested in going to Southampton and my attempts to get him to consider anywhere else seems futile.

I think all accountancy / finance seems, similar grades AAA. So no real decent insurance options anyway! I would prefer him to have an insurance of the lowest reasonable (I was thinking BBC) but not only does there not seem to be much that low, but he says they aren't good enough courses/prestigious enough Uni's. Pompous twot. So I asked what's the alternative? That you retake the whole year. That's happens rarely, let's be honest.

All of a sudden, I'm just not happy. Clearing is bad enough anyway. Next year it'll be worse I'm sure. We all agree on this thread. So I'm just trying to get him into a position that's he's happy with, but that I am too. Im not sure how we can find something we are both comfortable.

Sounds like you have your work cut out there, Oblomov!

DS's course is another where a true insurance is hard to find, so I am taking heart from finding out 1) almost everyone gets an offer from eg Exeter and 2) they let in quite a few people who don't make the grades.

@Oblomov21 what a nightmare! He’ll probably change his mind loads of times over the next year though (and may well change girlfriend!) so just make sure he keeps all options open.

How about Aston Uni in Birmingham? It’s considered to be really good for finance/business type degrees. I worked at a big four in Birmingham and worked with several Aston graduates. Ds is really into GymShark clothes and I noticed that it was founded by an Aston student too (although he dropped out when it took off!).

Sorry, meant to say - Aston’s standard offer is BBB. Ds is at a grammar school where the majority seem to go to either Birmingham or Aston universities, so it must be a good choice.

@Oblomov21 A lot of young people are blissfully unaware of how much it costs to run a household in the real world. What can be a nice little earner when they live at home not paying a full share of the bills is very often not enough to go anywhere near paying the bills when they move out. So often they stay at home for far longer than is desirable...

Maybe I will be proved wrong and the younger generation will glide through life avoiding the 9-5!

Bizarrely one of the lowest potential offers for DS might be Warwick at BBB, a decent reduction thanks to a combo of various criteria he fulfils.
If he liked and firmed Warwick, there isn't anywhere with a standard offer much lower than that I don't think 😂

Ds2 just text me from work. He had forgotten to collect business results yesterday. He can see them online now. It is A level equivalent, he got distinction star. That is 50% of his final grade. He told me he doesn't need to do anymore work in year 13 now because he automatically gets a pass/merit with today's result. I've told him that won't be good enough to get into university. He's probably winding me up.

Nothing to do with our year 12's...but I just had a call from a local health centre offering ds3 a covid vaccine. He's 12. I always said I didn't want him to have one. She caught me by surprise and I didn't know what to say to say. I turned it down, but I can call back if I want. I am not sure now.

Gosh that's amazing that they are on to 12 year olds already. DS just received his first appointment yesterday and he's 17.5.

Well life has thrown us a curve ball ( for the second time) as dd2 didn't get A's at As level so her school want her to repeat the year. As nearly everyone got A's in the year. DD has been mostly curled up in bed in a ball in shock & I've been incandescently 😠
DH has been sympathetic, as she became very depressed over lockdown. But the Sheer lack of communication from her & the school have been something else.

@singingstones Ds2 is 17 and 9 months and not been offered vaccine. I think my 12 year has been offered one because he was diagnosed with epilepsy age 3. He seems to have grown out of it 🤞 🤞 I will have to do some research.

But why do the ASs matter? They don't contribute? That seems very unfair. I am assuming that's a selective school?

Because @piggy they're protecting their results. This year over 70% a*.
Yes, DD doesn't have to announce her as results but they won't predict over them. So essentially she won't get any offers.
Yes, it's a highly selective school. They discard you along the way if you don't achieve. So either she continues with some tuition, and I'm not sure they will agree with that or starts again.

I just tutted at the school. Aware you can't hear me...

Ughh @Fferny1 that is a tricky one, it is a horrible way to treat a child, especially in such a difficult year! I think I would be inclined to change schools if my DS had that experience! The school must have put the grades in for her, so they could have managed her expectations a bit.

They do have to declare AS results on their UCAS application, but some universities won't be bothered about them, particularly this year.