Thread 21 Corona Cohort - Nervous waiting, so frustrating

[Monkey2001]

Continuation of OrangeCinnamonCocktail's threads

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/a4354626-Corona-Cohort-Statements-Scripted-Grades-Predicted?msgid=111487286#111487286

Oh singing, it’s all so complicated, isn’t it? Sorry DS’s teachers aren’t being more optimistic about his grades, given the change in his work ethic.
DD has decided against applying for any courses that require above her predicted grades too; she’s worried about wasting choices on options she hasn’t got a good chance of getting offers from.

Enjoy the show tonight!

Dd is sure now on her order of preferences...if she had to choose now it would be Southampton first choice, Sussex for the insurance. She wasn't keen on Surrey at all unfortunately, seems that the facilities /course wasn't as great as made out on website.

I think she would have like Sheffield's Music course too ..but a bit far! Any other unis named S....?

@singingstones
I think there is a thread over on feminism boards /gender

Did anyone watch Bath Unis talk on Supporting your Childs UCAS application last night? Here is a link hopefully.

[https://teams.microsoft.com/dl/launcher/launcher.html?url=%2F_%23%2Fl%2Fmeetup-join%2F19%3Ameeting_NDk0ODJlZjUtYjM4OS00YTNmLTgzMzQtM2ExMTQ0ZDU2ODk5%40thread.v2%2F0%3Fcontext%3D%257B%2522Tid%2522%3A%2522377e3d22-4ea1-422d-b0ad-8fcc89406b9e%2522%2C%2522Oid%2522%3A%25224093fe71-1307-4ed7-b1c6-ee09c1a28fa7%2522%2C%2522IsBroadcastMeeting%2522%3Atrue%257D%26btype%3Da%26role%3Da%26anon%3Dtrue&type=meetup-join&deeplinkId=b7adcdf1-97ec-401e-a767-2b07f1682e90&directDl=true&msLaunch=true&enableMobilePage=true&suppressPrompt=true]

It's worth a watch. I was very interested to find out that Bath look at near misses before looking at clearing - ie they give priority to those who put them as 1st choice before someone of the right grade in clearing..

Ah that didn't work - will someone cut and paste and see if it works that way please. It did for me.

I didn't watch it live but clicked on the link I was sent.

@singingstones - re Sussex, we went last Saturday. There is a group campaigning to have a female professor of philosophy sacked because she supports women's sex-based rights (according to them this is hatred towards trans people). There have been poster campaigns and demonstrations, including one last Saturday during the Open Day. At least 50 hooded, masked protestors appeared in the Library Square at around 12 chanting loudly, waving flags and banners and leafletting passers-by. The leaflet quite frankly did not give a good impression, anonymous, poorly written, containing swearwords etc. I'm sure these people are only a very small minority of students, indeed some may not be students at all, but it did give us pause for thought, DS and I both found it quite intimidating.

The other thing I forgot to mention from the talk was that Bath doesn't even do early offers for those who already have grades. They still wait to until all applications are in, in January. So don't be disappointed if you don't hear from Bath until later it seems.

Very interesting @Heifer. Bath is DS’s current first choice. I haven’t seen the talk linked but we did the admissions talk at the virtual open day about a month ago. I know Bath have had a reputation for offering late but they did not say it so clearly in the session we saw.

DS had planned to apply with his favourite three of Bath, Durham and Warwick and then add others later, but I think Warwick and Durham also hold off offering until after Christmas so I wonder whether there is actually any point in putting it in early?

I would just like it done now though to be honest.

Now I’ve stopped nagging about it, dd has started talking about it! She read me the first 800 characters of her PS and told me why she now favours Nottingham earlier!

It does sound like even if he puts his form in now @20NewNames he won’t get offers any earlier. Perhaps he needs to focus on deciding on the final 2?

It’s difficult as the ones he wants all have the same grade requirement of AAA although his favourite Bath takes into account the 4th A level and will give an alternative offer of AAAB. This is by far the lowest he can get for a top university. He is predicted AA*AA so should be ok as long as he gets the offers and continues working for the A levels.

I think he needs to find some lower requirements just in case but finding somewhere that he wants to go that has lower requirements is tricky. Unfortunately Bristol took his school off their contextual offer list this year as that was going to be his low offer (assuming he gets offers).

There is no point in him applying to places which need lower grades unless he wants to go there as he’d just choose to resit and go again rather than go somewhere he doesn’t want to which tbh I can’t blame him for.

Thank you Eerily

@20newnames a friends son had bath as his firm. They wanted 3 A* stars, he didn't get in as he had 2 A's and 2 A star. So he's at his insurance of exeter. His school insisted they all took 4 A levels plus epq. Had he only taken 3 A levels he may have had the 3* A star that he needed. Not sure why school insisted on 4. Universities don't ask for 4.

Loving the S theme, @OrangeCinnamonCocktail. When my eldest DD was looking for her first proper job recently, we had a 'southern coastal cities starting with B' rule. It all worked out.
If my DS goes to a uni without a large sandy beach, it'll be a dramatic break from sibling tradition. There's a lot of pressure, but he's showing signs of rebellion.

@icanbewhatiwant Wow! 3 A stars for Bath is steep.What subject was that? A friend of my DDs got in there a few years ago with BCD (which was a couple of grades below asking price) for Sociology. It's amazing how much grades vary for different courses.

That's interesting as we have that for social policy and their offer grades are AAB! It's just about the most highly regarded social science university!

I don’t know anywhere that asks for AAA. Even oxbridge only ask for AA*A for most subjects.

DS is doing the most common combination of 4 A levels probably Maths, further maths, physics and chemistry. There is a fair bit of overlap in them. We had a lot of thought about doing the 4th but ultimately he wanted to! They are all helpful to him going forward and while most universities don’t take the 4th into account in the offer given we were told it does sometimes affect the chance of getting an offer. A bit like an EPQ. He also started doing an EPQ but thankfully gave them up pretty quickly!

As piggy says Bath is very highly regarded in many subjects so I would expect a high offer. The fact they take the 4th A level into consideration is a bonus.

My niece firmed Oxford (AAA) and insured Bath (must have been AAA too) for psychology. When she got A*AB neither would take her and she ended up at York through Clearing, where she us very happy. I don't know why they thought it was a good idea to have same grades for Firm and Insurance, maybe they thought Bath would be more flexible.

At our school the only acceptable 4 A level combination includes Maths/FM, I think Maths/Physics/FM is the same work as 2 A levels for an able mathematician.

If the deadline is Jan 26th, what IS the last date Unis can make an offer? Only asking because Durham often offer latest. What date is that? Ds1 could be left hanging until the last second?

The end of March 2022

So, March 31st?

I have a question please regarding the UCAS application actions. DDs school deadline is for applications to be submitted today. She's been told the school will review it with her and she will be present when they do the final submission to UCAS. As they break up for half term today DD thinks she can click to submit and pay the money but then can continue to make changes, if she wishes, to her PS and uni choices over half term, as the school won't be doing anything now until after half term. I'm just checking DDs understanding is correct? We're off to see Cardiff this weekend and Southampton next week and this may/may not influence her choices.

@DoggerelBank I'm doubting myself now. Maybe bath wasn't his firm. But he definitely needed 3 at grade A* and didn't get his firm, I'm sure it was Bath. Will have to ask my friend.

Oh...and it was Psychology.

@mummabear74 once you pay and send you can only access it through school. Then once they have submitted it to UCAS you can easily change choices for up to 2 weeks and add more choices if you did not use all 5. Other changes would be through UCAS.

@Oblomov21 19th May is the deadline for universities to decide, and I think lots will happen in April. See www.ucas.com/ucas/events/find/scheme/undergraduate/type/key-date

[quote icanbewhatiwant]**@DoggerelBank* I'm doubting myself now. Maybe bath wasn't his firm. But he definitely needed 3 at grade A and didn't get his firm, I'm sure it was Bath. Will have to ask my friend. [/quote]
I haven't heard of anyone wanting Ax3 but they do sometimes specify subjects. So he might have been offered AAA with A in Biology, but got A for Biology and A for the others, so not got in.

I have realised my niece's Psychology offers were AAA for Oxford (Firm), AAA for Bath (Insurance), AAB not enough for either.

@Oblomov21

If the deadline is Jan 26th, what IS the last date Unis can make an offer? Only asking because Durham often offer latest. What date is that? Ds1 could be left hanging until the last second?

Bath uni said it was the end of May... I've just check on UCAS website and seen this:

When are you likely to hear back from unis?
Each university and college will make their decisions at different times, meaning you might hear back before your friends do, or vice versa. However, there are deadlines by which they will need to have decided:

If you're applying to study in 2022

19 May 2022 – if you send your application by 26 January 2022.
14 July 2022 – if you send your application by 30 June 2022.
If a uni you’ve applied to doesn’t make a decision by the appropriate deadline, that choice will be automatically made unsuccessful.

DD’s hit the button completing all 5 now. UK part done at least. We talked about visiting, she’s fine with waiting post any offers. Last minute change from Edinburgh to Leeds (discounted Exeter as being too ‘London’). She (and I) would have loved Edinburgh, but she had requested feedback from a selection of language students there and it wasn’t good, teaching wise. Much of the negativity was covid/lack of face to face/marking and general support related, resulting in a handful dropping a language. Anecdotal I know, but given 2022 is no longer ages away the feedback was useful enough for her not to waste a UCAS place on, especially with the lack of potential places for 2022 entry.

One of the other things we’re focusing on is accommodation challenges; as the euphoria of offer & acceptance seems to diminish quickly if a proper bun fight ensues from August!

List is Cambridge, Bristol, Durham, Manchester & Leeds.