Year 13 2023/2024 - General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

It’s now the time for our young adults to sit their final year at sixth form/college. Everyone is welcome!

We did that too sheepdog, why do you want to study this subject, what was most interesting about that book etc, it was very helpful.

DD's PS is nearly there, she's happy with it but it's one line over. She has used some precious lines with breaks between paras but a big block of text is really hard to read I think.

I need to chase I with ds what is happening with his PS. he out his first draft in just before the summer holidays but I don't think he's heard anything back yet. They'll be prioritising the Oxbridge/medics/vets for the early applications but we ought to have some sort of timescale in mind at least.

DD has had to do a fair bit of rejigging once she copied her PS in to UCAS. Firstly it came out at 10 characters more than what it was in Word without her doing anything! So she has to remove/replace a word or two as it was over 4000.
It removed all the paragraph spacing she had and when she put them back in it went 6 lines over the maximum of 47 so she had to remove them again.
Also came up with the spellcheck red line under a random 6 words that were spelled correctly. She couldn’t get rid of the red line even by retyping the word.
She is just going to submit with it looking a bit blocky as she can’t afford to lose 6 lines of text to allow for paragraph breaks. I’m sure the admissions teams are used to this.

It uses a US dictionary for spellcheck I think - suggested behavior and center in DD's. Bit annoying!

Yes those two words came up for DD too. Analyse was another one. Can’t remember the others. We assumed it was American spelling too but DD was a bit panicked given that she’s applying for English! 😬

PS updated and DS has submitted his UCAS application, paid and it’s now with the school to add the references and predicted grades. Not sure how long it takes the school but hoping it goes off soon so he can get on with coursework.

DS just wants his PS reviewing by his physics teachers before it goes to school for final review. Hoping to have it done in the next week. Exciting times!

How do the offers/rejections arrive? By post, email or just within the ucas site?

The UCAS hub updates and they email you to say there has been a change I think.

Dd has submitted her application: Bath, Cambridge, Exeter, Warwick and Loughborough for natural sciences.

Rejoining after a break - great to see the updates; DC submitted Sunday for Oxford, Durham, Edin, Bristol and UCL. I think all are slow to offer….

DD has done hers internally but just put Oxford and LSE and says she's adding 3 more in January. I don't think school submit until mid October though.

Its interesting to look at percentage offers though, Oxford is 5% and LSE is not that different but Bristol seemed to offer a lot.

@Silkierabbit i think that reflects that Bristol is a pretty common insurance choice for Oxbridge candidates so have to factor that in to offer rate

DD has submitted hers to school now (after I did the paying part to UCAS) so not sure when they will get sent off. Just had an email saying Ofsted are in tomorrow so I think that may take precedence! They haven't had an inspection since quite a bit before my older one who left last year was there so could well be interesting.

Yes that's right I asked my son about how he got the offer from RH and he said he had an email to check the UCAS account.

I’m sure that’s how DS got his too - think he got offers quite quickly although didn’t apply until some point in January.

He applied to Newcastle (where he is now), Bristol, Kings London, Manchester and Liverpool

I'm getting impatient already even though DS only submitted his UCAS form to school on Friday. Not sure how much time they need before they will send it off.
My DS has applied to Cambridge, UCL, Sheffield, Leeds and Lancaster.

We applied with grades in hand on 8th sep and still haven't heard !
Waiting for Lancaster , Liverpool and Newcastle. Hoping October is the month.

How frustrating @sambamyty ! Thought you would have heard from one of them at least. Fingers crossed your DC gets an offer soon.
I will have to bite my tongue to stop myself from asking DS every day if he’s checked his emails 😬

I'm sure your DS will be on it.

My DS has had feedback from everyone bar Oxford.

UCL have said they don't offer till after the general deadline (this might just be for DS's course though), KCL and QMUL have indicated they will give an early outcome and he's had one offer through.

@sambamyty that is frustrating. Has DC been given timeframes?

Lancaster said they don't tend to look till October.
Liverpool said as and when they come in .
Haven't chased Newcastle .
I'm really tempted to call and chase but holding nerve.

@sambamyty Gently, as a former (Russell Group) admissions tutor,
your decision not to call is correct for three reasons: (a). it is far too early; (b) email is much preferred to phone calls; and most importantly (c) every admissions team member in the land takes informal note, and sometimes formal note, of whether the applicant or their parent makes contact. It gives a much better impression when applicants exhibit the poise and initiative to make their own queries (when appropriate).

Best wishes to your DC

Thanks @poetryandwine . I wouldn't call myself but gently nudge my dd to.
Hopefully will hear something before xmas

Sadly you still have quite a wait til Christmad @sambamyty ! I hope you will get some good news before then.

It really is easier for everyone to respond to email. If anything of substance is to be discussed a convo will just generate email anyway. If the email doesn’t get a response in three working days a follow up call is a good idea, though the likely reason is simply overwork.

They have until May to make their decisions - you can't hassle them in early October! They're probably still working on admissions and transfers for this year.
Grades in hand are treated the same as predicteds at many universities, so you're in the same boat as everyone else I think.