2025 A Level Results Day and Sept Uni Starters - All Welcome

[SlightlyJaded]

I couldn't see board specifically dedicated to results day for our DC who have sat A levels this spring. And I know some of us STILL have questions about Uni starters.

DS has Liverpool as his first choice and Notts Trent as his insurance - both to study History. Anyone who recognises me from previous boards might remember the hell we went through with DD a couple of years ago, so DS has applied quite a lot of caution to his choices - perhaps too much, perhaps not enough. Neither of us have any idea what to expect with his results. He has genuinely fluctuated between a D and an A in some of his mocks....

I still haven't done anything about accommodation which is one of the reasons I am starting this thread.

But mostly, it's for nail biting, relief, tears, support, advice and all the other things needed to get us through the next few weeks.

Welcome :)

Sorry, that was re Bath.

Okay, I can understand that. But imagine waiting a year and still not getting an offer from either. A bird in the hand and all that. Bath, as you say, is right up there and he may fall in love with the place/ area. Bath’s lovely. Good luck to him whatever he chooses. I wish him well.

It is possible he won't get any accommodation on campus, though hopefully he will. You can look at the uni accommodation website to see what they say about insurance students and the promise they make re accommodation as it differs between unis.

The accommodation office will definitely help him to find accommodation even if it isn't on campus.

Well done to him! Those grades will never matter again now. Hope he has the time of his life.

No you aren't.

You don't need to accept the place. It is assumed that the student will be going there once the uni have confirmed the place. Unless individual unis have their own unusual system in place, but the general rule is most unis don't ask students to accept the place.

If they want you to, they will make it very clear via email messages.

DS didn't quite get the grades he wanted (got ACD as opposed to BBC) but thankfully his first choice still accepted him!

I think A-levels have been a shock to DS as he absolutely sailed through school and didnt need to put much effort in to get 13 A*/As at GCSE.
We have said this is a wake up call - he has managed to get into the course he wanted where he wanted but Uni will require a lot of hard work and self study.

That's amazing, well done to your DD. But with those grades, as PPs have said, why is she settling for Bristol UWE?

What were her subjects? What does she want to study?

No, @Changed18 is correct.

If a student achieves all the offer conditions the uni asked for then they have to accept them.

They could get in trouble with UCAS for not doing so as it is a contract.

I used to work in this area so I do know.

Another one for York here, it certainly seems popular! Much relief.

That's a tough one.

Quite a few students switch courses in the first few weeks, as long as they have the grades for the course they want to switch to and as long as they have vacancies (but inevitably some places do become available apart from the most competitive courses as some students just don't turn up to take up their uni place or some drop out quickly, etc).

I would be tempted to accept the original course to get the accommodation they want and then see if they can switch once they are at the uni. But that's a bit of a gamble so it depends how upset they would be if they couldn't switch courses.

I would take the risk if it was a case of trying to switch from History to Law, say. But not if it was a medicine related degree as they have firm rules around numbers so are less likely to be able to be flexible once the course starts.

Re the student at UWE with three A Stars they may be doing something like Midwifery where all that matters is getting the professional qualification.

"Trading up" in Clearing wouldn't achieve much in this instance.

No You shouldn't be worried.

It's normal practice NOT to have to accept the offer.

If a uni has a different practice (apparently Durham do) they will make it clear to the student.

Thank you so much, that is my general feeling. And thank you to the others who commented on Bath as a good choice - it really helps.

I wouldn't.

If you look at student satisfaction scores, unis like Bath score much higher than London unis like LSE or UCL. The latter have a huge number of international students and students commuting from home (as accommodation so expensive) so tend not to be as good for social lives, plus everything is so expensive in central London.

Bath is a brilliant uni for career prospects AND for student satisfaction.

What were his predictions? I heard Bath only offered if they had a lot of A*s. DS got place to do economics at Bath today. Did he visit it? It was amazing. And a beautiful city. They really encourage the year in industry and do a computer coding first year module. I’m slightly worried that you may give up a great top 10 place and not get into the London ones again? Also London is really expensive and everyone might not live near each other in year 2 Ono.

Would normally be the weekend before term starts so hopefully you won’t have to take holiday.

Student finance question: - DS has to pay his first term accommodation on the 14th September - basically before he moves in for freshers week, however everything I can see online says that student loads wont be paid until the end of Sep? Anyone got a better idea of when it will be paid? Surely the Uni's would work the accommodation payments around usual student loan payments - or are they not that joined up in thinking?!

Mine’s in for first choice vet med at Bristol - thank god! Just got another 5-6 years to fund!!

Anyone turned down insurance to go through clearing? Had verbal offer and email from university in clearing this morning. Entered clearing choice at 1pm today on UCAS. Status says waiting for university to confirm. How long do we have to wait? Feel nervous having rejected insurance even though I know the email offer from clearing university puts us in a good place. Anyone got experience of the wait?

Bath is a beautiful little city - it really is gorgeous and will be a lovely place for him to live for 3 or 4 years and for you to visit.

I know you can pay the deposit and request that the term's accommodation fees be delayed until the student loan come in.

Worth sending an email to the accommodation office to ask - but you might not get a reply for a few days.

It should be fine. This is the normal process. You’ve got the emailed offer so it’s just a case of them working through their caseload in UCAS and it will prob be confirmed later today or early tomorrow.

Where did your DC take a Clearing Place for interest? I saw Durham closed Clearing within an hour for Uk students and Bath not long after. Other places said specific courses were quickly full, but lots still available too.

My DD got amazing results. One A and two A stars. She got an offer from Sheffield which she is really happy with. However, a few people have said oh she could do better than Sheffield with those results. Is Sheffield not a good choice? She really liked it when she visited.

Sorry, not read the thread yet but I'll catch up.
DD's predicted grades were ABB, she's come out with CCD. She's distraught! Talking to others at college she hasn't found anyone yet who got their predicted grades and most, like her seem to be 2 grades lower in everything.
She was top of the class in her chosen uni subject and she's come out with a C.

Thankfully she has an unconditional place at uni, she went for the one with the lowest offer as the wellbeing support is amazing and that's a priority for her over academic reputation (she's Autistic among a few other things.)

Has anyone any advice for this?

She's looked at the college portal and one piece of coursework which she was told was an A had been marked as B, the other one which she was also told was an A isn't listed.
I could understand her dropping 1 grade in subjects as the boundaries are higher, but to drop 2 grades!
She had one exam she wasn't confident about but the others were fine.
I'm wondering if this is an issue with college grading too high? Especially as it seems to be all students across all subjects.

My niece went to Sheffield. Liked it so much she stayed to do a Masters. I think it's a pretty good Uni.