Year 12 - 2025/2026: Support Thread 2

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for us to keep chatting on!

@achangeofnameisasgoodasarest- what a scary time. I’m glad you’re home safely. Most unis do virtual open days and online tours. Maybe that would be a better option for your dd?

@Bufftailed- I think the published grade requirements are usually pretty accurate. It’ll depend on the uni and the national results as to whether unis will accept dropped grades on the day. DS’s didn’t back in 2024 but he was in a minority amongst his school peers, most of whom dropped a grade or so and still got their first choice.

DS looking at mid tier unis and am trying to get my head round app process, especially the discrepancy on the ucas site between entry requirements and average grades accepted. He is looking at Leicester, Surrey, UEA etc and quite big gaps.

They want the best students but also need to fill the places to keep course economically viable - so some uni and departments some years will drop the grades a lot a from published grades others don't.

It's a poor system as you have to apply with grades you don't yet have but be both realistic and not too conservative with five you apply to and happy with first and conditional offers you accept.

They said on Swansea open day there is some flexiblity with grades - and they do have an integrated foundation course - other treat foundation courses as something to apply to sperately - Liverpool same department - and others it's not really part of the undergraduate course and othter still if you miss the grades they'll offer a place on foundation year - but it's another years of costs.

DD1 they did interviews and dropped their entry requirments a lot for her mostly as she'd super impressed them -DS got a grade lower offer which he hit as he was doing 4 A-levels but not all uni and courses do that - we've asked for DD2 and it's mixed. DH department don't interviews if and how much they drop depends on the grades of the who applied that year.

How they decide the predicted grades will depend on the school. We're in Wales and found AS level results very accurate but the predicted grades are often higher and wrong.

The birthday thing is tricky for this age group. DD is summer born, yet 3 of her good friends are younger than her (all August born) but they aren't into drinking yet, so I don't think that will impact her 18th plans too much. What has been an issue for her is medical work experience, lots of places say students must be over 17 to do certain placements which has restricted her. She did hospital work experience over Feb half term and was quite jealous watching some of the students don scrubs and go to watch some surgery - this is her dream, yet she wasn't allowed as still only 16.5!

DD didn't attend the uni fare with her school as there seemed no point given she is dead set on applying for medicine and has already visited most of the unis she is interested in. She stayed in school and did Uplearn instead which was much more useful for her. The trouble with medicine is that whatever unis you might like at the end of the day it will come down to which ones you meet the requirements for and stand a chance of being selected for interview with - if you're all 9s and a top UCAT score and great wex then you probably have a choice, but otherwise it is all about tactics.

DD has already been told they will be using her FFT5 predicted grades for UCAS, and their end of year 12 exams won't impact on these (unless they do much better) so that is a relief. I must say it is nice for her predicted grades to be where we think they should be - her ones for GCSE were much lower and it was quite demoralising seeing them on every report, despite her exam results being much higher. I suspect they might have been higher had she sat the SATS in year 6 as I think she would have done well in those, but they didn't have that to base it on. What is frustrating though is that we have to wait until June for our first parents evening! I circumvent that by either emailing school if I want to ask/share something, or by speaking to the teachers when I come in for her younger sister's parents evening, she seems to have more in year 9 than they do in year 12!

DD1 will turn 17 mid AS exams and was 16 mid GCSE exams - she had a very small number over all who didn't have a exam next day..

DS turned 18 mid exams. We went out at the weekend as a family but he said he didn't want more.

DD1 turned 18 few days after A-level results and had mentally gone despertae to get on to uni- didn't really want to do anything with us and her GF at time was also busy getting ready for uni.

DS will be 18 in the autumn, I don’t think he will want any kind of party though, probably a meal with friends. Both I and DS2 have August birthdays so I can sympathise with the younger ones, I remember what it was like when first everyone was learning to drive when I was still 16, then they could legally drink whilst I was still 17!

I think the range of grades may also reflect there being some contextual offers as well.

Are your DC booking uni open days? DD wants to look at Kings, Notts & Birmingham for starters but all on Sat 27th June. I know they’ll be more in autumn but that feels a bit late. My older DD looked at a few unis but not the one she’s at until ‘offer holder’ day that was in April of yr13 & that was fine.

DS has booked two - one in June and one in July. The one in June clashes with two others that he wants to look at but they are both quite local to us so hopefully we can just book campus tours for those another time, or wait until the autumn. It's hard to know how many to do.

Yes. Want to get a couple in before summer hols. Maybe Surrey, Leicester or Lancaster. But bit tricky before predicted grades. DC wants to go with friend, but hoping to go to one with them. They are all June/ July - Friday options, but will try to go on Saturdays although they will be working most Saturdays now. Lots to juggle

Will try to get them to look at some online ones too. I didn’t know about offer holder open day

DC haven't booked any open days yet although they have signed up to a couple of unis for notifications. Also haven't made any effort to secure work experience for the summer. I'm tired of nagging, TBH.

@Bufftailed yes the offer holder day was excellent as was much more geared towards the actual course she’d chosen. She only went to the one offer holder as she’d seen her other two options (she only applied to 3 universities - 2 courses at one uni and left her 5th spare to see what happened with offers, but ended up not using it).

We’re looking at Edinburgh, Imperial, Durham
and Bath. Already been to Birmingham. Cambridge is her first choice. Might look at Lancs but her brother is there so it’s a known quantity. Edinburgh, Imperial and Durham are all in the same week!

I would pick one and see as much as you can. You can’t see everything but your first open day is as much about learning about university in general as it is that specific university. Then when you visit another you have a better idea of what to see and ask.
I would try to get to a university you/your dc are probably not interested first (possibly online) as a learning experience.

@NotDonna i know you have a dc at university but they are all individual and presumably interested in different courses.

I'm thinking 1 aspirational, 1 near home, 1 London, 1 campus and not sure about the last one.

Was anyone's DC at an international maths competition in London today? ??

Yes this one is my 3rd DD. She’s visited DD2 at uni a couple of times so seen what halls generally look like & how uni works & she visited our very local uni (that she has zero intention of applying to) so she knows they’re just a group of buildings. The vibe will be down to the people who attend alongside. I think it’s much much more important to find the right course that has the modules DC want / fancy. I think there can be way too much emphasis on the town or city BUT that is of some importance too if they’re going to spend 3-4 years there. For her the open days are about understanding the various courses on offer within the department & for her to understand these.

@CreamBeforeJamOnScones sounds like a plan unless DC has strong views! My DDs all adamant that the local one is a big NO. DD1 applied to an array across England including London / campus / non-campus - it was very much about the course (and matching grades). DD2 didn’t want London & again was all about the particular course & campus based. DD3 is looking at the courses & grades doesn’t seem to care where!

Having written all that, it’s suddenly struck me how much choice there is (grades pending).

We’ve got a few in June/July, including some that clash so he needs to work out which one he is more interested in. He wants to apply to Cambridge (subject to actually liking it when he goes to the open day!) so won’t have a lot of time in the autumn before his application has to be in.

I have 2 older dc’s who’ve been to uni too. Ds1 is 26 ds2 is 22 and still at uni. As they both knew which uni they wanted to go to we only looked round those. Ds1 did look at a second one. As ds3 is undecided what he wants to do after 6th form I don’t know if we will be looking round any. I asked today. He said no one at school is looking at any until year 13 so I maybe he will want to go look then.

I recall in my day I had to put 5 on UCCA form and 5 on the Polytechnic form. Or maybe it wasn't 5. But I didn't visit the polys as I was predicted to get into a uni.

Me again! Just wondering how it goes when you apply to same courses at one uni? DC could go for a combined honors which has higher requirements. Are they treated as separate applications? You could hold two offers at one place??

@Bufftailed every uni is different and I’ve heard on MN that some universities don’t like two applications for similar courses. So DD emailed the admissions people in the department and asked if it was ok to apply for both courses (one was Business with 2x 6 month placements and the other was Business & Management with a 12 month placement). They replied that they’d view each application separately - she was offered both courses.

@Bufftailed I've sent DD2 to ask this question today -she's off to a UCAS fair and is interested in both Music and Liberal Arts at Durham. Will report back if she actually manages to ask!

Thank you! DC is considering criminology and there are some good joint honours with psych, which could open more doors later, albeit harder to get into.

@Eccle80 when my DS did early application (Cambridge) he just put three unis down on the form and added another two later (obviously this doesn't work for medicine or vet med). Might be helpful if you want to do a couple of autumn open days.

All of this talk of Open days, I have just put a lot of dates in my diary! DD is currently interested in a tiny handful of places. She has told me that if she doesn't get in to any of them she will take a gap year. She is VERY optimistic (which worries me a little).

For those who have been through it already, did/any many of your kids get rejected to some places even though their predicted grades were at or above the level to suggest they would/should get an offer? (Oxbridge aside, because clearly it happens there A LOT).