Year 12 - 2025/2026: Support Thread 2

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for us to keep chatting on!

Ok thank you- i will encourage him to speak to his teachers.
He is only aware of a group supporting oxbridge applications - but maybe they also cater for other competitives uni (LSE, imperial, UCL)

So I thought I would have a look at what’s going on in clearing today in precautionary preparation for next year - looked at Uni Compare and a couple of individual Uni pages - top notch courses seem to be in ‘clearing’ so not sure I’m doing it right . Anyone else had a look or have past experience?

@waitingquietly Clearing doesn’t properly start until A level grades are released mid-August. That’s when unis know who has met offers and what spaces they have - you’ll get a better indication of what courses/unis go into clearing and what don’t on A level results day.

@otherthoughtssareavailable yes I agree - I think I was primarily trying to find my way round the system this year !

I also wonder if top notch unis still feel they need students that might indicate that they are a popular insurance choice . Information I will file away at this stage .. DS2 has GCSE results this year so I may be a little distracted come August

I guess it may indicate they haven’t had as many firming them as they expected based on offers made? And maybe hope to pick up some more without reducing grades. The Southampton Aeronautics and Astronautics is listed which surprised me as they are one of the top ones, and at the talk on Sunday she said if you met the A*AA grade requirement on your predictions you’d get an offer

@Eccle80 thats the one I’m talking about 😂… wonder if we were in the same talk !

We did Lancaster this last weekend - it was okay department seem more research orientated and the accomodation on expensive for what it is side - think that's down to it being very much a campus uni.

It didn't put her off. We also went to Manchester so she saw city - if she does really well there a course at man uni and if she doesn't manchester met for her subject has lower tarrifs but had some serious money spent last few years on department she'd be looking at.

I'm finding it confusing working out if they mean the grades the say they want - so far all indicated some flexiblity on open days.

That it for us though till she gets her AS results and we see where she falls - will do likely two possible three open days in Autumn term.

@waitingquietly and @Eccle80

With my work hat on (uni academic in a completely different field) I'm thinking it probably does mean that they haven't had the applications and/or the response to offers that they wanted/anticipated.

I am assuming that engineering courses have some element of a 'cap' on places due to lab facilties/placements etc. (it might not be a hard cap, but more of a cap than other courses where we pretty much just keep taking as many as we can to get the bums on seats...). Based on past cohort data they'll know the amount of offers they give to get about the right amount of students. Perhaps they had fewer apps in general or perhaps they haven't got as many firms as usual. Either way they don't see themselves as 'full' on the numbers they have.

Also possible that application/offer/acceptance numbers are down elsewhere in the uni (which they wouldn't have known for sure until the June acceptance deadline) and so the more popular courses are being asked to keep themselves open in the hope of redressing that balance.

With my aero parent hat on I find this particularly interesting and somewhat reassuring, although I don't really want DS to go to Southampton because, from the 'top 10' aero courses it is probably the furthest from home he could go (whilst staying in England).

@otherthoughtssareavailable I think it’s good to keep them reachable if possible ( says the one that was 5 hours including ferry crossing from home )

@waitingquietly we probably were! 😂

@otherthoughtssareavailable thanks it’s interesting to hear an inside perspective! I think they said they get 1000 applications for something like 240 places, but I guess it then comes down to how many of those then end up firming it. I can understand not wanting him to go too far, I think I’m lucky that everywhere DS is interested in is within about a 2.5 hour radius

I don’t truly understand this either. Eg UCAS pages for DC’s course at at one uni show 40% get BBC or BCC but their requirements are ABB or AAB. Only 25% get those required grades. It seems a v strange way of doing things. It’s a fairly high ranking course/ uni but not prestigious/ RG, which I think stay closer to requirements. I know they need to be close to predictions to get an offer usually (I think…)

Also if a possible insurance is usually in clearing, is if worth applying at all in the main applications..

Sorry i am new to this. What is “an insurance choice”?

I’m thinking that although a university’s standard tariff is ABB in your example, if they have an EPQ or core maths they may give an alternative offer of 1 grade reduction at BBB, for example. Also if ABB is standard but the student hits contextual markers they may offer 2 grades below so ABB becomes BBC and if that contextual student has an EPQ etc that may become BCC. So there can be quite a range on the ucas website.

Have a good read of the ucas website if you’re new to this as that’ll explain it better than me. Basically your DC choose 5 degrees to apply for, they then receive offers (hopefully) for most if not all of those 5. They then choose one degree to ‘firm’ - like their first choice; then another as a back up incase they miss their grades on results day for the firm. The back up degree is known as ‘insurance’. I’m saying ‘degree’ because some universities allow you to apply for a couple if degrees. A student for example may have Bath as their firm at AAA & York as their insurance at AAB. Some universities do a points system too. Definitely have a read if the ucas website though.

@NotDonna thank you!

Apparently Clearing has opened because IB results come out on Monday. This means those students get first dibs???

That makes sense. This particular one is AAB going to ABB with A in EPQ or specific A levels (one grade reduction for either or both). Contextual would provide 2 grade reduction but not on top of above. So max you could get is BBB yet 40% of applicants are getting in on BBC or BCC. I suppose you can’t be sure whatever the data says about previous years.

To some extent but I think majority of places come out on A level results day.

Where do you find clearing info please?

On ucas. You can click to show clearing vacancies.

The vast majority of applicants have A levels and are holding offers based on results due in August. So unis don’t know what places they actually have available until A level results are released to them (a few days before they are released to students). At that point each course will be told if they have places and need to enter clearing - this will be based on whether students have met offers for that particular course but also possibly whether the institution more broadly needs to get more students (to meet budgets). Even then it’s still not totally clear because students can now ‘trade up’ so you could be a student’s firm choice and then they get better results than expected so ask to be released so they can get a place somewhere ‘better’ (I.e. higher entry tariff). This is something the institution only finds out on, or in the few days after, A level results day. So, whilst clearing is ‘open’ now it really isn’t doing a lot of business until mid-August.

@NotDonnaeach institution appears to have a clearing page of vacancies too

Every year I think it really is a dark art. I don’t think any other country applies to university without knowing their grades.

DD planning on seeing how her ESAT score is before finalising decision on shortlisting.

She was telling me about TARA required for UCL. If she was planning on applying there, which she's not, I didn't realise know this was necessary.

How did other DC find Manchester?

DD1 absolutely loved the campus and city (we used to visit quite regularly so we know our way around, but hadn't been in recent years, so it was "fresh" to her eyes). She also liked the course and department at Manchester, although slightly preferred the Bristol version. DD2 also liked the campus and city but wasn't that taken by the academic side (strongly preferred Bristol).

Overall, both said they liked Manchester much more than Bristol.

Next week, Cambridge. This is DD2's top choice, DD1 doesn't really want to go there for uni but signed up just to have a nosey.

Finally, we'll be going to Durham in September and Leeds in (I think) October.

Hopefully that will be it for Open Days, it's exhausting and getting expensive!