Support thread for anyone applying through UCAS this year

[Lorelai]

Following on from a thread in chat I thought I would start this so that we can hold each others' hands through the UCAS process with all its challenges.

Who's with me?

This from the BBC:
'But within the UK, the drops in England and Scotland are both 12%, even though Scottish students will not have to pay tuition fees.

The figures show that about 7,000 fewer students have applied at this point compared with last year - with the biggest declines among mature and female applicants.'

One thing I can't grasp is that apparently most students will not have paid off their debts after 30 years and their debt will be written off. This leaves a gaping financial hole somewhere which will open up in 30+ years' time.

If I'm not around by then do you think you could hold a seance and let me know if my prediction has come true?

I thought Scottish students still pay tuition fees, they just don't pay the massive increase?

Perhaps the suggestions in the papers that some universities may drop fees is encouraging applicants to delay applying. The whole thing is rather a shambles this year.

One offer received [hgrin]. DD is very relieved and I was so excited for her I couldn't sleep last night. She got an email from admissions but is still waiting for track to change. It's great to hear that her application is strong enough iyswim. It's a uni she hasn't looked around yet (quite a distance :() and has been invited to an offer day. I will try and go with her but might leave it until spring.

Talking to people it seem that generally students wanting to do degrees are thinking of ways of cutting costs. e.g study near home and live in part of the week or live at home. It's so sad and seems to indicate that the predictions of stiffling social mobility etc are coming true [hangry]. Whereas being a single parent/low earning puts DD at an advantage as she will get more help. Although she won't qualify for the most help i.e government scholorship.

Anyway big [hgrin] in our house today.

Goinggetstough - thanks!

Unitarian - I just don't get it, perhaps they don't expect the money back, anything else is just a bonus!

unitarian even those who do not pay off the whole debt will often be paying a pretty substantial chunk of it, plus interest. The gaping hole comes when they borrow the money, strange thing for a government to do when they claim to be short of money. However they have cut a large chunk of university finance, that partially fills the hole.

admaschic hope it is just the first, congratulations to your daughter. Some of the children I know are also looking at staying closer to home and/or having a gap year to earn some money before they go. Of course some of them have been working for years, now they are more likely to be saving the money than enjoying it.

adamschic ds looked at studying nearer home to save money but the nearest place is at least 45 minutes away and a 9 o'clock lecture would mean it would take twice as long through the rush hour. Add to tuition fees the train fares or car/insurance and a contribution towards food here and it wouldn't come out as a particularly cheap option.

We saw Goldsmiths do a distance learning degree which as far as I can make out is exactly the same as the one in-house. Applications not via UCAS so still an option here if no other offers appear.

adamschic that's incredibly quick, flash to bang. Bodes extremely well. Well done your DD!

Congratulations on the offer, adamschick. May we ask what the course is?

Thanks for the explanation, ellisbell but is it the government or 'the banks' lending the money?

Oh, and does anyelse see any irony in Student Finance England having a call centre based in Scotland?

That should be 'anyone else'.

hmm, that is rather ironic unitarian [hgrin]. I believe that the government lend the money, but because it is a loan and not just given to the universities it doesn't appear in some balance sheet or other and so although it actually is costing them a packet their figures look OK so that's alright [hhmm]. As for paying it back, looking at the figures on money saving expert, it seems most people with halfway decent jobs will more than pay it back (even in real terms), but most still won't clear the debt (since with the interest and lower repayments at the start it gets bigger too quickly), but then when they earn more in their 40s and early 50s they will have to pay quite a lot of their income towards paying it back. So don't mistake paying it back (which most will do) with paying off the debt (which most won't do).

I start interviewing next week but then I fully accept that most of the truly excellent candidates I will meet over the next few weeks will actually have applied to Oxbridge or medicine (I am chemistry at a RG uni). Oh well! Soon enough the real chemistry candidates will come through.....

kritur, do you interview everyone applying for chemistry?

DD won't let me put exactly what she has been offered and obviously at this stage doesn't know what will happen but it's a perfect course for her at a good uni.

gelatonious. The loan money given to the unis will be taken out of the governments revenue expenditure and put onto a balance sheet as an asset/debtor. This smacks of the sub prime crisis whereas the money was shown as bank assets but turns out it was bad, so some will need to be written off in years to come, well after this lot are history. Looks good for a few years though.

Gel, sorry I should have copied your nickname.

kritur just because they've applied to Oxbridge it doesn't mean they aren't a real chemistry candidate. Medical ones don't tend to apply for chemistry as their 5th choice. I know one bright chemistry candidate who deliberately delayed their application past the Oxbridge deadline to make it clear that they weren't applying to Oxbridge, but that doesn't, of course, mean your course will be their first choice even if they have applied to you.

kritur RG and 1994 universities are full of Oxbridge applicants who haven't got in.

Oxford and Cambridge don't have enough places for every deserving student and are quick to say it; those students are a mainstay for many other good places. They're all potentially 'real'.

I have an offer...not likely to be an insurance if I get two other conditionals, but all the same. Is cheering :D

On TSR some people have had news from UCL and Warwick (they seemed to be very high offers)...very lucky people!

quirrel Congratulations!

Thank you

Good luck to Adamschic's DD...it's quite nice checking track once you've got something there!

quirrel congratulations . DD is a bit unsure as track hasn't changed yet. What to think?

Yes we interview everyone for chemistry, even if they don't look like they'll make our offer. It's one of those strange things is the pre-christmas interview season, candidates with stacks of A*/A predicted (our standard offer is AAB) and very impressive in interview but they don't tend to come through to us. You'd be surprised how many medics put chemistry as their second choice, they often apply to medicine and chemistry and it is of course quite apparent from their personal statements. The medics etc and the ones applying for natural sciences at Cambridge tend to be fairly obvious, Oxford chemists less so. We don't discriminate at all, they all get interviewed and they'll all get offers, we're a popular back up choice. We just wish more parents/schools/students didn't think that smart and good at science = medicine!

adamschic track can take as much as two weeks to update. If the uni has e-mailed, she has an offer. These e-mails are never a mistake.

Congratulations to those who already have offers! And to the staff who are together enough to put them out this early!

Congratulations to your daughter adamschic and to you as well quirrel.

My daughter has her first offer, which is her insurance choice. She is so relieved that she's actually got an offer.

kritur can I ask how on earth you cope with interviewing all applicants? How many do you get?