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?

I'm going to get her to ring today. I've looked at the original letter before and it is definitley an offer. It's not Durham btw. Thanks, gawd it's frustrating enough isn't it?

It sounds like a glitch and track should have been updated but hasn't.
The open day should be to give an opportunity to look at accommodation etc. and for those who didn't attend a pre-application open day to look round.

Try not to worry - easier said than done, I know.

They have said the uni probably hasn't contacted them yet and it can take time.

Fuming fuming fuming!!! Can't contain my anger. Need to vent

ds come home to say having had his 1:1 with the teacher who does all the ucas stuff she has checked through everything and advised him to take out the bit in his ps mentioning he had a bursary and a scholarship. I had told him to put it in in the first place after hearing a programme on radio 4 about widening participation and private schools being looked upon less favourably. I even contacted one admissions tutor at the time to ask if they had a specific policy re widening participation and she replied that although they don't have anything official, it was worth mentioning both the bursary and the scholarship in the personal statement.

ds says he trusts school and I can't tell them or him what to include which is true I just hope they both know what they are doing.

At our school they would probably advise against putting in in personal statement but would definitely mention it in the school reference.This would be on the basis that the PS should be about the candidate and why they want to study the course etc,the school reference would talk about bursary etc and what an asset to the school he has been ,how he has made the best of the opportunities etc
I would email his tutor,head of sixth form and ask them to confirm that they will be mentioning it

adamschick Did she ring UCAS? I would have thought it would be better to ring the university.

mrswoodentop he has a copy of the school reference and it just reads like a school report except for first sentence which explains the type of school it is and the last line which says he would flourish at your institution and I recommend him to you or words to that effect. No mention of scholarship bursary or being senior squire etc

Definately speak to the person who writes the reference then.Can you Email and ask
why they have not mentioned it and why they are advising your not to mention it.

eatyourveg it sounds as though the reference writer hasn't much verve. That does your DS a disservice. Schools should be able to produce more than a school report. Tell them it's too dull and the opposite of what they insist their pupils produce for the PS. I'd ask for them to re-do it if I were you.

Agree with Yellowstone the reference doesn't sound as if it written in a way to attract an admission's tutors eye and say you really want this DC! I can't understand why school tutors would do this as surely it is in a school's best interest to promote their own pupils to Universities.

As for the part about scholarships/bursaries etc if it goes in at all it would be in the reference. We had a similar issue a few years ago and were told though that academic scholarship holders would have excellent results and these would be on the forms and that if a DC had been at a private school then they would have had the same educational experience as those who were paid for by their parents and therefore it didn't make a difference on the form. I am not sure I agree about that totally. What seemed to make a difference was whether the parents had been to university - but this only affected one generation. The system wasn't bothered after that!
eatyourveggood luck to your DS with his application.

Its parents evening tonight so I intend seeing the Head. The school reference is not very well written at all, several phrases repeated and in each of the subject paragraphs it says he finds it easy! That makes him look bad because anyone reading it would expect a straight A* student which he isn't.

Not sure I'd have the guts or the right to ask them to rewrite the thing as it is after all school's reference not mine and ds is not bothered. I will however point out my concern that there are blinding omissions.

eatyourveg good luck with the head tonight.

We have had a look at the widening access schemes and they are interested in whether parents went to uni, you were eligible for EMA when it existed, parents receive means tested benefit, postcode in the lowest 20% economically, have been in the care service.

I can understand you might want the scholarship mentioned as it plants the notion in the head of the person deciding his future that he was privileged by his brains rather than by money. Not saying anything about state/versus private btw .

DD rang UCAS who didn't ask for her details and said the uni won't have informed them yet so she is going to ring the uni if she doesn't hear by next week.

You hear so much in the news about unis looking less favourably on private school students, I didn't want them thinking he was a posh kid from a posh school. He's not a posh kid at all (no x box, ipad, iphone, foreign holidays 2 cars etc) and wouldn't be able to go to the school (which incidentally is not terribly posh at all) without the financial assistance. He's there because we wanted him in a small place where he could have the chance to be a somebody and not be anonymous. At home he has 2 db with autism and therefore often has to come bottom of the pile. Nothing to do with one type of school being any better than another. Thats a load of crap anyway. There's good and bad everywhere. Just thought mentioning the scholarship and bursary might make someone think he's worth looking at.

I'm going to take the head a copy of the email from the uni I wrote to last year (which is one he is applying to) as they said it was definitely something worth mentioning and have emailed the teacher who does the applications and told her to put a hold on doing anything re ds.

eatyourveg our DC were in the same situation but without the DBs. I think I remember you asking a while back he he should mention about his DBs/young carer etc (apologies if I have mixed you up with someone else) Surely this bit should be in his reference and then they could link that into why he attends this school.
I think you might get some negative feedback about the idea that private schools are all full of posh children - although I think you were referring to the perceptions of University Admisisons' tutors. A number of children in private schools have some form of financial assistance. Mine have an x box but none of the other items you list. However, our friend's children at state school have all the above and more - does that make them posh?
Probably what we both mean is that DC's on application forms should be viewed as individuals and not just stereotyped by the type of school a parent has chosen for their child and the reasons why. Maybe we are being optimistic.... Good luck again to your DS and his application.

Yes goinggetstough I wasn't meaning all private schools are full of posh children at all. Phrased it wrongly and apologies now to all who might misinterpret what I meant. Don't want this to turn into the private/state debate. There is plenty of that on other threads.

Yes I am the one earlier who asked about the young carers bit and he has linked that in really well I think.

eatyourveg going to a private school isn't something you need to feel defensive about. The GCSE moderator will be applied whatever is put on your DS's UCAS form about bursaries and scholarships and is intended to level the field, albeit in a crude way. Beyond that, many tutors take the view that where parents choose to send their child is not something in the child's gift and disregard it. By flagging it up you may draw unnecessary attention to the fact that he's had a perceived advantage educationally. I'd be much more fed up with the tedious sounding reference, that's far more key.

eatyourveg The Head of Sixth Form actually had the temerity to laugh in our faces when we told him at Y12 parents' evening what DD's ambition was so we never bothered to ask to see the reference he wrote. It can't have been glowing.

DD did exactly what she intended to do and is now exactly where she intended to be but, as I said upthread, it was her PS that swung things her way - and she submitted her original PS, not the one that had been messed about with by well-meaning people at school.

Concentrate on the PS and definitely include the young carer bit. It shows your son to be an exceptional young man.

Hope you got on OK at parents evening- if it didnt work then I suggest you make an appt with DC and head of sixth on a one to one because parents evenings can be busy.
If the school haven't mentioned the scholarship then the PS should (academic scholarship) I think the bursary is probably not for the PS because it says more about income than about academics.
There is no harm in putting your view across in fact I went to these meetings with a written summary of DC academic and extra curric achievements which I left with head of sixth and form tutor in hard copy and also emailed just to be sure. I dont think they remember all the DC in detail so its useful for them

Just to say that DS1 has been called for interview for medicine at Aberdeen. We have ten days to find the perfect interview suit!

Another offer here same as the earlier one so whether they will be the first choice or insurance remains to be seen.

Unitarian what did your DD want to do that they laughed about?

congratulations to your children libra and ucasfraces.

Congratulations to your DC's. Hope the interview goes well Libra.

Hi
Just started a thread in secondary about Uni UCAS hand holding and got pointed here :)
Ds1 has applied to 5 ( Cambridge, Bath,Warwick,York and Loughborough)

He wants to do Maths
We have an offer from Loughborough.
He really likes Bath but wants Cambridge more than he cares to admit.
He applied Open to Cambridge and was allocated Homerton.
We are waiting either rejection ( told doubtful to be rejected outright though) and then interviews
Erks

For those of you wondering about the widening participation agenda.....
The policy for my (RG) uni is that we allocate a 'flag' where an applicant has a contextual factor that may be taken into account. We do make lower offers if a candidate has a flag but if we were considering 2 applicants on results day who were identical (eg, missed our offer by one grade, similar GCSEs) then the one with the flag would get the remaining place.

Flags can be allocated for

• No parental higher education
• School attended for GCSE achieving low GCSEs compared to LA average or expected GCSEs for intake (so if a student transfers to a much better college or school for A-levels their GCSEs are still taken in context)
• School achieving low A-level point scores/ALPS compared to LA average or expected PS/ALPS for intake
• Postcode is in an area of high deprivation
• Candidate has spent time in care

We don't discriminate against candidates from private schools, in fact I doubt many of my fellow interviewers even read that bit, they tend to be looking more for something written in the PS that they can interview against eg, a specific area of chemistry mentioned.