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?

ucasfracas no maths here, ds has gone for English Lit. Well done to Mrswoodentop's ds for getting an unconditional from Bath. Can you hold insurance offers with unconditionals?

Its my son with the Bath offer. No, you can't hold insurance offers with unconditionals. He has to make his mind up and once firmed thats it. He has unconditional offers because he has done his A levels. Still waiting for his first choice of UCL though. If he doesn't get it he will firm Kings and start on the accomodation bandwagon ASAP.
I much prefer this applying after the results if you can. I will try and persuade DS2 to do it this way. Although I think he won't have much choice because his GCSEs are pretty mediocre and maybe they won't notice if he already has the A level grades. Also then you at least are sure you are not being turned down cos of your grades and it is easier to choose which unis.

DS1 just got an email from UCL stating : "Your application has been selected for further consideration and we would like you to complete a short questionnaire." I assume this is a good sign. Anyone with any experience of this know whether this is instead of an interview? The questions are interview type such as what made you want to study it and what do you want to do afterwards. They also say limit answers to 250 words - thats quite a lot for each answer.

What grades did your DS1 get Lazymum? Quite understand if you don't want to say. The questionnaire sounds a good sign but another upheaval - good luck to him.

He's got AAABb. UCL do interview usually and he says that most of what they are asking is already on his PS. It would be nice to know how they use the questionaire, for further interview discussion or to sift out the ones not serious enough about their subject?

DS1 still waiting for Bath - Maths
He was rejected for Cambridge outright but really wanted Bath.
Nothing as yet tho'

lazymumofteenagesons that is called a paper interview. If filled in well it results in an invite to an open day. If dc goes to the open day and remembers to register attendance then an offer ensues.

Not every one who gets the paper interview gets invited. What subject?

piffle did your school/DS manage to get any feedback from Cambridge, because he had such excellent grades... Hope he hears from Bath soon.

Piffle DD2's offer for Maths at Bath didn't come through till feb so don't worry yet.

Thanks funnyperson. Its for pharmacology. I like your bit in italics! Did someone you know forget to register and got missed out? If he gets an invite does the open day involve any sort of further interview or could this be dependant on subject?

LMOTS (excuse the abbreviation) it could be dependent on subject but UCL seem to use this format for all the sciences. The open day is just a look around, a talk, watching stuff, no further testing except signing the register

The paper interview- if asked to describe an experiment this is the bit which will get the place - take seriously, pass by science teacher, include some stats and critical analysis of the experimental evidence. Thats all I know. DD had to go through it for psychology. One of the people on TSR who was invited to the open day and didn't get registered on the day didnt get an offer. They all recognised each other and corresponded afterwards. Actually although it is quite hard work filling in the thing it is useful for face to face interviews at other places. Also DD put in a bit more detail about teh books she had read, that sort of thing- what you would do at interview in other words.

Does anyone know if Durham do these pre offer days as a form of informal assessment.One of ds friends has been invited to a open day with no sign of an offer but there is no mention of any one to one time or anything for an interview and they don't mention anything on their website.

ds waiting for Bristol & Oxford for maths piffle. Think he may have missed out on Ox as the invites were emailed today allegedly :( His grades were quite spectacular too, but MAT was only OK not great or good.

gelatinous it only doesn't bode well if the invites to others were e-mailed from your DS's college of preference/ allocation, because Maths isn't a centralised subject. On the whole, rejections come first or at least at the same time, they're not often later than the invites.

I'm sure if a survey was conducted those who did best in these admissions tests thought they did worst (no doubt with honourable exceptions :))

Keep your fingers crossed!

yellowstone his college websites states invites have been emailed yesterday for the week 4-11Dec. That's slightly ambiguous for maths where interviews start on the 11th, so start in that week but are not contained within it. But coupled with this statement by an admissions tutor on TSR from Thurs am, I think maths would be included. However, the glimmer of hope is that someone (again on TSR) had a rejection email from the college yesterday, a different subject, but suggesting rejections are sent at about the same time as invites and by the same means (some colleges do state that rejections will be sent slowly by letter while invites go out by email).

Honestly, sometimes all this info we have access to does us no good at all...

That's really helpful Funnyperson, thanks. I think he will fill it out this weekend and email his answers to his tutor who is head of science.
The questions do not involve an experiment. There are 4 as follows :

What is Pharmacology?

What inspired your interest in this degree course?

What aspects of Pharmacology attract you most and why?

What do you want to do after completeing your degree? Please indicate whether you have any particular career ambitions.

From these it looks like they want to make sure you have fully understood what you are applying for and are not using it for a fifth choice as a medical applicant.

If his college e-mails rejections for one subject then they're almost certain to send rejections by e-mail for all subjects, that's how it works. It varies between colleges though, some do send letters for rejection and e-mails for invites but it sounds as though his does e-mail only. It is also possible he may have been re-allocated prior to interview which is something he won't know until the e-mail or letter or owl arrives!

The week 4th-11th is the first week, Humanities, PPE etc. He's the 11th-14th.

Come on gelatinous, his grades are spectacular, you said so yourself: have faith!

just recollected yellowstone that you are on your fourth go at this!!! I shall bow to your judgement, relax and enjoy the weekend! Has your ds heard from his college yet or are you resisting the temptation to bite your nails too?

Good, that's much the best way gelatinous: have a decent w/e and try not to check e-mails! On each occasion we've only got an invite after properly giving up (esp. having re-hashed the LNAT/ HAT whose scores at this time of year are still not known, like all the other ATs). With DD2 the e-mail had been sitting there for 36 hours before she found it almost by chance.

Medicine is different to everything else because it's possible to calculate the GCSE score and the BMAT score and see where you are compared to the scores of those called to interview in the last couple of years, so it's relatively easy to predict because those two scores are all they base it on, unless you're on the cusp or have special circumstances. The acknowledgement says that the invites for UK applicants won't be sent out until Thurday 1st or Friday 2nd, so it's all pretty calm.

I do hope your nail-biting pays off; your DS has clearly done his bit with his grades - best of luck to you both.

Lazymum thanks. We are waiting for BSc Maths at Bath too. (Not sure if you are MSc or BSc think it makes a difference).

Typical, clashes of offer days. Hopefully can get another date as not all applications are in yet.

funnyperson you made an interesting point about people admitting to stalking TSR. Anyone can register on mumsnet and there is no check (a separate thread but could be amusing) on how you might test if they are genuinely parents/ttc. It is possible that some of those posting here are actually teenagers.

gelatinous it's pretty obvious that some colleges are much faster than others. This year St John's was first to sent out invites. Some colleges still send by post not email (why not both?). So unless applications have been issued for the subject and college of your child's choice there is still a reasonable prospect. If they have but your DC has no rejection it's still possible that something is coming. E-mails do occassionally go astray and/or end up in junk e-mail and if you haven't heard anything at all you should always check when it gets to a week before interview.

Have an interview at Christ Church- but I think all Science/Maths subjects will be next week, not the last week, so take heart :)

I got the questionnaire from UCL too (my grades are decidedly unspectacular)- apparently some people (this is from TSR, yes) submitted theirs at the beginning of November and haven't heard anything since. So it's a waiting game again. It was a nice questionnaire though! Although v. hard to cut it down to 200 and 400 words!

:o am prime example for your post, ellisbell!