UCAS applications

[mumblechum1]

When are people's DCs planning on finalising their personal statements, with a view to getting the UCAS applns sent off?

DS's school have done the grade predictions but as far as I know haven't done the reference bit yet.

DS has done the first draft of his PS, has feedback from his tutor and is aiming to polish it up this weekend.

[Yellowtip]

That's a policy change there cinnamonnut. Durham has been making early offers to the 'best' applicants in November in the past few years. Perhaps they don't want to get the Oxbridge interviewees too relaxed before December 5th :). Still, you've got one offer under your belt which is good. Presumably it's your least favourite though?

[Milliways]

Wow, I hadn't heard that the AAB had dropped to ABB :)

A friend last year had an ABB offer and was accepted automatically with ABC!

DS is applying to 2 Universities with standard A*AA offers (but not Oxbridge or Durham) and 3 with AAB. I was amazed that similarly ranked Uni's offering the same course have such wide offer ranges, but that was the same when DD applied years ago.

Re Durham - they were the last to make offers to any of DDs friends, including the Oxbridge candidates, so by the time she heard from them she already had her Cambridge offer (I believe this was right but memory may be rusty).

[Yellowtip]

Your DD will be a contemporary of one of mine Milliways and Durham has shifted all sorts of things with its admissions in the past four years. Things always varied between departments too. But for Law, which is what cinnamonnut is applying for, the department has handed out November offers for the past few years to a few top candidates but is clearly now going for a gathered field approach.

[Milliways]

I am so glad that DS is not interested in either law or medicine - the added stress on those poor kids is insane now.

A friend of mine was predicted (and got) 3 As at A2, following top mark AS and all A GCSE results. She worked in a GP surgery as a student for 2 years, was in St Johns for many years, and did loads of other stuff as well as being school netball captain etc - and she only managed ONE offer for medicine, and that was after a 2nd interview and is for a deferred place, so is now on a gap year! Every Uni said she had nothing missing from her application, she was just "unlucky". It's silly!

[Cahoots]

milliways
I am so glad that DS is not interested in either law or medicine - the added stress on those poor kids is insane now

Bugger the kids, it's the mothers I feel sorry for.

[Milliways]

Very true - more excuses to open the wine

[Yellowtip]

Well I've got two lawyers and one medic all at Oxford (also a historian) and all I can say is that one needs to keep cool. I don't think mine were aware of any stress over and above their peers who applied for Chemistry say, or Theology, or Psychology, or whatever. The stress is certainly not 'insane' if you're sensible and it's a good plan for mothers/ fathers not to ramp it up.

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

Ho6 was honest with me and said DD's ASs will count against her, because he can inflate a prediction to some extent, but he can't lie about what she's already achieved (or not). And he is worried that they just weren't good enough for a uni that offers AAB as standard for that course to make her an offer. Maybe she is only ex-Poly material. (God I could swing for the people that set GCSEs - straight As and A*s left her feeling she was bullet-proof and she just can't cope with not being as good as she had been led to believe.)

She's peed off because she is sure she can produce the goods - but she said that about her ASs and they were shocking.

Ho6 also suggested that she look at an easier course to get into, so that basically she's just getting "a degree". Guess it means she won't need to ever pay her loan back... (sorry, feeling very angry at the moment - the guy down the road did "a degree" and still lives at home at nearly 30, and is not in a graduate job earning enough money to have to pay his loan back).

I just don't know what to advise her, and I'm being foul to everyone, snapping the whole time because this seems like a total and utter balls-up.

[NewFerry]

So sorry

Would there be any chance of resitting Y12 so that your DD can retake her AS exams?

[Yellowtip]

Whitesands would you be prepared to say what her GCSE grades and her AS grades actually were? Also what course she hopes to do? You say the Ho6 was honest - but perhaps a bit too downbeat too? Someone who gets all A*/A at GCSE is capable of reading for a decent, rigorous degree. Did she do all her exams in one go, or piecemeal? And what sort of school is she at? That's all relevant. Don't get downhearted too soon - you've got until January to have a really good think. She won't get into a good place if she doesn't apply to one, that's for sure. Different universities look at different things with some focussing more on GCSEs and less on AS. I'd take a deep breath and start again.

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

Giving too much information might out me, but her AS grades were ACDD and she wants to read a popular subject (which she got the A in).

She is the kind of child who will have a meltdown if clearing is mentioned. God, she went ballistic at the mention of "former poly"! She simply cannot process plan B. If I start a sentence "What will happen if..." she turns into Linda Blair from the Exorcist (although without the puke).

Also, she's been told that the January deadline is too far away and that a lot of unis WILL have made their offers before then. So her rethink needs to happen pretty damn quick - she's been given a fortnight by school.

I feel like I'm on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

[sieglinde]

Did any dcs do the Oxford PAT today? That's the Physics pre-test. Am not allowed to say owt as they are yet to do it in the US, apparently.

[eatyourveg]

white if she puts her head down ABB doesn't seem out of reach to me but if it was my dc I would want them to consider looking at somewhere with a BBC offer for 5th choice. They are out there you just have to dig around and perhaps consider the popular subject area she wants but a course with a tweek to it which wouldn't attract so many applicants and tends to make slightly lower offers. Eg Comparative Literature rather than straight English Lit. You don't mention which subject it is that your dd is looking at so it may not be possible in which case take no notice of me

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

eatyourveg In the past hour I've had a read round the rest of the Education posts, and there seems to be a bit of a consensus on putting down three aspirational and two insurance places. I think what she is going to have to do in any case, as you suggest, is tweak her degree choice (Ho6 says her PS would only need tiny changes in that case).

Unfortunately, when the Ho6 mentioned a few places offering lower entry grades for her first choice of subject, my heart sank - they're not places that are even on DD's radar for wanting to spend three years of her life, and I know she won't be moved on that (believe me, I've tried).

[ancientandmodern]

Whitesand -- I feel your pain, as had similar issue with DD2 earlier this term, whose AS grades in the subject she plans to study, plus one other, were not the best. Having spoken in desperation to a friend who's been an admissions tutor, I gleaned the following: unis are more interested in a candidate's GCSE profile and their predicted grades at A2 than they are in AS results, as most people realise something can go wrong at that transitional point and there is time (just) to improve.

DD2's school had been telling her that there was no point in putting down the RG uni she wanted as offer will be AAA and school maintained they would automatically exclude offering to anyone with less than an A at AS. School wanted her to put down only those unis which offered AAB or preferably ABB for her subject (History), which were basically ones she didn't want to go to, plus the point you make about just getting a degree, regardless.

In the end, DD2 put down a mix of top level options plus courses at less well-regarded unis where the course itself had something of interest (eg year abroad/particular aspect of History/special study centre etc). She also made sure her personal statement had lots about what she's read and where she's been to look at historical sites. Upshot is an offer from the uni she wanted, albeit at AAA, BUT (and this may be a big point for your DD, too) she is now hugely motivated to get the work done and get the grades.

So, my advice would be: tell your DD that her stellar GCSE grades will, actually, help her get a place, but she's got to think strategically. Of the 5 places, fine to have 1 or 2 as top level RG, but she needs to plan carefully for the others -- they either need to be combinations of her chosen subject with something else at RG uni (eg History and Philosophy degree offers are usually lower than straight History); or she needs to comb through the course descriptions at the various non-RG unis and find a course that really appeals or where the uni is outstanding, even if the rest of its options are more mixed. (Eg University of kent History course gets v good ratings in most of the league tables, and has special interest in war studies/propaganda, which could be appealing)

Where I do agree with her school is in getting her application in soon -- apart from anything else, as the offers start to happen (or not....) you get an idea of where things might be heading.

[eatyourveg]

2 aspirational 2 on target and 1 as a safety net seems to be the usual I thought

[ISingSoprano]

Ds has one aspirational, three on target and one insurance.

[WhitesandsofLuskentyre]

Oh FFS! DD has just got in from school and had a paddy because she still can't see beyond her RG choices (and sadly, tweaking the degrees isn't helping at her first two choices because the "typical offers" are just as high).

Unhelpfully, she's been talking to friends in the year above her, who are at uni in a certain city and are rubbishing the former poly (in an age-old rivalry) that would actually be a perfect match for her as her insurance option.

The only progress we have made is that we now have one "on target" uni, but she needs to narrow down the course choice.

Some of the former polys are at "on target" levels too, but she's still resisting.

AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!

[Tressy]

White, what are the A2 grade requirements for the courses she wants to apply to. DD got offers for the bottom grade requirements because she was at a school who doesn't traditionally get many pupils into RG type uni's. Her offers for BBB for a couple of very good courses at very good uni's. The ranges were AAB-BBB.

Also those grades aren't too bad and she can easily get them up to ABB. Her school should predict these grades. She will probably get accepted with lower grades than her offer. Many did last year.

Finally did you and her father go to uni? Does she go to a low achieving school and/or come from a deprived area/low earning family. There are lots of widening access programmes out there. Many RG uni's will ask for extra work to be completed. DD got an offer for an AAA-AAB course for BBC.

[creamteas]

At the end of the day, if she wants to just apply to RG unis, then go ahead and do so, and then if she doesn't receive offers think about plan B then.

An alternative would be to just wait a year. If she works hard and gets good grades at A2, then her AS grades will have no relevance.

As an admissions tutor, I would say that students who apply the year after school are in a much stronger position as they are a safer bet to make offers to.

[BoakFace]

Aspirational applications are a good idea this year particularly.

[eatyourveg]

Is she doesn't get any offers she could apply through extra rather than waiting for clearing. There are more vacancies through extra than clearing. Think it opens end of January but not sure could be later

[creamteas]

Extra 'opens' the moment that an applicant that an applicant has no outstanding offers, eg they have been declined by all the unis that they applied to.

[sieglinde]

creamteas, interesting - not sure this is true at Oxford, because we are so about A-levels. I think the OP's dd should apply for where she wants to go IF she can take the possibility of rejection.