UCAS forms sent - just the waiting game now !

[snowyowl70]

My super organised DD1 has had email today to say her forms/reference have been received and should be at her chosen Unis in the next 48 hrs !!!!! So the waiting begins - to those seasoned parents who have done this before can you remember how long they had to wait for their first responses ? At least 2 out of her 5 may call her for interview (MFL) so am guessing these might be fairly on the ball ?

Obviously I don't mean to be rude but I have significant experience too, which goes well beyond that of my own DC. I would say that most applicants are adults for the most part and should be accorded the respect they deserve. If they are applying for tertiary education then they're probably capable of thinking the whole thing through before they apply.

As an academic I see, only too frequently, that students do make the wrong choice of course and/or university. It is not that unusual to have a student declare that a course is not what they want in the first week of their first term, i.e. after a handful of introductory lectures. I also see applicants who come to post-offer visits and change their minds about whether they put us as first choice or not (both choosing us and rejecting us). We very deliberately do not do a hard sell on those visits, they are for the applicants to look at the city, the accommodation, the department and meet some staff and speak to current students, they have to try and decide where they will be happy for the next few years. It is in nobody's best interest for a student to be unhappy. It is a huge decision that should not be rushed into without as much information as can be gathered. Of course it is perfectly possible to make a very considered decision and still get it wrong.

Personally, I knew exactly what I wanted to do and where, until I went to post offer visits, one was awful; patronising old professors stroking their beards, the other was less formal but much more welcoming - I changed my mind and have never regretted it.

I should say I have been an academic involved in pastoral care and admissions for over 20 years, apologies if my experience is less extensive than yours, venturabay.

I would still strongly counsel thinking all this through before applying, not after. Some students are bound to be unhappy with their university/ course, for any number of reasons. Open Day info doesn't vary markedly from Post- Offer Day info, nor should it. If a student loathes a city or finds the students or tutors tedious when they visit in Y12, then at least that way they don't waste a choice. Y13 is busy enough without flogging around the country visiting universities which could have been visited before. It's also fair to say that not all students have the money to afford the luxury of attending either an Open Day or a Post-Offer Day let alone both (I'm aware that some universities now offer to cover the cost for students on FSM, but there are all those squeezed incomes above that threshold for whom multiple visits or even one distant visit would be a problem). Thank goodness for excellent university websites!

That's ok chemenger, apology accepted :)

My DD has offers for MFL from four of her choices - Warwick, Bristol, Bath, Royal Holloway. She is still waiting for the final refusal or offer from Durham.

She liked all her choices at open days and will be going to the offer holders days. As she likes them all (they have offered a range of grades) and would be happy to end up at any of them, how should she narrow down the choice to two? Any advice?

Littleham - well done your DD

Out of the four choices your DD has, I think Bristol and Bath are much the nicest!

What do you like about Bristol and Bath for languages?

I have found lovely tea shops in each city / town and have a ranked them by idyllic tea room order, but DD won't put this on her list of pros and cons!

Warwick is in the middle of nowhere and totally non-cultural - there is something deeply weird about going to the middle of nowhere outside Coventry to study MFL, IYSWIM.

Bristol is a great city - I went to university there and my DSS1 has just started there and I have rediscovered it and it is still a great university city. I read MFL there and it was very comfortable.

Bath is just gorgeous - who wouldn't want to live there?

Royal Holloway is not the same league as the others - a back up IMO.

Thanks. That advice might help her, as the highest offer is Warwick, followed by Bath,

& then the lower ones are Bristol and RH (both offered the same).

Can I ask the experts?

I've applied for Leeds trinity and my ucas referee is my former employer

Since submitting my application I've done quite a bit of work experience in the field relating to the degree and my line manager there is willing to give me a reference

Is it to late to change it? Can I contact the university directly?

Bonsoir, why did your DSS apply to Warwick then?? Would he have taken up his place, had he been given an offer......just wondering.

DS has an offer from Warwick and he doesn't have a cultural bone in his body so I guess it will suit him
I didn't go to the open day but did go to a subject day and thought the campus was very pleasant, I realise it is close to Coventry, which I have never visited and the university is very accessible from the motorway. We live in a very rural area though and I think he was a little overwhelmed by the big city universities, preferred campus ones.

My d seemed to like campus or small towns / cities. She ruled out the big ones like London. Just need to narrow it down now, so all opinions on Warwick, Bristol, Bath, RH & Durham welcome.

Has anyone else not heard from Durham? They either make late offers or maybe she is in the maybe pile.....(hmm)

Ds is still waiting on Durham for Music. Offer from Bristol just last week. When Dd applied, one of her friends waited a very long time to hear from Durham, only to be rejected. I suspect Ds is in the middle of the pile, neither early offer nor rejection, so it could go either way.

Littleham DS got his Durham offer mid December but his friend, same subject, same AS grades, same predicted grades has still not heard from them. She did apply a little later than him though.

DS2 has offers from Warwick,Birmingham and East Anglia, still waiting to hear from Exeter and Kings, London.......his application went in mid December.
Warwick used to have a huge Arts Centre...the world premiere of The Life of Brian was held there in the late 70s Don't know if it is still as prestigious these days.

Warwick is determinedly international and research orientated. I don't know much about its reputation for MFL but for maths engineering economics and history is pretty close to the top of the rankings tables. It is the biggest user of the Erasmus programme in the UK and has strong links with Universities in Asia, Australia and the US.

Facilities are good including a very first rate concert hall.

Bonsoir, have you visited or are you just going on hearsay.

Warwick seems to be near the top of the league tables for languages as well. They also go to a Venetian Palazzo for part of the year abroad!!

The trouble is they all seems amazing, so makes it difficult for her to choose.

Feel my DD is so far behind all these folk with strings of offers, art is so much more complicated than I realized. She has submitted two more portfolios by post and digitally in the last fortnight and now has two interviews next week on consecutive days at opposite ends of the country! It is all a big distraction from her other two A levels which can't afford to be neglected.

I think it is just that Modern Foreign Languages isn't as popular.

It also depends when your daughter submitted her UCAS application.

Hi everyone - wonder if anyone can help?

DT1 has received offers from all 5 of her applications.

DT2 however has heard very little. She interviewed (and got rejected) from Oxford.

Warwick invited her for an interview but UCAS had entered her onto the wrong course (Creative Writing instead of English Literature) so we are now waiting to see if they can correct her application and reschedule interview (assuming she still has one?)

Have heard nothing back yet from Kings, Durham or Edinburgh.

Is it too early chase? Her application was one if the first in (due to Oxford cut-off date) but we're getting worried about lack of update

My DS2 applied for English at Kings and hasn't heard either!

Hi calicocat that is sort of reassuring I suppose. Good luck and hope you hear something soon xx

I suspect the likes of Durham. Edinburgh etc have an inkling that some applicants have also done Oxbridge due to the date their applications were received....perhaps they put them on a 'special' pile to look through and try and guess if they've been accepted or rejected!! Good luck to yours too. Am sure she will get those offers soon.