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 ?

It is also possible to move up in clearing, so if you think it is risky to contact Durham now (or hold two offers for the same grades), you could go for a lower insurance. Then if she misses her Cambridge offer she can look for higher offers through clearing.

The only thing I'm not sure of is whether Durham entered clearing last year. Think it did for some subjects, where people missed their grades.

Durham is full of Oxbridge 'rejects', is it not? Do they ever enter clearing?

I talked to one of the professors at the Open Day and he said that last year the schools got predictions so way out that a lot of people missed their grades and for the first time ever his department entered clearing.

I also thought they went into clearing because of adjustment

Am slightly confused about the difference between clearing and adjustment, as this is first child through the system. Hopefully I'll understand it all perfectly for second daughter who is in year 12 (going to more open days....sigh).

What is the difference?

www.ucas.com/members-providers/undergraduate/application-cycle/adjustment

Adjustment started only last year. It is a result of the government allowing universities to expand to take more ABB students. I'm not sure how much expansion Is possible at Durham due to its physical size and because it may feel it is diluting its quality.

Thanks. Perhaps it was because of that then.

Yes partly , but also results have dropped a bit and so a lot of students were taken with a dropped grade (or even two). Anyway, adjustment is a way to trade up if you do a lot better than you thought, but I don't think you can rely on the course you want being available, just as with clearing.

None of the more competitive departments at Durham went into clearing, that's for sure. Hoping that that might happen is far riskier than hanging onto an open door with a same grade insurance.

Also, I don't think hatty's DD probably can do 'a lot better than she thought' as I expect she's on pretty much straight A* predictions. I think that that just isn't her situation. Nevertheless, some exams do go down the tube for any number of reasons and tutors will know that. So if the market throws up the flexibility for a space on results day then someone of very high calibre but who's slipped a grade may be able to snatch it after direct contact with the department and with school support, whereas at the moment it's an unknown, and the answer will almost certainly be 'No'.

Thank you Ventura - DD wants to do this but I feel it's risky. I think we may contact them and as they can only say no and then still hold them as insurance. DD is actually doing a French baccaulaureate so it wouldn't be setting a precedent for UK schools.

Littleham Durham did enter clearing last year - the first time ever - I doubt they're going to repeat that. Interesting to hear why that happened.

Ventura how did it play out with your DC's, if you don't mind me asking? Did any end up at Durham with negotiation or did they all meet their first offers?

hatty Durham has entered clearing before last year but you have to be very cautious indeed if you're hoping for a main campus place for a home student for a competitive subject. It was those places that I was talking about. If your DD is classed as international then different considerations apply and I'd be inclined to contact the department now to see what they say.

Mine were all ok for their firms in the event hatty as I bet your DD will be :)

Thanks Ventura - I'm keeping my fingers crossed. .

Found this on student room - no idea if it is correct or not though.

'Durham are notorious for hanging on to applicants (especially insurance applicants) for weeks after results day (they did this in 2013 to clearing applicants too - told people to apply for clearing places through UCAS, sat on the applications for a week and then rejected large numbers) only to reject them once almost all clearing spaces have gone.'

Anyone else had a letter from a certain uni reducing their offer to ABB, offering a £3k scholarship and strongly hinting they will be relaxed if even the lower grades are missed? Talk about a buyers market!!

Durham's main campus (Durham City, as opposed to Queens in Stockton) went into Clearing in a big way for the first time in 2012. I have to say that it was very badly handled though in terms of how they treated Clearing applicants, as Littleham described (it is correct). I hope that this was down to them being inexperienced when it came to Clearing, and unprepared because they didn't expect to be in that situation.

The number and type of places available in Clearing varies wildly from year to year, and so you can't start making predictions about what might be available this August. However, I do hope that Durham are better prepared this year in case they do end up in Clearing in a big way again.

However, if I was going to make broad brush, nationwide predictions, I'll suspect that Clearing is going to be just as much of a bloodbath overall as it was in 2013, though specific universities could have taken decisions to try and avoid entering Clearing, such as taking firm / insurance applicants who have missed grades by significant margins.

Shooting pigeons, any chance of a clue as to who you mean please? Ds had a significantly reduced offer from a particular university, although if he had been a home student not international it would have been unconditional. And whilst some people mention the uni concerned further back in the thread, it is actually his first choice. But 3k would have been very nice.

Shootingatpigeons DS did get an offer of £2000 from one of his choices. It's not a contender even though it's ranked quite highly for his subject.
Thinking about it now I don't think he put enough thought into his 4th and 5th choices. He was so keen to avoid the big cities he wouldn't even look at any London ones.

It is Sussex, we had decided that was the one we weren't going to bother visiting but now we are wondering whether we should. She has one of the unconditionals from Birmingham as well. It's complicated enough assessing the strengths of the different universities for her because she is applying for Joint Honours (which reduced the field in terms of where offered the combination) so all these erm, inducements are adding in another layer.

There is a clear favourite, the one she first thought of, but we have to go look just to be sure. Lots of driving!!!

The only unis never in clearing - Oxbridge, UCL, Imperial, LSE. These 5 have no need to accept those who don't make the grade. All the other unis were in Clearing last year, albeit not for every course. Warwick had loads of courses available. Know quite a few who went with lower grades than were asked for initially.

Thanks rightsaidfrederick . Seems like Durham was a bit of a nightmare last year in clearing. See this link -

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2429802&page=5

There didn't seem to be any compromise on slipping a grade at Durham either, whether it was your firm or insurance, so the same might happen this year.

I think my dd might be better sticking with one of the four (achievable / possibly more flexible) offers she has, rather than hanging on for Durham & potentially ending up with nothing. The other problem is that if they don't reply by the end of March (and they don't have to) then some other universities (including Bath and Warwick) open their accommodation applications to FIRM candidates.

Please correct me if any of this is wrong, as this is all new to me. my dd comes from a big average state comprehensive, so not much advice.

Bristol and St Andrews weren't in Clearing either last year, along with a variety of colleges and conservatoires, and last year was a particularly bad year from the uni's point of view- there were raised eyebrows galore when looking at what sort of grades people were getting in with (and a few tales of strange rejections too) www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/clearing/10242726/Clearing-2013-graphic-which-universities-have-places.html

Sorry link fail www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/clearing/10242726/Clearing-2013-graphic-which-universities-have-places.html

I can't think why this year would be any different, all the same factors apply, including that they can fish for ABB. There have been some clear winners from the expansion of quotas, eg UCL and universities further down the league tables have been the losers hence all the new tactics to try and get people to firm them.