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 ?

Interesting Littleham. Oh well. Perhaps I should do more with the younger DC. I suppose it depends how many offers they get and how undecided.

Ventura, it is Clifford Chance. They have outreach-type schemes for their vac schemes, but I am not sure of the details. Despite what I typed above, they try to recruit from a broad range of universities and get non-traditional candidates this way.

Vac scheme information.

onlineservices.cliffordchance.com/online/viewMicroSitePage.action?metaData.micrositeID=24&metaData.pageID=418&viewDivId=vacationschemes#.UwupqucgGSM

Its waiting for Loughborough that is surprising me. Ds was getting promotional post from them week after week, more than any other uni, but since he applied hes heard nothing.

venturabay DD1 found the offer day visits / interview very useful. They tend to field more staff members and to focus on the course. They also tend to exclude parents from the course sessions and it is not such a bunfight (indeed last week all the cafes and refectories had run out of buns, and sandwiches ) DD2 has an even more open field than DD1, basically four courses all with advantages and disadvantages, hence the road trip, and yes she is now less sure of her first preference as a result of talking to tutors on the course.

I hope it's Grandpa's one :)

What did she think of Exeter?

We've not been yet, in fact she has still to log on and find out when it is shouldn't be cynical as she has been focused on coursework and as you rightly say one shouldn't get in the way of the other.

Big sis has added her two penny worth in support of Grandpa

venturabay DS's post offer visit to Warwick was quite a different experience to his first open day. I still can't quite understand why he was a little disappointed as he loves the course and all of the subject stuff was great. It was the environment and feel of the place. It could be that he had on rose tinted specs for his first visit? He also disliked the "hard sell". There was a lot of emphasis on "choose us for your firm".

He is going to Durham for the residential visit. Ironically he wasn't that thrilled with Durham last year, he went on a coach trip from college and didn't get to see much. He is is hoping that a stay in the college will be more use because he really wants to put it as his insurance.

DS isn't the only one finding a different perspective on post offer visits, one or two of his friends have changed their minds completely. Better now than in October I suppose?

I think that once DC actually have their offers, they are better able to focus their minds on the lifestyle that their different real (as opposed to hypothetical pre-offer) choices afford. DSS1 was able to focus really hard on the lifestyle that prépa in Paris would have given him versus university in Bristol and when it came down it, it was pretty damn clear that he was going to have a much better time at Bristol. But it was hard for him to focus on those considerations when he was still at the application stage.

My daughter loved her second choice when she went back for interview. Open Day was great but this choice flew into first place on interview day. She met all the tutors and really felt they were passionate and easy to have a challenging conversation with. The one she was interviewed by was really inspiring.

She felt a bit confused after the interview at her original first choice (mainly in first place based on reputation) but when she got a rejection from there and an unconditional from the one I mentioned above it made life so very much easier for her. Now she has firmed up that one she is so excited to attend applicant day there and is hoping they will give her ideas of work to cover over the summer.

Off to Warwick Offers Day tomorrow. Also have driving theory test tonight for dd1 (not sure she has prepared yet!) It's all exams and stress at the moment isn't it?

We have one doing first GCSE's, one doing AS and one doing A2 - not well planned. Also sorting out work experience for youngest daughter was a nightmare. Need large glass of .

Littleham We have one doing first GCSE's, one doing AS and one doing A2 - not well planned . You should post that on one of those "what age gap" threads.

I have one doing his GCSEs this summer and the other doing A levels. Results days are a week apart.
Interested to hear how Warwick goes.

Me too, yourlittlesecret - those two weeks in August should be interesting. I also have one who will be doing his first ever end of year exams (year 7). (I needed to get my breath back after the first two

and me

not looking forward to that week in August

My DS is waiting on Durham too. He has offers from his other 4, but as Durham was his joint first choice, he is still hopeful he might get an offer. I wish they would decide either way, so that he can get on and decide his firm / insurance, then he can sort out accommodation etc.

TBH I'm not that keen on Durham, despite it's great reputation. A friend has a son there, who says it is still full of private school kids, they are all great people, but most have a lot more money, which can make it difficult when planning holidays and renting a house in the 2nd year.

Come on Durham (& all other late unis) - put us out of our misery!

What subject is your DS applying for ICantFindAFreeNickName?

Well DD has just received her offer from Durham but it's for the wrong sodding course!

This is the 2nd time that UCAS have screwed up. She only just managed to get her interview for Warwick by the skin of her teeth as UCAS entered her on wrong course for there too (a completely different wrong course to the Durham one).

Is this normal?

We are chasing UCAS now and also thinking of contacting Durham directly tomorrow.

What a nightmare for you! That's the last thing you need. What have you got to lose by ringing university? Admissions departments always seem happy to help if they can.

Someone earlier on up the thread had a wrong course for Warwick entered by UCAS (are you the same poster with a name change?.) How does this happen??? It's more than a bit worrying if happened with Durham too.
DS went to the Warwick open day today and has gone off it a bit....
He still hasn't heard from Exeter.
Next stop open day at King's, London.

thecalicocat - would you mind expanding on what your DS felt/thought about Warwick?

I've not posted about this before so looks like others have had problems.

Feedback from Durham today, apparently DD's chosen course was full so they offered her something different instead. Turns out it wasn't a UCAS error after all! She has declined the offer though.

But UCAS did mess up with her Warwick application - managed to sort it in the end. DD invited to interview so just waiting now to see if successful.

Funnily enough though, she isn't keen on the campus either. Just didn't get a good feel for it so not sure if she'll accept if offer comes through.

Still waiting to hear from two more (kings and Edinburgh) if no luck there then I think we'll be looking at a gap year

Helly everyone, sorry to hear of muddles.

We have one too - what happens if a university changes the course structure between applying and now?

dd has applied for a joint hons course, with a complicated structure and none of the university websites listed the possible modules correctly or fully. For her first choice and several others we emailed in some detail, with links to contradictions etc, to clarify, so have in writing that the combination she wants is possible. We checked the first choice website today and they have changed it and the modules she wants (which represent whole subjects - it is a broad field) have vanished. Googling further, getting onto the intranet (I was surprised that came up), they are not listed there either (eg on degree regs pages) for this degree programme.

And yet we have a very clear email saying it is possible and she went to an open day in the autumn and talked to the admissions tutor about this in some detail, and came away with various options. Her PS also made clear this is what she wants.

We need this clarified fast as it may mean she ought to do open days elsewhere if that choice is ruled out and have emailed today. But I don't know whether we will trust an email from an individual if it contradicts what is now on the website (in several places).

Sorry for the length, feeling a bit overwrought, if anyone makes it this far and has advice that would be great.

laisy We had exactly the same experience with one uni DD1 was considering, though it wasn't her top choice When it came to offers day it turned out that the departments that would be offering certain of the modules which she wanted to study were not fully signed up to the cross disciplinary course. I normally keep my trap shut at open and offers days, far too many helicopter parents who like the sound of their own voice , but there was something in the manner of the admissions tutor and knowing university politics, (I am a PhD student doing a cross disciplinary area studies thesis ) I asked the direct question and he admitted that the other departments were less than enthusiastic, and focused on their own extremely popular and prestigious courses, and he couldn't guarantee they would be offered. I think on cross / inter disciplinary / area studies / joint honours courses those conflicts of priorities within departments are not uncommon, especially if they are stuck in their disciplinary rut IYSWIM. Often it is dependent on having an academic in each department who has a bit of zeal for cross / inter disciplinary / area studies. My DD2 is also doing joint honours and the bridging stuff is something we are looking into carefully at offers days.

I don't think there is much you can do about it though, perhaps better that they admit defeat rather than put on a half thought out course module, or one that doesn't fully compliment the cross disciplinary nature of the course? At least you have found out now, might be worth probing the why as well as the what?

I think you should do the other Open Days lalsy as our experience is that students change the preferred order of choices once they have done an Offer Holder day. The universities make a much bigger effort and go into the structure of the courses in great detail.

We went to the Warwick Offers Day today for MFL. DD1 really LOVED it! The Lecturers / professors / students were amazing and organised the day so well that I couldn't fault it. We were all given an amazing meal & every time we came out of a talk we were plied with cream cakes and tea. Did they read my comment about tea shops do you think?!!

The course structure and year abroad looked fabulous. They really took the time to talk to students about which units might be best for them. The ratio of staff to students is really good as well. We were given a personal tour of the campus and shown all the amazing facilities. It is like a town, with everything you could possibly need. The accommodation looks fantastic. It has moved up into No 1 position at the moment.

Thank you both soooo much.

Littleham, I agree she should go to the others and will suggest - but she absolutely hates Open Days and I want her to avoid more stress as we had such a hoo-haar choosing the courses because the websites and info were all so poor. But that is great about Warwick, and happily for us is dd's second choice, now likely to move to first, so that is encouraging (though diff subjects)

Shootingatpigeons - that is very interesting, thank you. The dropped modules here are actually taught by the academic that assured us they were available in JH, and arguably fit better/more coherently with the other half of the course than the others, or at least the link is obvious. Some of the other universities offer JUST the dropped modules and the other subject as a JH degree (so a narrower focus) if that makes sense (sorry, these courses involve tiny numbers so I am trying not to out dd here - for her, the dropped modules are the core and the whole point of doing this JH). So I think the idea of the course is fine and makes sense to everyone.