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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

UCAS forms sent - just the waiting game now !

999 replies

snowyowl70 · 27/09/2013 23:07

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 ?

OP posts:
Littleham · 18/03/2014 16:58

Well done to your ds. Hope the Bristol reply is good news.

No response for us yet - just a holding e mail. Yawn.

bruffin · 18/03/2014 18:15

the waits horrible isnt it Littleham, got more good news today and ds got an off from Bristol. He just needs to make is mind up now.

lalsy · 18/03/2014 19:56

Well done to your ds Bruffin!

dd has finally heard from Durham - a rejection - so she can get on and plan now. Is likely to be Exeter and Warwick. So anyone else still waiting on Durham, their computers haven't all been stolen or anything Smile.

Littleham, are you doing two dc at once, or have I misunderstood?

Littleham · 18/03/2014 20:03

Yes - two dd's in A2 and AS years. One for languages (going to offer holders days & hopefully starting 2014) and one for History (now going to Open Days and a master class & hopefully starting 2015). Exhausting!

lalsy · 18/03/2014 20:15

Ah, well, that's brought me out in goosebumps. It must be very exhausting and organisationally - well, words fail me. Respect!

Littleham · 18/03/2014 20:35

Also have a third dd starting GCSE's and a younger son (who has to put up with all the hormones). Worked out that we have a DECADE to come with major exams every year.

Sorry to hear about Durham for you, but at least your dd can move forward.

lalsy · 18/03/2014 22:14

Littleham Shock. Gulp. You are sounding admirably calm about it.

And thank you - she was never keen for some reason, and only applied because we persuaded her (in the absence of a good fifth option for her - obscure course), so was in theory keeping an open mind but not really! So, all fine.

venturabay · 18/03/2014 22:50

Still waiting for Durham here. Not that I'm competitive Littleham but rather that I'm getting towards the other end: three DC doing Finals, one A2, one AS and one GCSEs. The worst year to date :(

Littleham · 18/03/2014 23:00

Shock That sounds awful. I want to hear that it gets better, not worse!

yourlittlesecret · 19/03/2014 14:55

venturabay Six?? all doing exams!
Only GCSEs and A2 here.

DS's friend finally heard from Durham with an offer...........on a different course Hmm. She won't be going.

Are anyone's DC who did get offers from Durham going for the open days next week? DS is going up and staying overnight in the college.

lalsy · 19/03/2014 15:50

I have heard on the grapevine of that happening with Durham too - Tesco-style poor substitutions!

Littleham · 19/03/2014 16:39

We assume ours is a 'no' from Durham, but we just can't work out why it takes 6 months to say so! Luckily she doesn't want to go there. It is just so annoying that they don't communicate. Being offered a course you don't want seems a bit odd. They must have one that they struggle to fill.

lalsy · 19/03/2014 16:59

We assumed dd must have been in with a shout to have stayed in so long.....but who knows? A follow up email with details was promised but hasn't arrived yet.

lalsy · 19/03/2014 17:02

And yes I could understand it if the courses were very closely related, but the example I heard of wasn't quite like that (can't remember what it was though but it was a bit we're out of Finest Duck Eggs, have some powdered custard!).

yourlittlesecret · 19/03/2014 17:17

The course offered was in a related subject, but why on earth just offer it out of the blue after so long?
Isn't there an absolute deadline of 31st March for all UCAS applications to be responded to?

Littleham · 19/03/2014 18:28

I think it is the 31st March. I certainly hope so!

lalsy · 19/03/2014 20:52

I think they can take longer but you don't then have to reply by 8 May (from memory).

venturabay · 19/03/2014 21:25

Yes yourlittlesecret very bad planning :)

DS's friend has also just had a substitute offer and is very confused. Meanwhile DS's Track still says Durham are considering. Durham certainly isn't making him feel very welcome. If he gets an offer and was to accept I think he'd now feel he was there on sufferance. Meanwhile his other four have sent very nice messages of welcome. Durham really does seem to be out on a limb with this. The city is utterly beautiful and the university is a lovely one to attend, but it isn't so radically different in quality from other top unis that it can afford to send out vibes of disdain. DD3 had an offer and put Durham as insurance and it sent a hurt letter asking why.

lalsy · 19/03/2014 23:26

The only explanation I can think of, other than deliberately trying to put people off which seems unlikely, is that as so many of their courses include A* (in arts/humanities, I know a lot do elsewhere in sciences), they have a lot of candidates with very similarly high predictions and UMS. So maybe they see how many of the ones they make early offers to firm or insure them by about this point, freeing up space? Maybe other universities have a (very) marginally wider spread, so can offer the ones at the upper end of it more easily? It was merely annoying for us but I think it must be very stressful if you are really keen, just as you are trying to gear up to A2s, finish coursework etc, and is no way to treat hard-working kids under a lot of pressure. Last year, some of the courses vaguely related to dd's ended up in clearing, at lower grades, so it isn't as if they are getting it completely right.

2rebecca · 20/03/2014 11:09

I wouldn't reject a uni just because they had taken their time. I was on the reserve list for one of my training posts but got in and really wanted to go there and did well. It's nice if you're a first tier applicant but so many applicants have such similar applications that there's not alot in it. If you choose a really popular course then it's going to be harder to get in. As so many people aren't firming yet it's not surprising some unis aren't sure whether or not they can offer more places. Wasn't it Durham who ended up in clearing last year due to underoffering despite being oversubscribed?

bruffin · 20/03/2014 11:32

To be fair on Durham, out of the 5 ds applied to they were actually the third to reject/offer ds, although the two gave offers in the same week. DS friend got an offer from Durham within a week, but was waiting for months and months for another equally prestigious university and I think he finally gave up with them.

lalsy · 20/03/2014 13:31

Oh, yes, I am sure everyone has a different tale, my comment was just in the context of this thread, where several posters have had dc waiting months after everywhere else for Durham (very possibly for good reason), and wondering how realistic it is not to give up on them.

I hope the wait is over for most people for most universities now and everything can settle down a bit.

rightsaidfrederick · 20/03/2014 15:25

Some universities will keep applicants who are in the 'maybe' pile waiting for a very long time, I'm afraid, but there's no need to give up hope just yet.

They can still reply into July (Hmm) but that then means that the applicant has a little longer to reply www.ucas.com/how-it-all-works/undergraduate/tracking-your-application/replying-your-offers

ICantFindAFreeNickName · 20/03/2014 20:37

Still waiting for Durham here, although we are expecting it to be no. I suggested my son gave them a call and check his application had not gone astray but he does not want to.

Needmoresleep · 22/03/2014 12:25

To check we have this straight.

DS is still waiting in UCL. He missed the open days as only decided to apply in September after talking to a recent graduate who told him it was a fab course. Ideally he would have had an offer, visited and then chosen between thete and LSE.

He would not want to lose the opportunity of applying for LSE accommodation.

Presumably he can wait till he hears from UCl before deciding who to firm? Are they likely to give him an opportunity to visit?

I assume they might delay things until after the LSE accommodation application deadline at which point he probably needs to decide on LSE.

Still one offer is enough. So glad he is not dependent on UCL.

Warwick offering a Tesco substitution of another course in a different faculty was irritating. Students are expected to provide strong commitment to a subject in their PS. Yet by doing this Universities then seem to imply that one course is much the same as another. Weird.