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 ?

Help !!!! DD1 had it all sorted in her head with all 5 offers with Southampton going to be firm choice and Bath as insurance but today she had a phone call from admissions for MFL at Nottingham saying they wanted to change her offer to unconditional !!!!!!!! So whilst she already had an unconditional offer from Birmingham which she was happy to turn down as the course wasn't exactly what she wanted this offer has thrown her ! She would have ranked it 3rd of her choices and she didn't like the fact that the halls were virtually all catered but she did like the Uni and it is about 90 mins away instead of 4 1/2 hours ( an advantage for me - distance not an issue for her !). Is she silly turning it down for an offer of AAA at her first choice ???

Does it mean that they haven't had enough applicants? I'm never very sure about this for the reasons we discussed up thread. It was unknown when I was applying for uni. I do Wonder if some of these courses don't get enough applicants whether the course will run at all. It's a good offer but be careful and investigate it properly that's all.

Not certain myself but having been to lots of open days for MFL they have all said they don't have trouble getting numbers of applications but they have trouble getting candidates with good A level grades in Languages (mainly because not many students take languages therefore the numbers of those getting top grades is less than those taking eg English, History etc just down to the volume of candidates). So am wondering if all the Unis are chasing a small pool of the top language students and trying to tie them down with unconditional offers - my daughter got 2 unconditional offers now but yet her top choice (ranked 4th for languages after Oxbridge and Kings - I think) want 3 As for their new 4 year Masters course. Think they have opted to attract top students with the Masters course and a £1500 scholarship rather than the unconditional offers.

That could also be true - they certainly all want top profile students to raise the competitivity of their course - success breeds success. It's tough, it almost makes the decision making process harder. Good luck though

On MFL - I think it is true that the pool of good candidates is very small and I would be wary of any university that was offering very strong incentives such as an unconditional offer. Your DC needs to make sure that he/she won't be surrounded by students that aren't very bright/talented.

Bonsoir the unconditional offers are for those predicted 3 As or above not just to anyone to fill their places but I agree about being careful - I don't think DD1 will be swayed from her choices really but does make decision making difficult eg what if she has a disastrous paper and has turned down an unconditional at Birmingham/Nottingham and then misses grades for her top two ??

The 'Unconditional' carrot is now being increasingly used as a 'go Firm with us' bribe the same way that in the past Unis used guaranteed accommodation or scholarships etc.

Applicants should still make sure that the course is what they do actually want to do and not be over flattered by the unconditional offer, or see it as 'an easy ride'. If the course ISNT what they want (look carefully, look at all the optional units in all three years of the course) it'll be a very miserable three years at Uni, unconditional offer or not.

I would run the risk, personally. After all, with MFL, you can always take a gap year, go and be an au pair in France/Germany/Spain/Italy and massively improve your language skills while reapplying.

I think risk worth running too, for most people. The universities are presumably only making these offers because they have reason to think these good candidates will firm elsewhere, so unless there are particular issues with exams or anything, I think people should go with their ambitions. They are young, they probably only get one chance, it is three really important years in terms of personal development as well as everything else.

On the other end of the spectrum one of DS's friends has just received an A*AAAA offer from a London college.

He is also applying to the US where any offer will effectively be unconditional. Though he should have no problem making the grades such a tough offer must act as a deterrent from staying in the UK.

I'm not sure very clever and hardworking pupils see tough offers as a deterrent - they see them as a challenge and are excited at the thought of being part of such a selective group.

snowy We face a similar dilemma. DD now has offers from both of those places oop north she wanted to go to and one is the top uni offering her particular joint honours and has given her her lowest offer, so it should be a no brainer. Yet last week at parent's evening we had a rant discussion from one of her teachers, of one of the subject she will be studying, who felt, the exam boards and marking being as unreliable as they are, the pupils who have unconditional offers from one of the top RG unis would be mad not to accept, the finite differences in perceptions of those unis was not worth the risk. What employer after all is familiar with the more subtle differences between unis for individual subjects. My comment that she really liked the course at her preferred uni, it was higher in the league tables and in the city she wanted to live in and near family was met with such a withering look that I began to doubt my sanity in even suggesting it (and this is a school that sends the vast majority of students to RG or equivalents so she does know what she is talking about). This was without us already feeling that with specific Learning Difficulties that could trip her up in an exam we cannot dismiss that unconditional offer without some consideration.

Of those who have received those unconditional offers at her school a few are talking about taking them.

We will go and visit her top two choices and Birmingham and then decide. She will also ask them directly if, though the offer becomes conditional if she makes them her insurance, they would look on her more favourably if she does fail to make the grades for her first choice (which would mean she wouldn't make their conditional either)

I just hope it all becomes clear for her then.

Bonsoir - am steaming because the Sorbonne want DD to do a language test IELTS or TOEFL for her double law diploma application. Her bac OIB is accepted by every single UK university, including Oxbridge. Is is accepted in Paris - no!

my DS received his first offer today - from his favorite and is more than achievable - he is on cloud 9

Well, all four Uni courses that my DD applied to have now responded and she has been given an invitations for interview at all of them. Two are half day interview and selection events and the other two appear to be about 20 minute interviews. One has given her a brief to answer as well.

We have a very busy (and hopefully exciting) early 2014 coming up!

hattymattie - the non-recognition of OIB English by French HE is a scandal, I agree. Your poor DD will now have to spend some time familiarising herself with the format of IELTS and give up a Saturday and a couple of hundred of euros. So ridiculous.

Bonsoir Grr - We've written to the Director - hoping he can do something about this. I know he's sorted Paris Dauphine. We have no Saturday's free as bac blancs all the way to June now.

Oh yikes - school every Saturday! The DSSs' lycée, thank goodness, never inflicts that upon us. Every Wednesday afternoon is taken though.

They already have lessons Wed afternoon, it's relentless. I think they have two bac blancs in every subject.

Yikes.

One of the criteria I will use when choosing which collège/lycée I want for DD is the timetable. The DSSs, who went to their local state collège in 6ème, were not overworked and the lycée that DSS2 is at is one of the better ones for making sure the timetable isn't hideous.

It mainly seems to be Terminale that is hideous and they do have a lot of work. College has been fine, Seconde and Premier a lot of work but OK timetable and Terminale tough in every sense of the word. I reckon it's a taste of prepa before the prepa.

I agree that Terminale was a lot harder than Première for DSS1. My crafty plan for DSS2 is to get him to do his IELTS on the first Saturday of La Rentrée 2014 (on 6 September), having done lots of practice with him in the summer, and then, hopefully, he will be able to forget about IELTS and concentrate on the bac with no extras to get in the way.

Bonsoir you're right - we're going to do TOEFL as it's a bit last minute and IELTS is pretty full up. What is crazy is that if we'd applied from the UK side we wouldn't have had to do this - although if we get in on the French side we'll have no fees. I think DD has sat on this because she actually wants to just go and do UK law at Durham (she'll need 16 though).

IELTS in Paris gets horribly booked up, but you might like to know that places do come available - I think places get block booked by language schools and then get unbooked.

Thanks - I think we'll book TOEFL this evening though - even though it means delaying skiing by one day grr.