Things I wish I'd known last year when my child was applying for uni

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I thought it might be useful to put together a list of things that may be useful for parents going through the process this year.

These are the thing that I wish we had known.

1. Although it is not meant to make a difference when you put your UCAS application in, an early application can have some advantages. With some uni's you can apply for your accommodation as soon as you make it your firm choice, so an early application could mean you have a much better chance of getting your 1st choice of accommodation.

1. There seems to be a trend of more uni's offering unconditional places for certain courses. These students are then given their accommodation before students with conditional offers. Which is great for kids with unconditional offers, but means those waiting for their A level results will have less chance of getting the cheaper accommodation. Might be worth asking the uni's what their policy is.

1. Do renew your kids passport even if there is no chance of them going abroad during the year, as it makes applying for student finance so much easier.

1. Durham has a reputation for keeping kids hanging on for a decision, I would ensure your kid really wants to go there before putting it down as choice and managing your kids expectations about how quickly they will get a reply.

1. Don't spend ages investigating what accommodation your kid wants, as the chance of getting what they chose seems pretty small (or is that just my ds and several of his friends).

1. People on mumsnet often have more idea about the whole process than your child's teachers.

That's all I can think of for now, as you can see accommodation is on my mind at the moment.

None of mine have applied yet, but looking at prospectuses we've seen a few that give cash for AAA results. Quite tempting!

Aria - carefully check the full criteria (especially if based on income and if firm choice)

There are strong opinions here about how self-reliant DC should be. In fairness DS has improved an awful lot between the ages of 17 and 18. Looking back I think he spent the year as a "trainee adult". It was up to him to do things for himself, but we needed to keep a watchful eye, reminding him to book open days etc, and keeping track of deadlines. (He ended up writing his Cambridge supplementary statement with two hours to spare - not ideal.)

He already has a bank account, but when he turned 18 we got him to set up his own mobile contract in order to start building a credit record. We have also asked him to help sorting out the home broadband, and expect him to book his own doctors appointments (Men C vaccination), holiday travel etc. We also increased his allowance but have expected him to fund most things himself.

One really good thing was that his school gave him some decision making training at the start of the year. This then provided a methodology by which to approach various UCAS and accommodation decisions. What did he want, was this realistic, what was the fall back etc. His decisions, but with support from us. The nice thing is that he now seems confident to take responsibility and move forward with his life. I expect a few disasters (he said something last night about the need to consider what he might take to College) but mainly good.

In short then, make sure that your child owns the UCAS decisions they make, though help them if needed.

Accommodation
I worked in University Accomodation a few years ago.
At that University Accomodation decisions were not made until after results. When applications were received they were sorted into bundles of first choice and filed until places were confirmed as accepted.
At the beginning of July we received a list from the Admissions office of students who received an unconditional offer, their forms were pulled and put to the top of the pile for ease of sorting.
After results day we received a list from the Admissions office of accepted applications and it was at this point that allocation took place and decisions were made on the basis of first choice but more importantly need for Accomodation ie someone who lived an hour away was prioritised over someone who resided 10 minutes away.
Sorry for the long post but I hope it helps

Cricket, haven't seen any that mention income, only to put them as your firm choice. But no, my dd's wouldn't make any decisions without finding out all the details first. Just hadn't realised such offers even existed previously.

Chester for example don't have any bursaries that don't depend on income, whereas Keele don't

Needmoresleep where do you find information about number of applicants per place? I know the heap guide gives a few but I'm sure with ds1 there was a site that told you the % of applicants given offers as well as the % of offers accepted but have forgotten what it was

Eatyourveg This site gives % offers. I did question upthread if anyone knew the accuracy of it, but so far no response.

Found applicants to places on individual course details, but not a central site.

Oh you are all fabulous. I will mark my place now and read everything!

Thank yoooou!

Thanks circular

Why is it not that important to think about the £9k pay tuition fees. It will have to be paid back

handcream, you only have to start paying it back once earning over 21k and it's a small percentage of your income over that amount. Most students will never actually pay back their full loan - it's written off after 30 (I think?) years, and doesn't affect your credit rating or mortgage or anything else. Therefore it isn't a major consideration like day to day living expenses are.

Marking my place. We're going through this, this year (DS1 starting Year 13) hoping to do mechanical engineering at Leeds. Neither DH or I went to uni, so don't have a clue about anything

Lots of students go home at the weekend making some University campuses lonely places. Most unis also have a 'reading week' sometime at the end of October,with no lectures. Don't be surprised if your dc wnt to come home then.

The hefty university loan can concentrate the mind but more importantly, imo is that the loan barely covers living expenses and it is especially difficult in the first term for students who don't know how to budget (most don't).

Circular, it looks at bit odd. I have just looked at Economics.

They claim 14% of applicants to the LSE get offers whilst 60% of applicants to Warwick do. Yet the UCAS points required for LSE is 380-400 and the UCAS points for Warwick 480-500. UCL is 30% acceptance and 420 UCAS points.

LSE's own site says in 2013 they had 2,747 applicants for 211 places, so a 14% acceptance rate sounds about right. Warwick though on its open day warned they would have 2000+ qualified candidates (eg those likely to meet entry criteria) and only places for, from memory, 350, so 60% looks off. The standard offers are slightly different AAAE as opposed to AAAa but there is not much in it, so again the site looks off. Warwick though seems to have a habit of offering unsuccessful candidates Tesco style substitutions in unrelated departments, which may account for the higher reported offer rate.

Effectively both have far more qualified applicants than places, and so are likely to hang onto a number of applications until well after the January deadline. Given many will have applied before early October (which is the Oxbridge deadline) it is a long wait.

Can't find application numbers on the UCL site.

The quick way to find out which Universities and Departments kept students waiting a long time is to look at the Student Room threads for the previous year.

Not necessarily the Universities fault. These courses are very popular and it is hard to see why Oxbridge courses, even those with lower applicant numbers, and medicine are allowed early deadlines to allow for timely processing, but not London/Warwick/Durham.

Don't forget that each course will give out far more offers of places than they actually have places, so whilst X percentage may start a particular course, the percentage receiving an offer for that course well be far higher. Obviously students get 5 choices, and will only choose 1 firm and 1 insurance from those, then some will miss their grades, so far more students will receive offers for a course than there are actually available places.

Needmoresleep one of the examples I was looking at was single Music at Southampton. 320 points, ABB. Which site said 88% offers,. Course said 75 places, 6 applicants per place. So about 16% take up. Maybe they also offer to many that don't hit grade. Course has been in clearing last couple of years.

Hah. Another factor obviously is the percentage take up per offer. Someone was quoting numbers last year which suggested Birmingham's ploy of making Unconditional offers for those who firmed, improved their take up considerably.

Something else worth looking at might be the average number of UCAS points per applicant. Often different from the standard offer.

Understanding what the real demand is, will help predict your chances.

circular had a quick look, have to say glad I did not see it when DS1 applying last year. :) Looking at his subject and where he applied the numbers on the university which site did look a bit odd in 4/5 cases. Specific uni's often have detailed admissions stats on their own sites. Sorry not the most helpful of posts.

Find the UCAS points per applicant even more misleading, especially for music. Having to second guess how many points from grades, bearing in mind a grade 8 distinction or merit carries more points than an A grade AS.

Make sure they read the course details. Really read them. Not go yeah yeah, biochemistry (or whatever), it will be fine.

There can be quite a lot of variety within the course code. The last thing they want is to find that they will be spending 3 years studying sphagnum moss at the International Sphagnum Moss Centre of Excellence by mistake!

Look at all the courses available in the chosen subject area. They may end up on another course through clearing when they will have little time to make a decision so it is important to do the research up front.

According to this 97% of applicants for English at Exeter get offers