Ucas form sent off!

[Peaceandl0ve]

Seems that my DD has done all she can for now, except for work exp diaries, questionnaires, bmat and the rest. Is is Christmas yet?

[TalkinPease]

You'll know when its goes live as there is a flurry of emails

[TalkinPease]

First offer in, exactly 10 days after sending ....

[mateysmum]

HAT test done. Now onto interview practice. 2 offers received yesterday for Leeds and Birmingham which are DS's 4th and 5th choices, but nice to have.

At least DS can get back to the "day" job now as for history apparently it can be early Dec before Oxford interviews are confirmed, so fingers crossed till then.

[RhodaBull]

mateysmum, I've asked on the other thread about when you hear you've been rejected. It's all positive about interviews, but a fair few must not make the cut and it's unclear how and when that gets communicated.

[RhodaBull]

Ah, finally found my answer deeply buried on the Oxford website: an email comes first week of December.

[mateysmum]

Can you link to the other thread Rhoda please.

It is nail biting isn't it, this whole process. Don't know how much of a chance DS has and I'm managing his expectations and keeping everything crossed. For history, about 65% get interviewed and 20-25% accepted. There is quite a variation between courses.

As late as first week in Dec is when they hear about acceptance for interview as well I think, then interviews are the following week.

[cashewnutty]

My DD submitted her UCAS application yesterday and got her first offer today! Anthropology at Manchester. 34 IB points. She is ridiculously pleased even though it is not her top choice.

[Leeds2]

Well Done to your DD, Cashew! My DD has an offer from Manchester too. It might be for Anthropology, but I am not actually sure! Where else has your DD applied to?

[dottygamekeeper]

School finally submitted UCAS form yesterday, and DD got her first offer today - Physics with Particle Physics at Royal Holloway - she is very excited!

[Peaceandl0ve]

Bmat done yesterday, horrid by all accounts, but on a better note was given an interview from one vet school later in the day and today an offer from her non-vet course. Funny really that goal in the last few months has been to make it to interview, being given an offer feels like less of hurdle, especially as she,does have one offer under her belt to save her pride if she gets 4 rejections. Chin up everyone!

[cashewnutty]

Leeds2 She has also applied to Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Durham and Bristol. Durham is her top choice by a mile and i think Edinburgh would be her second but Manchester is great and she would be more than happy to go there. She is just ecstatic to have one place on the table. All she needs to do now is get the results!

[Applesnotcakes]

first offer through here too - technically made to my DD of course

English and Spanish at Warwick. Not her first choice but so nice to have one in the bag

[Horsemad]

Just been reading the thread and re-living this time last year when DS1 was applying. Wow, it brings back memories!

Good Luck everyone!

[hellsbells99]

Thanks Horsemad - I'm back on here with DD2! Hope your DS is getting on fine.

[Horsemad]

He is thanks hellsbells99 Last year was probably one of the most stressful I've ever had, but it all turned out well in the end (as seasoned Uni applicant mums said it would!!)

Will be going through it again next year with DS2, so haven't escaped yet!

[hellsbells99]

Hi Horsemad. We've had a couple of wobbles with DD1 but I think everything is fine now fingers crossed. Glad your DS is getting on well. I can't believe I am going through Ucas again with DD2 and thought a couple of weeks ago with DD1 again

[dottygamekeeper]

We now have an interview at York and an offer from Edinburgh - but she is rather miffed, as the Edinburgh email was rather unfortunately worded, which made it sound as if they only wanted her because she would be paying fees (and was no lower than the Royal Holloway one, even though she had only applied to Edinburgh for a BSc whereas for Royal Holloway she had applied to a Masters).It looks fairly likely that she will not be accepting the Edinburgh offer...

[NapoleonsNose]

School finally submitted DD's today. Fingers crossed for some offers soon. One more open day to go as well and we can reclaim our weekends!

[eatyourveg]

Discovered yesterday that when ds pressed send before half term the ucas coordinator sent it through to the head of faculty who has been off since 8th October and is still off so it has just been sitting there in an unopened inbox! Total lack of communication as she had already told ds his reference would be written by someone else because the hof was off. Tutor now promising to do it today as he's been given access to ucas and says he will get it off asap - I'm not holding my breath.

[Dunlurking]

Oh no, how frustrating for your ds eatyourveg Hope things happen quickly now.

[NapoleonsNose]

3 days in and 3 offers already. One came in the following day which makes you wonder how closely they read the PS. Just waiting on Reading and Bournemouth now.

[Dunlurking]

Well done to your dc Napoleon Nice not to have had lots of waiting.

I made the mistake of going on TSR to find my ds's course at Bristol and Exeter kept people waiting a couple of months or more last year. There are some (otherwise Oxbridge) candidates this year who have had quick offers from both but ds will appear quite obviously not Oxbridge.....

[Applesnotcakes]

How did you find that out dunlurkin? I look at TSR every now and then but find it completely daunting and scurry away again. Do you have to read through the forums in the hope of finding relevant info or is it more organised than that?

[Dunlurking]

Applesnotcakes it's an obscure/new course so not many postings to plough through if I put the title of course and the word "offers" into search.... not very helpful to you I think. TSR drives me mad the way it is n't organised so I don't go on there very often. Hope you can find what you are looking for.

I think it depends very much on whether it is a course that the uni "gathers" for. Needmoresleep explained it very well on a thread recently but there's a brief explanation on Which website here

[Needmoresleep]

Google "TSR University Name Course Name and 2016" and you should get something. Or try 2015 and see what happened last year.

A lot depends on how over subscribed the course is. DS applied for 5 out of the top six ranked economics courses in the country. It worked out fine in the end, but he had already decided he did not want his fifth choice (he discovered they were expanding the department rapidly and also giving out some quite low offers suggesting quality might slip) and did not get his first, and waited till late March for the other three. (One came through with an offer...and you only need one!) He was far from the only one waiting, so there were reams on TSR. He did not read it, not least because there is a huge amount of exageration/boasting, but it was useful for us to understand that this was normal so we could reassure him.

From what I read the problem is that they need to treat all EU candidates equally. Very over subscribed courses can have up to 13 applicants for each place. So other than obvious "yesses", they can't begin selecting till the application deadline in January. Then some candidates may have atypcial (eg mature students) or have school certificates that dont differentiate enough (some Italians seem to fall into this category) so are set an additional entrance exam. By the time this is organised and marked you are getting towards March. In the meantime candidates with offers are firming other places so admissions gradually have a better idea how many places they have available. My DS' University they slowly refuced their gathered field by accepting some on Thursdays and rejecting others on Fridays. If you had not heard by 4.00pm on Friday you were safe for another week. But this was a very popular and very international course, so probably as difficult as it gets.

It means we are well prepared for DDs medicine application.....not least we now know that the most important thing is for her to try not to get distracted by UCAS and to focus on getting the grades. A gap year is not the end of the world and with good grades you will get early acceptances second time around.