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?

decorhate I agree that's the obvious solution but if you knew him you'd know my DS doesn't always often take the obvious route. His feeling is that the AAA requirement will put excessive pressure and therefore jeopardise results overall. Lots of time to deliberate- he hasn't visited the top choice yet (Exeter) so that may make a huge difference.

I would get him to hang on making any decisions until he has been to all the offer days which will hopefully either spur him on for the so called best uni or help him decide that actually his favourite is somewhere asking for something more likely to be achieved.

HomeByTheSea. If you have a stressy risk-adverse DC or a DC with unpredictable results he mustn't forget UCAS 'adjustment'. My DS used it on results day. My DS got three grades higher than his predicted grades. He hadn't wanted to firm a Uni higher than his expected grades as he would have found the uncertainty too much.

With adjustment you get to shop around but still keep hold of your original firm choice so it's much less stressful than being over optimistic and ending up in clearing.

It's also quicker than clearing - he had his place at a decent RG Uni confirmed on UCAS by 11 in the morning on results day.

Thanks ladies- "stressy and risk averse" is the perfect description drama queen is another. I'm not sure adjustment will help in that he is actually predicted AAA and I don't actually think he will get much below that (his AS Results wre very good miraculous such that he "only" needs mid B's in 2 subjects to get the A overall. He's never got below that sort of grade in tests/ homework hitherto). So it's more a question of him having the confidence to believe what the teachers are telling him! Yes we need to visit 2 (Exeter included) before making a decision. Seeing it in the flesh will hopefully make the decision for him IYSWIM. He is sitting on a great AAB offer from somewhere he loved on visiting- I don't think he actually believed he would get the Exeter offer!

Adjustment kicks in if your actually results exceed the requirements of your firm and insurance offer - so your predicted grades are not relevant. If you have an unconditional offer then you can't use adjustment at all as you have no required grades that you can exceed.

I know but I think more than AAA/AAB really is out of this universe!

myvision - which subject is it for? we too are waiting on birmingham

dreaming it's MSci in Psychology with a research year we're waiting for, I think the Bsc Psychology have already made some offers, but this one only has (I think) 16 places. It's as hard to get into as Oxbridge apparently

myvisions - my son said that none of the kids at his school had offers yet from birmingham either and i have a feeling one of those is for pyschology

hurray an offer from birmingham, the last one we were waiting for and the current favourite for my son. a nice early christmas present

DD1 has to make her decision by 31 January.

Why so early Uhtred? Will it mean having to decide before any applicant days or has she been to the early ones?

Well done to your ds dreamingofsun Glad he's heard before Christmas. My ds got his Birmingham offer last week. It's his joint favourite with Exeter so he's going to the Offer Holder day to help him make his mind up.

Is your dd1 having trouble deciding between offers as well Uhtred?

eatyourveg Conservatoire. There are no offer holders' days. But she has visited all the places for which she has offers several times. It's still not an easy decision though.

Dunlurking yes, each place has its pros and cons. Well actually, few cons. Just pros!

Uhtred didn't realise they had an early response deadline - dn is going for conservatoires for 2017. Well done to your dd for getting her offers as I understand the competition for places is ridiculously huge.

Early response if you have a first round offer. Reserve offers will have a later response deadline because as places free up, they will then get bumped up the queue. They also have an early application deadline - 1 October - so be aware of that. People seem to have no idea! Where will your DD be applying - and what does she play?

Sorry - DN.

Yes I knew about the early deadline which is why db has been taking him to the open days this round. Piano and Sax and going for sax as apparently the number of piano places is minuscule. Doing junior rncm at the moment and hell bent on heading south with Guildhall being number one at the moment. I think Trinity is on the list but iirc he's not going for rcm or ram.

I know people who have done sax at Guildhall. It's a great place to go. Has your DN considered doing the Jazz course in the summer? DD1 did it two years ago (last year it clashed with NYRO) and it was amazing. Jason Rebello was one of the tutors!!! I know students and a tutor at Trinity and they are having a magnificent time - but DD1 didn't apply there in the end because the open day did nothing for her instrument and that gave her the message, rightly or wrongly, that her specialism is no longer very valued there. Good that your DN realizes about the open day issue - we were lucky enough to have it pointed out to us by a MNer a couple of years ago but DD1's school had no idea and she would have missed out on all the open days if she had waited until the traditional post AS window...

Happy Christmas all. Hope our children all have a great 2016. Things will be very different for them this time next year

Just wanted to ask does anyone know how Exeter applications gave gone this year? DD has had a AAA offer from them for English and Spanish when the website says the normal offer is AAB. Makes her feel they don't really want her.

Is it possible they've just had a lot of applicants so can up their requirements?

Oh dear, sorry to hear that Applesnotcakes Ds had an AAA offer but was expecting it to be AAA. They put the range as AAA to AAB I think for his course and his school is a (relatively low performing) grammar. He is predicted A*AA but got AAB at AS. Don't know whether that helps you work out what has happened. Last year some people were given higher offers than shown in the prospectus and some mumsnettters' dcs challenged them and got them lowered, I understand. This year they seem to have covered themselves with a clause on their website. I think the theory is to challenge the brighter kids to achieve their potential. Or something.

Happy Christmas to you and all, and good fortune to the dcs for 2016.

Thanks Dunlurkin that's interesting. I suppose she could challenge it but it's not her favourite ( and going down the rankings rapidly) so she'll probably just leave it and focus on Leeds which has captured her heart. Waiting to see if Nottingham come in with a lower offer to give her somewhere for a second choice. We will see. Long road ahead.

Yes there were a lot of posts last year about Exeter making very high offers (higher than Oxbridge in some cases iirc).

I would think the "experience" at Exeter is very different to Leeds & Nottingham in terms of size of city etc. My dd wanted a biggish vibrant place. I suspect she would have found Exeter limiting after living in London. She is at Leeds & loves it.