Has DD scuppered her chances of getting a offer at this uni??

[Curlysuzzie]

Ok where do I start, DD was suppose to go to open day visit at a Russell group uni about 2 weeks ago she booked it and everything, however we went on a last minute holiday, DD was given the choice to either stay and go to the open day and email the uni to say she can't go, DD forgot to email the uni to say she couldn't attend. We got back today, DD got a stern email asking why she did not turn up. I was a bit shocked but I can understand why they would be peeved off having a no show who couldn't at least email them to cancel. The problem is DD is wanting to apply to them, will she be black marked because of this? DD has emailed them back to say she is sorry and that she went on holiday at short notice.

I don't remember having to book trains or the cost being an issue.

We took a lot of long distance trains when I was a kid - no car, seaside holidays, London to Yorkshire to see family, etc - and I definitely remember my mum being down the ticket office on the right day weeks ahead to buy super apex tickets! And we never travelled on a Friday because that was more expensive

I don't think anyone has actually said their DC were not able to travel on public transport.

Its a bit of a MN thing though that all DC should be perfectly capable of doing everything when they are young where the truth is that some DC do find things more difficult. One of my DC was extremely stressed during her Alevels - she was fine to travel on her own but I'd have happily given her lifts if it helped her. It's not a biggie.

Thanks to everyone contributing and keeping this thread alive its brilliant how my dd unfortunate incident has brought about discussions and debates on how much should parents get involved with our growing teenagers lives, how in fact it can impact on their transition to adulthood for better or for worse.

Update on dd. The headmaster is livid when he found out about the email. He said if the uni was more along the lines of 'please can you be more thoughtful' kind of message and less 'why did you not turn up, give us your reason?' he wouldnt be as irrate. As 'give us your reason why' he feels is over stepping the line. Since what are they going to do with the collective responses or excuses?? Is it a way of judging 'no show' candidate dependent on the excuse given? In which case DD's excuse is pants! Headmaster thinks them wanting 'valid reason for no show' won't be for nothing. He wants to get to the bottom of this. Head has asked DD if he can escalate it further with the uni. DD has said he can if she's not going to put them down on UCAS as she thinks headmaster enquiry will only make matters worse for her application. Truth is DD doesn't quite believe she will be treated fairly if head intervenes. It's a bit of a nightmare

Agree Atia. I can't see the value in attending an offer holders day unless the student hasn't been to a pre-application open day or visited the uni independently. I really don't think they add anything of unique value and certainly the Durham one recently was a moderate shambles. It didn't put DS off the place exactly, but he didn't feel the tutors in the History dept had put much effort into the thing, so he didn't come back brimming with enthusiasm. He'd been much keener on the place when i took him and his brothers up for a weekend a couple of years ago. The regular students were about and he saw the uni in its usual mode, with no marketing to get in the way.

I can't see the value in attending an offer holders day unless the student hasn't been to a pre-application open day or visited the uni independently.

We offer half an hour, one-to-one, with an academic. We put a lot of work into it, and students seem to appreciate it. I'm glad to learn that it's a waste of time, because then I can have my Wednesday afternoons back.

Atia as a kid my parents gave up on the train from SE England to Scotland on the grounds of expense, and we took to going by overnight coach. 4am stops at the new Charnock Richard Service Station - that was something else!

I think dd1 only went to the 2nd and 3rd because I'd already bought the train tickets That and her eternal optimism

Curly blimey, this is getting serious! Hadn't realised they'd actually asked for her reason why not - that is weird, as you say ...

Ricardian if my dd had had that I would have thought it was great. It's entirely possible that she was offered it but didn't take it up (being an idiot), but she didn't mention it. I thought they were going to be really good and really specific.

Molio too awful for words!

Ricardian clearly it depends on the offering. Although I have to say that half an hour one to one on top of an interview seems like overkill. Are you very under subscribed? Why do you do it?

Although I have to say that half an hour one to one on top of an interview seems like overkill

We don't interview for standard applications.

Are you very under subscribed? Why do you do it?

We can fill all our places at A*AA, and have about 10 applications per place. But it's a competitive market and we'd like to show prospective students who have applied to four other places what we're offering. I suspect that when it was started, many years ago, we weren't as over-subscribed. But we've got very good students who say they came to us rather than going elsewhere on the strength of speaking to someone; that's worthwhile.

Yes indeed Atia especially since my Polish father used to rile my Scottish mother by always ordering a full plate of Lancashire pie and chips at 4am, resulting in a tense couple of hundred miles between there and Glasgow. Ah, childhood memories!

My son only went to the Strathclyde offers day. He went to the open days of all 5 choices before, none were that far away and given how many folk on here's teenagers regret where they've gone in the first few weeks that's sensible.
The others had applicants days but gave their offers before the applicants days so it was less important to go plus Strathclyde was his first choice which is probably why they can afford to be fussier.

Oh I thought I'd read that you interviewed and assumed it was standard. You do seem to put a great deal of emphasis on marketing though, which is interesting - it certainly suggests it's a buyer's market out there.

I think that depends on the subject, uni and ability of the student.
Also in Scotland we have free tuition fees but the number of places the government pays for is capped.

Ricardian a dept at my uni also pits at lots of effort into their (post-offer) 'interviews'.

One year the central admin of the uni banned all interviews as a waste of staff time and money, unsurprisingly to all involved, department's conversion rate (offers to firm or conditional choice) plummeted. Given it was one of the uni's top depts this was rather embarrassing and the next year they were allowed to interview again and their conversion rate went back up again. Obviously the students value being able to talk to academics and students.

However the choice of who is asked to interview is solely down to predicted grades and everyone who is invited to interview whether they come or not, will be given a standard offer.

it certainly suggests it's a buyer's market out there.

It's a buyer's market. Offers are only hard to get in the strange medicine-dominated world of MN. Good students will apply to five places for which their predicted grades qualify them and get offers from most, if not all, of them. Most universities now go into clearing, including mine. My department doesn't clear. We'd like to keep it that way.

Indeed, Issy. You're pretty much describing us (although we've never been stopped from doing it).

ataio gloria DD just wants to burrow her head in the sand. On one hand, her uni tutor say don't worry about it, theyre hacked off, yet on the other, the head is asking her permission to probe into it deeper. I'm wondering whether they've sent the email not realising how it may sound or misconstrued?? It's from the faculty and it does have name so at least it can be traced back to the author.

Ricardian don't be desponant all my DCs found their applicant days useful. There is often quite a time gap between open days and applicant days and I'm sure lots of DC would be looking at things differently than when they may have previously visited.

Some of my DS were not quite sure what they were looking for when they went on their first open days. DD2 had barely narrowed down what she wanted to study .

The applicant days my DC attended gave a lot more information about the courses and while I think they were sales pitches to some extent I think it was much more a matter that they wanted to make sure the DC who firmed were firming for the right reasons. I have never seen it as the Unis wanting anyone and everyone to apply but more that they want the right students to apply.

I know that MN hates league tables but I have found a unscientific correlation between the most friendly and well organized applicant days and student satisfaction ratings.

The other reason my DC found applicant days useful was to spend time looking at accommodation and the wider Uni facilities. They didn't bother to do that at open days unless they were certain of applying.

It is definitely a buyer's market
The fact that Clearing exists even for top200 Unis is proof enough of that

AS SheGot said on a different thread, any course with less than 5 applicants per place is not actually competitive for clear statistical reasons

I think that there are pockets of courses/universities where it is tough to get an offer. Not just medicine, either.

But outside of that, it is a buyers' market (provided that the buyers have the requisite predicted grades/AS etc ).

In fact there are lots of smaller markets. Once a well qualified applicant takes themselves out of the highly selective pockets, then the universities will come a courting, because failure to nab that well qualified applicant will result in having to take someone less so.

I work for a selective university in a popular department. Frankly, we can choose from a wonderful pool (with certain constraints). Most people who apply won't get an offer. The vast majority who do receive an offer take it up. But we still make huge efforts to sell our wares.

That said, it was a whole other ball game when I worked elsewhere (low ranking RG). We knew that the well qualified applicants would also be applying to other places with better reputations. We needed to give those young people a reason to love us .

Anecdotally, my DSS2 went to a post-offer day at Warwick last spring - he had three offers (UCL, Warwick, Bristol) for Economics and had never visited Warwick. He had visited Bristol a couple of times, including attending lectures with his older brother, and had done a "tourist tour" of UCL. He was pretty open-minded at the point he went to Warwick and, indeed, had not fully made up his mind whether he was going to go to university in England at all.

He hated Warwick! All that expensive marketing didn't convince!

Which just goes to show that you can't please all the people all of the time .

BoboChic, surely part of the reason for post offer days is also to allow candidates to decide something is not for them. Universities presumably do not want unhappy students who do nasty things to their satisfaction ratings. As I said upthread DS says some of his peers are quite unhappy essentially because London does not provide the sort of wider University experience they had hoped for. Warwick would.

DS was not sold on Warwick as a campus, and possibly liked Bristol more. However for him the strength of the Warwick faculty over that at Bristol, would have sold it. In contract DD loves the sound of Bristol, but she is looking for a different balance between academic study and a wider University life.