Exeter offers : incompetent or arrogant?

[TalkinPeace]

DD submitted her form last October
Exeter have still not had the courtesy to send an offer (the other four Unis all have)
when phoned they said

• no offers have been issued (bollocks as DDs friends have theirs)
• offers will be made by end of December (bollocks as its now late march)
• offers will be made right after the UCAS cut off date (bollocks as it was in January)
• offers will be made by the end of March ........

Exeter are arrogant liars
the word needs to go round

Now I've RTFT I am at some of the attitudes displayed. Way back when when I applied through UCCA we had no idea of the timelines or decision criteria of admissions tutors beyond what was in the printed prospectus that dropped through the letterbox. We had no expectations and would not have dared to question how it was done or felt we had a right to an offer. My parents were not involved at all.
Different times I suppose. The age of the consumer student (and we as their parents) is upon us, not necessarily a good thing IMO.

Admissions staff clearly know that the offer needs to be on UCAS track to be official and hence firmed/insured/declined.

Offering by email and taking 4 weeks to update on UCAS track is bizarre and not typical.

Thanks quit2dis - DD received her offer by e-mail on 31 Mar and it said she would receive it officially via UCAS by the end of April. They give out 450-500 though which I why I wondered how long it takes to add each student's offer on to track.

They're not added to Track as a separate process. The decision, be it unconditional offer, offer + conditions or reject will be made on the university admissions system which has an interface to UCAS. The IT bods will then link to the UCAS interface, to upload decisions/download new applicants. Typically this happens overnight, though might be once a week once all deadlines are out of the way. During Clearing the upload/download process happens several times a day!

My DC's school didn't give out predictions, I thought it a bit odd but had no idea it wasn't normal. That said they did fabulous UCAS support and kids had their ambitions stretched or tempered as needed but actually of those I knew most seemed to know where to apply based on their own reading of ability. Thinking back now I feel this policy was probably born out of a high incidence of pushy/aggressive parents.

Not giving predictions is insane!

I think we ought to invent a more nuanced system than that. "Baliol, St Cats, That Place in the Fens, Durham, St Andrews, Reading, Greenwich........

Love it Bertrand

but the little arrogant toe rags are still sitting on their hands

I think Exeter (or any university) can probably do without children who have parents inculcating them with attitudes like that.

The age of the consumer student (and we as their parents) is upon us, not necessarily a good thing IMO

Indeed.

IME fairly long and wide experience I'm old of teaching in three national systems, the current consumer attitude is materially damaging young people's educations. God help British business & industry with some of the graduates that are emerging.

See accommodation post. I imagine she will hear soon.

www.facebook.com/exeteruni

But you cant apply for accommodation at your insurance choice can you? OP said her DD was only looking at Exeter as her insurance.

Also, surely you can firm and insure even if you don't have all responses in? I thought you just declined your application from any other unis you hadn't heard from?

Sunshowercap to be fair to the DD we don't know whether she's adopted the mum's attitude. She might have struck out on her own :)

Exeter wouldn't know who intended to firm and insure would they? It makes sense that they would plan to get offers out before the accommodation deadline.

Obviously not Littleham. My point was that accommodation won't be a pressing concern for OP's DD who only wants to insure with Exeter. It would make sense yes but the department is clearly waiting on replies from its first choice offerees so things may not be that neat.

Oh right. Massive administrative replies are rarely neat and tidy.

I feel sorry for both sides of the equation. Stressful process all round.

Still waiting for any sort of an email from Exeter : even truthful ones - as the two on DDs UCAS track are clearly not true
cannot book any accom anywhere without rejecting Exeter - which would be silly

all the other Unis seem to be able to manage monthly update emails

if she's so low down their list, a rejection would be the best option at this stage, but the silence is the worst insult

yeah, when I applied 30 years ago, there were not facebook pages / groups
or web pages
or any of that

but now there is - so an "in demand" uni should deal with it

Why is it silly to reject them? Does she really want to go now? Was it likely to be an insurance choice anyway? Can she not choose two out of the other offers? It is not that brilliant there!!!! All this fuss!

TP a rejection would be more of an insult.

I guess it might be silly to reject them given that the DD has waited this long unless accommodation becomes an issue at her first choice. I think I'd wait purely because I'd be curious about the answer.

The facebook pages on the link make Exeter look wonderful bojo :) And to be fair it is quite a pleasant area to live in and a scenic coastal drive for TP doing any ferrying.

Talkinpeace
None of the unis ds applied for gave monthly updates. Durham and loughborough were very late in offers/ rejection.
Ds missed offers day at loughborough because his offer came the day before.

Fwiw my frieds som had a brilliant time at exeter, he would have stayed if the employment chances in the area werent so dire

I think the OP was only after updates because Exeter has taken such a long, long time and haven't responded when they said they would.

On the Exeter Uni Twitter feed the University have been posting tweets such as

Hi, are you waiting to hear about your application? If so, all offers will be sent out by the end of March.
23 Mar 2016.

I think I'd be impatient if I was the OPs DD.

All 'offers' Kaddy. It would be more helpful it it said all responses, because the general belief is that no news is good news.

Just looked at the photos and the grounds do look gorgeous.

Here's hoping no news is still good news.

Yep. Exeter is pretty pleasant, but there are other pleasant places too! This is not the only attractive city in England. Not sure my DDs were ever that impressed by grounds. They lived in acres of them at home and at school. Our school said it was a continuation of boarding school. Self contained, on a hill, and a bit removed from the real world!

My DDs had no updates from any university they applied to. Nor expected them, even when we got to 30 April and still had not heard from one of them! Where has this sprung from?

They lived in acres of them at home and at school Braggy, much?