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

sunshowercap The issue is though that Exeter have a Natural Science course with vacancies , and which all things being equal (and I understand the limitations of the measure but it is the only measure we have and it is at least comparable) , appears to have ended up in the past with students with lower UCAS tariffs than it's competitors (I posted up thread) including York, which is similarly a nice place to study, a new course etc.

Nobody has dissed your colleagues in Exeter, the academic staff are clearly excellent as is the general university experience or the student satisfaction rankings would not be as good as they are.

However whoever is responsible for the recruitment strategy is supposed to be signed up to an aim of recruiting more good scientists and apparently doing what they have always done and what lots of other universities have done isn't working. OP is just expressing the feelings and attitudes of many students and parents at the receiving end of this treatment, there are regular threads expressing the frustration of being left hanging by Durham. The difference is that Durham get away with it but Exeter apparently with an unfilled Natural Sciences course, do not. So if I were them I would be listening and rethinking my strategy and doing a Birmingham

But it may not be possible to give a decision earlier rather than later.
sunshowercap you are quite right which is why I said 'as soon as possible'. To go one step further it is not beyond the realms of possibility for the admissions team of Exeter or ANother university to routinely inform a candidate ASAP that they are a borderline candidate for a course, decisions are pending and would they be interested in alternative course x.
BTW don't assume other posters are in a position to be less informed about this than you.
Molio although your DCs were n't particularly bothered about their choices further down their list it only takes a little bit of imagination to realise that other DCs, especially with regards their initially favoured university, would appreciate an indication by March as to whether delay means borderline/potential rejection so that they can get on with making sensible choices.
That could be achieved by the end of March. Before that would be more difficult for university admission teams.

I wasn't suggesting the situation the OP was in was in any way similar to the students in the Washington Post article. Just thought that perhaps people interested in HE would find the article interesting, in that no matter how admissions are done, someone will always be left disappointed.

Sendsummer
Ds was waiting on his favorite until end of march,but like most sensible people realised that the process is not that simple and know that he had to be patient.

I'm baffled by the fact that someone might think universities have the time and resources to trawl through parenting forums to decipher coded speak about random applicants waiting for admissions news and judging said applicant accordingly. I really don't think it works that way. Really.

sendsummer how could you possibly know which order my DCs ranked their uni choices? It's a big old assumption that those two very well respected unis were irrelevant to them.

in that no matter how admissions are done, someone will always be left disappointed

Indeed.

Some people get incensed that we treat applicants as a number, and don't really care about extra-curriculars. Others want a decision ASAP. Others want to go to a particular university so might like an alternative offer. Some find this "arrogant & lying."

I'm baffled by the fact that someone might think universities have the time and resources to trawl through parenting forums to decipher coded speak about random applicants waiting for admissions news and judging said applicant accordingly

It's an aspersion of a piece wit the first post. Because it couldn't be that an applicant isn't good enough, I suppose ...

The biggest eye-opener here as apparent of teenagers, one of whom is one of this year's Uni applicants (tho' I guess should not be - is Mumsnet after all) is how deeply involved some parents are...
Our child did UCAs supported by the school - have not seen PS - offer came through, DC has chosen firm and insurance, and we have jot had any input - same as when I did it yonks ago.
When did parents get so over-invested involved in this? How will their mollycoddled DC fare away from the nest?

bruffin I said by the end of March,

I would not advocate parental involvement unless the DC requested it. Neither would I think it was worth contacting university admissions until after the end of March or posting comments like the OP

However universities like Exeter spend a fair amount of limited resources on marketing so a little bit of that resource should be diverted to improve the efficiency and consistency of information from the admissions' process.

Molio call me psychic but I think it is a pretty safe guess that after January offers your DCs would not have Burmingham or Warwick at the top of their list even if they had n't eliminated them as possibilities.

MrsGuyofGisbo. TBF quite a few parents may become more involved than they would choose if their DCs are not at schools with the resource and expertise to provide the knowledgeable support that I guess your DCs (and mine) have available to them. I am sure that most parents would rather be onlookers of their DCs's informed independent decisions than worry about PSs.

sendsummer my point is that you can't know how my DC viewed these two unis. They might have been a much needed insurance, even on the safe bet model. This particular DD had four offers in way before my DC did so I can't see that she was in a worse position at all. Also, the college the OP's DD is at has masses of experience across the range of unis and certainly doesn't want for resources or expertise. I therefore don't think that accounts for the level of involvement here.

Just my penny's worth.. Just been reading all the comments about the drinking at Exeter... Errr, do you not know students at other universities?! Having done my undergrad at Exeter then a post grad elsewhere, as well as visiting plenty of friends in other uni towns, the level of drinking there was the same as anywhere where there are students! It was very safe when I was there too. (Graduated in 2006)
The experience myself and my course buddies had was top notch and I will always be glad that I went there.
I am glad the op's daughter has got some excellent offers of places.

What are the employment prospects from this degree ?
www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/index.htm
I guess, and it is a guess, similar to History or Theology & Philosophy, English , Classics etc. I am with Atia on this - I doubt someone who just fancies 3 years at Cambridge could get a place without demonstrable aptitude or interest.

MrsGuyOfGisbo I don't think some posters realize how little support some students get from their schools. It's easy to let your child get on with it on their own when they are getting information and support from their school. My kids didn't have any help with their PSs or with making their university choices. As for things like practice interviews for medicine applicants Ha! you must be joking

Also lots of of the 'not involved' posters who post an awful lot on MN have bright kids and quite frankly if you are an academic student it's not that difficult to choose between, for example Bristol, Warrwick and York. They are all going to be good aren't they, it's much trickier to work out the best places to apply to if you are, for example, a ABB or BBB student.

FInally, there are lots of kids that actually NEED and want help from their parents. One of my kids wanted me to help with everything , she was nervous about her exams and found the whole application stressful. Well done if your kids sailed through the whole process but unfortunately some of our children are not so resilient.

You might be pleased to hear that my flakey child (now adult) settled extremely well at University and shows no sign of needing any long distance mothering.

Mrs Guy. Both DC ended up waiting till mid March before hearing back from Universities they were interested in. (Admittedly rejections were faster.) Given they had applied in October, they found the wait difficult. The school supported them through the UCAS application. However surely it is a parent's role to support them through the stress of waiting.

Or are you using a more straightforward experience as a basis to judge others.

Molio, insurance choices are important but there is obviously not the same emotional imvestment as with a student hoping for an offer at a preferred university. However unreasonable the interventions and reaction of the OP it does not detract from the point that admission processes could be improved by communicating to a student ASAP that they are on a waiting list as a bordeline candidate rather than leaving the uncertainty of whether the delay is due to some potentially idiosyncratic method of processing applications which means that their application has n't yet been viewed. By the end of March an applicant should be clear about their relative chances.

Quook there should be an acronym that is the MN Education equivalent of SMOG.

Also lots of the 'not involved' posters who post an awful lot on MN have bright kids and quite frankly if you are an academic student it's not that difficult to choose between, for example Bristol, Warrwick and York. They are all going to be good aren't they, it's much trickier to work out the best places to apply to if you are, for example, a ABB or BBB student.

Quook also consider that at least -one- some posters like to portray themselves as hands off parents who are barely involved in their DC's education or Uni applications but actually spend a lot of time on here posting the same things again and again on the HE, Oxbridge, Medicine threads etc. over a number of years. They may in fact have plenty of spare time to be extremely heavily invested in their children's day to day schoolwork as well as engineering the "right" placements for their DC's future pre- and post-Uni.

New readers of these threads might not realise this. So don't let it bother you- all may not what it may seem .

Lessstressy or they may in fact say it exactly how it, is on limited time, with complete disregard to snippy people! There are more ways than one to skin a cat!

That comma was in the wrong place.

Re the Anglo Saxon Norse etc Cam degree, I know someone who did this and freely admits they took this purely as a way to get in. Their (top) school apparently "guided" masses of pupils in the direction of this course, Land Management etc. And person easily segued into investment banking.

Agree that it's easy to be hands off if one is confident school is doing most of - in some cases, all - the work. I remember someone posting that their dc's school brought in a team of writers in the autumn to do the pupils' personal statements. Now, OP's dd's college may be reasonably good (my ds is there too) but I can't say I've spotted too much help. It's very much up to the students to seek it out. No guidance at all, let alone spoon feeding regarding making strategic choices and how to write PSs.

Newsflash. Teachers in large comprehensives are time limited. They try really hard but personal statements, ucas applications, university choices and any interview are left to the students to sort out.

Students that are organised & persistent can usually track down a willing teacher to help, but every year there are a large group of disorganised students who hit the deadline for submission and start to panic. Most years there is a monumental balls up where a student is entered for the wrong course and the places fill up before it can be corrected.

Teachers in large comprehensives are time limited. They try really hard but ...ucas applications ... are left to the students to sort out... Most years there is a monumental balls up

I'm struggling to articulate a suitable reply to this! I really hope that pupils leave your school in droves and go to more supportive sixth forms elsewhere.
When choosing a school I always took exam results and league tables with a pinch of salt - the true measure of worth is Leavers' Destinations.

It is a normal comp and any other local school would be similar. The teachers are wonderful but with the best will in the world they are dealing with more important issues.

I might be wrong but....

Let me guess MrsGuyOfGisbo are your DC at a local leading indie?

Sorry, I couldn't resist. . It's just a bit much to be condescending about other people being 'over involved' if your kids are getting about a million times more help with just about everything from their school. Even the simply fact that they are surrounded by other students with high aspirations will make a huge difference.

Ah, t'internet.

Anyone reading this thread would draw the conclusion that a) Exeter is an over-rated up its own arse johnny come lately full of intoxicated poshos and b) only sad mums with too much time on their hands get involved in their dcs' university applications.

Now, I have no idea about (a), and as for (b) well, it's crystal clear that some posters have been able to purchase their lofty hands-off position.