University offers for 2017 start (Part 2)

[EnormousTiger]

Continuation of the original thread which is now on to 40 page maximum.
Original thread (part 1) here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/2759621-Uni-offers-for-2017-start?

Most offers now received. My twins have had offers from their 4 and are currently deciding which will be firm and which insurance. One twin
( possibly two of them) is going to an offer holders' day coming up at Bristol next month with his friends from school.

[BizzyFizzy]

DD is likely to firm Edinburgh with Southampton as insurance - both ABB, but she has A in her EPQ which will lower her Southampton offer. She is predicted AA*A, so only a disaster could intervene.

We are heading up to Edinburgh for an offer holders day in April, so all being well, she will finalise with UCAS then.

Interesting UCAS experience. Edinburgh initially offered her AAA, but lowered to AAB then AAB (with no intervention on her part). Sussex started off at AAB and then unconditional.

I had an interesting chat with reps from Dundee and Glasgow yesterday at a school universities fair. They both said that they were giving very attractive offers to English students in order to get their £9,250 per year (over 3 years, so waiving the fourth year fee). They are capping their Scottish/EU student numbers to fairly modest levels.

[Waitingforsherlock]

Congratulations to all those up thread. I've come back to update for anyone who remembers the stress from the last thread. Ds received his final decision yesterday, an unconditional from Bath for economics. So pleased for him. A life lesson learnt- applying with grades isn't as straightforward as you might think. At least he knows now how much he wants to go to uni after many weeks of wondering if he would get an offer at all.

[HSMMaCM]

Bizzy - opposite ends of the country then . Do you live somewhere in between?

Sherlock- an unconditional from Bath is great. Dd is heading for Bath Spa. Bath is supposed to be a lovely place to study.

[goodbyestranger]

So please again for him sherlock - what a horrible few months. Which will he pick? Well done him/you!

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Hi, found you all again!
We've just finished all our Uni visits with a last visit to Reading last weekend.
DD is leaning towards Swansea though.
She has a 3 B's prediction and both Swansea and Reading have offered to match that ( though Reading threw in the complication of 3 B's if you put us as firm)
She is also tempted by an offer from Sheffield as she slightly preferred them of the 3 she likes ( good reputation too especially for zoology, RG etc. ) But offer is a bit of a stretch to say the least at AAB. Possible she could get one A and hope to meet them half way on that.
So ( thanks for bearing with me dear reader!) she is minded to firm Sheffield and have Swansea as insurance, expecting to go to Swansea ( excited to go to either)
I'd kind of prefer playing it a bit more safe and choosing from nice offers from either Swansea or Reading ( so Swansea as she slightly prefers it)
And then we could have another nice course at the Uni of South Wales just outside Cardiff as insurance ( they especially have lots of exciting fieldwork) DD brazenly thinks this course might be available as a kind of third choice through Clearing ( which to be fair it was last year)

Any thoughts very welcome as we she makes this important decision. Having to recognise that it's maybe the first choice of her adult life as she soon turns 18, and I can't really make it for her, though certainly can give my thoughts ☺

[BehindTheBlueDoor]

Really good news Sherlock so pleased for him and you.

[dauntlesscrusader]

For what it's worth, DD went to the offer holders' day at her uni in 2015., loved the academic staff she met and the lectures, and wasn't taught by a single one of them!

The days are great for making it all feel a bit more real, but from DC's experience I'd say that they aren't essential. In DD's case, she switched a year later to a university that she hadn't liked as much during the applicants' day and is much happier, so I'm not sure I'd even encourage DC to make a decision based on an offer holders' day alone.
Far better to look carefully at course content and structure. And for a sense of student life -- universities don't make a habit of exposing prospective students and parents to undergraduate life as it is lived! Spending a weekend hanging out with friends or siblings who are already enrolled is probably the only way, but generally not an option .

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

A couple of things that particularly concern me about DD thinking of putting her most likely Uni as her insurance are that they may not be as generous if she slightly misses her offer, they even had a line in their offer that if you put them as firm they will seriously consider a near miss too. Also it may affect security of accommodation choices, though Swansea slightly unusually do let you state preferences for accommodation even ifchoosing them as your insurance offer.
I was interested and surprised to find out that only 8% of new students are taking up their insurance choice. 1 in 8, so 12.5% find their place through Clearing. So that means around 80% are taking up their firm choice Uni which I thought was interesting. Still need to meet those offers though, or thereabouts!

[chemenger]

Just to clarify what BizzyFizzy said (and quite possibly clarifying what the university reps said) Scottish universities have quotas of home (Scottish and EU) students set by the Scottish government. They are financially penalised for over recruiting home students and for under recruiting them They do not have the freedom to decide to accept English students to get their fees in preference to Scottish students. They can take as many English students as they like ON TOP of their home quota, same for overseas students. The Scottish government are the ones who limit the number of Scottish and EU students, because they have to budget for their fees. There have been mild concerns about highly qualified EU students displacing Scottish students, but probably this is a problem which will disappear soon.

[aginghippy]

Yes all those statistics are interesting Juggling but they describe things that have happened in the past - they don't predict will happen to our individual dc.

I think it's great that your dd is thinking of taking a risk and firming Sheffield. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, etc. Who knows, it may even motivate her to work harder to get the grades.

[LineysRun]

Hello all! Good to find you.
DS has offers!! And is going to an offer holders' day at Exeter this month. So pleased for him.

[damnedgrubble]

Juggling it's hard to know what is best isn't it?

We had an offer from a northern university of AAA and two others of AAB and a B plus a certain number of UCAS points already got from AS levels.

I thought that DS should firm AAA and have AAB for insurance but he's firmed the AAB and put the B as insurance but the B is a former poly low down the league tables and he's predicted all As.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

Thanks all, I really value this place at a time like this, so much wise advice and encouragement.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Grubble - the highest offer isn't automatically the best (either objectively or for the individual) and hopefully his insurance is pretty much irrelevant.

There's something of a circularity with high offers being seen as automatically good and rated more highly. Unfortunately there isn't a metric for 'added value'.

It's hard when you want to advise your kids yet still ensure it really is ultimately their own decision. Looking at the course content of DD's top two, and digging a bit into the details of the research ratings, I'm inclined to think that the objective evidence is that if she really wants to end up as an elec/electronics engineer she should decline Cambridge and firm Southampton. But she's going to an offer holders event at the camb. College next week - which includes an overnight stay - it may be hard for her to choose with her head rather than her heart.

[damnedgrubble]

Grubble - the highest offer isn't automatically the best (either objectively or for the individual) and hopefully his insurance is pretty much irrelevant.

That's what I'm trying to tell myself. It's a top class university that he's turned down though, however it's in favour of another top class university so, like you say, hopefully the insurance won't matter. I just think he'll be selling himself short if he goes there.

[EnormousTiger]

If it is just two top ones it won't matter. My siblings went to Oxbridge and I went to Manchester and I have probably done the best. It hasn't mattered. My daughter turned down Durham for Bristol but they are fairly much equal and she'd done pretty well as a lawyer. The problems come if someone ends up somewhere where employers tend not often to recruit from. Someone who turns down Cambridge for LSE or Durham is unlikely to find masses of doors closed on them.

[JugglingFromHereToThere]

He's probably given himself the best chance of getting into the Uni offering AAB Gribble - by choosing them as firm they may be more likely to consider a near miss too?
So could all be strategically wise?

[voilets]

Worth a punt grubble. My DS did this and he's there-loving the firm offer uni.

[BizzyFizzy]

HSM, we live just inside the M25, so under 2 hours from Southampton by train. Edinburgh is about six hours by train but just an hour flying (we live virtually next to LHR T5).

We both loved Southampton when we visited, but that was when Edinburgh's offer was AAA. Now that it is ABB, it would be crazy to turn down such a prestigious place.

I am from Edinburgh and went to uni there, so I am vicariously having a homecoming through DD. Getting very nostalgic in my old age.

[AreYouNice]

damnedgrubble.

Don't forget your DS can always 'upgrade' on results day if he does better than the requirements of his firm offer and decides he wants to change. One of my DCs used adjustment after getting two grades higher than predicted. She was a bit stressy during her A levels and refused to consider anything with higher grade requirements than her predicted grades. Just over a thousand applicants a year currently use Adjustment.

[OhTheRoses]

Interesting offers. DD was declined by Oxford. AAA from Exeter (we did offer holders and she detested it), ABB Manchester (yet to visit), curve ball ABB from Edinburgh (she loved), Bristol awaited (most of her friends have been declined). Hey ho.

[damnedgrubble]

nice thanks for that, I'd forgotten about adjustment.

roses fingers crossed for an offer from Bristol. They seem to be very exacting in their requirements from what they said when DS and I went to the open day.

[OhTheRoses]

Bristol's a curve ball I think. A few years ago they seemed to be offering everyone and his dog although I suspect they may have had their fingers bitten looking at NSS results.

[damnedgrubble]

At the open day the admissions person said that they didn't care about your personal statement and that it was all about the grades

[SportsDHiver]

I agree Roses. I graduated a long time ago and at that stage Bristol was definitely up there with Durham, UCL etc. However, if you look at the 2017 league tables, not that they are infallible but useful as a general indicator, Bristol doesn't get above 24th place and is 38th in the Guardian tables.

It's an attractive city, and obviously an excellent uni but appears to be more similar to say Manchester, which is still very good, and a bit below other red bricks such as Leeds.