University offers for 2018? (Part 1)

[OnlyTeaForMe]

OK, I know I'm a bit early, but let the hand-holding begin...

Come and join us if you (and your DC) are about to start the UCAS process in September - applying for a place in 2018.

I've got DS1, who wants to do Computer Science in 2018. Looking at various Russell Group unis and maybe Oxbridge.

Sorry, I'm not sure I explained it all properly.

She has an unconditional offer from Birmingham (her 2nd choice) but it is only unconditional if she puts them first choice. If not, it reverts to a conditional offer which is AAB.

She has a conditional offer from Newcastle (her 1st choice) of ABB.

Neither conditional offer is out of her reach (she is predicted AAA) but she cannot put the unis in her preferred order because then her insurance offer would be higher than her firm offer, which is obviously foolish.

Given that she is not interested in any other uni (and anyway, we already know their standard offers are AAB) she cannot put her preferred uni first because it doesn't make sense offer-wise, and she cannot put Birmingham first because their unconditional offer would mean she is automatically accepted there and an insurance offer (Newcastle) is not allowed.

She is in a Catch 22 situation. Our only hope is that she rings Newcastle, explains it to them, tells them how much she loves them, and they agree to changing their offer to make it unconditional.

Yes, she is going to take her time with her decision and will visit both unis again. Newcastle has been her preferred uni for months and visiting it for an open day only confirmed her feelings, but she was also impressed with Birmingham when she visited on the open day, and I am sure she would have accepted the unconditional offer happily had Newcastle rejected her.

Ah that makes sense. In that case if she really prefers Newcastle it makes sense to put them first with Birmingham as insurance, however unlikely it would be that she would end up there.

Newcastle don't do unconditional offers do they?

I would put the unis in the order she prefers, even if the insurance is higher as many many unis take dropped grades, and some don't so you never know until the day who will accept what IYSWIM.

Dumbledoresgirl - to clarify ds2 got a conditional offer of AAB from UCAS from his first choice(UEA) last Sunday. Monday morning he got an email from the uni saying he'd been given an unconditional upgrade if he puts them as his firm choice. It's lucky as UEA was the one he wanted to go to.

I would have had an almighty job trying to persuade him away from the first unconditional. He actually performs really well under pressure, but he struggles to deal with it at the time, so I'm convinced he'd have gone with the first unconditional for peace of mind. We've since discovered that UEA have an Unconditional upgrade scheme. Had no idea when he visited and decided that was the one.

Crikey I hope that makes sense ....had 2 glasses of wine this evening and on reading it back it sounds really confusing!

Makes perfect sense. Also UEA and Birmingham, along with Nottingham, Lancaster and maybe Leicester are known for their unconditional offers - not sure if their are others

Ah - now fully understand your dd's dilemma . As others have said I would wait to visit again if possible and then firm the one she really wants to go to.

I think there is some pressure on youngsters to accept offers as soon as they are made but really this is early days - some people won't even have submitted their UCAS form yet !

DD has 2 unconditional offers now - Birmingham just handed it out but she had to go to Lancaster last week for an interview and now has the unconditional plus LOTS of cash if she gets her target grades. She's currently at Oxford and finding it v strange- everyone has gone to bed at 8.45pm!

I expect they didn’t go to bed but just went to hide

Ds has just submitted his UCAS application (school just has to add its reference). Politics/International Relations to Edinburgh (his preferred choice), Aberdeen, Strathclyde and Dundee, with an extra one to Edinburgh of IR & Quantitative Methods. He doesn't have the Higher results that they say that they want, but his predicted Advanced Higher Results should more than exceed their normal offer.

His pastoral care teacher says she's going to use his Personal Statement as an example of the progress that can be made from first draft to (very good) final version. I'm hoping that is a good sign!

He took St Andrews off his list as although he liked the course, he didn't like the feel of the Uni and quite reasonably justified that if he were to get an offer from St Andrews rather than Edinburgh, he'd almost definitely get an offer from Aberdeen as well (which he preferred over St Andrews) so that a St Andrews application was a waste of a choice. So he added Dundee, which he's not visited.

He knows that Edinburgh is notoriously late in sending out offers, so we'll not be holding our breath.

In the meantime, he's working hard for his prelims.

Good to see lots of applications going off.
Am glad to see the back of the PS :)

DS has applied for geography related courses at Nottingham, Manchester, York, Sussex and Cardiff.

Been with At the unis since Thursday so now the waiting begins.

Three offers here so far, including the favourite - yay!

What should be fairly simple is complicated by clauses lowering the entry requirements if you put that university first.

I'm encouraging DC to revisit the universities in order to help choose the final two.

Need to start saving for the fares...

DS has four offers so far. The uni's here agreed upon a standard "must accept by" date, and other than maintaining a satisfactory grade point average there are no conditions. They seem to be competing for DS by offering various amounts of scholarship money, which is really just a discount on the insanely high tuition and fees.

So far he's heard from Ithaca College, Manhattanville College, University of Hartford and Endicott College and had offers of admission from all of them.

Miss, my DD is in her second year at uni in the US (educated in UK). I found the US system so much less stressful! Apart from the fees!
Where is your DS hoping for? I restricted DD to East Coast only, purely for ease of travel!

Leeds2, Endicott in Beverly Mass is his first choice, and he think that he'll either study computer science or accounting, but he's not sure. We're in New York, and we restricted our search to schools that were withing a 4-5 hour driving range.

Where on the east coast did she wind up and how does she like it?

She is having an absolutely fab time! US system much more suited to her, as in very wide ranging (although she hasn't appreciated being obliged to do courses in Spanish and maths, which she had thought were long since abandoned!).

Well Done to your son, if he has an offer from Endicott and that is where he wants to go!

Leeds2, I am so pleased that your dd is having such a good experience at college here in the US. It is quite diverse and wide ranging. I was surprised reading the comments here when I realized that in the UK you have to pick a course of study (if I have that bit right) when you apply. Quite a few colleges have dropped the language requirement, but many still have it. For maths, most colleges will let you count Statistics, which is required for social sciences anyway.

Lots of foreign students come to the US, but they are usually from countries that have very rigid university entrance requirements or poor options at home, so as a Brit your dd must quite standout (in a good way, of course).

DS has his first offer - it is from Sussex which he was hoping to get as an insurance.

He is delighted and the offer is low so he is especially happy about that.

He told me even if I don't get any more I am happy with Sussex as a backup - so feels the pressure is off.

Just got an unconditional offer for my second choice 🎉

Today seems to have been a no news is good news day. One of ds1 choices seems to have sent out a block of rejections today. He is really pleased to have heard nothing.

Congrats Orphelia :))

Fingers crossed he will get an offer from his favorite soon little drummer.

Ophelia, well done!

It’s not been a good day for Dd. Rejection for Dd for Rvc - Apparently she didn’t meet requirements! And you can’t question why due to the volume of applications. In spite of having 4 interviews last year, 2 offers and exceeding all requirements - I’m totally befuddled and furious as to their reasoning. I really don’t think Rvc know what they’re doing, as we’re not the only dodgy rejections.

Sorry to hear that Teta, this process seems brutal. We went into this at the start thinking four choices was pretty good. After talking to current students my advice to ds1 has been to be happy to get any offer, anywhere. So far he is still in with a chance at all but I keep waiting for the axe to fall.
If anyone comes out the other side unscathed and without learning resilience I will be surprised.