Universities bribing dcs with free gifts - has anyone else's dc had this??!

[headfried]

My ds got an unconditional offer from UEA but it was his least favourite; hasn't yet decided on his firm.

Had had various letters, calls etc from UEA - ds is predicted good grades so I can see why.

But today, ds got...a free pair of Apple headphones through the post from UEA!

Real ones.

And the best bit is...ds is now thinking of going there as a result.

Anyone else's dcs feeling the lurve?

I was trying to be kind to user (a dad I think) about BBB. His DC isn’t expecting those grades. I know the linear courses may be lowering grades but plenty of universities are still looking for ABB or above so it is a bit of a cut off. However, BBB certainly won’t stop DC going to university and doing well. CDD might but at a lower level university it probably won’t. It can affect drop out rates though. I do very much respect DC with BBB and I did not mean to dismiss their efforts.

Dd 'only' managed to get CCC at A level 5 yrs ago but got in to a decent uni ( top 30 U.K.) but not RG an obsession with mn
She exceeded expectations and got 2:1 ....then proceeded to MSc at RG uni
She was offered 12 professional, graduate only jobs after graduation
She has dyslexia, dyspraxia and dyscalculia and had been dismissed by her first secondary school as a low achiever....but only because she couldn't remember facts per rote and much preferred the type of teaching at university
She's now better qualified then the headteacher at this school

Stopyourhavering64
For what must be the millionth time, people saying that it's a shame for students who could get As and Bs coasting and getting Cs does NOT mean people are having an issue with Cs.

It's no different from a student who COULD work hard and get a 1st, not workimg hard once they have a place on a grad scheme and 'only' getting a 2:2. It's not saying 2:2s are shite. It's saying it's a shame that someone who could have done better throws away that opportunity once they think the next step is in the bag.

MN is a mad place sometimes. On one hand you've got pushy parents who are obsessed with tutors and their child being the most advanced and giftes child ever to walk the earth and on the other you have people who think any comment about ability, courses being viewed differently or grades means the world thinks their child is crap and anyone who ever uses grades etc to assess candidates must be a snob.

Meanwhile most of us sit in common sense-ville which is it's good for all children to achieve as high as they can (which will be different for each child) and it's a shame when any potential is wasted.

Maisy I agree with that in one sense, that a pupil doing a traditional academic degree might be better served to push towards the highest grades they can; however for some students the perfect course is at the unconditional offer uni, a course that might not be so "academic" anyway, aimed at more vocational pathway (I'm thinking Oxford Brookes here which has excellent employability and work related degrees, and when I say work I mean more in the sense of industrial placements than that you are going to get a better paid job/high status job - I don't really know the stats on that, just that it is perfectly possible to leave an Oxbridge college and end up in a bookshop or academia (which as we know is not particularily well paid) and leave a ex-poly and work in engineering. It all depends what you are attending university FOR. I have a friend whose son wants to do a humanity at Sheffield, and was tempted by an unconditional at Coventry, but he wasn't really tempted, cos he wanted to go to Sheffield. If he wanted to go to Coventry, he would have been delighted, but that doesn't mean it actually swayed him. In the end he visited and researched and decided what he wanted to do. If someone is too impressionable to actually research anything about the unis they visit they are not so clever as you think, caveat emptor.

It makes my blood boil when people say how terrible it is that more people don't apply to Oxbridge, particularily from the North - well maybe there are plenty of good enough, EXCELLENT universities there already that benefit from the pool of talent not being diverted to two special place in the South... And maybe unconditionals do the same, they stop people fixating on the same obvious choices and start thinking through their options and alternatives. Okay it is marketing, but how would we even know about these universities unless they bothered to market themselves? It doesn't mean they are a con, anymore than the BBC is conning us by telling us what they have scheduled for next week? perhaps we should just find out for ourselves and they shouldn't tell us..They don't say, actually the ITV programme is much much better and its on the other channel at the same time.

Misleading claims are different though, like the one I saw recently - the 2nd Best Uni in UK for Investment in Facilities (on a street signpost) (University of West London) that is designed to mislead.

Maisy,
Sorry I see where you are coming from.
Sorry, over defensive and sick of teachers and friends who see Criminology as a lesser degree and non RG as failing universities. Bubbles is right Ds would never get an offer from Bristol/Manchester or Sheffield yet alone Oxbridge.
Interestingly his unconditional offer came from the highest ranked, in league tables, TEF and graduate employment/salary data, university. This was for both the university and his course. plus their offer was 104, he's predicted 96.
So I suppose for him and his CAMHS issues, is unconditional offer was better than he could have expected, though he only chose it after attending all his offers days.

By the way, it's anecdotal, so please ignore, but we know of 4 children, all predicted ABB and above, who this year wanted to chose Advanced Apprenticeships, and when they told their high ranking sixth form colleges, they where dropped out of career advise groups and their parents told they wouldn't be given further support to pursue their chose careers.
1 is to work for Land Rover/Jaguar, another BP and the other two Rolls Royce aerospace.

dd got a teabag this week. I think she is hoping more teabags will be sent her way.

Was it Earl grey?

DS got a logo'ed sweatshirt on his first choice Open Day for Sept '18 starters!

He was offered an unconditional at another uni that made the offer the second his application hit their inbox.

He laughed and said they must be desperate!

But the offer of a £1500 bursary in the first year if he gets top grades in his subjects is appealing.

lol Anna! No, just bog standard tea.
I'd like to know where today's tea bag is, one won't get her very far