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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

A Level Results Day

479 replies

3catsandadog · 30/07/2018 09:50

Hi If UCAS does not update first thing before the school opens for result is it a bad sign that the offer has been missed.
Good luck to everyone awaiting results :)

OP posts:
zzzzz · 17/08/2018 09:41

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Justanothermile · 17/08/2018 09:52

I notice that clearing has closed for some of the Uni's. I checked Lancaster out of curiosity and Bath.

DS was lucky to get his first choice (Lancaster) to do MMaths, even though he missed his third grade (he did Maths and FM A Levels obviously) by 2 grades, so surprising but happy of course.

I thought a nice touch was a welcome pack dropping through the door yesterday, results day, from them. Although, this is our first experience so this may happen with other Uni's. Their offer letter was extremely personal too.

magbob · 17/08/2018 09:55

Ooh, had to delurk to say my ds is doing MMath at Lancaster too - no welcome pack yet, hopefully it'll arrive today.

Justanothermile · 17/08/2018 09:59

Oh that's interesting! Was this his first choice, if you wouldn't mind me asking? I've been impressed with the Uni so far. Dd is only a year younger, so I'm doing a lot of open days and the Uni does hold up well overall.

Congratulations to your DS.

Justanothermile · 17/08/2018 09:59

I'm sure the pack will arrive today btw.

iamaswashbuckler · 17/08/2018 10:07

Hi, just after some advice if anyone can help? My daughter got AAB and her offer from was conditional on getting BBB. She is obviously over the moon withe her results but has received no confirmation on UCAS track yer if her place. She has already deferred to start 2019 so would this be the reason she is still waiting? She plans on ringing the Uni later today but just wondered if anyone else has experienced this?

tantalisingduck · 17/08/2018 10:30

For zzzzz, my daughter rang Durham a couple of years ago to ask to defer her place for a year after receiving her results, like yours. And this was granted immediately with no problem. She contacted the admissions tutor for her subject - her reason was to try to concentrate on getting over the after effects of a long term viral condition, which had flared up again over the exam season - and it was sorted outside UCAS.

As others have said, however, the priority for universities is to fill their places for this year, and they may have turned down another student in favour of your daughter. Some subjects prefer their incoming students not to have had a gap year so as not to forget skills (anecdotally I have heard maths and some sciences mentioned in this regard, but my DD had an offer for Natural Sciences, so who knows?). And others argue that they offer their places on the basis of the current cohort, and are unwilling to tie up places for the following year before seeing the applications made then and determining their offer standard then (though I have only heard that again anecdotally for Oxbridge - who stress that deferred entry offers are unlikely to be made to any but the most exceptional students).

I am not sure whether any of these circumstances apply to your DD, and I am sure you are now with hindsight wishing she had applied for deferred entry in the first place....but is it worth your DD ringing the university again to explain her reasons and outline her plans for the gap year?

iamaswashbuckler · 17/08/2018 11:00

Thanks for the response, her initial application was for a deferred entry anyhow and a lot of her friends received their offers for deferred entry straight away so she is obviously a little concerned. Her reason for taking a gap year is to gain more experience in her chosen field so not sure why she has yet to hear but did wonder if it was because they would be looking to confirm this years places first. I guess she will just have to speak to someone to find out.

iamaswashbuckler · 17/08/2018 11:01

Sorry just realised your response was for someone else - oops!

zzzzz · 17/08/2018 11:08

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tantalisingduck · 17/08/2018 11:24

I am sure she won't miss her chance.
The same daughter I referred to in the end decided not to go to Durham and applied again, including reapplying to 2 of the universities she had applied to and received offers ( and then rejected) from the previous year and 1 she had applied to where she hadn't received an offer (if I recall correctly) - and got offers from all of them within days. It was a very easy process using the same PS, and presumably the school reference was easily updated to refer to achieved grades rather than predicted, but still pointing out the particular academic strengths and interests they had used the first time round.
So I am sure she will be fine - I would get her to call again (or email) though, and explain that she will be applying to the university concerned again and that it will be her first choice ( if that is the case!).

My son did also pull out of UCAS after results ( but his reason was to try again for Oxford so he couldn't simply ask for a deferral at the uni he had firmed) - in his case he was rejected from that uni when he re-applied. So it can happen that students lose out on a place from one year to the next. I can only assume that in my DS's case this university guessed from his archived grades he was (re)applying to Oxbridge and didn't want to be treated as a back up. Although in most cases universities do not care - why would they?

I guess I am saying that it would do no harm for your DD, zzzzz, to email the uni admissions to ask again or at least for them to have in writing the reasons why she is not ready for university this year and her intention to re apply.

magbob · 17/08/2018 11:31

Justanothermile Lancaster was his first choice, he was torn between there and York so looked at practical considerations and knew rent would be cheaper for 4 years at Lancaster. He also wanted a campus uni which ruled out quite a few options.

itbemay · 17/08/2018 11:38

Can I ask a question - how would you feel about this, both my DD and my boss' DS are same age, both expecting results yesterday we both went with them to collect in the am (separate schools). Saw boss at lunch asked how her DS got on, she told me fabulous he got all As, great! I told her my DD results BBC.... boss' DS just came into work, i gave him a hug and said congrats, bet you are pleased, he said well I wished i'd not got the C the AA was good Shock - why would she lie?! Is it normal and AIBU to be miffed as I was so honest?...

Congrats all anyway!

Clairetree1 · 17/08/2018 11:41

she misheard, you misheard, she didn't want to answer, who cares, non issue

zzzzz · 17/08/2018 11:53

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

itbemay · 17/08/2018 12:02

@clairetree1 thank you for that! I care, obviously or I wouldn't have asked - if you don't then why respond Confused!

@zzzzz thanks it prob is that, it isn't a biggie, was just miffed at the lie!

McNutty · 17/08/2018 12:03

Itmaybe -Actually this sort of thing is very normal. It’s just how human beings are, but it’s very annoying when you are the one being open and honest because you’ve assumed the other person is also being honest. Just learn from it and perhaps be more guarded about personal information next time.

ErrolTheDragon · 17/08/2018 12:05

Well... if the boy had a 3A offer but the uni decided to give him a place with AAC, and then when his DM asked how he did he said fine, he'd got his place but no A* grades, she'd assume 3As ... no one would have lied. A bit convoluted but not beyond the bounds of possibility.

Jinglebells99 · 17/08/2018 12:28

Erm I think your bosses son’s results are his private information and she doesn’t need to share it with you. I would have just said he’s happy with his results. There was no need to share the details of your dd’s results either. She isn’t lying to you, it’s not anyone's business except the child in question. You may have misheard.

Justanothermile · 17/08/2018 13:53

magbob, similar reasons to my DS. He's a quiet soul, a big city uni would not suit him at all. He liked the feel of the campus. The accommodation too looked good quality and extremely reasonable compared to others too. It felt like a safe next step for him after leaving home! Hope you got your pack/booklet.

itbemay · 17/08/2018 14:57

@mcnutty thank you - I agree with you, just odd as we have been both excited and have always shared lots about our children, born one day apart

@jinglebells99 apologies i didn't put the back story, we've both been excited and discussing for past few weeks, I didn't randomly ask for the info

Horsemad · 17/08/2018 16:51

itbemay, they used to print the actual students' A level results in our local paper! Shock

itbemay · 17/08/2018 17:05

@horsemad - imagine that!!

cathyandclare · 17/08/2018 17:19

They still do in ours ( well, not all the grades but they mark As and A*s)

UtahGirl12 · 17/08/2018 18:15

Very very stressful day yesterday. DS3 rang us in tears as he saw on track that he was in clearing. Spent all day on phone/PC and it was all sorted out in the end and he is now doing a Masters degree in a different subject, but he's happy with it (it's actually his best subject, just not his favourite). He's going to Exeter uni, which we are happy about, and he seems to be too. The stress was not helped by him being verbally accepted onto the course, and then rejected by email, as they had transcribed his grades down wrongly. It took another application, an email, another rejection, 2 more phone calls and the threat of an official complaint before it was all sorted. Phew. Don't want to go through that again. Luckily he's our youngest, but DD is on year 2 of a 4 year masters, so we still have a few years of exam/results stress to go through!

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