Applying for Uni 2019 entry, parents support thread

[Decorhate]

Now that they are back at school, working on Personal Statements, doing the final Open Day visits, I thought we could do with a new thread...

Hi all. DD's UCAS is going in this week and I'm still up trying to get my head around it.
We are not sure what to put for insurance. So far she has Leeds, Glasgow, Sheffield and Newcastle but needs a non RG as insurance but it has to be in the North or Scotland.
We looked at Manchester Met but I'm not sure as UNISTATS shows a high dropout rate on her course.
Any ideas of others we could research before Friday?

We are waiting on NTU as well, radio silence. It was fourth choice here though and DS has go the two offers he wanted/interview at the third, so isn't stressed by it. Offer holder days here aren't until the new year so he won't make up his mind in Track until after he has been on those.

goldenruby that’s reassuring! NTU might be the one for DD so it is agonising to wait especially as she’s heard very quickly from all the others

FrameyMcFrame - Lincoln is a nice campus with a good reputation, keeps moving up on the league tables, but it is as you said dependent on the course.

FrameyMcFrame have you tried the UCAS course finder?

I have been following this thread but will now plunge in as we are at the offers stage. DD has a 3 x A offer from Manchester for English Literature to which she can now add a 3 x A offer from Nottingham OR unconditional if she firms. I am really thrown by this unconditional trend. She is a grafter and I don't think she will be tempted just so she can take her foot of the pedal. However, it makes me wonder whether they are picking off the kids with really good grades and trying to bag them whatever happens. or whether they are being less discriminating and boosting their numbers. It matters in terms of the quality of teaching and the quality of students. A quick look at UNISTATS shows that Manchester are historically taking in students with higher grades than Notts but I hate this gaming the system stuff. She has also applied to Cambridge and the ELAT is next week but she isn't necessarily sold on Cambridge and it's tough to get offers. Otherwise she has Sussex and Southampton in reserve but she hasn't heard back from them. She liked both on visit days. Nottingham is the only one she hasn't visited making it harder to judge the offer. As if worrying about A levels isn't hard enough for them.

She should visit Nottingham - it is lovely. Yes the u/c offers are about getting the best students and/or (lower down the heirarchy) in order to guarantee income. It’s an inevitable by product of unlimited numbers in my view

I am sure we will visit Nottingham. A family friend thoroughly enjoyed her time there. I just worry that the whole u/c offer thing is distorting intakes and after a short term boost to the coffers, universities will rue their loss of reputation if they attract weaker candidates. Someone said earlier that Manchester doesn't do u/cs and yet we are seeing Universities with good reputations like York and Nottingham hand them out. In my mind, that gives Manchester the edge in terms of quality. Certainly DDs school have spotted the trend and are advising kids not to be tempted.

Hardly going to distort the quality of thet are offering u/c to the candidates who are predicted top grades!! My DD applying to “lesser” establishments and I have no doubt they are entirely driven by bums on sears and I do judge them for that. However if someone gets a u/c from the place they really want to go I can’t see any issue with that

Have been following the thread, first post though.
DS submitted his UCAS yesterday and has had an offer from Bristol TODAY! .

It is interesting - but what would be wrong with a university trying to attract the best students? If offering ucs to high performing students achieves that, I can't see really why it would be wrong to do so. Anecdotally we hear that those students take their foot off the accelerator and underperform at a level but I am not sure if there are statistics to show that? would be interesting to know. As so many students miss the predicted grades anyway it may be difficult to prove.

I think others have mentioned Oxbridge used to offer two Es to the successful 4th term candidates, and that wasn't considered 'wrong' - I agree they don't any more, but I think that decision was because they dropped the entrance exams, I think to encourage wider participation, though am not sure. (Now entrance exams have effectively been reintroduced for some oxbridge courses - circle of life and all that).

Another reason universities may be offering UC offers could be due to the arbitrary nature of our exam system. Many were caught out last year when a lot of students missed their offers, partly due to the demise of AS levels meaning greater reliance on school predictions. How many of us believe that exams are a good method of assessment? And DS had a couple of GCSEs on the wrong side of a cut-off – 0.25% off an A* was annoying at GCSEs, but could be much more significant at A level.

I think it would feel better if UC offers were at least after an interview.

I guess that if students are not coping academically, they can chuck them off the course.

The UCAS early entry stats are out and looking high – so much for our “low birth year hopes”!

www.ucas.com/corporate/news-and-key-documents/news/record-number-applicants-early-deadline-university-courses

fascinating - that is a very hefty increase!

Is it because more people are applying to Oxbridge/med/vet/dentistry than previous years, so therefore more having to apply by 15th Oct - or has there been an increase in the 'others' applying before 15th as well? (I admit I am not so fascinated as to look at the tables before posting - though i did spot a 12% increase in med applications!)

Ah - think I have spotted a footnote saying it is applications to the 15th Oct deadline courses. So it may just be that a higher proportion of applicants are having a go at those than previously - but there won't be an overall increase in ucas applications.

Will be interesting to see!

Well if DS''s school cohort is anything to go by, I would say it's true. I think their Head of Sixth Form has been advising some of the year group to be more realistic in their choices...

That's interesting Newmodel - more realistic as in 'why not apply to Oxbr, med, etc, you can do it even if you think you can't?'

No, the reverse Everincreasing. It's a high-achieving school which regularly gets double figures into Oxbridge and to do medicine. However, this year circa 60 of the Year 13s (so more than a third of the cohort) has applied for one or t'other (with some overlap). I think there are youngsters who are considered to be being over-optimistic in their aspirations (DS not amongst them I might add!).

Ah - I see what you mean, sorry!

So the school 'lets' them apply but warns them they're not likely to get in? Obviously I know schools can't prevent people applying - though predicted grades can scupper an application, and if they have the predicted grades then they are in with a chance surely?

I will have to relax about u/cs I guess. My DD did AS levels so she has actual grades rather than predictions and perhaps that is reflected in the offer. It would make it easier if the criteria being applied was more transparent. I suppose the worry I have is that there could be some dumbing down of the course if they are just bumping up numbers. Someone up the thread linked to last year's thread on u/cs and there were teachers on there who definitely claimed that they saw a difference in effort levels from some kids once they had accepted an u/c. Happy to have a few offers in the bag though. Anyone else on here with an English Literature candidate?

Has anyone come across statistics comparing number of victims of crime at different unis? Just musing on this after talking to a friend last night. Her ds in first year was beaten up recently, he has heard of another student being stabbed & another raped, all at his uni, since the start of term. Quite alarming.

I did do this at some point but can't remember how. You can find out the postcode of the uni and get crime stats for the area.

I do think social media increases knowledge of crime : it may not suggets a spike or rise, of course.

I'd say any big city carries a higher general risk. I have noticed soem prospectuses touting the 'safeness ' of their locations : and they were fairly obvious : York ; Aberystwyth ; Lincoln ; Oxford ...

Victims of crime “at” Uni or in the city in which the Uni is based? There’s a big difference.

Crime is everywhere, students off campus tend to live in the less salubrious areas of cities and are often out late at night and drunk/use drugs. They will also often be seen as “richer” than the locals who may resent the periodic influx of outsiders. This will inevitably lead to burglaries, mugging and assaults against students. Not sure what the answer is - there are few if any rural universities!

Here we go OP

www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/crime-rates-in-university-cities-and-towns/

I think I may have done similar via Unifrog but DS has locked me out (although then told em he has changed his passwrod to 'getoffmyunifrogmum')

haha vancleef, I live in a 'rural' area and came home last night to my local Facebook buzzing about yet another break in , this time while the elderly residents were in their home.

fwiw, I went to uni in York and in Nottingham. Nottingham has a reputation for violent crime, but I felt extremely safe. Students do tend to live in second year onwards in some of the more notorious areas but I never heard of students being targets of crime. Generally , the crime there is gang and drug related so targeted.

Some of the so called 'posher' unis have or have had a very bad reputation for on campus alcohol related crimes and sexual assaults/ rape, the most notorious recently being Durham. But, again, it remains rare.