Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 2, UCAS & offers

[Decorhate]

Here we go!

Well done to your dd elizabeth

Thank you Ifonly4, Nagarem and twosoups. I hope your DC get the offers they want.

Oh that's lovely Elizabeth, well done to her!

Twosoups if she wants campus but loved Newcastle then I guess keep Newcastle and Nottingham which is what I'd think of as a 'proper' (green!) campus.

Newcastle and Manchester are what I think we generally call city campuses, NCL pretty compact, MCR rather more sprawling!

Newcastle’s first year accommodation is mostly in one big block very near all the university buildings - not really accurate, see map pic attached.

Thank you atia

Is there anyone else here whose dc hasn't got their application in yet?? Dd is still making changes to her PS!

twosoups I am so pissed off. My DS got his UCAS application in a week ago, but the school are saying they wont add his predicted grades until after his mocks, which are next week and they are not marking them until the xmas break. I am so frustrated. Anyone else have this problem?

Oh no mine Dd has her mocks in Feb but already has predicted grades from school. I don't know what to suggest.

Hi twosoups my DD hasn’t submitted her application yet. Her situation is a little bit different as she’s applying for drama and the teachers recommend not applying until you are audition ready.
Having said that though she’s still drafting and redrafting her PS, so it’s doing nothing for my stress levels! I’m hoping she gets it finalised this week then the school have a couple of weeks to add their part before breaking up for Xmas.

mines : it sounds like your school are similar to DS's in that they labour under the illusion that these grades need to be accurate. They really don't. And this whole 'wait til your mocks' is - let's face it- a ploy to egt students to focus and work hard...and does smack of blackmail!

Really, they should know by Christmas of year 13 what grade they belive (optimistically) a child can achieve.

I do think it could be the new linear exams that is giving so many teachers the jitters. But, as a teacher, I don't get it : no one holds you to account for your UCAS predictions! Other predictions , yes, but not these ones.

I'd definitley call someone to challenge their procrastination.

error it gets to the point where making slight alterations to the PS won't make any difference. I think dd's PS is pretty good but she's still not happy with it.

piggy I agree with you. At dd's school they have mocks as soon as they come back into Year 12, the idea being to wake them up a bit. I think it's a good idea. Then they have another set of mocks in Feb when UCAS applications are done and dusted.

*year 13 that should say

hello, first message on here just looking for a rant really. We were really well prepared, visited open days, narrowed down unis wrote ps in plenty of time and submitted application. College returned at reference stage to say unis were all Aspirational and although achieving As and Bs at mocks, are predicting Bs and Cs DS is studying Physics Maths Chemistry and Spanish and wants to do Physics which needs ABB min. College wont change grades and therefore they say he needs to change college choices. Can they do this and how much weight goes on predicted grades when got majority A* and A grades at GCSE - when they predicted him C s and Ds....grrr

should read change Uni choices although I wish it was 2 years ago and we were more selective on college!!!

OK four unis chosen, he needs five, is looking at ones that will accept him easily where his predicted grade points are higher than he will need. He is so afraid of being rejected. He keeps quoting this bloody teacher who is the UCAS representative as if she is god. She got suckered into the workload when the proper representative got another job and left. She has been off sick a lot. He is now looking at unis hundreds of miles away because their points system ask is so low. I could scream....

DS is convinced that if a uni. states an A and 2B`s, they will never accept anything lower only higher. Is this correct?

I've posted this information before but for those whose predicted grades are too low to allow an application to their ideal choice of university, a planned gap year can be a great idea. They have the opportunity to earn some money, grow up a bit more, and then apply with their grades already known. My DS did this and had 5 firm offers from places he actually wanted to attend by November. Worth considering maybe?

That's not right Madmum.

Are you on Facebook? The WIWIKAU group is good for offers/actual results.

Lots missed two or more grades last year and still got into their firm choice.

m.facebook.com/groups/488235648182391

The group is usually supportive with lots of help on different universities. Really helped when DD was deciding.

Oh mazza, how infuriating! It looks like the mean spirited schools have been coming out of the woodwork the closer to Jan 15th we get (the more evidence they gatehr on the DCs, the more negative they seem to become!). It really does illustrate there is no consistency re predicted grades across school, and even more so with the loss of AS.

Is it by any chance the MFL teacher who is being especially pessimisitic?

When you say they won't change grades have you yourself raised it or just DD? Unfortunately, it seems this sort of thing is not really taken seriously until parents intervene.

Most teachers have not themselves had DCs going through the UCAS process and, therefore, don't understand at all how stressful it is , what a drain on time and resources Open Days are, and how early they might need to communicate PGs to students so that they can make realisitc choices/ negotaite grades.

Hopefully, you will get it sorted. Someone with all As and A*s at GCSE would be a failure on the part fo the school if they really did go on to get Cs and Ds at A Level!

Just to reassure, DS didn't get the offered grade he needed in Chemistry, to study Maths last year and his first choice, Lancaster still took him. And he's absolutely loving it (quiet, shy, introverted type to reassure other folk with dc that possess similar traits).

That’s good to hear justanothermile

dd's school have been stingy with their predictions - they've basically just predicted what they got in mocks at the end of year 12 no inflation at all. I hate the inconsistency it seems to unfair when I know that there are schools who significantly inflate their grades. I think it does affect where the kids end up - the school get really excellent GCSEs & pretty good A level results but their leavers destinations are safe rather than ambitious.

I'm not sure what would be fairer - dd got great GCSEs so for us I'd say they should just look at the results they have but loads of them do far better when specialising at A level than their GCSE results would suggest.

dd feels she can do better than her predicted grades & is pretty much resigned to taking a gamble & reapplying next year if she doesn't get an offer from her first choice this time round. Obviously that could go horribly wrong if she ends up bombing next summer.

Dd has got a conditional offer for architecture at her second choice with no interview or viewing of portfolio which suprised me. She just needs to make her predicted grades of bbb now.

Nico that's excellent! Not completely the same but my niece is applying for arts courses this year & said no one is interested in seeing her portfolio

Well I was surprised because the website says they will need to show a portfolio and has lots of portfolio advice.
She has 3 interviews next month and needs to take her portfolio to all of them.

Last year even some medicine courses accepted lower grades on results day. Unless a course is super popular there is always flexibility.

Mazza that is terrible! I think unis vary in how they use predicted grades. You could ask the admissions people at the ones he liked. Biomedical Science at Newcastle make offers of AAB to anybody with predictions of at least CCC in the right subjects, so it is not a problem everywhere - you just need to be informed. If he applies a bit aspirationally and does not make the grades, there will be loads in clearing - there always is!

Also, don't rule out clearing. There were places in clearing, for extremely popular courses from institutions that you wouldn't ever imagine had them. I scanned DS's subject and was shocked to find Bristol, Bath etc in there. Once you have actual grades, that puts you in a strong position.