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Higher education

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Original poster

Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 2, UCAS & offers

943 replies

Decorhate · 06/11/2018 19:54

Here we go!

OP posts:
FrameyMcFrame · 09/12/2018 17:23

DD's offer is ABB for Glasgow so quite low. It's comparative literature with a language. 5 Year course with a year abroad.

LoniceraJaponica · 09/12/2018 17:28

I know university league tables should be taken with a pinch of salt, but Hull has plummeted recently. What is going on there?

FrameyMcFrame · 09/12/2018 17:35

Another thing about Unistats is that the data is 2016-17.
I think things changed a bit this year, a friend was admissions tutor for music at a Russel Group Uni 2018. She said that on clearing they were told to go as low as CCC to fill the course, they ended up taking a student with CCD who had a grade 8 instrument.
Also you can see that some courses are still available in clearing now if you look on UCAS for 2018 entry Shock

titchy · 09/12/2018 18:05

Also you can see that some courses are still available in clearing now if you look on UCAS for 2018 entry

They're either where the course listing hasn't been updated or they're for January starts.

Piggywaspushed · 09/12/2018 18:12

From what I gather, Hull was particularly affected by the strikes and the students hammered them on Student Satisfaction scores. Students are so different these days!

Their accommodation has very recently been upgraded and is now quite swish; I think before last year, some of it was awful.

readsalotgirl63 · 09/12/2018 18:56

DD is at Glasgow. She had a conditional of BB at Advanced Higher (already having AAAAB at Higher) and asked at offer holder day if they would accept AC at Advanced Higher and was told no. I think howabout is correct that there is less wiggle room for Scottish students due to the capping of numbers.

Also I think that UCAS will not count a Higher if you have the Advanced Higher in the same subject .

I also agree with the comment re Scottish students in halls at Glasgow. I grew up in Glasgow and most of my schoolmates went either to Glasgow or to Strathclyde but we all lived at home and as far as I'm aware university accomodation will not be offfered to anyone who lives within 20 miles. DD is now in private halls and has a first year flatmate who lives within 7 miles of the university and another friend on her course who commutes daily from the Dumbarton area.

bigTillyMint · 09/12/2018 21:44

Just found this on BBC News - University friends: By chance or by design?
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46430204 - interesting, but why aren't unis more explicit to the students about social mix in halls?

AtiaoftheJulii · 10/12/2018 06:47

That's funny, I was going to say that I'd read Bristol's policy of mixing people up to get an even spread just this weekend, and it's the first university mentioned in the article.

bigTillyMint · 10/12/2018 07:49

DD is at Bristol and the mixing works for some, but less so for others. She made firm friends with her flatmates and others in halls, and is living with them this year and will be next too, but the two overseas students in their flat found it very difficult to integrate and one managed to get a move out. Also, they don't make clear that some halls are almost exclusively public school.

errorofjudgement · 10/12/2018 07:58

The Warwick scheme of asking some questions about likes and dislikes worked really well for my DS.
Five years on he’s still friends with many of his first year flat mates, and still house sharing with a couple now they’ve graduated.

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 10/12/2018 12:33

I read that article yesterday too. It's social engineering in a way, isn't it? It does make sense though. DS is a committed non-drinker (so far) and quite quiet, so I really don't think he would relish being a flat full of party-animals...

madmum5811 · 10/12/2018 14:01

I would not call it social engineering, it may reduce the drop out rate though.

howabout · 10/12/2018 14:25

I don't think it is social engineering. There is no other place I can think of where you would sign up to live with no choice in who your housemates would be. (Prison or Boarding school have a somewhat rule regulated self selecting homogeneity)

VanCleefArpels · 10/12/2018 14:31

Social engineering is created by differentials costs of halls - it stands to reason that those in most expensive options have access to parental top ups given loans don’t tend to cover even the cheapest at most places

howabout · 10/12/2018 15:04

Vancleef actually the reverse may well be the case. Students in receipt of the full maintenance loan can usually also access University bursaries to help with accommodation etc. (well worth checking what is available - DD has had lots of emails prompting her from places she has offers from) It is the students with the non-contributing "wealthy" parents who end up shut out.

MarchingFrogs · 10/12/2018 15:51

'twas ever thus, though - I was much better off, grant-wise, in my first year at university when it was based on my own income for the relevant year, than i was in second and tgird year when it was basedon my husband's income. We had married in the May before I started. Obviously, our household oncome was boosted by his income as well, I could work through an agency or hospital bank and he would hardly let me starve anyway. But younger students who received little or no grant and little or none of the parental contribution that they were maent to get, due to the wealth of their parents having cut their grant, iyswim, were really badly off.

MarchingFrogs · 10/12/2018 15:54

Today (Oh ye of little faith, daughter of ours). DD has one actual offer - AAA from Exeter - and one, We'll make you an offer when you confirm your choice of MFL from UEA.

howabout · 10/12/2018 16:25

Congratulations minimarching

Piggywaspushed · 10/12/2018 16:30

God knows how I got bunged in a cupboard small single room on a corridor full of third year male students then! What that says about me I do not know. I did have one other first year gril in the corridor who spent most of the first year (loudly) shagging.

NewModelArmyMayhem18 · 10/12/2018 18:05

MarchingFrogs well done to your DD - when did her application get sent off. I am already tapping my foot with impatience after two days...

I was really poor as a student despite DF being a high earner. He did give me a monthly allowance but there was not much slack for fripperies. I recall living on a very meagre diet (high light of my week was treating myself to some redcurrent tarts in M&S every other weekend). Oh how simple life was.

VanCleefArpels · 10/12/2018 18:54

howabout you make my point fir never by referencing “non contributing” parents. My point was that those whose parents can contribute or pay in full can go for the expensive Halls. That’s my DS experience anyway

howabout · 10/12/2018 19:42

Agree with that too VanCleef.

Gaelforce · 10/12/2018 19:43

DD received her first offer today - from Glasgow. She's very happy. Well done to everyone getting offers. Now waiting in the others.

howabout · 10/12/2018 19:53

All DD's friends love Glasgow for the straightforward approach. Meet the Grades = get an offer and early enough to set your mind at rest - (for Scots with grades in hand at least).

Congratulations Gael Wine

Doordye · 10/12/2018 19:55

Hi can I join? Always late to the party 😀
Dd has applied to five, BCU, Leeds Beckett, Sheffield, Cardiff Met & Man Met. She wants to do Speech & Language Therapy.

She's had interviews at BCU & Leeds the last two weeks & had a lowered offer of BBC from BCU. If she receives an offer from Leeds one of those will be her insurance. She has interviews in Jan for the other three.

She really loved MMU, so thats currently her top choice, she needs ABB but she hasnt actually been to Cardiff or Sheffield yet, Cardiff would be funded if she works for 2 years in the Welsh NHS but im guessing welsh speakers will have an advantage.

I think the PS was important in her application because I know they reject half of the applications and im presuming that they arent because their grades arent high enough. We heard back quickly after her UCAS went in, think BCU emailed the following day, amd the others were all within the next two weeks.