Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 2, UCAS & offers

[Decorhate]

Here we go!

thanks - latest panic over, she has a track login, she's added the extra course & the plagiarism check detected no similarities. Bloody hell.

@Dumbledora my DS is at newcastle and loves it.
Great quality of student life and very affordable-
I can't recommend enough!!

Ds has had a third offer so is happy as he now has the two he currently thinks he will firm & insure. Might change his mind of course!

Danny 4 weeks seems very long but it might depend on what internal deadlines the school normally operates to - if they don't usually get most of the applications in by now they may not see what the rush is I suppose. Though if they are not inundated with applications they should have time to process any early ones!

At my school the reference writers themselves are working to a deadline, independent of the students really. So, what with all their own palnning, marking ,parents' evenings and so on, I imagine most either leave it until close to the deadline or spread it out. Just because they have done some does not necessarily mean it wil ahve been passed on to whoever does the final bit... a typical worload at my school would be one teacher doing about 25 - 30 references, so it is a big job.

That could potentially explain what seems to be a delay. I don't think that's how all schools work but is certainly true of large schools on the whole. The references at my place are completely independent of anything the students do : they are written without sight of the rest of the form. Is my understanding.

Ds went for interview at York yesterday (for Maths) and their offer came through today as ABB (dropped as a a result of the interview from their standard AAA). He got a personalised email from them saying they had recommended a dropped offer and commenting on how much the interviewer had enjoyed their discussion on Morris Dancing! So he has 3 offers now - waiting to hear from Imperial (took the MAT last week for that) and Cambridge (they send out offers for interview next week I think). So he should know on all 5 by the end of this month.

Wiifitmama - Cambridge notify results of interviews 10th Jan, so I am afraid you will be waiting a bit longer!

Sorry, I meant he would know if he has an interview at Cambridge by the end of the month, not if he actually gets in! They sent a "save the dates" email in case he gets an interview and all the interview dates are in December so I did realise we wouldn't know for a while after that.

After a tense two weeks whilst school did their checking, Dd’s application was sent off today. There was only 1 hour between the UCAS ‘we’ve got it’ email and the ‘we’ve sent it to the universities’ email.
Dd has only applied to two. We traipsed round 4 universities she’d shortlisted last summer. If she doesn’t get offers from those two (their standard offers are a grade lower than her AAA prediction plus she has an A in EPQ) she said she’d rather retake and reapply. No pressure then!!?!

nagaram if it’s any comfort my older DS ended up with a one shot scenario - he applied to the standard 5, got 5 identical offers which were the same as his predicted grades. After visits he decided only one of them would do, no insurance choice (no point as no lower offer, didn’t want uncertainty re accomodation) so results day was “meaningful” shall we say 😉. He had decided that if it didn’t work out he would take a gap year and re-evaluate and consider retakes etc as necessary.

But he got exactly as required and never looked back!

Nagaram my dd has applied for five courses at four different universities but there's only one she really wants to go to. If she doesn't get an offer for one of the two she applied to there she says she'll reapply next year.

Thankyou Van and Laniakea. I am proud of how she fine-tuned her decisions and argued her case with school. There was just a slight nervousness seeing all the blank rows on my part.

My DD is another who didn't need all of her 5 choices, hence my comment earlier that it is unfortunate that the necessity to produce a PS can box them in unnecessarily early.

DD1 and 2 saw the end of the would be Oxford candidate who ended up at Durham youtube. Their verdict was that a) he looked to be almost decent boyfriend material and b) decent earning capacity based on his viewing stats - not sure why he's bothered about Uni prospects

This is probably a silly question.

This is Doomsday scenario stuff, but DS has Portsmouth as a choice and it has the lowest entry requirements (BCC - CCC ish) despite its good reputation for IR . I can see them making him an offer. However, I can also see a scenario where , let's say , Aberystwyth and NTU make him higher offers (Let's say BBB and BCC) and he takes those and misses the grades...

Once you have rejected a uni, will they let you in at the point of clearing? My UCAS book is not helping me on this!

Yes clearing is a separate process. If you had applied and declined they may look more favourably on you than a new applicant.

Just a quick question - what’s the first indication you have an offer? Does UCAS instantly update you with an email or is it best to periodically check Track?

Piggy glad you asked that. My DD has applied for a joint honours and we know one of the main subject she's interested in was in clearing last year. None of her other choices were though.

Have anybody’s dc heard from Warwick or Bristol for Politics and/or Sociology?

Nagaram it differed for my DD. One of her offers came direct by email from the Uni and then took a couple of days to update on UCAS. The others were the other way around. Iirc she said there is some guidance on the UCAS site regarding when to chase things up.

Thanks Howabout.
Dd has seen from studentroom etc that people from one of her choices sometimes get an offer within 24hrs so I am sure she’ll keep checking today. It’s ‘interesting’ not having a set day for offer results. Feels a bit like debating when to POAS all those years ago!

dd got a tiny bit excited this morning when she got emails from three of them but they were just acknowledgements. It's worse than waiting for results according to her.

Has anyone seen their references? She is debating contacting UCAS to get it. She thinks it might be worth seeing before a possible interview but is not sure she wants to know what they think of her! I assume they wouldn't put in anything problematic without talking to her about it?

She also can't see what predicated grades they put in & doesn't entirely trust school.

Dd got to read her reference before it was submitted.

Laniakea Yes! She should definitely get her reference as it will only say nice things about her so probably a confidence boost and it is a good thing to know what people have been told. There is no charge and it is straight-forward so seems a no-brainer to me, although DS refused to get his as he said he had already seen it and did not need a copy.

Piggy - Glad to hear you sounding more positive. Wouldn't DS put the "achievable" offer as his insurance?

A friend has advised me to look at Unistats to see the actual grades people on a course had. That may help to see which ones are more flexible on results day.

thanks Monkey you've persuaded her she should get it!

She's just looked though & said it costs £10 though - do you know how to get hold of it? I'm not sure if she's looking at the right bit.

Laniakea surely her school will have a copy they can show her? DD was shown hers and allowed to ask if she wanted anything specific adding/taking away.

DD is in a real dilemma about Newcastle vs Durham. She keeps drawing out pros and cons lists but it’s getting her nowhere - she spent Sunday-Monday with friends in Newcastle and Monday-Wednesday in Durham and loved both equally (again). The courses are equal. It’s going to be such a hard choice!