Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 3, UCAS & offers

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Wow that last thread filled up quickly. Well done to your DS, Piggy!

Another offer for dd today!

And for my dd too! They are trickling in - Sheffield this time, though that's not her first choice and the offer is higher than for Cardiff which she prefers. Waiting on Exeter, Bristol and Edinburgh.

Iwanted. Some unis make it clear on their website whether you can defer or not, so worth checking out first. DD asked Edinburgh if they'd accept deferrals before she applied and it was an immediate no.

My friend's DD had an unconditional - on the approach to her A levels she had an ongoing illness which was clearly going to affect her studies and the uni did agree to defer as she wasn't well enough to get the most out of the course.

Thanks ifonly! It may depend on the course as well (strangely, I think I know of someone who deferred Edinburgh after receiving an offer! conditional offer in that case)

I sort of assumed they'd be less likely to defer an unconditional if firmed, offer, though not sure whether I have any logical basis for that!

On the subject of UiFs and the impact on work ethic, Portsmouth has an interestign approach. Yes, they do all the hard sell about accommodation and so on. However, they promise students a 'vice chancellor's award' of £1000 , if they meet , or exceed, predicted grafes. That is a pretty good incentive to keep working, I'd say.

No such offer from Lincoln, who actually haven't even personally contacted DS about applicant days, so I am going off them a bit.

In theory, Portsmouth is the best uni of Lincoln, NTU and itself for IR and politics (by quite some margin) , but lower overall in the league tables. I did my PGCE in Nottingham so know it well and am aware Lincoln is a nice town. My only encounter with Portsmouth has been the area around the ferry port which is, by its nature, a bit 'skanky'. Can anyone persuade me that Portsmouth is a nice place to be?

Piggy Lincoln do not chase up if your child has a conditional offer, then the open days are on their site. Their student reviews are excellent. I would arrange a visit as we are doing.

UEA did that with my son a few years ago - offer of ABB, UIF, but £1000 a year 'scholarship' if he got AAA. In the end he didn't take it as the course wasn't quite right and he didn't like the campus.

I know they are on the site, asking but their original offer said they were going to send him info, so they probably shouldn't have said that! It makes them look inefficient. His offer is a UiF.

Piggy, my DS did a gap year in Portsmouth and really loved it. There are good and bad areas like everywhere but Old Portsmouth and the coast are lovely, Gunwharf Quays is great for shopping and student nightlife is (apparently) excellent.

Thanks choir. A shopper he isn't, but it's nice to hear some warm words. Perosnally, I like sea air , having spent much of my childhood by the coast,a dn then in a dockyard city !

I think I probably enjoyed the shopping when I visited more than he did! I can also recommend an excellent Air B&B if your DS ends up there and you need somewhere to stay. The cathedral is an extremely welcoming community as well.

do university rankings have any merit at all? I'm excluding any that weight student rankings (The Guardian!) - how about the Times Higher Ed one?

www.timeshighereducation.com/student/best-universities/best-universities-uk

Obviously subject rankings are a different thing all together. I've recently seen opinions expressed about the quality of various institutions which seem to be at odds with the rankings - are they just poorly informed/out of date or are the rankings rubbish?

I don't know what to think about all these rankings. The one you link to has Portsmouth higher than NTU and Lincoln, where the rankings from The Times has NTU and Lincoln in the top 20. I understand qualms over student rankings but I do think they matter.

I also think a uni can have a mediocre to middling overall ranking but excel in certain fields. And, with the best will in the world, my DS is not of the calibre to gain access to any of the top 40 of the THE list.

So, with that in mind, I would fall back on ' what do those who have been there think?' and 'is it a nice place to live and study?'. Not sure league tables can ever show me that!

You need to treat student data with a little caution. Some unis incentivise students to reply to surveys, others encourage a boycott. Originally student satisfaction data was going to be a consideration in whether the uni would be allowed to raise fees so that was a disincentive.

Indeed.... that is exaclty what I am doing?

I really don't know Laniakea - when we've looked at them we've looked at a few and sort of averaged them out. Some give more detail of methods, or break down more narrowly by subject. We've looked at the REF too (largely because dh has been heavily involved in the last 3 iterations at his institution, so it looms large in our familial consciousness ) to see how that matches up or contradicts. I have looked at some TEF info as well, but I'm not really sure about that.

Reputation always plays into it as well - I read things here saying that X is good for Y, and my first thought is always, how do you know that? When my dd2 was deciding between Bristol and Newcastle, there were so many comments irl and on here about Bristol obviously being better, despite Newcastle's department coming out higher on every metric we found, and her being able to see that NCL had better facilities!

And of course the final puzzle piece is "do I want to live here?" My kids ruled out plenty of excellent unis on those grounds.

interesting to compare this one to the other

www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

yeah dd's course is so niche that she really didn't have much choice of where to apply. But when she first started thinking about university it went - Oxbridge (no), London (no), Scotland (no) plus needed to be near the coast = relatively few left to consider!

I'm just getting irritated by ppl presenting poorly evidenced opinions as statements of fact. Was ever thus!

DS has apparently today professed (not to me) a preference for Hull and Lincoln. I think this may be tied up ina belief that eh will bomb the Aber exam/ he doesn't want to do it/ it's too far away. That said, in a typical declaration of his, he doesn't even know what his offer from Aber is, as he thinks it's higher...

To be fair to him, though, this is (allegedly) based on him looking at the modules and specialisms of the universities and liking Hull's, which is proactive by his standards! He has even said he will attend applicant days at both.

I am sure I'd be howled down in AIBU but I can't help feeling a bit put out that he has said all this to DH and not me.

Oh Piggy don't take it personally xxx although I'd be disgruntled too I think! He probably knows you know more about the modules/course details, and knows he can't bullshit you about anything! But yay that he is thinking about things now

True, wise one.

Expressing a preference for somewhere is great Piggy!

They don't always consult! Rule number 1 for teenager applying tthrough UCAS. :)

Hull offer travel costs for applicant days. Rather irksomely, we'd get £50 more if we lived another 2 miles further away!

ds has one offer day within a manageable travel distance, but one is the other side of the country and a real pain in the neck to get to. Very expensive too.