Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 3, UCAS & offers

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

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

As someone commented on a previous related thread there appears to be a marked difference in attitude twixt the girls and the boys. Error your DD sounds amazingly focused and sure of what she wants to do - wishing her every success. I would have thought that with her very positive, 'can do' attitude and clearly strong work ethic her commitment to drama will shine through at auditions?

A question - if all five offers/rejections come in well ahead of 2nd May, do the DC still have until then to make up their minds (or will their decision deadline be sooner)?

On a different note, I did the 'finance checker' to see what type of 'living' loan DS could expect to be eligible for and it came out at under £4K a year (and we are so not an even comfortably off family by anyone's standards!). How depressing.

I know that when one of my friends' DS went off to university a few years ago (they are marginally better off than us but again what I would categorise as part of the 'squeezed middle class'), they had to live very frugally (and their DS had a part-time job too).

Fairly sure it was me that pointed out the gender divide! It does seem apparent (with some exceptions ) on these threads and on MN more widely! Wondering if it also extends iteslf to parenting!

error, good luck to your DD. She sounds like my DD who starts before 8am with prep finishing at 9pm, obviously with some food breaks! Whatever the result of her auditions, it shows she's used to setting aside the amount of time required which can only be a good thing for pressures of the future

blame Just one IA to finish in addition to ToK, but teacher is on Mat leave. They promised to give feedback on the drafts submitted in summer. Stand in teacher was firmly nagged by the claas to get it sorted somehow ASAP!

Meanwhile offer has arrived from Sheffield!!! yay! It's 2nd choice. 33 points (York 35 or UiF, Newcastle 35 or 33 iF). Interview at Manchester (1st choice) in Feb.
Only Edinburgh to hear from now.

Yehhh 1st offer in !! Porstmouth..his 3rd choice ..whitch I told him to add as he only wanted to put 2 choices.

piggy your son sounds so like mine , no drinking,smoking,hanging out late with mates BUT ..well i don't know..
if i had not got him to check just now we would not have known !
Portsmouth did not acknowledge his application but went straight for the offer.

Feels like it is getting real now !

We have not been to Portsmouth..i look it up.

Well done to your DS bizzey and to your DC BringOnTheScience. Nothing yet from Birmingham (taps foot impatiently).

Oppps it is Plymouth !!!

New Model The minimum maintenance loan is over £4000 regardless of income - are you checking the right thing?

Happy New Year to all. Sorry I've been MIA for the last couple of weeks. The end of term was manic and I was fighting off the lurgy to the end, and succumbed over Christmas (nice!) Back to school on Monday; DD is back on Tuesday.

She hasn't heard anything since I last posted so has 3 offers, one of which is UiF. She is waiting to hear back from Cambridge on 14th. Durham has still not done anything other than confirm receiving her application. She is a bit fed up but we guess that they might be waiting until after the 15th Jan deadline before sending anything out.

NewModelArmy from what I remember with DD1, it is the same deadline to make your decision, no matter when you received your offers. She was offered a place at Cambridge but at a different college to where she was interviewed. We went to visit during the February half-term holiday and she then decided to firm it. She didn't pick an insurance until around Easter I think.

Piggy, DD has caught up again, with an offer from Birmingham. unconditional if firmed. I have reminded her that she has until May to decide, even if her last response turns up today as well (Warwick, so definitely won't be UiF), but no particular problems with her following DS1 to Birmingham tbh..

(Apart from my satnav being older than some of the road remodelling schemes between here and there, that is. I really hate finding myself represented by an arrow suspended in white space, when all around me are other drivers expecting me to make rational decisions...).

I think I might have been using an out-of-date tool choirmumoftwo - thanks for making me feel slightly less alarmed.

Good luck to your DD with hearing from Cambridge on the 14th, Malbecfan.

Interesting that people are starting to hear from Birmingham and Sheffield post-Xmas. They are both on my DS’s list. Hopefully he’ll hear something soon.

Deadlines for responding to offers, from UCAS:

Reply dates

These are based on when we get the last decision in from your unis or colleges. Check Track to see your personal deadline.

If you receive your last decision on or before31 March 2019, your reply date is1May 2019(if your postal address is in the EU).

If you receive your last decision on or before2May 2019, your reply date is6 June 2019(includes applicants with a postal address outside the EU, but not applicants using Extra to find a place).

If you receive your last decision on or before6 June 2019, your reply date is20June 2019(except if you're using Extra to find a place).

If you receive your last decision on or before11July 2019, your reply date is18July 2019(including Extra choices).

oh, lots of offers this afternoon: fabulous!

Ds certainly bucks the gender trend by being incredibly hard working and focused on his academic studies, genuinely loves his subjects and reads around a lot. He is also a really good egg, doesn't drink, smoke, go out or worry us at all.

However, with his autism he is also incredibly socially and emotionally "behind" and doesn't buck the gender trend wrt ambition and plans for the future. That's why he just studying the subject he loves the most with no especial plans for the future.

Most of his school peers are incredibly focused already though, including the boys: plans to be priests, vets, architects, film directors, lawyers, pilots. (Probably a private school thing.)

Happily, I don't think it is solely a private school thing , dangling. These boys do exist in the state sector, too : I have and do teach a good old smattering and an able and interested boy is often the best student you can get as girls like the old spoon feeding more and tend to be less enquiring! However, there are unfortunate issues still with boys' and the anti-intellect culture. It's sad how they suddenly (around about year 9) stop being keen beans and regress to the mean. I guess in a private school, there is less of the mean to regress to...or a different mean!

Well, I mean you'd like to think that in all sectors you only have the keen and engaged ones left by sixth form but it's just not the case anymore with it being more or less compulsory to stay on at school.

I know I've mentioned it before but ds's year is a real anomaly too: the boys are all lit/history/art students and the girls super focused STEM types. The teachers love his year group!

I bet they do! I did have a boy heavy Lit A Level group last year, which was very unusual, with some very bright boys.

Thanks for the good wishes!
@ifonly, those are long days, & great to hear she’s getting offers from her choices.
Congratulations on all the great offers coming through, I hope those still waiting will hear soon, I remember DS1 waiting until Easter to hear from Bristol, meanwhile the other 4 offers came through within a few weeks. In fact DS1 didn’t want to go there, but he hung on because he wanted to know if they would make him an offer - not very mature but at 17 I guess that was to be expected!

DD has accepted her offer from Newcastle. Manchester still haven't made a decision in spite of her already having the required grades, so she withdrew her application (she didn't want to go there anyway).

Offer holder day and accommodation tour next month.

Oh, I bet you're glad she's made that decision Lonicera

I've been sitting here today talking to my dd2 - on her MFL year abroad, back in NCL in the autumn - can't wait for her to be back in Newcastle so I can visit and go to some of the dozens of amazing places to eat again!

Good to hear other offers are coming in.

Ds is not a gender stereotype, I don't think, but he went to a secondary school where his exceptional maths ability was celebrated and respected, so that may have helped him. (Not sure as he seems incapable of hiding his love of maths, and will talk numbers at any opportunity ) He is very laidback these days though, which is lovely after years 10 and 11 being a bit fraught.

Can I have recommendations for places to eat please Atia.