Applying for Uni 2019 entry Part 4, UCAS & offers (and thinking about exams)

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from the previous thread.

My genuine worry about the tower blocks was about safety - single glazed windows and very narrow corridors in the flats. I read the reviews and it certainly sounds like party central! To be fair the newer accommodation was very good (spendy though) but way beyond the campus perimeter road so nowhere near as handy.

Maybe, it’s a generation thing. Perhaps the younger generation appreciate these structures. I thought about the safety aspect too and “Twin towers” 😣. I can imagine DS clinging to the Essex tower refusing to come home because he loves it so much.

On the lighter side, I got chatting to a charming UEA lad yesterday and mid conversation he called me, “Dude”, 😁 and later, after I answered his question about which course DS had come for, he replied “Swag!”😂😂

Ah Shimy that makes me confident you haven’t met DS

BigGreen - Please tell more

P.s wrong emoticon for”dude”, I thought it was hilarious.

Well he isn’t charming & I don’t think he could use ‘dude’ or ‘swag’.

If you’d met someone who looked very awkward & yet could talk quite intensely whilst not making eye contact I’d think you’d met DS.

Or he might have changed enormously .

He likes the fact he can get up at 8:30, have breakfast and be on time for lectures, his room is in Nelson. He never sees anyone else having breakfast in his flat, they are probably more typical students. He used to have a 35 minute journey to school which included at least one method of public transport so he’s loving the short commute.

Afternoon all!

Off to an offer holder day tomorrow at Nottingham with DS. It is likely to be his first choice so he really needs to find out as much as he can.
Accomodation opens on March 1st and it looks like it's first come, first served so it will be worth working out what he wants and trying to nail it on the 1st!
Has anybody got any experience of accomodation at Nottingham? DS would like self catering so we will be concentrating our efforts on looking there.

blametheparents self catering is away from the main campus - something worth considering in terms of daily life.

@VanCleefArpels - Thank you. We will def look into that tomorrow.

When we looked at Nottingham we were put off by self catering not being on the main campus. We were told that it was mainly third years and post grads who lived in the self catering halls.

Shimy that really did make me laugh, I love to think my DD might call someone ‘dude’ but it’s never going to happen!
Mind you I am sitting here listening to some pretty good reggae that the older DS is playing whilst he’s in the bath.

Hello. Seen a few of you discussing York Uni accommodation - any tips? Derwent seemed a bit ‘hooray’ to us. We saw Halifax and that seemed good (she wants en-suite and self catering) but seems not to get good reviews. The newer accommodation (campus east) has bigger beds but sounds like there’s no atmosphere and she’s already ‘sacrificing’ her love of a more lively city uni for the course here anyway. Going to an offer day tomorrow.....

Just to add we whizzed round Detwent and Halifax on the open day last summer.

BigGreen - Seems your DS is very much like mine . Definitely not him I met.
ItsCold - It’s weird, neither of my dc do,“ teen speak”. It’s a little disappointing because I had hoped I’d be getting all the latest slang from them to use at opportune moments

lonicera I entirely agree - DS in 3rd year at UoN, says its social death not to be on campus in first year. Catered isn’t ideal either (dodgy food served at inconvenient times) but it does mean you are at the heart of what’s going on

My info isn't very up to the minute zanda and the campus has hugely expanded from what was already a large site over the last 15 years or so.

I do understand that some students want to be in city centres but York centre is definitley easily accessible from the campus via foot or bike (with pubs en route!) and the city itself could never be described as sleepy!

No one ever seemed clear how it happened since colleges were traditionally by allocation and not choice but Derwent (especially since York has a good record of state school application ) was always very 'hooray'. I think , if you wanted to, back in the early 90s / late 80s you could lodge requests for a particular college and that's how people from certain schools clustered. Certainly, their social events were very much higher end than others, including a May Ball in my day. It was also associated with certain subjects which might have been a bit more 'public school ' (PPE, for example). But, on the whole, York is a fabulous place to live and study. Anyone would be lucky to find themselves there, I reckon!

That would have been a deal breaker for DD VanCleef. She is vegetarian and wouldn't have liked meals at fixed times anyway.

DD is under the rheumatology team and, even though York's campus isn't far from town, it is far enough to put her off. Also, as we live rurally she is very keen to live in a city. We visit York regularly as well so it wouldn't hold the novelty of visiting a new place either.

Hi Zanda. Think DD is firming York tonight...I was told to put 🍾 in the fridge in readiness!😂 Think she is hoping for East campus - partly to ‘leave’ at the end of the day as well as en-suite/bigger bed. I felt Halifax seemed a bit stuck on its own and preferred Derwent on open day in summer. It had a certain shoddy rundown charm 😏😂. Did offer day a few weeks ago but only looked at Vandbrugh, Langwith and Goodricke this time. She felt all boxes were ticked by York and if she got ‘unwanted’ accom it was only for a year. What course is your DD studying?

Just got DS to send a polite email to Bath to ask if they could give an indication when he might hear from them.
We are going to an offers day at Reading tomorrow, so DS will have been to all his offer days now apart from Bath. He really wants to firm his choices soon, so if Bath don’t come back in the next few weeks he will withdraw from them, the waiting has slightly put him off (and discovering there is no 5 Guys in Bath 😂).

Itscoldouthere, I'd be interested to know how soon Bath get back, hopefully it'll shake them up and give your DS a quick decision. We're waiting for two here. DD is more than happy with her three present offers and knows which ones she'd firm/insure, but really wants the full picture before making a final choice. She's concentrating on revision for her mocks at the mo, but I've told her to send a polite email as she's been waiting well over three months.

ifonly4 yes it will be interesting to see what happens with Bath.
To be honest it’s an aspirational choice for DS as his predicted grades are lower than their standard offer, so they may just decline him, mind you the same applied to Birmingham and they gave him standard offer and then reduced it to ABB after he went to offers day, so I suppose it must depend on how many applications they have. Also I think Bath has fewer places on the course than Birmingham.
Bath did reply to an earlier email DS sent as he got some relevant work experience and he wanted it added to his personal statement, but there hasn’t been anything on UCAS from Bath since his application in December.
I think he will give them till the beginning of March then if he hasn’t heard he will withdraw.

Shiny and Van Just got back from the Essex holder day, even though DS has firmed NTU. He wanted to see it, just to be sure hes made the right choice. It was nice there, a bit tired and run down. but very welcoming. The Towers were terrible and felt dark and dirty. The rooms were tiny. The other accommodation was OK, but expensive. Essex were very welcoming and provided a nice lunch for all and will pay petrol expenses. They even got parents to sit in on the Economics lecture with their DC's much to the disgust of DD 16, which I found really interesting and learnt lots. The 20 minute bus ride into town as opposed to a 5 minute walk was a crucial factor as he said he would feel a bit claustrophobic. He now feels he has made the right choice of NTU so all is good in our house. For now!!

I was just thinking about something DS said and wondered what others think.
When he went to Birmingham offers day most of the people he spoke to said they were probably going to put Birmingham as their insurance.
When he went to UEA most said they were going to put UEA as first choice.
The grades required for UEA are lower than Birmingham, but obviously the people at Birmingham feel they have a better offer, does that mean that most at Birmingham will be there because they didn’t get in to their first choice, do you think that matters? Obviously DS only spoke to a small number of people so it may be of no consequence and I may just be over thinking but I’d be interested in others views.

Itscoldouthere Regarding Bath, although ds has an offer from them he has had much less communication from them than his other offers. He was there today & said they will be less lenient about missed grades than his other choices so maybe they feel they are in a stronger position than other unis?

I would say at this stage there is no harm at all in chasing them up. But they are possibly waiting to see how many firm/insure over the next few weeks

Mineswine - Thanks very much for that update. I feel much better now knowing DS made the right choice of not continuing with his application. My god-daughter’s DSIS started at NTU last year and hasn’t stopped raving about it. Infact her DM was telling me she said she’s having the best time of her whole life.

Itscold - like you’ve rightly said, it’s very anecdotal. I’m sure there are many for whom Ubirmingham is first choice. It also depends a lot on the course they are applying for. If Birmingham is not particularly strong in their specific dept. then it’s understandable why it might be their insurance.

I don’t think it matters at all. If it’s for the right course and all other things being equal, go for it.Birmingham has a great reputation.

DS1 (graduated last year, Biochemistry) firmed Birmingham; a friend's DD (3rd year, MFL) firmed Birmingham. I can't remember getting any feeling of friends of DS1 having had to 'make do' with Birmingham (and I know that one of his friends from home who was there at the same time as him definitely had Birmingham as his firm). DD is revisiting UEA and Leeds as well, but will probably firm Birmingham (IR with French).