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

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from the previous thread.

New to mumsnet and have just trawled through the last 16 pages of this thread, all very interesting reading!

My DD is the first in our family to apply for uni so the whole process has been new to all of us. She applied for BA Geography at Birmingham, Exeter, Nottingham and the UEA and received UiF offers from all but Exeter who made a conditional offer.

Exeter aside, we visited all the others on their open days and she also attended the offer holder days offered to her which helped her narrow it down to two, UEA or Nottingham.

As others have said the fact that there is no self catering accommodation on campus in Nottingham really put her off and there seemed to be good and bad halls in each zone but you were unable to specify a preference. Also the course at the UEA is better suited to her with a more human geography focus so I think she is going to firm their unconditional offer.

I have no doubt that she will continue to work hard to achieve the best grades she can, in fact having unconditional offers has taken the stress out of the exams and she feels more able to focus knowing that her place is secure. I read with interest all the comments about UIF offers being bums on seats and rankings boosters but most of the unis are offering them to try to secure the best students as competition is fierce. Nottingham is a case in point. They moan and criticise other unis for making NIF offers but they are doing the same thing!

We live close to the UEA and know Norwich well so if you have any queries please don't hesitate to ask :)

Neither of my sons was/will be 18 till after results. I can't remember any problems with DS1 applying for student finance. I know I say with him while he did it as he wanted to be sure he was ticking all the right boxes but I don't think he had to have a guarantor. The funds weren't released till the start of term anyway by which time he was 18.

Thank you all. So it seems you can still apply in the meantime. One less worry!

Juicy - hello and welcome. Nottingham have now said this will be their last yr of unconditional offers. Wonder what effect if any that will have on other Unis. DS and I visited UEA recently. DS loves it but I wasn’t impressed by the buildings although that might be because I’m just not cool enough to get it . They seemed to really support the students well.

Hi Juicy0,
My DS2 is about to confirm UEA geography too having discounted the others including Birmingham. DS1 is in the 3rd year of a 5 year course at UEA so we are secretly pleased with his choice as DS1 is loving it.
DS1 top tip to DS2 was to avoid the Village accommodation so he is trying to choose between ensuite campus and the Ziguratts. It's by far the best accommodation we have seen out of all the universities we visited.

That's interesting @sluj - my DS preferred the Village to en-suite campus and the Ziggs. Why doesn't yours recommend it? My DS doesn't want part central.

Party central that should say!

juicy0 Your DD sounds as if she's done really well to get so many unconditional offers. We really liked the vibe of the UEA campus - DS's back-up option and cousin's firm one.

Golden I find that interesting too. I much preferred the village and warned DS to avoid Ziggurats. Different strokes and that..

DS1 is a quieter chap than DS2 so decided he liked the idea of a Village flat as he was told they were quieter. He is also doing a pretty full on 9 to 5 course so couldn't really afford to do too much partying. Unfortunately the others in his flat had also been attracted by the quiet reputation for various reasons and their paths never really crossed, very unsociable flat. The others in his flat were either international students whose English was quite poor, people who intended to go home every weekend so didn't care that they were in a quieter zone or healthcare students who were on instant overnight placements.

Some of DS1s friends were in ensuite campus and it seemed a much better year 1 experience.

Hickling and Barton attract a different crowd altogether and DS2 was advised against them for other reasons.

He liked the party reputation of the Ziggs and, much to my surprise, he is seriously considering them as the allure of the good time and the £30 a week more in his pocket is proving to be strong. DS1 is saying it's a good choice for him.

Please shout up if I can share anymore of DS1s wisdom.

I like the idea that some of our DC might end up together 😁

NewModelArmyMayhem18 thank you, she was really pleased as she has worked hard to put herself in such a good position.
sluj maybe your DS and my DD will meet! What course is your DS1 doing there?
I agree shimy some of the building aren't as pretty architecturally as other unis we looked at but I read an article, I think it was the in the Telegraph online, which said that you shouldn't be influenced by how good the buildings look on the outside but should be by what goes on inside them in terms of teaching and learning which I thought was a good point. It does have a fabulous outside space around the lake and there are plenty of green spaces to enjoy nearby too. Norwich is such a great city, of all the others we visited I still think Norwich has the most to offer.
GoldenRuby we enjoyed the accommodation tours and I agree with sluj it is really good quality compared to others. DD wants to stay on campus and didn't like the village so it will be en suite campus or a Zigg!

DS is also in a v unsociable flat, there’s only 6 of them, one is repeating their first year & doesn’t want to be there, others are going home every weekend & two speak the same language together so hard to break through. He said it’s harder to make friends than he’d expected

Hi Juicy0, DS1 is doing medicine and loving the course. He was lucky enough to get 3 offers but UEA was first choice. DS2 is into geography and has chosen the BSc course.

I think I've grown to love the concrete in the last 3 years and actually the decorative state of the inside of these old buildings is excellent.

We were lucky enough to have the offer holder day last Saturday when the sun was shining. It was stunning

sluj i certainly does look better when the sun is shining! I walked around the lake on Monday in the mini heatwave we're having and the whole lake area was bustling with students playing football or frisbee, chatting and sharing picnics or sunbathing. It looked idyllic!
Can I ask why you were advised against Hickling and Barton rooms please?

Re Hickling and Barton. We looked round with a lovely girl who assured us that the flats were very sociable but then said that she went home every weekend and had never been in the cafe actually located in Hickling.

I went to the LCR with DS1 straight after with some of his "posh" public school medicine mates and they gave me stories about how one of them was offered £20 by a man in a Rolls Royce to ask someone in Hickling to let them look round their flat, a current resident parks his Bentley on campus and the rest of them are very rich international students.

I sneakily joined the Concrete Confessions Facebook page (recommended as a eye opener) and there was some chap on there moaning last week about how "pres" in H and B consisted of backgammon games and listening to the Top 100 on the radio.

When I was looking round the Ziggs, one of the residents said to me that you will have a student party experience in the Ziggs but in H and B, any flat socials were expensive affairs as they were aimed at a more affluent student.

DS2 is more than happy drinking snakebites so this was enough to put him off

H and B rooms and kitchens were lovely though....

Wow, I've just looked at the Concrete confessions page sluj and you are right, a bit of an eye opener! Mushrooms growing in a shower in the Ziggs made me feel a bit sick!
Seems to me to be a very small group of students making the contributions, I'm hoping they are not representative of the majority

Definitely not. I've seen other universities student groups and they all seem to be a bit 🤪

That's so funny. I have been trying to convince DS that H&B are worth the extra, but I think that is me imposing my middle aged views on him. I think he expects most of his social life to revolve around the hockey club, based on a friends DD who is in her second year though, so where he ends up may not really matter.

I think the uea accommodation applications are due to open soon so it will be decision time. Whilst DD likes the views from the Ziggs and the lake views I'm not sure she's seriously considered the realities of sharing a shower with 12 other people.

Juicy - when you say mushrooms growing in the bathroom, do you mean mould? Sorry I’m a bit lost.

If you scroll through the posts on concrete confessions there is a photo from one of the shower rooms, looks like fungus rather than mould to me. Either way it hasn't seen any bleach or cleaner for a looooong time lol

I’ve just had a look at concrete confessions. I must be practically ancient because I’m struggling to understand a word of what they were saying. I’ll just take MN’s word for it, that the bathroom in Ziggs is shite.

To be fair the Zigg we viewed at the applicant day was fine.

I’ll just take MN’s word for it, that the bathroom in Ziggs is shite.

Both shower rooms and the wc in the flat that we looked at last week were perfectly clean, actually. And not smelling of a frantic overapplication of cleaning products, either. Perhaps the young people currently sharing that flat were just particularly well brought up?

marchingfrogs is uea a firm or insurance choice for your DD or DS?

That’s the thing Marching, it all depends on the people in a particular flat plus the people in the flats will change every year too. Infact it might not be such a bad idea for DS to be in that environment for a yr. Perhaps he might appreciate why i’m Always on at him about cleaning and airing the bathroom .