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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

Applying for Uni 2020

999 replies

daydreamornot · 04/08/2019 11:29

Thought it may be nice to have a 2020 support thread, everyone welcome! (maybe Oxbridge posts could be kept to the Oxbridge thread).

OP posts:
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7
oneofthegiantsisme · 19/08/2019 13:09

I'll suggest it to him, thanks! He isn't limiting his options geographically, given that he's mentioned both Exeter and St Andrews (but given the AS grades, they both look a bit too ambitious).

MillicentMartha · 19/08/2019 13:32

How about Leicester for physics? Fairly well respected but only mid ranking. It was in clearing at BCC for physics.

Freedobby · 19/08/2019 17:46

Re Physics courses, if you go on to the Institute of Physics website there is a list of accredited degrees by institution.

oneteen · 19/08/2019 20:38

Some Physics courses are very tough in terms of admissions. One of the girls at DD's school had 3x A predictions, was turned down by both St Andrews and Cambridge. Firmed Manchester but missed her offer by one grade AAA and has taken insurance at Edinburgh (AAA). Not great for self-esteem when she achieved a great set of results A AA grades.

Having looked a little at the 2019 cohort - I didn't get the impression it was a real buyers market (although lots of courses in clearing). The competitive courses were incredibly strict and quite a few DC missed the odd grade and there was NO lenience.

HugoSpritz · 19/08/2019 20:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

oneteen · 19/08/2019 22:15

@HugoSpritz That's good news...two of DD's friends are looking at dentistry. I think one of the girls will do incredibly well - she's just naturally very intelligent without a lot of effort. The other is working her socks off (parents have a very large dentistry practice) but I'm not sure she will get the grades to study in the UK.

ExCwmbranDweller · 19/08/2019 23:10

Sorry haven't flounced off the thread, gone on holiday with less than stellar wifi! DS has calmed down over his C and is now quite happy with his good grades and fine about the bad. Friends have had similar results and are posting good honest social media about how they did which is so refreshing. He's desperate to get back to school after being off for so long.

I asked about his PS and apparently he had a photocopy of ideas and sections from school, on which so far he has written "I am smart, take me". He thinks he is hilarious, thank goodness for brothers to burst his bubble.

Anyway, back to holidays, lots of time to be serious coming up.

Hoghgyni · 19/08/2019 23:19

If dentistry is such a prestigious subject and so hard to get into, where do all the qualified dentists go & why aren't more university places available? Our dental practice has a constant stream of dentists from India, Bulgaria, Iraq, Sweden, but we never have student dentists or experienced practitioners from UK. Do they all go into hospital dentistry or specialist clinics?

Hoghgyni · 20/08/2019 07:59

I think I must have been thinking about my recent root canal treatment late last night! Seriously though, if we are training top quality students, where are they all going after graduation?

oneteen · 20/08/2019 09:54

I know the one girl whose parents have their own dentistry practice will go to Sweden if she does not get onto course in the UK. Parents qualified in Sweden...she speaks the language fluently.

oneofthegiantsisme · 20/08/2019 14:39

Thanks for all the suggestions, folks. We'll have to start looking properly soon, but I think it may wait until we're back from visiting my parents next week.

Enjoy your holiday, ExCwmbran!

Notsureabouthis · 20/08/2019 15:54

@Ironoaks - thanks! Think we’ll go for it and defer- that’s the schools advice.

A question for everyone- does anyone have a link for the clearing grade requirements for History courses? I see Leicester was pretty low at BCC but Southampton was still AAB. I know each year is different but it’s interesting. Is there somewhere it’s all in one place?

Thanks.

Hoghgyni · 20/08/2019 16:58

I simply looked at the UCAS website & put in the subject, then tried to work out where some of the places were. I haven't seen a list as I think things move so quickly and the grades are a guideline.

KingscoteStaff · 20/08/2019 17:16

Once ironoaks had pointed me in the right direction I went through all the pages for DS's 10 possible courses and scribbled down the clearing offers next to the original published ones on our BIG LIST.

oneteen · 20/08/2019 23:16

I can't believe we are already a year on from GCSE results and this time next year we will be preparing our DC for the next step in their education.

I took DD out for a meal tonight and she has matured so much in the last 12 months...she's loving her hew tutoring job and whilst she hasn't done that much studying this holiday - I guess she's gaining a lot of transferable skills.

Hoghgyni · 21/08/2019 07:41

I agree Oneteen. I think these 2 years are such a transition period. We're having to be guided by what DD wants us to get involved in (can you come/not come to the open day) and then let her fight her own battles on things like part time jobs.

SoonerthanIthought · 21/08/2019 08:07

"Having looked a little at the 2019 cohort - I didn't get the impression it was a real buyers market (although lots of courses in clearing). The competitive courses were incredibly strict and quite a few DC missed the odd grade and there was NO lenience."

I have a feeling UCAS published the figures for applications and they had either not fallen much, or had even increased slightly, contrary to expectations. Having said that I've heard of many cases in which students didn't quite get the grades and still got their first choices at very good places/courses. Maybe it's only at the very top level that there was no leeway?

Sympathies to the person mentioned who didn't get into the first choice for physics because they only got one A star rather than two. I have blithely posted on another thread that i wouldn't have wanted a dc to accept an offer with an A star in it because a) it's a bit of a lottery, and b) it's too stressful. But the reality is that for some of the very most competitive courses you may not have a choice. I think then I might have suggested taking a gap year and applying with results to avoid that stress, but not all dc want to do that.

LooseAtTheSeams · 21/08/2019 09:35

DS1 has really grown up a lot this year. I hope it continues, ready for uni.
I think it's a very mixed picture with grade offers. Last year, a friend's dd had an AAA offer from Warwick. She actually got A star and 2 Bs. Because the A star was in the subject she was going to study she got offered the place anyway. However an A rather than A star probably wouldn't have been enough. (She'd have got her insurance, though, and would have been very happy with that.)

MillicentMartha · 21/08/2019 09:46

Nearly all the courses DS has been looking at were in clearing. That’s maths at RG universities do I think he can afford to be optimistic/realistic rather than pessimistic.

MillicentMartha · 21/08/2019 09:46

*so I think

Ironoaks · 21/08/2019 09:54

The most competitive courses at the most competitive universities were still oversubscribed this year. But moving down the league tables a little, courses that would have been full five years ago were not full this year.

On the subject of A offers: the course DS wants to apply for has a typical offer of A A A from most places he'd like to aim for. If they want to do Maths, Physics, Computer Science or similar (especially a four-year course with integrated Masters) this is unavoidable. There are courses with AAA offers but not in the top 20. DS got A* in his end of Y12 exams but is applying to one course with lower entry requirements as back-up.

For Maths (and courses with a high Maths content) taking a year out is problematic because they risk losing the skills if they aren't regularly doing Maths at that level, so university admissions departments would prefer they didn't take a year out unless there are exceptional circumstances.

SoonerthanIthought · 21/08/2019 11:15

Ah good point ironoaks about the year out for maths. Then yes in that case there really isn't any choice! Maybe another argument for having an entirely post results application system in the weeks after (earlier) results - another debate, I know!

Before the a* was introduced, was there evidence that candidates with lower As didn't succeed at the very competitive top courses, I wonder? I know there was a general view that universities were having difficulty differentiating at the very top level but was never totally sure why they had to! I suppose in stem or any subject with a lot of 'teaching' ie lectures and tutorials, you need to be able to pitch the teaching at a level that all students can cope with so you do need a more 'uniform' intake.

That may be less of an issue in eg History, English, where students are mostly reading and doing it themselves, so universities should be able to accommodate a wider ability range. So maybe we do need an A* for science subjects but not so much for arts/humanities.

MillicentMartha · 21/08/2019 11:18

For maths, it’s only the top 10 or so courses that require an A*. If you are taking FM as well as maths then Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, Lancaster, Southampton, Loughborough, Exeter etc require AAA or less in some cases if combining with STEP or an EPQ. If you want to apply for MMath right from the start it may be higher. Most universities let you transfer to MMath if you are doing well enough once you are there though, or indeed, don’t let you do it if you aren’t keeping up.

Oratory1 · 21/08/2019 23:01

Manchester asking for two A stars for CS. Not sure why yhryvecaimed so high.