Applying for Uni 2020

[daydreamornot]

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

‘Why they’ve aimed’

Oratory - It was Physics and the offer was AAA which I think is the standard offer if you are studying FM, Maths and Physics. The girl concerned missed the A* in FM which had pretty tough grade boundaries this year.

I'm sure she will love Edinburgh (she's a bright capable all-round girl) who was also the school's charity co-ordinator. It's just the self-esteem aspect when you have been rejected from Cambridge, St Andrews and missed your offer and end up at your insurance - even though you achieved A*AA. It is was it is...personally not great for getting girls into Physics.

Oratory do you mean why do Manchester have such high entry requirements for CS? I too would be interested to know if there is evidence that those with only one A star do significantly worse than those with two on the course (or any course!) It would be interesting to know how they do decide on course requirements - or whether they just go as high as they can, consistently with recruiting enough students.
Oneteen that is bad luck for that student - i have heard of similar happening and yes it can seem like a double blow because you've already been rejected once. It's an occupational hazard of applying to O/b I suppose - but that doesn't make it any better!

On the subject of attracting people (girls or boys!) into stem I see your point. To get into a 'top' non o/b law degree i think the requirements are often one A star, two As (just for interest I checked UCL and Durham which are standard one - St Andrews can go up to two A stars). LSE economics standard is one A star two As. If you're a student choosing between several routes to good career opportunities rather than 'desperate to do stem degree at any cost', you may decide the grade requirements for the top stem courses make it too much of a lottery, compared with other routes.

Obviously subject departments need to set the bar at a certain level so that students demonstrate that they are likely to be able to cope with the academic demands of the course.

But above that it's usually down to market forces. The more popular / oversubscribed a course is, the higher they can afford to set their grade offer.

Computer Science at the top universities is increasingly popular (more so than Maths or Physics if you use Clearing vacancies as a guide) and they can easily fill their courses. So they can give out typical offers of A A A or even A A* A and they will get enough applicants who achieve that.

I hope I don't get that comment deleted for using the word "popular". I am not the latest theme troll.

Thanks Ironoaks!

An interesting question for someone to analyse would be whether the UK as a whole benefits or otherwise from having such a finely ranked university entrance requirements system - my impression is that in say Germany you don't have the equivalent of perceived eg 'top RG, medium RG, less medium RG', and various perceived gradations of the others! (France is different again because of the Ecoles but outside that people go locally, is my impression?) Are we or they better off as a result?

I do take the point about students needing to cope with the academic requirements - which i imagine in CS are fairly hefty!

Look at us this time last year!

Don't we look young?

Funnily enough I read some of that thread last night, Kingscote.

With computer science I do wonder if universities have a similar problem as schools with recruiting lecturers, who would get much better paid in the industry. How many places are there on CS courses? It might be that demand outstrips supply so the universities can ask fir whatever grades they like?

MillicentMartha
I think you have hit the nail on the head there.

Totally agree with @MillicentMartha. I also think that a lot of DC are tending to go into degree apprenticeships when looking to study CS - My friends DD went through the UCAS application but then she started applying for the DA's and was successful with two companies but took up the JLR offer.

@KingscoteStaff - Yes - roll on a year and it seems like a magic wand has been waved and we have confident young adults and stress levels ramp up a little more! I often think of your DS because a former England cricket captain attended DD's "sister" boys school - so if it's your DS's dream then it's definitely a possibility.

Please may I join. Now got one DD sorted for uni (Classics at Exeter starting this year)but her twin is a year behind and so does A levels next summer. She wants to read Nursing, hopefully at York

Empra has she been to the open days yet? We have family members who were there 25 years ago, so their knowledge is a little outdated. Wondering which halls to target for a look around next month. Congrats on the Classics BTW.

Yes we went to an open day in July. We can't now remember which college we looked at. But she wants to be in self catered.

@Empra123 - York is on my DD's list for Biochemistry - she attended the open day in July too. There are only 55 places available on the Biochemistry course though so I'm almost sure it won't be her first choice. Good luck to your DD starting at Exeter.

DD at Reading this weekend and so far the texts consist of "All good!", a sign of things to come when she gets to Uni next year.

We're about to go on a grand tour of various university towns, none of which feature on DD's shortlist. It is going to be so hard to avoid sighing & saying that weekend breaks for the next few years would be lovely!

I'm back lol!

DS has just moved to Vienna so if DD2 does go to York next year I shall have lots of nice places to visit!

How lovely. Time for some Sachertorte and a cream tea at Betty's. Hi Sost.

An interesting change to UCAS this year is that if you decide you don't want to go to your first choice Uni you can decline the offer on the system on results day which makes it quicker to use clearing or adjustments.

Are many of you doing visits in September? I think we will visit Edinburgh on the 21st probably go up on the sleeper. I'd like DD to see St Andrews but not sure how we can visit given she's going to Japan for 10 days in October...she doesn't have to hurry her UCAS application (school will no doubt push for submission though - they have already written DD's reference).

I’m taking DS to Southampton, his father is taking him to Nottingham then I’m taking him to Manchester in October. Busy, busy, busy.

We're off to Exeter in a couple of weeks then a quick trip to Swansea in October. Think after that I will change to just going to offer holder days as I remember the one we went on with DS1 being much more focused on the course and halls (well actually it was more full on selling the course as they knew by then they were going to need to fill places to get their funding!)

@MillicentMartha - Is your DS's first choice still Bham?

Hoping to take DS to visit Warwick in early October.

Oneteen Out of the 3 he’s been to so far, yes. But that may change after the other open days. My favourite is Brum, (for affordability/bursary/distance) but I’m trying hard to let it be his decision.

DS1 loved Warwick, Ironoaks. He liked the modern looking campus and the range of accommodation in the first year. He made great friends and, after a few false starts, had a lovely time in Earlsdon in a shared house. The university act as agents for a lot of the private house shares, which adds a level of security to the process. No worries about deposits and they can pay termly by direct debit which ties in with the student loan payments. In maths in first year there were weekly sessions with a postgrad mentor in small classes to get them on track with the work.