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).

Sadly, some children haven't heard that there are often enough sweets that those who don't quite make it as high as the bar can still have one. They look at the bar, think "I'm not certain I will be able climb quite that high" and talk themselves out of going and asking for a sweet voucher. Which I think is a shame.

oneteen
That's great that she has done it already.

Hi there LIZS nice to see you. I hope your DS is having success in his job hunting. My DS1 started work last week, seems to be going well so far.

We went to Southampton open day on Saturday. No hills! DS really liked it. (The pizza stall was not a factor!) He’s going to Nottingham this weekend and Manchester in October.

He’s got his 5 choices, though they are all have a similar standard offer. Which is a bit concerning. Some were in clearing with lower grades though, so we’re thinking of being aspirational/realistic with the UCAS 5 and using clearing as insurance.

PS is started but that’s about all. His school are concentrating on early entries atm. Perhaps he should aim to get his sweet voucher sooner rather than later, though? He is rather fond of sweets.

And if more children than expected turn up with a voucher in the last hour and make it to within a metre of the bar they have to let them over and give them a sweet. But it’s not too much of a problem it’s just a bit squashed on the other side of the wall for a while and they just adjust the height for the next year.

They are not allowed to treat the ones that came first more favourably than the ones that submit at midnight on 15 th jan

PS not yet started and DD is an early deadline. Other stuff has got in the way. School wants them in next week latest.

Oratory I've never really understood how that works other than in theory. All my DC and all of their contemporaries had several offers well ahead of the January deadline. My nephew (generalising from a single anecdote alert) who had 8A* put his application in a couple of days before the January deadline and was rejected from his first three choices (Durham, UCL and Edinburgh as far as I remember - could be slightly wrong about UCL).

They are not allowed to treat the ones that came first more favourably than the ones that submit at midnight on 15 th jan

Well, actually, they are (although many universities won't) - the deadline is 6pm

😂😂

The sweet exposition seems to collapse in reality at certain selecting universities, although no doubt it's fine for recruiting ones.

Anyhow, my advice to my DC is always to get the thing off asap and get shot of it.

The nephew was predicted 42 or 43 in the IB (and achieved 42 or 43) I can't remember which), so certainly his grades were fine. But he got rejected from all the recruiting places he applied to (History). His (not very good) school apparently gave the same advice, that anything by the January deadline is fine - so it's a puzzle.

And I was trying to type a little slower and came out with even more errors than usual. Extra bracket apart, I meant he was rejected from all three selecting unis - the two recruiting ones made offers (I won't name them for fear of causing offence, which I think might be taken).

Now someone has to explain selecting and recruiting unis. Could this all just stop being so confusing please? Can we get back to the sweets?

I really want sweets now but I'm not much of a climber

I meant he was rejected from all threeselectingunis - the two recruiting ones made offers

Which, in the spirit of the late G Marx Esq., he immediately rejected?

(Sorry).

No he visited both and went to the one he preferred and didn't take a gap year Marching Frogs.

Some schools just give bad advice - what can you do?

It was a fee-paying school so my BIL and SIL assumed they could rely on its advice. Not many excuses to be fair - the school can't claim lack of resources.

Can I repeat - there is no disadvantage in putting your application in late as long as it is by the deadline !! The school did not give poor advice

ExCwmbranDweller

A small number of popular sweet shops have more children who are able to reach the bar asking for sweet vouchers than they have sweet vouchers for. Some people call these 'selecting' sweet shops because they have so many children asking for sweet vouchers that they can pick and choose.

Before the children come to ask for the sweet vouchers, the owners of each of these popular sweet shops will decide on how they will choose who to offer the sweet vouchers to. Just looking at the certificate from school is not enough as there would be too many children for the number of available sweets. For example, the owners might ask the children how much climbing practise they do in their spare time.

These popular sweet shops rarely or never find themselves in the position of needing to honour the vouchers of children who didn't quite reach the bar and they rarely or never have any sweets left over at the end to offer to a first come, first served queue.

I think this analogy might be close to becoming exhausted now. I'm also worried that I've used the word 'popular' so much in that post that I might be accused of being a certain troll.

Oratory you can repeat it but repetition doesn't make it so for all universities, so what you say should possibly be read with a very slight health warning.

When I have looked through some posts on the TSR (sorry), I get the feeling that a lot of offers come out quite quickly and like @goodbyestranger stated whilst there should be some sweety tokens left on the closing date they seem to have all been given out from some institutions.

I was speaking to an acquaintance whose DD went to Durham, she applied to Oxford but was rejected but had a very quick offer from Durham (in Durham terms). This girl was very sporty and became one of the Club Captains...so my feelings are that even Durham will make a fairly early offer if they want your DC.

But there are very strict rules on treating all applicants equally. Yes a lot do make offers early and yes that’s a good reason why schools encourage early application. It gets it out of the way and some quick offers can be a boost for students. DD 1 had all her offers by October half term which was a huge boost. But all unis have to leave spaces for those that apply in deadline day. I ll leave it there as I can’t be bothered to get into a dispute

I suspect your views of how far rules in general are abided by are less cynical than mine Oratory!