Applying for Uni 2020 :2: Offers arriving

[MillicentMartha]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3655914-Applying-for-Uni-2020?pg=40

Previous thread

Great news thewoman. DN has just started at RH and is loving it.

@thewomanontheshore - totally agreed on the loveliness of the RH site. DD did a Smallpeice residential there and loved it. I think it would make for a great student experience.

Errol DS4 looked at the Durham NatSci course and compared it to Cambridge and said they were quite different beasts.

Very mild apologies because I forgot about the separation between Oxford and Cambridge and other offers on this thread, although to be fair any discussion about Durham's admissions policy would be odd without a reference to those two unis, since it drives a large part of the policy and has done for as long as I can remember. A few years ago Durham's internal minutes from a university wide admissions meeting found its way onto the internet and made interesting reading. Best of luck to your DS NotEnoughTime.

Thanks goodbye I think he's going to need it

Royal Holloway isn't first or 2nd choice, but it's good to hear some recommendations. As dd hasn't been to any open days, she's gone into the process a bit blindly.

Will she go to any offer holder days, thewoman? It's a big and expensive decision to make completely blind.

Another fan of RH here .
gs and oneteen I have also heard now of several early contextual Durham offers across science and humanities subjects. Are there significantly more places to fill this year? Exeter has routinely reduced its entry requirements (from those published) for a few years now so perhaps Durham is doing the same. Whatever their new policy, earlier decision making would be greatly welcomed!

Is not going to any open days, but has been to her first choice of uni. Big distances are involved.

I wonder if these early offers are in part due to it being a low birth rate year - so universities will be more in competition for applicants they like.

HuaShan I keep swapping from gloating that DS is a low birth year to despairing that the poor Year 6s in my class are in a mega high birth year and are going to have a v. stressful secondary transfer process. Deadline for pan-London forms is Friday, just in case there’s anyone on here with a 7 year gap!

Deadline all over England, Kingscote. But, no. My Y13 is my last.

The fact that it is a low birth rate year may not result in fewer applicants. The UCAS figures for last year show a record number of applicants (and a higher proportion of early applications) despite a fall in the number of 18 year olds.

More applicants, but not necessarily more high calibre ones, though, I guess.

Off to google Royal Holloway. Excellent news thewoman.

All I know is that Durham's admissions policy has been notably volatile over the past decade or so (six of my DC applied to Durham between 2008 and 2017). It's had to change it's policy on lots of stuff over the years: minimum number of A grades, mandatory A at GCSE in the subject applied for, A level A offers across the subject range, premium put on high level sports and music prowess, reversion to 'academic only' criteria etc etc. So it doesn't surprise me at all that so many early offers are coming through or that it's started to make attractive low offers. A couple of things do suggest that Durham possibly miscalculated on numbers last year (the late offers of reduced grades and the refusal to allow very highly qualified - triple A offerees - to defer after results). So perhaps this is a knee jerk reaction to that. And also possibly a long overdue response to feedback about offering so late to too may applicants and appearing off-puttingly snooty. It's not the only uni to vacillate though: Exeter has done the same and this year can't appear to get offers out fast enough. And then there's Bristol with its huge premium put on personal statement followed by a policy of ignoring them in the admissions process. Not that any of that detracts from the appeal of all three unis.

ofteninaspin there's been huge disquiet about Durham's expansion in terms of student numbers. The numbers are so vastly in excess of what they were in my day that I find it hard to get my head around, given the compact nature of the city .

I think you need to remember that while a university may have particular policies, how they are applied at departmental and course level will vary massively.

At the university where I work, we have been encouraged to try to turn applications around quickly and we have data on how much early offers improve acceptance rates, but the reality is that at this point, there will be some courses that have made almost half their offers already but there will also be some that have made no offers at all.

Of course Phphion, that's a given. But that said, some changes of policy are implemented at university level.

DD has had her first offer! From Leeds - AAA instead of A*AA she's over the moon as it's her joint first choice (and most aspirational)
Thank goodness the missing Maths grade doesn't seem to have caused too much damage.
Feel like we can relax a bit now. I might actually sleep properly tonight!

HesMyLobster that's great news!

HesMyLobster great news.

Well done Hesmylobster. It's such a relief to know DD has written things they like & somewhere wants them.

Bold fail!

Great news @HesMyLobster - such a relief to get that first offer.

Phew, Lobster, great news! Maybe your DD had the right idea, not worrying you.