Applying for uni in 2021...

[Parsley65]

Thought I'd start the ball rolling on this one...

Dd wants to study psychology and we've been checking out dates of open days.

Her school still does AS levels. She's doing psychology, physics & business.

Please come and join us on the long and bumpy ride past revision and exams and on towards the much anticipated start of uni life in Autumn 2021.

Ds not sent GCSE certs yet but QMUL have offered - their standard offer - ABB - ds very happy 😃

Bio sciences / BioChem and accreditation with Royal Society of Biology ?

I have noticed that lots of universities have accreditation but some do not - what is the advantage of accreditation ? Or is there a disadvantage doing a course which is not accredited ?

@Dahlia and @storm dd has 4 offers (including Durham) and we have been surprised as they are all lower than published entry grades for her subject

B’ham have reduced DDs offer today. As per the article in The Times; they’ve dropped a grade. Their standard offer is AAA but was reduced to AAB as DD doing maths, but today dropped further to ABB. Birmingham at AAA was her lowest and always going to be her insurance but at ABB it really feels like less pressure. It’ll be interesting to see if other unis drop a grade across all subjects.
@skyr2 does your DC need accreditation from The Biology Society? I’ve seen this with lots of professional type degrees, such as accountancy, psychology etc but not sure about biology. Definitely dig a little deeper to how relevant that may be.

@Beetlesand well done your DD getting lower offers for all 4 unis - is your DD an oxbridge candidate by any chance? Our perhaps contextual? Some DCs are at great schools but their postcode allows a contextual offer. Contextual offers can often be unexpected it seems. And oxbridge candidates seem to get lower offers due to the sheer fact they are highly regarded and wanted. Maybe she’s both!!

Congrats on the Birmingham offer Notdonna
Yes -dd is oxbridge .. but surely other universities would not know that?
Yes to postcode also.

Interesting reading about all the offers. Dd has applied to 4 unis to do psychology and had 3 offers so far, all at published grades. Hoping some might reduce them after Birmingham!

@Beetlesand I think they do know as they receive the applications from students who have applied to Oxbridge earlier than "standard" applications and so they know these are very high calibre students and therefore are keen to entice them! Funnily enough DD and I were joking that she should have applied to Oxbridge just to make herself seem more of a catch - maybe she should have 🤣. Very well done to your DD - have you had any news from Oxford/Cambridge yet? Finger crossed for her.

[quote Beetlesand]@Dahlia and @storm dd has 4 offers (including Durham) and we have been surprised as they are all lower than published entry grades for her subject[/quote]
How lovely for her - congrats . Out of curiosity, could you remind us what subject? @Beetlesand

Still only the one offer (Bath) for DD. We’re all feeling a bit stressed as friends’ offers pile up!

beetlesand it’s easy for universities to work out potential oxbridge candidates as they’ll have stellar gcse grades, high predicted A level grades, quite particular Personal Statements and have applied very early. They could be wrong of course, but anyone with that profile will be wanted & likely snapped up whether they’re applying to oxbridge or not. If they’re also entitled to contextual then....
@pepperaunt that’s interesting as DD and a lot of her friends have received offers from everywhere but Bath. What subject and where else has she applied?

It's funny that other universities want Oxbridge candidates these days.

Back in the day both DH and I were rejected out of hand by Exeter and Bristol. In those days you could see someone had applied to Oxford or Cambridge, you didn't need to surmise from the other factors pps have mentioned.

@gleegeek same my dd has had 4 out of 5 offers back for psychology - all at the published grades.

@faybebaby can I ask where your dd has applied? Dd has offers from Southampton, Reading and Sussex, still waiting to hear from Sheffield. Struggling to choose a fifth...

Offers fromLoughborough with placement year Liverpool Nottingham and Bangor and we are also waiting for Sheffield. Liverpool is BBB because she is doing 2 sciences. Bangor is UCAS points and also equates to 3 B’s. Heart set on Loughborough but she also liked Liverpool

Has anyone heard from Exeter or Glasgow? DS has had offers from his other 3 but Exeter is his no 1.

@gleegeek sorry thought I’d tagged you but hadn’t. See reply just above

DS heard this morning that he hasn't got an interview at Oxford. But as they say, it redirection not rejection, so most likely choices now are Exeter (BBB) and Birmingham (CCC).

Oh just messaged you on the Oxbridge thread too @calculatorqueen. What great offers to have in the bag.

@fayebebaby Dd really likes the sound of Bangor but it's many hours away from the south coast. She refused to look at Loughborough because of its sporty reputation
So seems like Sheffield are just being slow!

Calculatorqueen the other universities clearly really want your ds so Oxford's loss...

My DD got accepted through to the portfolio stage of all 5 universities. We have to submit the first portfolio on 1 December, so she is really under pressure to get it looking great. She is so full of doubt and worried that her work is not good enough and keeps changing and adjusting it. It is so stressful and I am bearing the brunt of her artistic temperament. Supporting my DS through his Economics uni application was so much easier that this.

Artistic temperament 😂😂😂

Am also @ ‘artistic temperament ‘ . As an art student myself, I think I put my own mother through similar. Hang in there @minesawine , she’ll be so grateful of for you once through this x

When she is on the world stage, collecting her Oscar for best animation picture and she mentions how grateful she is to her mother for all the stress she put her through, then I will be happy. Until then, bring on the wine!