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.

IR seems to be quite popular. My DD2 is considering this albeit needs to get through GCSEs etc first!! I need to look into it as not really heard if it before. What type of careers can it lead to?

@KittyMcKitty yes P&IR at Bristol - on hold means they are waiting until after 15th January to give all applicants the same consideration. My other DS had the same last year and received an offer in the spring.

Donna it varies from course to course. Some Unis it’s v politics orientated and others more history.

It’s the other standard bedfellow with Politics alongside the PPE (or just PP) courses. All straight politics courses ds looked at involved a certain amount of IR.

Careers - it’s a solid humanity (or social science in some places).

@FleeceNavidadToEwe I know but the glass half empty part of me can’t help but view it as “we’ll offer only if we can’t find anyone better” - which I guess it is 😂 ds really wants Bristol!

It does feel that way doesn’t it? By the time DS1 got an offer he’d lost interest and chose somewhere else - he wasn’t overly keen anyway and was a bit...well if they cant be bothered to snap me up straightaway...

I can totally see how he felt that. Liverpool offered in less then 24 hours which ds was really impressed with.

Can relate to the Bristol thing. DD got 3 offers very quickly, and is through to the interview stage at Oxford, but was put off by being put on hold by Bristol, and now they'd have to come up with something damn good to revive her interest. Which they won't, of course; why would they? But at least it will make no real difference to her if she doesn't get an offer.

Ah kitty I think we both have the double whammy of GCSEs & A level DCs - aren’t we lucky?!

Dd3's application went in last Monday 30th I think and she's had acknowledgements from her 4 choices but nothing else yet. I know it's still early days, but her older siblings all had some very quick offers, so I'm impatient and she's nervous ...

@NotDonnaOrBlitzen

Ah kitty I think we both have the double whammy of GCSEs & A level DCs - aren’t we lucky?!

Yes we truly are the lucky ones!

@KittyMcKitty

I can totally see how he felt that. Liverpool offered in less then 24 hours which ds was really impressed with.

Hull offered ds within 24 hours too, and he received two other offers in less than a week.

I assume Southampton is busy, they have sent a postcard acknowledgement as well as the email.

I mentioned upthread about Exeter - I wish they'd be transparent about which courses they hang on until 15 Jan for - at least ds would then know not to keep checking emails for news from UCAS.

Does anyone know if there is a way of seeing what courses/universities had spaces via clearing last year? Not sure if you can search retrospectively? thanks.

No it would be really useful wouldn't it? All I know is that Leicester had clearing spaces for ds' course at CCC but inexplicably decided to increase the entry requirements to ABB from BBB for 2021 entry!

@Bayleaf25 I found a very good thread on the Student Room Forum which listed courses that were in clearing last August and the grades being accepted - some of them were surprisingly low! Sorry I don't know how to link but I just googled "clearing 2020 Student Room" and it came up, similar threads also for 2019 & 2018. Really useful!

@Bayleaf25 if you post a new thread in ‘higher education’ exactly what courses you need info for re clearing, people from previous years will know. I’m always so impressed by the amount of info on these threads and the number of helpful people.

@Bayleaf25 which subject? I looked at quite a few for Politics/ Pol&IR / Phil & Pol last year ...

@KittyMcKitty we're looking at the Arts Courses - Photography or Film Production. thanks.

Dd1 had her zoom interview with York on Tuesday then an offer Wednesday afternoon. She put her application in mid October and now has 5 offers which feels a lovely position to be in.
Sounds like most of the applicant/ offer holder days are already planned to be virtual which was to be expected I guess. She is pretty confident about her firm choice and needs to decide her insurance but has till May so she is very relaxed now.
Good luck to all those submitting now and waiting for the track emails!

DS2 (History of Art) has had acknowledgements from UEA, Sussex, York and Birmingham, offers of ABB from both UEA and Sussex, an applicant survey from Birmingham and so far, nothing at all from Warwick. Not bad for someone who only checked his emails for the first time this month, possibly, yesterday morning when I asked him whether the school had actually sent his form off yet. Warwick does actually know that he exists, but separately from his actual apication, because he's been taking part in their online History of Art sessions on and off for a few months now. I did warn him that they can take a while to respond. That being said, DS1 had his offer within a month, even if DD was kept waiting almost until the bitter end and only didn't withdraw her application because she wanted to see whether she would actually get an offer.

I've mentioned previously that DD is having a very hard time lately. She's suffered awful health anxiety and GAD since ever since her dad died in a horrific accident when she was just 5 but she's always been so strong and able to find a way to battle through. Over the last month or so she has been spiralling downwards worse than ever. It's very scary and I feel so helpless. Luckily we have a fantastic GP who has been very proactive in getting her some help so I'm praying she will start to feel a bit better soon. However, as part of the anxiety and doubting everything, she has now decided she absolutely does not want to do law (which is what she has applied for).

Does anyone know if there is any way she can swap courses with the unis who have offered her for Law? She's got 4/5 offers so far and just waiting for the last one. She emailed one of them and asked if possible to change course but they said she needs to contact UCAS. According to UCAS it's up to the uni . I'm thinking her only two realistic options are to wait and go through clearing or take a gap year and re-apply for 2022?

DD does now have her Sheffield offer - came through yesterday evening.

@storminasnowglobe, according to UCAS, the applicant has to get the agreement of the university concerned to redirect the application, then the university informs UCAS:

Course, year, or point of entry

If you're happy with the university or college but you'd like to change the course details, you'll need to get in touch with the university or college rather than us.

Then if they agree to it, they'll let us know about the change.If you've already had an offer from them, we'll update Track to show the new details.
www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/making-changes-your-ucas-undergraduate-application

I would assume that the people she needs to talk to at the university are in the department she wants to change to, rather than the Law department. Does her new preferred subject have similar requirements (/ absence of specific ones)?

DS changed courses by emailing the uni department admissions. In his case it was straightforward as he wanted a different course in the same faculty. Once uni agreed they changed his UCAS.

Best to do it now before all places are allocated.

My DD now has offers from Portsmouth and Sheffield Hallam for Animation. Waiting to hear back from the other 3, but very happy so far.

Last night, DS2 got as far as noticing that he has an offer from York to go with UEA and Sussex, but if he ever got round to getting into Track to see what it was York was actually offering, he didn't let on before I went to bed.