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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

STILL no news from LSE or UCL (Politics&IR) Anyone else in similar limbo?

40 replies

ellanwood · 17/03/2020 16:09

DS can't plan student finance or any of the other things school are chivvying them to do now. It seems so late to be waiting when he applied in October!

OP posts:
MarchingFrogs · 17/03/2020 23:26

www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance/when

You do not need a confirmed place to apply, as it says on the page, part way down.

Original poster
ellanwood · 28/03/2020 22:47

Thank you @MarchingFrogs. DS saw that but then said he got confused as he doesn't know what his living expenses will be without knowing where he is going.

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MarchingFrogs · 29/03/2020 02:45

The calculation isn't based on actual projected living expenses, just household income / university in London or not / living at or away from home. Details can be updated as soon as he has firmed (and again if he eventually goes to his insurance university or somewhere else through Clearing or Adjustment).

BackforGood · 29/03/2020 20:44

Not to do with finance, but just to do with who to 'firm' and 'insure'.

After an interview, dd had a (paper, through the post) letter saying well done on her interview (and referencing something she talked about, not not a generic one) and saying they would be making an offer, but UCAS still not updated, so she doesn't know what the offer is. It's been 2 and 1/2 weeks now. Getting worrying.

Original poster
ellanwood · 30/03/2020 11:20

Thanks @MarchiungFrogs. So that's something practical that he can start to sort out during the lockdown.

OP posts:
Original poster
ellanwood · 30/03/2020 17:38

And still no news from LSE. DS is now very stressed. He assumes it's a rejection because the pattern has been offers on penultimate day, rejections on final day of March. They've had his application since early October. Surely if it was a rejection they could have worked that out before now!

OP posts:
Maladicta · 30/03/2020 19:20

Ds is still waiting to hear from Warwick for a similar course, all other offers in but this is the one he really wants Sad

OatMilkAddict · 31/03/2020 14:58

Prestigious universities like LSE and UCL won't rush into making more offers until government plans to potentially cap numbers are clearer. Otherwise they could find that they have over-offered on their cap and have to let people down.
Once they know their cap, if there is to be one, they will be in touch, I'm sure.

Original poster
ellanwood · 31/03/2020 15:57

Thank you @OatMilkAddict. But I don't really understand this, as they have been offering steadily for months. Are you saying they may be holding onto applicants they would otherwise have rejected but might offer to, once the government gives them the cap figures?

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Olympicfan · 31/03/2020 20:57

Any news Ellanwood? Today was supposed to be the day all decisions were made. Have they extended this date?

I have had my fingers crossed for your DS.

titchy · 31/03/2020 21:12

Today is the date for applicants to decide if they have all their offers. Unis have until May.

The likelihood of student number control has thrown a massive spanner into the works. I would imagine a lot of HEIs have been told not to make further offers at all until the detail of the SNC is known. The risk that HEIs go above is high, and the penalties could be harsh - and the arse has dropped out of international so no one can afford to risk over-offering right now.

Several unis will need a bailout or go bust the way things are looking.

Maladicta · 31/03/2020 21:36

Ds contacted Warwick today through a chat function, deadlines have been extended apparently

BackforGood · 31/03/2020 21:56

@titchy Do you mean you think students should firm now with the offers they have, even if waiting for another University to confirm an offer?

titchy · 31/03/2020 22:07

No. Second half of my sentence: if they have received all their offers

If they are still waiting to hear they have a couple of months yet. Possibly longer.

MarchingFrogs · 31/03/2020 22:10

Today is the date for applicants to decide if they have all their offers. Unis have until May.

Actually, it's that applicants who have received all their decisions by today now have until 19th May (extended from the original deadline of 5th May) to enter their decision re firm / insurance choices.

www.ucas.com/undergraduate/after-you-apply/types-offer/replying-your-ucas-undergraduate-offers

Universities now have until 20th May (extended from 6th May) to make their decision on applications made by the 15th January cut-off.

BackforGood · 31/03/2020 23:02

Thanks Titchy I did read the whole sentence Grin but I'm getting twitchy about this missing UCAS update - especially when people say students who have received all their offers should firm TODAY. Argh. I just take from that, that all the Universities will be full when dd firms. I know that isn't how they work in normal years, but am anxious about the fact that universities will have over offered, assuming plenty of the applicants wouldn't hit their grades during the exams, but of course, with no-one taking exams this year, things will be different.

Sorry, I'm just twitchy. No idea what to advise her to do.

titchy · 31/03/2020 23:10

Hold on for another week or two. I'd hope we'd have a lot more clarity by then. I understand the uneasiness though - this is going to be a very very very strange year (some commentators have mooted forgetting starting this September and starting in January...) 😱

MarchingFrogs · 31/03/2020 23:53

According to the Official LSE 2020 Undergraduate Applicants' Thread on TSR, LSE are now pushing their internal decisions deadline back to May 1st?
www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5841890&page=359 - posts #7164 / #7165.

FOLIJI · 01/04/2020 04:48

Unis have until May.

MarchingFrogs · 01/04/2020 07:44

Unis have until May.

And always have done, for those applications that they received by 15th Jan. And applicants who have received all their responses by 31st March have always had a deadline in May too - the day before the deadline for the universities to respond to on time applications; the recent change is that UCAS has put both those dates back by a fortnight.

31st March isn't a UCAS deadline by which either universities or applicants have to do anything, just a marker for applicants to indicate that the first decision date for applicants applies to them. (There is nothing on the UCAS 'Key Dates' calendar between UCAS Extra opening on 25th February and a date in April only applying to Conservatoire applicants). Obviously, it has to have been an internal deadline for universities who want to try to ensure that they will have as many applicants as possible make their decisions by the earliest date, but they can't control when other universities, to which the applicant made on time applications, give their decisions, or any individual applicant's application pattern (e.g. they may have made some applications by 15th Jan and others after).

The next decision date for applicants, after the May 19th one, is currently 4th June, if they have received all their decisions by 20th May.

OatMilkAddict · 01/04/2020 09:04

@ellanwood -

I don't really understand this, as they have been offering steadily for months. Are you saying they may be holding onto applicants they would otherwise have rejected but might offer to, once the government gives them the cap figures?

No I think the opposite - that they might have some good (but not exceptional) candidates who they are now waiting to decide whether to make an offer to, fearful of going over their (as yet unknown) cap. As you say, they were offering steadily for months, as they have always done, but then Covid struck: all the remaining cards have now been thrown into the air with the current situation and they are waiting to see where they land before committing themselves to more students that they want to take for financial reasons but might not be allowed to take because of a cap.

I think that applicants who had already firmed their final two choices before this happened are, unfairly, in a better position right now than those who are still waiting for offers.

Original poster
ellanwood · 01/04/2020 12:48

@OatMilkAddict - I think the same - that candidates who have firmed are in a stronger position. DS still hasn't bloody heard. School have advised him to take Kings, as in the opinion of all the adults around him, it's actually the best choice for him anyway. The course is absolutely geared towards his interests. I am concerned he might scupper his chance at Kings: if they have to withdraw over offers, the sensible thing would be to go with firmed places first. Not to mention getting a chance at decent halls. I said to him that the way LSE are mucking people about is not indicative of good pastoral care once you are there and he agreed.

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OatMilkAddict · 01/04/2020 13:22

I wonder if LSE are going to be in trouble next year as they are particularly reliant on the overseas market? It's going to be a very different cohort from the norm whatever happens. It certainly must be chaos in their admissions office.

Original poster
ellanwood · 01/04/2020 14:21

I wonder the same. I did warn DS that if he does go there, they may be very scaled back in comparison with their usual courses. Because first to go won't be any overpaid provosts. It'll be teaching staff and less popular modules.

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shockthemonkey · 02/04/2020 11:52

Weird behaviour from UCL here - they were steadily giving out offers to our students up until mid March, with no big surprises (very strong students got offers, others didn't).

Then, as of 18th March radio silence -- we had four students still waiting to hear. Then bingo yesterday ALL four got rejections, in spite of one of them being the most brilliant student we have ever seen, no exaggeration, with a prediction of 20/20 in the Bac.

I do wonder, this seems so unusual. The 20/20 student is OK because he got an offer from Imperial, but I am at a total loss as UCL have admitted students who pale in comparison.

Why was there a steady flow until mid March, and then nothing until yesterday when we got only rejections?