Languages Applicants for 2021 (and 2022) entry

[Tenpastseven]

For those interested and moving over from the St Andrews thread (that became not about St Andrews)

@MacbookHo - A working towards A* in German is a great place to be. Good luck to your ds with his applications! I take quite a lot of comfort from the knowledge that modern languages are far less competitive courses on the whole than subjects such as English, history or physics.

Thank you for that reassurance, @NiamCinnOir.

I feel clueless about all this stuff, TBH. I feel guilty that I left finding things out so late. This poor boy has borne the first wave of my slapdash parenting. His brother will have it easier because I'll just know more.

Anyway - when do offers come in? And if a Uni doesn't want to offer a place, do they tell the student that? Or just give them a sky-high offer like 3 A*s?

His brother will have it easier because I'll just know more.

Ha, good luck! Our lot decided they would do:
Different secondary schools
Different GCSE choices
Different sixth forms
Entirely, and I mean entirely, different A-levels
..and all of this either side of the Great Change from lettered to numbered GCSEs, and from modular to linear A-levels, so I'm still as clueless as before.

Oh no!

I looked at Chester and liked the look of it generally, not for MFL in particular.

One of my best friends studied English and German at Bangor (and now lives in Cologne, hence my username as I had just come back from visiting her when I last changed my username).

All the Welsh universities seem to have reasonable entry requirements.

Strathclyde and Stirling might be worth a look too.

@MacbookHo - offers come in (sporadically) from the universities your ds has applied to. Some have the reputation of being late to assess applications and make offers and some are likely to offer before the UCAS application deadline of 15 Jan. Applicants have until early May I think to decide which offer to ‘firm’ and which to ‘insure’ so they’re in it for the long haul :)

Also, if a uni doesn’t want to offer a place, they’ll send a rejection email and Track (the UCAS portal) will also be updated.

@MacbookHo, everything except individual Track accounts and iirc some restricted stuff in the Advisors area is there for all to access on the UCAS website.
www.ucas.com/undergraduate

Thank you so much, @cologne4711, @NiamCinnOir and @MarchingFrogs! I really appreciate your tips and help. :)

Four offers in here now including Cardiff and Lancaster so very pleased. Just waiting for Manchester. They seem to take a while as I think they interview everyone!

That's great news @RainBow725. I hear such good things about languages at Lancaster. Not on DS's list though.

What's the offer by the way?

Standard offer ABB. Hopefully achievable 🤞🏼.

@MacbookHo , I’m late to the thread but suggest he tries Cardiff. They were very flexible with my DD about entry onto year 2, she suggested she sat a test and they ran with that.

I think the reality of the grades that students are accepted onto the degree versus what is in the prospectus are often very different.

Thank you!

Lancaster looked fantastic but sadly didn't do one of the languages that DS wanted to do. Same with Durham.

We loved Cardiff too. It's just a bit far away from home (north west) so Lancaster is favourite at the moment. Has anyone heard back from Manchester yet?

DD just had her rejection from Oxford this morning. She's quite gutted and tbh so am I - I mean, how can they not want her? Straight A student, keen, enthusiastic, state school (which should be a positive, shouldn't it?)... What do they want, if not that?

Of course I know everyone who applies is likely the same, still... I'll just rant my disappointment here rather than irl with DD.

How's everyone been, dealing with all that's going on?

They have a very transparent selection procedures at Oxford and you just have to accept that others are better. In their opinion. However, this is not the end of the journey. if she was good enough to apply, she will do well elsewhere and other universities are not a barrier to success.

I see, Tottie, she has an offer from Durham. That is quite early for them. Accept that would be my advice. She has lost very little with Durham as a back up.

Sorry to hear about your dd Tottie, so disappointing for you both. But everyone seems to say that wherever they end up turns out to be the right place, so hopefully that will hold true for your dd. We are still waiting for Cambridge, and I may well be telling myself the same thing soon...

Oh I'm sorry to hear that @TottiePlantagenet. How is your dd taking it?

Please do come here and rant. If DS gets a rejection on the 25th I'll definitely need a little cry on some MN shoulders. I don't think it's usual to be able to move on and see the positives immediately, though I'm sure that will come in time. Rejections always sting a bit.

@Tenpastseven DD is surprisingly OK about it - I guess we (DH & I) believed she would at least receive an offer, but DD was less bothered because Oxford is not her first choice. So she's going to be fine, after that initial sting of rejection.

Thanks for the sympathy , it's my first time going it through with kids so it's all a bit new and nerve racking.

I have been really pleased for DD's friends who have received offers, and hope there's more good news to come for posters here especially.

Anyone with a feeling of Bristol over Durham. Dc feeling that realistically Cambridge is going to be a no but as never visited any of the cities they don't have a view either way. Bristol offers seem lower. It seems AAB is standard.

Good news @TottiePlantagenet

@Intothefray DS has Bristol as definite 2nd choice after Cambridge. He didn’t apply to Durham. What languages is your DC hoping to study?