Are we literally the only family left on Mumsnet still waiting for a 2021 decision/offer?!

[kitnkaboodle]

DS still waiting for an offer/rejection from Bristol for engineering. I did actually get him to chase them up yesterday, but too late for a reply before the weekend.

Luckily, he's got three other offers. Anyone else still hanging on? I'm feeling like a lone voice crying in the wilderness atm!

You’re not! Still awaiting one decision from Kings, Edinburgh just back this week. Hope your DS hears soon

That must be really tough but I'm sure that some universities just take their time as otherwise the deadline for accepting would be much earlier. I think my DD doesn't have to decide until mid June.

I hope your DS gets an offer very soon. It really has been a stressful time for the year 13's and their parents too!

I think some are still waiting for St Andrews and maybe Edinburgh as well. Even though they had said there would be offers by Friday 7th. I think LSE are still rejecting so clearly they are still working their way through their lists.

It is awful that they have had to wait this long to hear.

(Waves at @hollypocks!)

Yes, the unis' deadline for offers is May 20th, and students' deadline to reply is 10th June. Talk about going to the wire ...

My daughter's last offer came in this week (Edinburgh).

Still no offers here. Still waiting on 3 of the universities!!!

Waiting on one for medicine. He’s effectively on a reserve list. Fortunately he has an offer, but it’s still frustrating.

I know a few people in real life still waiting to hear from both Scottish and English universities. Ds only heard from Bristol a couple of days ago - hope you get good news soon (ds heard via Trac and then an email from Bristol arrived the next day) - this was for an alternative course.

Kittymckitty is he going to take alternative course? Very few places left anywhere so think we would take anything at the moment!

@Iamsodonewith2020 maybe as he really likes the uni and the course is interesting he was offered Philosophy instead of Philosophy & Politics - it’s the highest of his offers at AAA. He’s fortunate that he has 4 offers (Bristol, Liverpool, Manchester & QMUL) - 2 for Phil & Pol, 1 for Pol (QMUL) and the Bristol offer of Phil so needs to do some proper thinking.

It's very difficult when they leave you hanging on so long, as some (not all) universities do allocate their accommodation by date the residences application was received. So the sooner you can firm your choices and apply for your preferred accommodation, the better.

Finally got Kings last night, so late and now in a quandary about what to firm right in the middle of exams! Hope everyone has now finally got all decisions

Still waiting here on 2 performance courses, luckily DD has 2 offers and her lovely fall-back of academic course offered very quickly. But she’s hoping for an elusive offer from 1 place in particular (30 places c.5000 applicants) so still be in consideration is a huge achievement.
Good luck to everyone waiting, hope we all hear soon.

Still waiting to hear from Ucl and Sheffield here - it’s rubbish and to be honest has put my daughter off accepting either now as they just look so disorganised 😩

Totally understand @TheStirrer doesn’t bode well at all, makes you think what priority they give to student welfare.

Changed name for this one, completely frustrated by UAL. Applying for art school is so difficult in the first place with each one requiring a different portfolio with different criteria.

DC interviewed for two UAL colleges 8 weeks ago. Emailed for updates a few weeks ago. DC was asked to be patient but they were marked as ‘offer’ so just needed to wait for it to feed through, more emails again patience requested as they have a lot to process.

Any university admin people on here - once a decision has been made how difficult is it to update the system???

Anyway DC has decided to withdraw and firmed elsewhere - which had originally been their first choice so nothing really lost.

I assume that there are so many applicants that universities don’t care if their admin process and general disorganisation drives students away.

@UALcantupdateUCAS - wow that sounds very strange to me!

I work in university admissions: after we have interviewed, our team inputs our recommended offers no later than 48 hours later (eg on a Monday if we've interviewed on a Saturday).

If I recommend an applicant for an offer, it's checked by our central team that day (or perhaps the next day if late), and it is then released to UCAS. Our systems automatically hook up with UCAS and update overnight.

We have access to UCAS Weblink which is the 'back end' to the UCAS system and we can see when decisions are 'live' and available for the applicant to view through there account. Usually, this is the next day.

I could be wrong, but sounds like a UAL issue. I'm very surprised that they're recommending an applicant for an offer then taking so long to process. Time is definitely of the essence. I wonder if all their colleges feed into some sort of central processing system which (as you say) does not seem fit for purpose ...

If you don't mind me asking which universities has your son applied for as my son is looking to apply for engineering next year.

@0DimSumMum0 is that question for me?? If so, he applied (for Mechanical Engineering) to Oxford, Bristol, Bath, Exeter and Cardiff. He has offers from Bath, Exeter and Cardiff (Bristol rejected him at the last minute). He will put Bath as his firm choice, but still doesn't know what to put for his insurance choice.

In his research, he decided that the top unis for Engineering were (after Oxbridge), Imperial College London, Bristol, Bath and a couple in Glasgow. (He didn't want to live in London, and Scotland was a step too far away for both him and us!)

DS finally heard from Edinburgh so now decisions need to be made. He has no idea which of the courses to accept. Its ridiculously hard to choose it seems.

@UALcantupdateUCAS DS friend was also waiting to hear from UAL after their interview months ago.

Good job they weren't your DDs first choice, it must be so frustrating.

I'd heard that a lot of students were very unhappy with the way courses were run last year by UAL.

I see from The Student Room that students that have applied for a foundation year at UAL are equally frustrated, with the deadlines for making offers getting pushed back (application is directly to UAL and not via UCAS). Some are holding out on accepting BA offers elsewhere with the hope of getting into UAL. Comes across as being v disorganised.

UALcantupdateUCAS gosh even foundations not confirmed? that's really bad.

@kitnkaboodle Yes, so sorry. I forgot to tag you. Thank you so much for replying. Your son has some amazing offers there. My son is worried about his maths grade so is finding it hard to find some more realistic options for him. I will ask him to look into Cardiff. That's one that he hasn't looked at. Thank you.

@0DimSumMum0 another good option that someone on here recommended to us was Swansea. Apparently it's in the top 15 or so for engineering but its entry requirements aren't too bad - something like AAB. We checked it out and went to have a look around (from the outside!) in December. Seemed good.