Page 2 | Change course - before forming?

balzamico · 2023-03-19T21:14:58+00:00

Dd has had a major wobble and is thinking she might prefer to study English literature rather than history. She has an offer from Bristol and is waiting for Edinburgh and has offer holder days for them both forthcoming. The grade requirements look to be the same and she is predicted higher so that is not an issue. Has anyone done this? She's scared that by raising this she could end up without a place at all (which I have tried to reassure her is unlikely)

LanadelSlay · 21/03/2023 15:16

Thank you, yes, it's for English ... you would hope humanities would follow very soon to fit the offers day timetable!

Hope your dd gets some resolution, it is all stressful. Please DM me if I can help in any way (not sure I can but our dds are both in the same position - sure yours will get an offer very soon!)

LanadelSlay · 21/03/2023 15:16

PS her offer was for A star A A, it was three As for Bristol.

LIZS · 25/03/2023 16:40

@LanadelSlay speaking to dd about Edi she suggests looking at the uni website for the English and History course programmes which should show the compulsory modules for each courses each year She thinks in first year there are 2 for English, 3 for History which would leave another to choose to make 120 credits for the year. There may be restrictions or priority given to those on the relevant degree but if dc did that then it should not be an issue to swap after first year. Or they could request to take English and History combined now then move to either in second or even third year. However she found that if you cannot get on to the compulsory modules in the relevant year it becomes more tricky to swap. So although in theory you could take compulsory first year courses in another subject in second year, you are then out of sync to transfer and might need to resit second year to catch up. Hth

Socrateswasrightaboutvoting · 25/03/2023 20:34

@poetryandwine

Can I ask why some universities take a long time to make their offers or to reject people? No judgement, just curious.

LanadelSlay · 25/03/2023 21:42

LIZS · 25/03/2023 16:40

@LanadelSlay speaking to dd about Edi she suggests looking at the uni website for the English and History course programmes which should show the compulsory modules for each courses each year She thinks in first year there are 2 for English, 3 for History which would leave another to choose to make 120 credits for the year. There may be restrictions or priority given to those on the relevant degree but if dc did that then it should not be an issue to swap after first year. Or they could request to take English and History combined now then move to either in second or even third year. However she found that if you cannot get on to the compulsory modules in the relevant year it becomes more tricky to swap. So although in theory you could take compulsory first year courses in another subject in second year, you are then out of sync to transfer and might need to resit second year to catch up. Hth

Thank you VERY much for this information – it backed up what I’d heard from an ex student I happened to meet a few days ago. Basically, it looks like if her request to change course has not approved initially there are chances further down the line. .@balzamico did emailed Edinburgh, asking to change, got an immediate response saying they would be looking at such requests after April 1, and to contact them again then, they also said - as all the universities have told her - that they will not take away her original offer, so you have nothing to worry about on that score, it means dd will either go with course changed in advance or do it down the line. Dd wants to do joint honours and I was told that should be easier to move to as most people want to do single honours.

poetryandwine · 26/03/2023 17:19

Hi@Socrateswasrightaboutvoting

Some units of admission prefer to see the whole applicant pool, or at least most of it (Overseas can apply late) before making any but the most obvious decisions. Typically these are desirable degree programmes that can get away with doing so.

We are a pretty desirable school but we try to give each applicant a decision within two weeks of interview. I think that’s reasonable but the workload is def lighter if you make large numbers of offers in a small number of intense bouts of work. Some say quick offers for early applicants are unfair to later applicants but I disagree, at least in our School. We maintain high standards and we get a disproportionate number of strong early applicants, because they are applying to Oxbridge, but we have the experience to know how this will play out. It isn’t a problem.

Perhaps other admissions tutors, who do process decisions in large batches, can offer good reasons for this that I am not aware of.

Socrateswasrightaboutvoting · 26/03/2023 19:48

poetryandwine · 26/03/2023 17:19

Hi@Socrateswasrightaboutvoting

Some units of admission prefer to see the whole applicant pool, or at least most of it (Overseas can apply late) before making any but the most obvious decisions. Typically these are desirable degree programmes that can get away with doing so.

We are a pretty desirable school but we try to give each applicant a decision within two weeks of interview. I think that’s reasonable but the workload is def lighter if you make large numbers of offers in a small number of intense bouts of work. Some say quick offers for early applicants are unfair to later applicants but I disagree, at least in our School. We maintain high standards and we get a disproportionate number of strong early applicants, because they are applying to Oxbridge, but we have the experience to know how this will play out. It isn’t a problem.

Perhaps other admissions tutors, who do process decisions in large batches, can offer good reasons for this that I am not aware of.

Thank you, that's really interesting and makes sense for how we have seen offers come out. I had assumed that other than the really early applicants they would be processed as one large batch so was trying to work out why the offers seemed to come through in batches at the same time of night rather than all at once. I was imagining all sorts of complicated scenarios, as we kept vigil. I don't envy you having to make the decision on who to admit when you have so many strong candidates. DDs UCAS process seemed much more straightforward, but she was applying to good but not super competitive Universities or courses unlike DS.