Durham offer after all offer days

[fUNNYfACE36]

Yep dd with predictions of 4 A stars only hot her offer yesterday and all the offer days have been now.
It feels very arrogant!

Thanks @GoldenRuby weve made it to Durham and our hotel! Off out soon to Pizza Express!

Great news for those getting offers finally. DD here still waiting (and quite upset unable to get to an offer holder's day now). Seems such a shame they can't make their decisions in plenty of time. Sadly she's also awaiting Edinburgh - her number 2 choice (should she get offers from both). I feel despondent for her, she's been waiting such a long time and got her initial offers back in October when she applied. Hey ho...

@EmmaStone you're not alone. There's a big gang of us (and an even bigger one on TSR) awaiting Durham and Edinburgh.

What course has your DD applied for and where has she already got offers from?

My DS has offers from Bristol and Heriot Watt (insurance) for A&F

Thanks @bguthb90. She's got offers from Warwick and Exeter, but is set on Durham or Edinburgh. Her course is History based, and yes, I've quietly become a bit obsessed with TSR forums and trackers...I hope she gets the news she hopes for very soon so she can really focus on the exams ahead. Sending vibes your way too for your DC.

She is still waiting on a decision from Edinburgh though.

DD and a couple of friends got Edinburgh offers yesterday so they should be starting to come in for everyone soon!

We are with you @EmmaStone! Still waiting for Durham for History based subject. Offers in some time ago from St Andrews, UCL, KCL and Exeter. DD says it’s a choice between UCL and St Andrews which seems a choice between polar opposites! She wd like to know one way or the other from Durham before deciding but really not sure if waiting until 21 April when those with offers have made accommodation choices is really a good idea. Frustrating!
I definitely won’t be encouraging next DC to put Durham down!

DD got her offer from Durham in feb last year but I can see her course were 2-3 weeks later in starting to offer this year.

looking at Discover Uni entry grades for previous years helped us hang on as we could see her predicted grades put her in the top third of applicants for her particular course.

Two of her friends were effectively held until May - one rejected and one got an offer for history and PPE.

Bristol tell people they aren’t a yes or a no but are on hold - Durham don’t use those terms but it appears anyone who hasn’t heard by Easter is effectively on hold while they wait to see what those offered places do - if they decline the place and firm somewhere else then Durham make more offers to those students on hold. Other unis do it too - London ones and Scottish plus Bristol at Leary they say you are on hold though.

It maximises the number of great students and it insures there aren’t empty places.

This is my guess based on how the system seems to work.

I have fingers crossed for you all and hope you guys hear soon. Please ask re colleges etc - DD loves it. Luckily it was our third go at kids applying to uni and she didn’t have Scottish unis and Durham on the list

*Not Leary should read at least

My DS is at Durham offer holder day as we speak-will have to leave early to catch the last train home, then has St Andrews offer holder's on 1 April (also History).Decided not to visit Edinburgh, as student satisfaction/teaching/lots of travel across the city didn't appeal to him.
Seems the only way to have a single room is to self-cater, which is a real shame, as eating in college/hall is what he wanted...he was really keen on HildBede, until realised that the college moves in 2024 and won't return to the old site for 3 years:(

@GerronBuzanDoThaWomwok lots of the catered colleges have single rooms, but most have some shared rooms as well. So if you want a 100% guarantee you may have to go for self-catered but if you choose wisely you can get catered with a low risk of sharing. None of my DD's friendship group at St John's are in shared rooms. From memory Chads may be the one to avoid if you don't want to share, as they have a higher % of shared rooms.

@EmmaStone, don’t give up hope yet. DC got Durham offer (involving history) today and Edinburgh this week too. Still waiting (form an orderly queue…) to hear from St Andrews. DC a bit disappointed to have missed the Durham offer holder day by mere hours but am just glad the wait is (almost) over. Now we’ve ‘only’ got to survive the actual blooming exams…

On our way back from Durham - Mary’s is all single rooms and catered.

We have visited Castle, Chads, Johns, Hatfield and Mary’s if anyone has any questions about them

The late offering is extremely off putting. My ds put Durham as one of his choices last year, but having got offers from everywhere else by the end of January, decided not to keep waiting (and waiting…) for Durham. The thing is, though, even though I have a relative who went there who always waxed lyrical about it, it has seriously put me off encouraging my other ds to apply there. It may be a very prestigious university, but when you have offers from other equally and more prestigious universities already, it really doesn’t feel worth waiting for, even if you might have chosen it had the offer come in at a reasonable time like every-bloody-where-else. After all, if they really wanted you, they wouldn’t be so offensively tardy in their response times. It’s not as if they wait months before offering to 100% of applicants, so offence taken is, imvho, the logical conclusion. Either they don’t believe your application is serious, or they prefer other people, but regardless, it seems to reinforce the Oxbridge reject reputation, as who would wait until May to turn down an offer from Oxford or Cambridge, even if they did marginally prefer Durham?

I think it’s obviously personal preference as to how people feel about Durham and I understand if you are early entry then it’s a long wait. My dd didn’t apply to Oxbridge and submitted her UCAS mid November and got an offer on 26 January so she has been fortunate. Bristol made my ds wait till I think March a couple of years ago so it’s not just Durham.

Yaay!! Hope your DD has had a good look around today and it’s helped with her decision making. We all know Durham offer late including Durham surely, so why not provide a late offer day - maybe it’d be too close to exams and no-one would turn up? Or depts very busy with isn students approaching end of semester?

@KittyMcKitty wow, sounds like you had a productive day! I hope it has helped your DD with her rankings.

Mary's has changed since I went then, it was definitely shared rooms back then, though it was also still all female! Made for an interesting first term for those of us who got bumped there!

@NotDonna I believe Durham have said they can't put on a later day as when their existing students return from the Easter break it is Uni exam season. Everyone will be head down revising or sitting these, so there would be no students available to run tours and it wouldn't be possible to give access to colleges because of this. By the time uni exams are over A levels have started. As it is term finished last Friday, so my DD and others have volunteered to stay on (she isn't paid for it) to show prospective students around over the last two days.

I know that some other unis do find a way of running later dates but it may be that the nature of their sites or open days means that they can be run in a more self contained way with no impact on existing students. I do appreciate that this is really frustrating, but I'm also glad that the Uni recognises that these events will be distracting during the critical work period for current students. Of course the best solution would be for them to make all offers in advance of their March open days!

Thank you! He was going to look at Chad's, so waiting until he is home to see what he thought 😎

Thank you for the info re. Mary's-from what I can gather via variable mobile signal, he was en route look at Mary's but ran out of time and possibly never actually arrived 😑
Will see what he thinks later...
In terms of the "feel" of those you saw today, did any stand out in terms of student support and also somewhere for a slightly shy, sociable (but not a party animal!) boy to feel at home?
And is Hatfield really as loathed as people say (apologies to anyone with DC there-it just seems that every video we have seen mentions Hatfield as a place to avoid!)

Chads is 75% shared for first year they said today. I have to dd loved Chads - it’s her first choice - having been against sharing she says she would share to go there.

Marys has mixed corridors although they do have single sex corridors. Which can be requested.

Hatfield 25% shared (didn’t get great vibe from the tour)

Dd is shy but sociable. Her ranking is

Chads
Castle
Marys
Cuths
Johns
Hatfield
The rest

But she wants Bailey and her subject teaches on Old Elvert so the hill colleges are a long way away!

The lower and older hill colleges will be fine though, Mary's is great for Old Elvet and the best place if you like to nab an early slot in the library before everyone else gets up 😂