Exeter admissions

[breeze77]

Hi all, we went along to the Exeter open day yesterday and absolutely loved it! It’s jumped straight to the top of the list. However we are a bit confused about how offers are made in a competitive uni like this.
The expected grades listed on the website for DDs subject are AAB. If she has this or higher in predictive grades, will she get an offer? They didn’t seem too bothered about anything other than grades in the admissions talk we went to. They talked about how they teir the applications into grade groups (3 a stars followed by 2 a stars and an a, etc). Am I correct in thinking that they then work down this list until all their places have been offered? So predicted grades of AAB might not be enough if there are lots of applicants with A stars?
We should have gone to speak to them about how it works but the day was so full that we completely ran out of time.
Thank you!

@Annasoror thanks for your encouraging words! Yes, he will have a go. Really likes Swansea too and should make the grades (BBB) so hopefully he will get something!

@breeze77 have you visited Swansea as well? Just wondered how it compared to Exeter as you say Exeter top of your DD’s list? X

Thank you everyone. This has been a great discussion. I’m much clearer on how it works now. Fingers crossed for good predicted grades now!

@clary thank you. We did chat about the 4th year thing and she is quite happy with it. We’ll see how she feels at the time but hopefully as @Annasoror says, she’ll have plenty of mfl friends to be with.

@MFLmother yes the swansea open day was our first one. Exeter is obviously much larger and ‘grander’ than swansea. She loved the lecturer who did the talk for us. In fact, I have no language skills or interest at all and I would have happily gone to his lectures. So interesting.
At the moment I think Swansea would be her second choice (like you said, the grades are much lower) but it’s a bit closer to home which she’s not sure about and the town isn’t as nice as Exeter.
We also looked at Aberystwyth. She loved the area but the uni didn’t wow her and the talks weren’t that great. The English lectures are all online there too which she wasn’t keen on.

@MFLmother also, I went to Swansea (a few years ago now!) which is a bit off putting for her. But I LOVED it there. Literally had the time of my life!

@breeze77 thanks for replying. My DS has similar thoughts to your DD it seems - we’re visiting Lancaster and Aber next month! DS wants to be by the sea.

A sunny day makes all the difference doesn’t it.
It’s funny how little things swing it for them…or against.

Here is a list of Offer rates from different universities. Last year Exeter was at around 80% but it has dropped down significantly. Also this list doesn’t tell you anything about the individual subjects but interesting to compare.

@breeze77 @Annasoror I agree re MFL students bring supportive in final year. But I found it a bit grim tho going into phi lectures and seminars and knowing no one, and not having peopke i knew to discuss with. Dd took Eng lit and found the final year much improved by having a supportive network of other Englishers. People staying on to do a masters is no help there Astley are still not on your course any more. If I has my time again I would deffo deffo choose two MFL instead. Just worth bearing in mind.

Sorry for typos, as they are not on your course etc

@clary this is a really great point. I hadn’t actually looked at it from a lectures or study group point of view. Will get my daughter to give it some thought. Although I think she’s sold on doing them both at the moment. Thank you.

It certainly helps! We’ve been very lucky so far in that all of the open days we’ve been to have been warm sunny days. We do have to keep reminding ourselves that uni terms are mostly over the winter!

That is exactly how we narrowed it down! She loved the Quayside in Exeter & the fact that it was usable water. There were people out kayaking and some sailing when we were there this week. And the beaches being a short train ride away. And of course on the doorstep to Cornwall. I’m not sure Lancaster will be quite the same. There doesn’t seem to be such easy access to usable water there. But we’ll see.

Don’t forget that applicants have 5 choices on their UCAS form. So in universities, we need to make rather more offers than places, as (arithmetically)we could only have 1 in 5 applicants accept our offer.

Pf course, we don’t quite make offers for 5 times the number of places! But we do make more offers than places, so if your DC is predicted the ball park grades, an appropriate PS, and supportive references, they are more likely than not to receive an offer.

Some places interview of gave other kinds of selection processes (my department interviews) so that’s potentially the other hurdle.

It isn’t nearly as competitive as Warwick (or Loughborough for anything vaguely linked to sport).

@era your generalisations aren’t helpful or accurate. In my discipline, currently Exeter is at the top of 3 league tables for that subject. And it’s one of the few UK universities in the world top 100 for Humanities.

I was an external examiner there for some time and know the university quite well. It’s a university whose Humanities departments really set the pace in several
disciplines.

At the point I made that comment the OP hadn’t even said which subject it was for so of course it was a generalisation. In general Exeter is less competitive than Warwick and less competitive than Loughborough sports courses.

ds has insured Exeter (for a humanities subject). I have nothing against it!

Also, I used to teach at Lancaster. Wonderful university, lovely tiny city. But if you’re going to label Exeter as far away, then Lancaster is equally so.

And at Lancaster, the Lake District or Morecambe Bay are a 30 minute train or bus trip away.

Im not up for an argument. They’re both great universities.

Exeter to exmouth is a half hour drive - slightly more from campus. Lancaster to morecambe is 12 minutes, about half an hour from campus since it’s the other side of the city. It’s practically the same. Clearly Exeter is on average warmer.

It’s all irrelevant in reality since the DC are likely to just base their decision on how they “feel” there. A rainy day can make all the difference.

Completely off topic, but would you mind if I just picked your brains on Lancaster and the ‘usable’ water? DD is enjoying surfing at the moment, she also sometimes paddle boards, but mostly just enjoys being in the water! I don’t know the Lancaster area at all but did watch some you tube videos about Morecambe. It doesn’t look like the type of sea front where you go in the water? Is that just because I’ve picked rubbish videos? Or is it more of a sea front rather than a beach? Also, where would you suggest is the easiest/quickest area in the Lake District to get to using public transport from Lancaster?
Thank you so much!

Yeah, that’s a fair point clary. I did French and Latin so had the same thing in the Classics Dept, but spent most of my time with the French lot. There were a small number of us who always sat together in Latin.

Having seen DD’s friends who’ve been through the application process recently anyone with a MFL had substantially lower offers than everyone else (for the same university but a different subject) a reflection on there are not that many candidates wanting to do it. So if you hear of Unis offering A star A A for most subjects but your DC is doing MFL don’t dismiss it as offers likely to be lower.

My DNephew (comprehensive school) went to Exeter and left a few years ago. He enjoyed it but did say there was a large proportion of private students and there was pressure on certain lifestyle choices that made him uncomfortable.

I agree. Moreover, my uni is crying out for males who want to take MFL. Course is heavily dominated by women and, in our student satisfaction surveys, they complain about the imbalance! I am not saying we positively discriminate on MFL towards boys (so few students - either gender - want to take MFL so we offer to virtually everyone now!). All MFL students welcome - and boys in particular!

Which is your uni joggingsucks? [Great name by the way - jogging does suck!]

@Annasoror not going to out myself (hence named changed - just taken up jogging but not liking it!). RG Uni, popular for flexible MFL course (aka. students can avoid literature here)! As I alluded to yesterday, a huge issue for us is the lack of male students (we are at 27% last year). Female students (bulk of our course) mark us down on SS surveys because of it. So, if a male student misses their offer by a grade or two, we will almost always take them

Frankly I am shocked at such an admission policy. Especially when a higher proportion of young women choose university over young men anyway. Policies like this will distort opportunities for women. I am surprised female students mark down a course due to lack of males, it makes it sound like they are going to university for the wrong reasons. I get that it is good to get different perspectives but surely as long as there are a variety of voices having more of one sex isn’t going to really matter???

I don’t look at a university by percentage sex of the cohort. DD didn’t either. She knows her course is one typically taken by more females than males. I believe the uni DD is going to 45% or more identify as non-binary anyway.

@Joggingsucks Does the university get penalised in some way by some authority if they don’t have balanced intakes? Or is it just the satisfaction survey?