How long to make a decision?

[mrsconradfisher]

DS wants to know how long after you get your results do you get to make a decision? He has a conditional offer for Birmingham for ABB and baring any huge disasters we are quietly hopeful that he will get those grades. Birmingham isn’t actually his first choice Uni and currently he is debating whether to take a gap year and apply again with his grades to his first choice for next year if by any chance he gets the grades they are asking for.
The course at his preferred Uni will definitely not be in Clearing so no chance of him going this year but he did say he would call and ask. Course needs A star AA.
Obviously I appreciate that he’s not going to get weeks and weeks to make a decision but I was hoping for a day or 2 to get his head around the idea.

Ah thanks @poetryandwine - I did wonder re holding the place. Fair enough. I am sure if the OP's DS has A-star AA he will have no trouble gaining a place elsewhere if Lboro are foolish enough to reject him.

Can I make a suggestion? What about just agreeing now that he’s not going to uni this September? He’s not feeling the love for the Birmingham course, you’ve had an awful year and he’s not in the correct headspace. Take away the pressure now.

Once you have the grades, you can devise the correct plan. Go to some open days, some more research and a year of earning/travelling etc.

Because if he gets ABB then Birmingham is the best he’ll be able to do if that makes sense as it’s a reduced offer due to his particular set of A levels. Everywhere else he would look at would need higher than that anyway so he wouldn’t get in.

As much as I’d love him to just make a decision now I think he’s going to have to wait until after the results and go from there.

Still tho OP – I seem to recall he had some concerns wrt the sporting offer at Brum? Just bc it is a great uni and a great city, doesn’t mean it’s the best for your ds. If he is not keen, and ends up with ABB, there are lots of other places he maybe can and should consider. Just as an example, a friend’s DS is at Swansea for sports science and really likes it. There will be other options too – maybe better for him than Brum is he is really not feeling it. It’s a long time and a lot of money if you are not keen tbh. That said, Birmingham is a good option for sure. Could he scout out some ideas now so that he has a better idea of what is out there that he might prefer to Brum if Lboro is no go?

@mrsconradfisher I have looked at clearing and there are Sports Science degrees on there at Loughborough University but with either Geography, English or Maths. Would your son be interested in one of those ? May be worth looking into and finding out what the split between the subjects are. I went with my daughter to some of the open days at Loughborough to look at Sports Science and there seemed to be quite a bit of flexibility choosing modules.

There seemed to be quite a few options for Sports Science on clearing, Lancaster University is a good one, lovely campus too.

Thank you, he had seen those but realistically the only one he could do is Geography. He looked at it and it’s very heavily weighted towards Geography so not ideal. He was actually offered the Sports Science, PE and Coaching degree at Loughborough which he applied for in an attempt to get there but rejected it as it was so heavily focused on coaching whereas he is interested in the science part.

@mrsconradfisher you mentioned maybe Newcastle next year, I noticed Sports Science for there in clearing too. Have spent the last year at many Sports Science open days inc Loughborough, Lancaster and Newcastle, all were very good. My daughter has chosen Sports Science at the Univeristy of Leeds as her firm choice with Lancaster as an insurance.

Ohh is there? He didn’t see that one, I shall get him to have another look. Thank you.

OP, you mentioned some great options for next year that your DS did not apply to this year. I have long thought Bath generally excellent and the students generally look happy when I visit; the place has a great vibe. I was also glad to see that @Violetparis mentioned Lancaster. I think it is now a hidden gem in the way that Bath used to be, and what I said about Bath is equally true there. Of course Durham, Newcastle, Leeds and others are also excellent!

Best wishes to your DS

Although he can't actually submit an application for 2024/25 whilst holding an offer of a deferred place, if UoB will agree to deferral, he has got until January to look at other universities and decide whether he does want to make a new application - in which case, he tells Birmingham that he will not be taking up the place after all - or whether he wants to stick with Birmingham?

I think Bath is definitely one that he would seriously consider. He has never felt Birmingham was right for him, never got a good feel for it despite it being a brilliant uni but no real specific reason. I will get him to have a look at Lancaster as well, it’s not one he has looked at in detail I don’t think.

I honestly think Universities should start in January, let them get their results and apply with grades in hand.

If you get the chance in the future I would be genuinely interested in where your DS ends up going.

I do know Loughborough uses postcodes for WP. We live in a deprived postcode, the road itself is not deprived in the least and we live on one of half a dozen roads in our town that are not exactly millionaires row but nothing like the area. So it shows how WP as a construct of social engineering has its limitations.

Yes of course I will update. Everyone has been so incredibly helpful.

Without sounding dramatic I honestly feel that Loughborough is the Oxford/Cambridge equivalent for Sports related degrees, it’s incredibly hard to get into when you applying from a bog standard low achieving secondary. At the open day we were surrounded by huge amounts of privately educated young people. The girl next to us played lacrosse for England and one the other side that was enquiring where she could keep her ponies! And then there is my DS who just plays football for a grassroots Sunday team but who has absolutely worked his socks off to try and get there with no support from school at all (even with me begging them to put an A star on UCAS!).

Just want next week to be over now so he can try to make a decision!

I have long favoured a post qualification admissions process, OP. Grade predictions are problematic in the best of circumstances and vulnerable to misuse in both directions.

Admissions tutors know it can be done. Our workload would be compressed and somewhat intensified during the key period, but not unbearably so. Overall it would be a wash. The knock on effects for the Y1 university calendar, for the Y13 calendar and for family holidays are the issues that have kept the idea from gaining traction. I continue to believe that the gains in fairness would make it worthwhile

@Lugaburuga is of course correct that WP as currently applied has significant limitations

Not wanting to derail, but as someone at a WP provider, our students are not confident and our outreach and admissions team spend a lot of time trying to build that confidence and sense of belief in our applicants that wouldn't be possible in a PQA arrangement. They need that offer and the time to really become accustomed to the idea of going to university.

Conservatoires and those that rely heavily on auditions and interviews would also struggle with PQA.

So possible to do but don't underestimate the hurdles @poetryandwine!

We need to start building that confidence by Y10, @titchy ! Comfort with HE participation can and should be diffused, through links between schools and HEIs. We used to be better at that before workload became unreasonable

We invite all competitive applicants resident in the UK for interview. We would not change that with PQA but it requires the large scale involvement of colleagues - one of the perceived drawbacks. I stand by my belief that better outcomes make it worthwhile.

I agree! But the reality is that doesn't necessarily work, or target offer holders.

We keep in touch with our offer holders from the day they accept. Personal emails 'Hi Bob, we're really looking forward to meeting you', 'Hi Bob, let us know if you need any help accessing finance or disability support' are far more important in instilling a sense of belonging than being taken on a coach trip to a local uni in year 10.

Agreed. I don’t just mean a coaching trip. We invite pupils into our School from across the region for high quality activities and we have a strong online network also. I think we are one of the better Schools in the university, although again as workload grows this side of things is the first to go

I like the personal emails. Our Student Support Officer is excellent but I don’t think we do anything quite like that. I contact my new personal tutees as soon as I get their details but I think that is a personal quirk

Our institutions may have different missions and therefore different types of outreach. I am always concerned not to out myself

Loughborough is the very best for sports science, I think your Oxbridge comment is spot on, it’s like engineering at Oxford whilst not terrible by a long shot there are far better departments in less admired Universities.

Reading all your posts @mrsconradfisher my view would be for your son to take a gap year, get some relevant career experience (do personal training/exercise instruction at a gym, for example?) and re-apply with grades. And an explanation - maybe from his school teachers' references - that it's a small low-achieving school, and he is one of 6 going on to HE, and that they don't (as a matter of policy) predict A Star grades. These are the kinds of things we academic staff involved in Admissions are trained to look for.

I can understand why his school won't predict A stars if they have so few students going on to HE - they just don't have the context & experience to predict work at high levels, but if he achieves one, then he'll be in a very different position.

If he feels Birmingham isn't right for him, it'll cast a pall over his degree - there'll always be that "What if?" And the degree he wants to do is so specific.

@poetryandwine mentions Lancaster - I used to work there, lovely university, great people, great city - but I'm not sure they do such a good line in Sports Science (although the Roses every year is hotly & expertly contested).

But if he's really, in the pit of his stomach, not wanting to go to Birmingham, he really shouldn't. And if he was rejected by Loughborough in this year's UCAS round, and the course he wants is not in Clearing, I doubt whether there's any point in pinning hopes on persuading them.

I don’t know Sports Science at Lancaster, @FarEast as I am in STEM. In my broad area Lancaster is steaming ahead in both research and Teaching and Learning. Also it seems a happy place in a great location

I am glad you pointed out SS may be different or at least worth investigating

If he doesn't want to go to Birmingham he shouldn't go. That's a very high offer for sports science at Loughborough, I think a fair few might miss it so if he gets the grades he definitely should ring up. They may well take him over someone who missed their grades.