University offers coming in?

[WombatChocolate]

Just for nosiness and due to excitement about DS’s application going in, wondered if we could have a thread with people sharing offers as they are received, during this early phase.

Has anyone had an offer yet? Who will be first?

And totally realise that most won’t have applied yet and won’t do so for months and that’s absolutely fine and more normal.

Thanks @catmomof3 good to know!!! The contextual offers thing is so difficult to negotiate as different places have different criteria and ways of processing information

We have a hold for Bristol psychology 3 days after submission. First choice so in it for the long haul

I thought 'contextual offers' are one thing but firming offers another. So if you meet contextual criteria you get an offer of BBB say, when normal offer would be AAB. But if you do not have any contextual criteria you can get the BBB offer if you firm it.
So I mean they are different things leading to the same offer. At some unis only obviously.

@Makingplansfor2029 what does 'a hold' mean?

It’s some gong which Bristol and a few others do. It means they have met the criteria but they’re not going to offer until later. My experience with my eldest is that it can take months to get the offer or not. I think they often hold out initial until people pull out post oxbridge offers and then when people accept other places. It’s pretty common with them, eldest got the Bristol offer in March.

This seems bizarre to me - using someone's disadvantaged background as a way of pushing them into firming.

I have heard of unis offering anyone and everyone a grade lower if you firm - Sussex explain this very nicely iirc - they say that if you are so keen to go there that you firm them, they are likely to let you in with a dropped grade because they value your enthusiasm for them. So why not offer you the dropped grade now, kind of thing. But I didn't realise some unis only give contextual offers to people who firm.

Oh right @Makingplansfor2029 - like what they call deferred in the US.

My DD has a contextual offer from Bristol for neuroscience based on being at an 'aspiring' school. There is nothing to say she has to make it her firm, which is great as it is her 3rd choice uni. If she gets an offer from Oxford (long shot!) or Edinburgh, then Bristol will be her insurance. If she doesn't, then it will be her firm. Really pleased for her as having that offer has taken the pressure right off, especially as Edinburgh don't normally give out offers until the spring.

I think it depends on the uni and how they do contextual offers, my daughter's friend last year was offered contextual at UCL but didn't have to firm if he wanted to accept it. He did anyway as it was his first choice uni. I think Leeds is a bit different because they also make you do an online course before you can accept their contextual grades. My daughter isn't firming Leeds unless all 3 of her other choices fall through anyway.

DD got an offer from Birmingham today AAA to read Law with French Law.

Also applied to Oxford, Leeds, Exeter and Warwick. And heard that's she's been assigned to St Anne's College for the open application to Oxford.

It looks like my daughter might have Nottingham offer too- but they have sent an email saying she accepted rather than the actual offer email!

We have also had an AAB offer from Sheffield for psychology. It has been a good day

Great to hear more offers are coming in.
Anyone had a Lancaster offer yet?

I haven’t heard of any Lancaster offers yet @spacechimp79. DD is hoping for one too.

Fingers crossed @Rollergirl11

Great that people are getting offers 😊. DD liked Lancaster but in the end decided the course there wasn’t right and went with Exeter instead.

@PumpkinKnitter what course did she apply for? DD applied for Exeter too. I think it’s probably one of her favourites and she would be very happy to go there.

@Rollergirl11 She has applied for neuroscience. Exeter was a last minute choice after she decided biology + psychology at Lancaster wasn’t what she wanted, so we haven’t actually been there yet. Hoping she will be able to go to an offer day, assuming she gets one. She would love to go to Edinburgh but it is a very over-subscribed course - fortunately she has other good options. What has your DD applied for?

DS got a very quick neuroscience offer from Exeter the year before last, so fingers crossed they won't keep your DD waiting for long @PumpkinKnitter 🤞

@stoneysongs That is encouraging!😊 Did he end up at Exeter and / or studying neuroscience? How did he find it?

@PumpkinKnitter

He went to Nottingham in the end, had an epiphany in his first year that he didn't actually like biology much (or any stem, having done maths, biology and physics A levels 🤦‍♀️) and is now in his first year of an archaeology degree, still at Nottingham. This says much more about DS than it does about neuroscience though! It's a great subject to do imo, there are bound to be big breakthroughs in that field over the next few decades I reckon, very exciting.

@stoneysongs My subject is history and I worked for many years as an archivist. Archaeology is a great choice 😊. Good for him swapping rather than ploughing on with something he wasn’t enjoying.

DD loves psychology, enjoys biology and loves being in a lab, so I think neuroscience will be a great choice for her. She has tried to pick unis where she will be able to do some psychology modules alongside the neuroscience / biomedical modules. She just really enjoys anything to do with the brain! I agree, it is a field which is going to be hugely important, so 🤞it works out for her. If it doesn’t, she knows she can switch, or go into something completely different after graduating - her sister studied Italian and linguistics and ended up as an accountant 🤣

Ha, accountancy does seem to grab quite a few from other disciplines!

The only bit DS really enjoyed was his optional module, which was in psychology. Not enough to move to a psychology degree though. It was a surprise when he switched but looking back, he had always enjoyed history but gave it up after GCSE because the A level was "too much Hitler and not enough Romans". So the signs were there 😂

I work for one of the big firms in tax, any degree will be acceptable pretty much to get in the big firms.
I had an interesting chat with a new audit grad recently. He did accountancy and finance degree or something similar. He gets exemptions for some exams, but as he took modules he enjoyed at uni he is still doing the tougher for him professional exams now! I had never thought about that before!
Always do a degree you will enjoy- not what you think looks good!

This is really useful to know @Norma27
I feel like my dd would be able to get into a 'top uni' for English lit rather than CS due to her A level and gcse results but she believes there are more career prospects with a cs degree.