University Offers Coming In 23/4 - part 2!

[WombatChocolate]

Following on from the old thread which was getting full….come and share the highs and lows of the journey that is A Levels and UCAS!

Hi Pumpkin - there are v few unis that do Arabic and what she really likes about Exeter is that it is fantastically rich department (funded by a Gulf sheik) which means beautiful building, loads of staff which means loads of options, a scholarship of £1500 cash per year per student to spend as they like, and a really intensive course which gives a masters after 4 years, not a BA like other English unis. It is just the best department. But she also liked the greenness of the campus and particularly liked the music there - she is a keen bass guitarist - lots of unis reserve their music rooms and facilities for Music students, but Exeter doesn’t have a music degree so all the facilities are for anyone to use.

Congratulations to your DD @TenSheds. I hope all goes well with the results and she has an amazing time.
(ETA Apparently it is too early in the morning for me to be able to spell!)

I'm new to this thread too!

DS had an offer from Bath yesterday which surprised me as I wasn't expecting anything until next month at the earliest. He's got another couple of Bath applications in that he hasn't heard from yet though, so I presume it depends on the course (his are all finance related)...

@Delphigirl That sounds amazing! I can definitely see why it is her first choice. DD’s course comes under the medical school and is mostly taught at St Luke’s campus, which also looks lovely and green. DD likes the look of the course at Bristol better, but I have a feeling that once she sees Exeter she may change her mind. She doesn’t really want a big city, unless it is Edinburgh.

Ds applied in October for history & politics. He’s got all offers Warwick B’ham Nottingham Sheffield Leicester. He’s backed into a bit of a corner as Warwick came back with a contextual offer which is the same as his fallback (Leicester).

wishing all the kids the best for this last stretch.

I’ve had/got 2 kids at Sheffield and Birmingham and one at Plymouth and I have to say the older ones are looking at the one in Devon wondering why they didn’t go to university beside the seaside! There is something about being able to mess around by the sea/on a beach which is really appealing - Exeter and St Andrews have that…

This is an extremely helpful post, thank you.

Regarding KCL you don't see too many parents on here talking about it, was your DD on the Strand part? Which halls was she in in the first year? We have now processed the Oxford decision and are getting excited about KCL! Can you also share what area of London the student accommodations for the subsequent years were in?

I was in London a few weeks ago and I'm guessing there are some brilliant employment opportunities, the Strand campus is in theatre land and we went to a matinee performance and would hazard a guess the ushers and bar staff were students.

I am so glad your daughter has had such a positive experience and has landed her dream job!

Thanks for the new thread @WombatChocolate and commiserations and congratulations to Oxford people, DD flirted with the idea of Oxbridge initially - heavily pushed by school - but handily neither of them do the course she wants (Geology particularly BSc) so didn't have that extra stress to go through. Interestingly her school - selective grammar, traditionally very high-achieving - had a nightmare this year with Oxford, no-one who applied was even invited for interview but all of the Cambridge ones had interviews! DD is one who has 5 offers which I'm very glad about, she was stressed about applying later than some of her friends when they were getting offers etc, offer holder days start next month so that should be interesting. At least we'll have mock results in by the time we start on them so will have a little more of an idea where she's at compared to predicted.

@TabMcTat not sure about Newcastle or Bath but I know that for Leeds it depends entirely on course as to whether they offer early or keep them all to one side until the deadline then offer all at once. We were talking to the Earth Sciences offer person at open day and for DD's course they offer as and when, but for Earth Science (within the same department so the same person going through them) they keep them all back until after deadline as it's a more popular course so want to avoid overcrowding.

Hope that now we're getting into the swing of Jan those waiting will get some good news 😊

Thank you @HenryIV, I found this reassuring too and those rents are very similar to say Bath. I think Imperial has some very expensive rooms - large en-suites which are mainly taken up by the international students. If ds gets a place, he'll have to consider the cheaper halls, preferably the ones near Hyde Park.

I'd like ds to get a job this summer ideally for a few weeks, perhaps in hospitality. I think his course (STEM) will be full on but I reckon he could do an evening a week during it to bring in some pocket money.

Hi, new to this thread. I used to be on the GCSE 9-1 first year thread and A level 2020 thread but dd has been working for a few but now decided to go back to uni to study sports science.

She has the wrong A levels and only 2 of them (she did a dance/musical theatre diploma instead) so although her grades are A star A, she has applied to foundation year. An offer so far from Cardiff Met. Still waiting on LJMU, Manchester Met, Brighton & Wolverhampton (though she has now discounted the latter).

My daughter did a one year musical theatre course the other side of London and whilst she was studying she did work at one of the theatres in The Strand. She then stayed on there after her course finished although she took various leave of absences for her own performing work.

It is pretty competitive to get a job there and is is mostly performing arts students but it is a great job to have.

DD got 3 offers for natural sciences from Leeds (preferred) Huddersfield, Lancaster and an interview for Loughborough.

Awaiting Nottingham

Has anyone had an offer for Exeter for any of the Economics courses? We've had offers from Liverpool, Sheffield and Lancaster. Leeds have stated they won't make a decision until later but nothing from Exeter ...submission was only done just before Christmas though.

@henryiv - thanks for the reassurance about London, this is my biggest worry.

Am new to this thread. I really felt all the joy and pain yesterday hearing about the Oxford offers and redirections. It really is such a brutal process.
I'm a mum of twins, both making STEM applications. They're both still waiting for Cambridge outcomes (although we're pretty sure it's a no after difficult interviews) and also St Andrews. One has offers from Durham, UCL and Bristol and the other UCL and Bristol and has an interview on 31 Jan for Manchester. Good luck to all our kids and thanks to all of you, these threads really, really help when you realise you are not alone!

Good luck for your twins, in our family along with my DS who was rejected from O yesterday his twin cousins also applied. One was made an offer the other wasn't.

Unfortunately the one who wasn't is pretty devastated. He has always been the twin with the 'brain'.

I know you are aware that this is a possibility but I really hope this doesn't happen to your DC. I am sure the disappointed twin in my family will be fine in time but he was the one who has made education his identity so it has really stung.

Oof @lifeturnsonadime what a horrible position for the twins to be in. And their parents… hard to fully celebrate the achievement of the twin who got in, and hard to fully commiserate with the rejected twin without dismissing the other twin’s achievements.

Does the rejected twin have other offers?

It is hard. The rejected twin does have other offers but right now they are not much consolation.

The accepted twin is sensible and caring so he will be alert to his brothers difficulty. I think his success will be downplayed as a result of this, after all oxbridge really isn't the be all and end all. My brother in law has also pointed out that he needs to knuckle down and get the grades first!

Accepted twin did make me smile yesterday when he texted my son when he knew he was the only successful one with something like 'it's official I'm the most intelligent [insert surname] in the family', I think my son texted back with something like 'at least I'll have more fun'!

Thanks Life. Yes, it's actually what we are dreading most as both work equally hard and both have identical grades. It's always been an added pressure for year end exams, GCSE results etc. I think you learn to praise the effort and attitude and much less the actual results. But it is hard because this outcome could determine the biggest step they've ever taken. I'm really dreading the 24th.

Absolutely right. Getting a place comes down to a real element of luck. So many really talented DC are overlooked simply because there are not enough spaces.

I really hope you get the right outcome for your DC and good luck with it.

I'm so sorry that your DS didn't get an offer yesterday and also how difficult it must be for his twin cousins. This sounds very much like our family, we downplay any major success for one, out of respect for the other. Hope your DS has much fun at uni indeed!

Thank you. It was a long shot for my son for a number of reasons, he was a school refuser for pretty much the whole of high school (undiagnosed SEN) who has only come back to formal education for 6th form having scraped through with 6 GCSEs! He did very well to get an interview at Oxford.

He is fine about it, he has admitted he wanted to go for O to see if he could get an offer and for the prestige! He'll be more than happy in London which was always the real dream. So in a way he's got what he needed out of the process which was to know he was good enough to be shortlisted for interview which means that he was academically capable to get a place, I'm not sure O would have been right for him which probably reflected in the interview so I am sure it's the right outcome. I'm proud that he gave it a go given his background and he's now a very hard worker and will thrive at one of the top universities for his subject which was unimaginable as recently as just over 2 years ago.

What an absolutely incredible DS you have. You should be so very proud of him. Wishing him all the very best.

Thank you and I am, he is one of the bravest and most resilient people I know x

Hi has anyone heard from Reading University yet? DS has applied for Philosophy and English but this is the only one yet to reply. He has had offers so far from Hull, Kent, Essex and Nottingham but he doesn't want to make any decisions until he has heard from all of them.