University offers 2024 part 3!!

[mondaytosunday]

Adding new thread as other full up!
For Bath query: Deadline is 1 July for guaranteed first year. It says on the website that it's randomly allocated according to stated preference and course status (don't know what that means). There's a lot of preferences! Not just catered/self catered and the building, but quiet/single sex/LGBTQ/additional requirements/even those with assistance animals!
It really wouldn't be fair to do it first come first serve unless they had all the offers out first (which they don't as we are still waiting).

@PatriciaHolm 😅

DD finally got an offer from Edinburgh. Think if it had come sooner she might have considered it but think she’s going to firm Bristol. She’s got her Spanish speaking tomorrow so wants to get that done first before making a decision

Rejection from LSE. I'm away from home so had a long call from her. The loan seems to become a very big deal for her.
I said ok so you didn't get in to your top choices but they were two of the most competitive (Cambridge and LSE), but did get in two in the top ten. I guess part of her thinks three A stars and A star EPQ what more do they want (no exams or interviews at LSE). Of course she knows many will be applying with those grades (though not all PQA), but quoting stats doesn't help! She'll get over it in time, but it's tough.

What more do they want? I expect LSE would prefer students who are going to be paying overseas mega fees.

I’m really sorry to hear that @mondaytosunday , especially after such a long wait. Hope that once the initial disappointment has settled, she will be able to get excited about one of her other excellent options.

Mondaytosunday, her options all have their advantages and disadvantages. DD was very disappointed not getting Cambridge but Bath offers things that Cambridge doesn't..

@MirandaWest - It’s infuriating by Edinburgh doing offers so late, but I heard of quite a few people getting joint honours office for something with Spanish yesterday, so your DD was far from alone. Any questions about Edinburgh feel free to message me (your username resonates by the way 🤩)

Sorry to hear about late rejections. Even when they know there are heaps of equally qualified candidates, they still had hope…and the the lateness leaves a bitter taste. No doubt they will move on pretty quickly, but commiserations to the student and parents for whom it’s hard at the moment. It’s a shit system and without doubt there is some randomness in terms of who does and doesn’t get offers for some of these very popular courses.

Ds said there were Aton of rejections at his school from LSE yesterday, similar profile - all 3 or 4 x A star candidates (state school too). LSE seems more difficult to get into than Oxbridge but as others have said, a lot of places go to international students. Commiseratiions too for those still waiting for Edinburgh.

Good luck to your dd for her Spanish oral @MirandaWest - at least one exam will be out of the way early.

• A ton

Just had a text from DD saying that Spanish oral went really well. With two exclamation marks! Am really pleased for her.

Ahhh @mondaytosunday I'm so sorry re LSE but she has some great options and I’m sure one of them will be the absolute right place for her!

@mondaytosunday so sorry your daughter got bad news from LSE even with her excellent achieved grades. I can see why she is miffed!

@MirandaWest congrats on the Edinburgh offer even if your daughter won’t take it up. One of my son’s close friends got an Edinburgh offer for Latin yesterday and will be firming it. Also glad get Spanish oral went well.

So sorry your dd didn’t get into LSE @mondaytosunday . Hopefully she has an offer she is happy with.

@MirandaWest congrats on the Edinburgh offer.

@KittyMcKitty she's waiting for her college allocation. If it's St John's then most likely Durham, if she gets something like Trevelyan ....
We will visit Bath in the next couple weeks.
However, this morning she was also considering deferring (f possible) and doing another year out - something like VSO (though I think she needs a degree) but something along those lines. I said do some research and we can sit down this weekend to talk it through. She was thinking this may cement her degree subject choice. (Also leaving possibility of doing another ucas cycle)
She does say she definitely wants to go to uni and can see herself going in to academia, though neither of us are quite sure what that actually means in practise.
I keep saying take it one step at a time, which is an undergraduate degree first. But she wants a roadmap and feel sure where she is aiming for.
My gut feeling is she will go to uni in September, most likely Durham, and will be telling me at Christmas that this was just a bit of a panic blip.

@mondaytosunday if she does choose Durham she will obv be doing the same modules that my dd has done this year. If she has any questions about the course please say and I will get dd to answer. Dd has really enjoyed her first year.

Re colleges I know it’s such a nightmare the way they do it but students do seem to love wherever they end up. There are parents with dc at many colleges on MN and all are v happy. People from DD’s school are at Grey, South, Collingwood and VM amongst others and all are v happy. Dd has a few friends who wanted Bailey but got Grey and are really happy - good location and according to dd v nice dining room.

She's having major wobbles now and feels like she's made a huge £30k mistake applying to LSE instead of UCL even though she always maintained she didn't want to go to uni in London. I think the reality of leaving home and then the cost of the maintenance loan is freaking her out. She's convinced herself she's going to hate it no matter where she goes! And @KittyMcKitty she's also convinced herself she will be allocated St Aidan's (last on her list). Lots of tears last night. But she has done the SFA bit and put Durham down, though we will visit Bath next week. She has looked into a second year out (and applying again next cycle) but dismayed to discover all the volunteering costs at least £2k/month plus flights and living, which s counterproductive to her wanting to save money. Why oh why they are limited to only five choices?! She says she didn't think it through.

@mondaytosunday everything you’ve said about your dd indicates that she thinks things through very carefully- maybe she is just overthinking?

she is vanishingly unlikely to be allocated Aidans if it’s her 16th choice. Hopefully she will get Johns - when dd puts Chads first I did say to her you know it’s only a 40% chance of getting it and she quite rightly pointed out that someone had to be in that 40% as there are 140 first years! Also the course will be exactly the same wherever she’s allocated. I would be inclined to speak to disability support tomorrow as they are very helpful. Durham and the colleges are a great half way house in a way towards leaving home - it does ease them into it. It is a very safe city - dd has never felt unsafe.

And the course is great - yes HSPS may be ranked higher etc but she categorically will not be in a cohort of Oxbridge rejects Durham is the vast majority of peoples first choice. I’m sure dd will answer any questions she has.

What was her original plan after the art foundation course? I’m guessing something art related - is she sure she wouldn’t rather do something along those lines? It’s difficult sometimes when they have such good grades - dd had many people try to persuade her she should be doing Nat Sci / Biomed etc but she knew what she wanted to do and is very happy with her choices.

Im sorry she’s feeling miserable- do you think it stems from the Cambridge rejection? If so then maybe it would help to talk through her feelings with someone to help her process them? I hope she feels happier soon.

Thanks @KittyMcKitty. She said after the walk maybe she was just hormonal. I was away when she heard from LSE and she called in tears but then texted later she felt ok and was excited - then down the rollercoaster again!
Yes she's on the art foundation course now and has made good friends - and fears it's because they are all arty. But she doesn't want to go back to that (I said most of the courses she was thinking of applying to a year ago were in clearing last year so is a possibility of she wanted). She likes studying and writing essays and would even consider becoming an academic. And yes all this fuss about money and I haven't said she'd have to have the loans if she was going to C but I know she'd just say 'yes but it's CAMBRIDGE'! I don't know when she got so snobby about universities.
We are very very close and I've told her she needs to spread her wings. She knows it too, but change is hard.

Durham (and I’m sure everywhere) will give her lots of arty opportunities. Dd was one of the mini decs for Candlemas (Chads big ball in epiphany term) and they created all of the decorations for the ball (this years theme was Toy Story) - so for marquee, Quad, JCR rooms, chapel, dining hall etc - they were amazing! There are loads of other similar creative opportunities- similarly with DUST. There’s also an art history type degree so she could always do one of their modules for her free choice one.

Durham accommodation has deffo come down in price this year - dd is paying £150 next year in the viaduct - she says it’s 7 mins from Elvet riverside. So cost wise it’s not that dissimilar to what my ds is paying in Manchester.

Disappointment is hard and when you have an interview etc somewhere you start imagining yourself there and it becomes a reality almost so I get how she feels. My children went to a grammar school and I always remember what their very wise head teacher said in his speech to incoming year 7 parents (this is 10 years ago now so it must have made an impact on me) - he said that the biggest challenge with academically able students is that they have in general not found things overly challenging and that as a school their most important task was to help them deal with the shock of suddenly finding something hard and maybe failing at something. He said their role was to make sure that they didn’t give up in these situations l. He of course said it way more eloquently then I’ve just put it but I hope you get the gist.

genuinely though if she has any questions about the coursenor the city do say and I’ll ask dd.

@mondaytosunday I can understand her logic of having an expectation of getting in somewhere she wants given her achieved grades. This link shows the courses UCL had in clearing last year. I suspect most went to international students but given her grades, I would contact them and ask, the worst they can say is no.

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/courses_with_places_available_in

My heart goes out to your daughter and hope she is in a position to be more positive about her choices soon. At least she has a few more months before having to make a final decision. It is a big change for them so she won’t be alone in having a bit of a wobble.

This may or may not help - there was a very recent what do they know request on college allocations. For 2022/23 75% of students who placed St John’s as their top prefence received it as their initial allocation. There were reallocations after results but she would have higher priority for keeping the initial allocation with her achieved grades if she has firmed Durham. Full details here.

A while ago (I was obsessing whilst waiting for my son’s Durham offer), I also found buried in a foi request on ethnicity and religion a breakdown of the A level grades of entrants by course. It is the very last tab of the response to this request. Durham has a very strong cohort of extremely bright students - she won’t be alone in have straight A stars. I know it isn’t Cambridge but she will still have an academically rewarding experience at Durham or Bath.

@FebuarySmith she has. They said apply next cycle (I imagine most of those courses listed in the link were in clearing plus which would not be available to my DD if I am correct in understanding the criteria, or at least will have to risk having no place at all as will have to decline all her offers first).
@KittyMcKitty if only getting rejected from Cambridge was her first taste of failure - she did not get into the sixth form she wanted, did not get into the Art foundation she wanted, now not the uni she wanted. She has had to work very hard for her A stars (she was predicted a B in History). Plus her MS and death of her Dad... she had dealt with a lot. She feels she should have a bit of luck coming her way!
However Durham, Bath and Glasgow are not exactly poor choices! I did say at one point that ok so she didn't succeed in getting offers to two of the most competitive universities in the UK along with thousands of other A star candidates but still has excellent options! She counters that she made bad decisions (of course they would not have been bad had she been successful).

@mondaytosunday i apologise I wasn’t attempting to minimise her experiences.