How soon to expect replies from Uni applications?

[SleepQuest33]

DS completed his UCAS application during the first week of October. He received his first offer a few days later but nothing yet from the others.

He has applied for Engineering, two of his choices are Bath and Bristol. For those of you who have already gone through this, how long did it take for those 2 unis get back with a reply? I am wondering if it will be months or waiting or is it common for them to reply sooner?

Thank you!

All depends. Some respond really quickly, others take months.

Thanks for replying. I was wondering about Bath and Bristol for Engineering? I know it will vary from person to person, but was wondering, in general, how soon do those 2 unis reply after applications are received?

Not engineering but Bath took six months to offer for my DD who had three A stars in hand (well above course requirements).

Some take ages and some respond straight away. Durham were so late with humanities offers that the sciences had not only had offers but attended an offer holder day

DS didn't hear from either of them (engineering) until April....

Your DS will be lucky to hear from Bath or Bristol before March.

Bath and Bristol are notorious for late offers

Not the same
subject, but I remember DS and his classmates applying and the seemingly random difference in response times across all their different subjects.
DS was lucky as the one he wanted as first choice replied within 24 hours with an offer.
LJMU still has not replied in April, and he was waiting for that one but in the end withdrew to accept first and second choice elsewhere. Weird thing was, when clearing opened we had a nosey at the course at LJMU and it was in clearing with a very low points threshold. So you never really can predict.

It varies from university and subject and individual. Durham can be very late but my daughter got her offer within a week.

Bristol was super quick last year, mine got her offer within days or a week of the school submitting her UCAS form. This was for mech engineering. Most of her friends received their Bristol offer within days as well (they were told that Bristol doesn’t read the PS especially for those with 4 or 3 A stars predicted).

Bath took much longer (January 12 to be precise, just looked through my WhatsApp messages 😅). We were told that unlike Bristol Bath waits for the equal consideration deadline to make offers.

It’s a horrible wait. Two years ago we waited literally until the last day for one place (st Andrews)

My son applied for engineering (in 2021). He applied for Cambridge, Imperial, Bristol, Durham and Loughborough. Bristol offered within days of his PS going in which he was very surprised about, Imperial and Cambridge interviews were around Christmas, with Imperial offering before term finished. Obviously Cambridge offers are in Jan. Durham was about May and Loughborough was fairly quick too.....

It depends on so many things - number of applications, whether they care about PS, whether there are entrance exams etc. Patience is required, along with some gentle reminders (aka nagging) to check emails (and spam folders) regularly. And if there is an email, to actually read it 😉, not just the header.

HTH and good luck!

Older DD who was studying a humanities subjects didn’t hear from the LSE till after Xmas, but had an immediate offer from Newcastle. She never got a response from Edinburgh. It just tied out!

Younger DD is also apply for Engineering this year. She has offers from Warwick and Sheffield already. She was told by Bristol that she has been put on hold. No contact from Bath, aside from acknowledging her application.

I knew they would be both be late. I didn’t really want her to pick Bristol. I have heard so many stories of erratic, inconsistent behaviour from Bristol, that I almost regard it as a wasted choice. But she visited and really liked it. 🤷🏻‍♀️

DD had 3 A star prediction and applied to Bristol and Bath for Economics, adding Bristol in November who offered first week of January, and adding Bath start of Jan who offered in next day or two. State. Bath she was eligible for a lower offer and they had made standard one so she phoned and she said they were very kind and they immediately sent out revised lower offer and apologised for missing that criteria. I think if she had applied to Bristol earlier she would have heard back more quickly, they seemed to reply in batches based on grades.

Ds has Bristol on his list for maths and got an offer yesterday having put the form in on Monday. So it seems they can be very quick as well as very slow. He's read that Bath won't offer until after 31 Jan as someone else had said.

We are in the same boat! DD applied for midwifery on 10 Sept (she was told at the open days to apply early if she could as they have a lot of interviews to get through). Three unis acknowledged the application within about four days, the other two sent the acknowledgement e-mail a fortnight later. And since then (5 weeks) nothing. We are anxiously waiting to hear if she gets any invitations for interviews … Telling ourselves that perhaps they need to have enough applicants to make an interview day worthwhile. DD's friends have had offers from Surrey (BioChem) and Southampton (BioMed) already.

The Bristol on hold thing is a bit tantalising. It can feel more negative than just not hearing a sit suggests the application has been looked at just not found tempting - would rather think the uni hadn’t got round to one yet! I don’t think it actually is such a message really

My son waited ages with those two. One never got back at all by about April and he had to just reject them and accept one of the other offers he had.

It will depend on course applied for.

Both dc applied to Bristol and got an on hold message iirc. But the wait wasn't ridiculous.

One of my dc applied for physics at both Bath and Bristol and Bath was quicker, but neither was particularly slow. Maybe Bristol was a month or 2 wait.

Yes DD2, got the Bristol hold message, and then an offer for MENG with a year in industry from Sheffield the next day. She dashed into my office, did the moon walk and said “suck it Bristol!”

I am sure this is not the emotional reaction Bristol intends to provoke in prospective students.

Same here. Application went in Monday and offer came yesterday. He's had 3 offers in now but nothing from Bath. His other choice is Oxford so a whole different kettle of fish.

Thank you to everyone who replied!
What a mixed bag!! I really don't know what do thing now.
Some of you heard from Bristol and Bath within days, so I guess it means it is a potential no?
His predicted grades are A+, A+ ,A, A (4 because he is taking further maths), so perhaps those couple of As are causing issues? Can't bear the wait!
Thank goodness at least he does have one offer.

"what to think"...

Its only 17th Oct. many ucas forms won't have even gone in yet..you seem to be over panicking about offers.
My dc had to wait maybe a month or 2 for Bristol but that's not really a huge wait imo.

@SleepQuest33 Not directed at you but curious if people with similar predicted but where one student has a higher GCSE average might be receiving a quicker offer?
Nothing I've heard or read but would make sense as predictions vary so widely from school to school whereas GCSE is somehow the 'only' achieved qualification (unless having done an AS).