University Applications 2026 - Support Thread

[Ventress]

DS is applying to start university in Autumn 2026. He's done several open days and has a reasonable idea of where and what he wants to wants to study - History or History & Politics.

He loved UCL and Exeter, liked Warwick, didn't like Bristol. He's also talking about early application but can't decide whether to apply to Oxford or Cambridge. He's also muttering about Durham, which he didn't visit but others in his History class did and loved it.

Anyone join me for a thread to support our DC as they navigate this process? DS is my only child so this is all new to me!

Hope you can sort this soon. I did not know about having to book TMUA for the same email address. DS opened a new email address for UCAS unbeknownst to me. I am pretty sure I booked TMUA on a different email. Am I in trouble?

Sorry. Problem solved. TMUA (well Pearson) let me change the email address. Thank you for pointing this out. ⚘️

@TinfoilTangerine I think it's quite common for a history dept not to have assessment beyond essays. York is the same.

Yes many do, but some asses with presentations, exhibitions or projects communicating history with the public, portfolios or book reviews as well. You just need to read carefully through the information on the website, and if you want to know more email the department or ask on open days. Many will also have exams but less, so maybe only one or two, 2 hour exams but the rest assessed in different ways allowing students to develop a range of skills and also more ways to show their skill.

Yes that's right - we found some included presentations a bit like "show and tell" regarding historical objects or documents (Bristol & Edinburgh I believe). We didn't find any with exams though.

Yes some may be doing more 24 hour or 48 hour exams these days, so it's open book and they have the material. Others still do a few in-person standard exams but on the whole much less. I think having a broad range of assesment methods is quite positive on the whole, less pressure.

Are you able to list where you found these exams take place in history depts? I ask because we didn't find any such exams mentioned and we did a deep dive on the curriculum / modules / modes of assessment, however that may be simply we were looking at a different list of universities.

Historian here. Exams fell out of favour during Covid, when we had to change assessment to 100% coursework. They’re making a come back because of the problem with AI. But we don’t just use essays. There are group projects, presentations, quizzes, learning logs.

I've seen Sheffield, UCL, LSE, Notts do exams. Though I will say much more reduced in the amount (these are the traditional in hall exams), universities are definitely doing more 24h and 48h ones. Even Warwick has some for a few modules, suggested by this link below; https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/students/modules/archive/hi295/assessment

As discussed, not everywhere does all these things, someone said Birmingham assess entirely by essays. I know that York is the same.

@TheLivelyViper thank you for that list / link

No worries I think for subjects like History it's very dependant on each university - they don't have to do traditional exams, some do more 24h, 48h exams, others do portfolios, book reviews, presentations and have a broader mix of methods. Like you said York, Birmingham have just essays, which may suit and be attractive to some but not others. Personally I think a mix of methods can be the best for developing different skills, group work, research skills, presenting that to the public, having timed essays and then open book 48h exams which are much more 'real-world'.

Only just found this thread. Have eldest (DD20y) starting at KCL next month by DS17 will start his application soon for Physics. So far been to Exeter, which he liked but realised afterwards didn’t do particle physics at the level he’d want so DH wasted a day. Oops.

Loved Warwick so it one of the 5; didn’t mind Surrey but its very local so would be a safe/5th option. We’ve booked Manchester, Imperial, Bath and Southampton. Am a bit worried these are all ‘aspirational’ and aside from Surrey he hasn’t been much interested in looking at any unis that might offer a lower offer - these are all largely AAA- AAA territory and he has had a spotted path to his AS levels this summer (ie mediocre GCSEs so lost a 6th form place, now at the local tech with the local rejects, but predicted A*s after storming his AS Levels. I am scared of banking on those A grades in case we have a disaster like his GCSEs).

Ie. shouldn’t the strategy be: 2 high/aspirational, 1-2 mid range offers and the last spaces a ‘safe’ low offer insurance uni?

Southampton is not aspirational.

Will that not depend on the course the person is looking at, normal grades for that course and what the individual is predicted? It could certainly be aspirational for plenty. It’s a decent RG university 🤷‍♀️. It’s ranked 17th for physics with a typical AAA offer.

Erm, it’s 9th in the UK for physics and astronomy, an RG uni and requires A*AA grades for the MPhys? I’d say that was pretty ‘aspirational’, unlike Reading/Kent where required grades are Bs and they are placed 30 odd in the tables by subject? I’d say that any uni that is in the top 10 is aspirational.

As it is Imperial, Warwick and Manchester are also all top 10 and definitely aspirational. My concern is that DS is only looking at top 10 unis.

So I think the usual advice is to decide which of the AAA type courses he likes best and put 3-4 of those down. Then look at courses with a slightly lower offer , so maybe BBB, or ABB and decide which of those he likes best and put that down. Then once he’s got offers put his favourite higher offer as firm and the lower as insurance.

Some people will take a gamble and put two higher ones as firm and insurance and hope if necessary one of them will be more likely than the other to allow a grade to be dropped on results day. Some people will look at previous years’ clearing to see if they think that’s likely. Or if the lower offer place is normally in clearing then maybe that’s a waste of a ucas space if it can just be picked up in clearing. Depends how much of a risk you’re (he) is prepared to accept. Sometimes one of the aspirational universities might make a slightly lower offer as well.

Thanks @YanTanTetheraPetheraBumfitt I think I will have to work on DS a bit. I went on to the clearing sites on results day this year and none of his target unis had places in clearing (at 1030am at least!) so was a little dismayed as it means he will need to have a true banker in that list as an insurance place… assuming he gets any offers of course!

Physics seems to be competitive enough that even Surrey requires ABB minimum and its 27th! He wants to do the 4yr MPhys (5 y if he has a placement year) and only looking at unis who offer the chance to study particle physics.

We have 5 more open days booked in Sept/Oct 😱

@YanTanTetheraPetheraBumfitt and @CautiousLurker01
Sure, it ranks for those subjects, just like Cardiff ranks for Psychology this year, but it is still not an aspirational university in the greater scheme of things. I would say Southampton is a grade or two above Cardiff in the general rankings and similarly above Liverpool and Newcastle but not "aspirational" sorry, I am not saying this as a personal slight to anyone.

I think you must be using a different definition of aspirational from everyone else.

Oh, do go away with your intellectual snobbery. It is very aspirational for a YP with ASD who messed up his GCSEs and has slogged his guts out to achieve A grades at AS and Astar predictions in a rubbish local tech college. Sorry it’s not good enough for you - but I’d appreciate it if you didn’t respond further to my posts if you have nothing constructive to offer.

Thanks again @YanTanTetheraPetheraBumfitt

top 10, maybe top 15 at a push, are aspirational
what is your definition?

Yes, of course it is going to be aspirational for a kid who is struggling, but it's not aspirational to everyone.

I genuinely wish your kid all the best wherever they go. I never said anywhere was "crap" or "not worth attending" I only said it was not considered "aspirational" by most. And I stand by that.

In this non-aspirational list I would include Cardiff, Liverpool and Newcastle, Hull, Goldsmiths, Kent, Sussex. All decent, solid places with excellent students, but not aspirational.

So, by your definition Southampton IS aspirational. (And he is NOT struggling… he has A grades AS Levels and A star A Level predictions.)

If you look at the general rankings for universities on the Complete university guide which is not by subject, just by institution you will see Southampton is not #15 across the board.

It is #17

https://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings