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!

DS is nowhere near ready to submit anything to UCAS. He will do early entry but I don't know if that will just be for O or C, and then he'll add the others later, or if he'll just go all in with five.

Thank you @JustAQuietSpotPlease good to have the voice of experience If DS applies to Durham (it's way outside of his "two hour maximum from home" self imposed boundary) and if he gets an offer he will go to an offer holder day I think. We can't go up in half term unfortunately as we're on holiday, otherwise it would have been a perfect time.

I have read on here that some universities are better than others for giving offers in a timely fashion. I also think I read that UCAS deadline has moved forward a week as has the time limit for offers; but I may have dreamed that!

@Ventress mine also had self imposed limits. One was within that 2 hour boundary but had 8 hours of lectures back to back on a Friday with a 1 hour break in the middle so a 9 hour day and had work to submit on the Saturday. So the whole come home half way through the 10 week term went out of the window.

My other child has just finished first year and cannot come home by train as it just takes way too long. We facetime every week, message throughout the week too. It is as good as it gets. They get 4 weeks at home at Christmas, 5 weeks at Easter and then 4 months for summer. The final term is usually a couple of weeks teaching, exams and done several weeks before term official ends.

The speculation on offer timing just means some applicants and their parents are just stressing out if they haven't got an offer. Ds had to wait until May and then couldn't attend an offer day as travel time, plus tour, plus travel back ate a whole day which he spent it revising instead.

Hello everyone! May I join you all? This is our first time going through this as ds1 hasn’t gone to university.

ds2 will be applying for 2026 entry. He’s keen to do maths, possibly maths and data science if he goes to LSE.

He’s keen to apply to Oxford despite only 10% of applicants being successful (if he doesn’t try he definitely won’t get a place!) so he needs to sit the MAT and he’s going to do the TMUA as well.

I think his other choices are going to be Bath, Warwick and possibly Bristol but they all have very high entry requirements (Bristol may give him a decent contextual offer but that was his least favourite) so I’m trying to encourage him
to apply to one less competitive course but that’s not going down well!

For any unis they haven't visited consider going in half term when all the students will be there, this is especially important for campus unis like Durham and Loughborough etc.

Durham isn’t a campus university- it’s spread out throughout the city. There are 5 colleges on the Bailey, HB in temp accommodation near the station and the rest up the Hill.

That said Durham is a very small city.

@ventress I don't know if this is helpful in terms of working out how long your wait might be, but my DS applied for 2025 entry to study History. He had grades in hand and heard very quickly from all the places he applied to, in this order

York
Bristol
Edinburgh
Warwick
Kings London

The fastest were York and Bristol - by the end of Sept. then Edinburgh and Warwick in October and lastly, Kings.

Waves at the joiners - Welcome!

@JustAQuietSpotPlease I think the two hour boundary is mainly a comfort blanket of "just in case something happens" Plus it also put a natural restriction on the number of universities he would need to look at. Eight hours of lectures on a Friday must have been exhausting.

Good point about offers and offer days. Perhaps, if he applies to Durham, he could go up during February half term. Mocks will be over by then. Year 13 timetable is so busy.

Thank you @Flyswats, that is helpful. Where is your son studying now? Is he enjoying his course? DS is booked for the KCL open day in early September.

@Muchtoomuchtodo - my son also seems keen to only apply to "aspirational" choices. Has your son decided which college to apply to at Oxford? DS has no idea how to decide but doesn't want to do an open application. All of the UG colleges at both O and C offer History so he can't narrow down choices this way. He toured several colleges on the open days but liked them all, so that didn't really help. Good luck to your son for MAT and TMUA.

Hi all,

Good to see what everyone's YP are up to. My DD is applying for med so early entry but will be a long wait to find anything out. Where she goes depends on her UCAT result which we will know early Sept. DD is a perfectionist so next few weeks will be bumpy, then most likely even more bumpy going through application stage.

Personal statement in draft form but lots of work to do on it before October.

We are up north and DD ideally would like to stay near ish, no London unis (can't afford the accommodation!) but very much depends on UCAT on where she will be able to apply.

@Ventress, no he’s not decided which colleges to apply to yet.
I’m not sure that it’ll make a massive difference to be honest so at the moment he’s thinking that somewhere close ish to the maths dept and that offers accommodation for the full 3 years would be ideal. He was very taken with Jesus college - as a proud young Welsh man I can see him being very happy there!

@KittyMcKitty true Durham isn't a campus uni, I misspoke, but being so small it is practically dead when the just under 22,000 students are not there especially around the hill colleges out of town. I know you know this. Depending on their subject some students never have to venture anywhere near the Bailey colleges or past Lower Mount Joy at the top of South Road. Ds was in a hill college and spent most lectures at Upper Mount Joy further up the hill away from town.

@Muchtoomuchtodo best of luck to him. I think sometimes they just have to take a punt because there are x number of places and those places get filled.

@bluefineliner mine ruled out London, mainly due to cost, Scottish unis and then had a radius to home, mainly worked on how long it would take to get there in the car.

@Ventress the workload overall was a lot but it always depends on the subject as some are a lot of self study, reading and research. Some subjects have more contact time.

Joining ! DD is applying to Oxford and Durham as top 2, quite a niche subject so I fear it could be outing so won’t pop in this post but will probs mention later!!

Joining you, if I may.

DD is a mad-keen linguist and will be applying for various Arabic + Pol/IR courses at Edinburgh, Exeter, Leeds and Manchester (2 courses). All are 4 years including a year abroad.

She also has a wild-card application for an overseas uni which she says she’s going to get a scholarship for and avoid student loans altogether. We shall see!

The UCAS form has been drafted and was submitted to school for review before the end of term. Once it’s finalised we hope it will go off promptly in October after they’ve got the early-entry people sorted.

Looking forward to sharing the ups and downs of this journey with all of you.

DD is working on her personal statement. It’s quite impressive. I’m sure mine just said ‘I enjoy reading’ or something !

Hello, good idea for a thread as it all gets closer! I have DTs, DS looking at law at Bristol or a London university.DD wants to do medicine, Newcastle, Sheffield and Leeds are the faves so far. She’s currently at a summer school run by a social mobility programme (and studying for her UCAT!)
DS has work experience with a couple of law firms over the next 2 weeks.

I'd have a look at the modules, because especially with a degree like History and Politics it's so broad. I remember looking at courses at honeslty I made a spreadsheet because it's so difficult to look and compare going through different websites. At the end of the day the main reason is to study a subject you love so make sure on the whole you'll like what they offer. Some places have more European history, more early modern, warfare, economic etc. There I'll always be one thing you're not in love with but as a whole there shouldnbe enough modules in a year that you're excited about. Also Oxford would mea he'd have to do the HAT. I'd make sure he's doing lots of supercurriculars to talk about in his personal statement and interviews because he'll definitely have them for Oxbridge - though Cambridge tend to interview more people (so it's easier to get one but then they cut more people after, so if he performs better at showing his passion it's something to consider. Oxford tend to interview less people but if you get one then you know they like you.

@Ventress He'll be starting at York in Sept. His first choice very early on.
I agree with @TheLivelyViper that looking at modules offered is important, but with the caveat that these can change at short notice, especially when academics move and take their core interests with them.

I also think it is likely going to be ok if your son has very high predicted grades, to go all out for aspirational choices. Many places (apart from Oxford) will allow some slip in the actual grades achieved and there are always one or two places in clearing at some of the better RG universities offering History, History & Politics, etc.

@Curlyshabtree Would it be ok to PM you about Law?

Hi all, hope it's ok if I join too. Second time round. First one is now at Imperial College going into the last year of computing. Dd's turn now and she's interested in Fine Art.
In general, I'd always recommend a safe choice on the UCAS form (one that students would be happy to attend). Ds got 4 A stars, an A star in his EPQ and aced the STEP exam and TMUA and still didn't get 5 offers back from his applications - just saying.
@Marisquita I'd be interested in what scholarship your dd is applying for internationally...

History / History and Politics is very different to Computing / Maths in terms of what slippage in grades are generally permitted. And there are always places in clearing at good universities for History / History and Politics. I think Computing and Maths is just so competitive that its likely not an equal comparison.

@Flyswats That's interesting. I think most of ds's friends were heading for sciences, computing,engineering etc, so I haven't had too much experience of the liberal arts. I'd like to know a bit more about slippage in grades in Fine Art; from what I can see that seems quite competitive too.

Yes there is that caveat but not many often change but even if they do the topics tend to stay the same (they may change some years or the main focus because lectures research interests and specialism drive the modules they teach, so they will likely not change too drastically as a result. You can also often have a look at the lectures in the department and their specialisms which are often a guide for the specs.

@TeenWhisperer my DD is also looking at fine art and the arts universities. I guess grade slippage could be buoyed by a great portfolio submission/interview? The arts universities certainly feel competitive but this is our first rodeo… she would not be averse to an integrated foundation year at her preferred uni I think

@TeenWhisperer How is your elder child getting on with computing at Imperial? My DD has it as her favourite choice but it's horrendously competitive.

We are planning on going to Leeds open day in early October but booking doesn’t open until September. Would you risk booking train tickets now? What time would you suggest arriving in Leeds? Thanks

Welcome to new joiners - good to have you with us.

Thanks @Flyswats I hope your son enjoys York. I studied English and History there back in the 20th Century and loved every minute. All the best to him.

I love the idea of a spreadsheet but DS is generally anti - I am the spreadsheet queen of the household 😂I might have a stab at one comparing history modules this weekend. DS has looked through all of the websites and we've attended the talks at the open days but a spreadsheet would be a good resource. Thanks to @Flyswats and @TheLivelyViper for your suggestions, super helpful.

Also thank you to @TheLivelyViper for the detail on year's abroad. DS would only look at this if he could go somewhere relevant to his history passions, e.g. Moscow. But I suspect the political situation means that universities don't have reciprocal arrangements with Russia currently. I will check though. Also, even though DS has been learning Russian via Duolingo for a few years, he's not at a level where he could attend a lecture given in Russian!

He's also still thinking about a law conversion so he doesn't really want to take four years for UG and then law conversion and SQE on top.

Thank you @TeenWhisperer for the warning about offers - I agree. I know that humanities aren't as difficult generally as some STEM subjects to get offers for but I want DS to have at least one or two choices where he is almost certain to get an offer. It must be extremely depressing to have A star predictions and still not get offers.

Having said that it's easier, I read recently that History & Politics is now one of the top ten Oxbridge choices and has an offer rate similar to Law. It's also not offered everywhere so DS will have to write his PS around both options, but as they are closely related this won't be too difficult I hope.

Also, @TheLivelyViper there is no HAT for Oxford history this year. It's been suspended. Some college websites still mention it but I confirmed with admissions that it is not required this year.