2026 UCAS - Offers, Rejections and Waiting to Hear

[EducatingRosemary]

For those whose DC have submitted their UCAS application without having yet taken the A-level (or equivalent) exams…

How are your DC getting on with hearing back from the universities?

Yes, DC has had invites for Bath, Nottingham and Southampton.

We’ve had one for Queens Belfast but not Sheffield (annoyingly as we’re very keen to go to that one)

I wonder if it's ended up in DC's junk email then, although odd as he has had 3 offers. Was it an email from the University or on the UCAS site? Did your DC have to register after receiving an offer? We looked through the emails and York is the only one so far which has sent details on how to register. Nothing from Bristol or Warwick.

We have Bath offers but no offer holder day invite yet, I think it's down to the uni and department as well sometimes, as they don't all have them on the same day even at the same uni from what I've read.

That’s helpful to hear. I just had a look myself and can actually see an offer holder day invite from York. York has been really proactive and keep sending info in the post and over email. It could be the insurance choice for DC so we will book this one

It was an email from the university with a link to register attendance.

Warwick was one of them - they gave a range of dates most of which were weekdays:
Friday 9 January
Wednesday 18 February
Saturday 14 March
Monday 23 March

Don't know whether these dates are subject specific. (My DS course is in the maths/statistics department)

Why do they do offer holder days/open days in the week? Do they really want students to take a day or two off to attend?

@CautiousLurker2 I know! DS will not be attending mid week ones!

Sat 14th march will be carnage! (It’s the only day my DS can come unless he is offered in time to do the half term one in Feb.)

Has anyone heard about offer holder days from Bristol, Manchester or Exeter?

Got the Warwick offer holder email this morning. Same dates as @AuntyBulgaria @CautiousLurker2 We will go on the 14th of March as well as I imagine end of April will be spent revising! Maybe they need a later date for those getting late offers? @saintbernadettes we've not had an offer holder day either from Bristol and there is nothing on their website which is annoying as I'd like to plan ahead given how busy things are.

Yes, my DS has Exeter Offer Holder Day booked. His course only allowed one date option.

Sat 7th Mar and Weds 29th Apr are the Warwick offer days for DS's course so signed up for the 7th before it gets booked up and will see what makes sense nearer time. Order of preferences may shift around before then but chances are it'll be worth another visit to help with weighing things up.

I went to a Bristol open day for offers on Wed 2nd April 2025. I wonder if it will be a week earlier this year as the teaching finishes on 20th March. If you get the option make sure you book on an accommodation tour, my dc missed this but we drove to Stoke Bishop area and looked around from the outside as we knew my dc wanted catered in that area. For 2025 the accommodation selection was 3 options with budget being the first question. We went for a good budget / catered / shared bathroom and they got the hall they wanted. This year a free bus to the campus is included but my dc has informed me that next year the bus won’t be free. (It’s an incredibly expensive uni compared to my other dc at Warwick).

What’s the difference between an open day and offer holders day?

Open days are more generic, open to anyone who books and precede application deadline; offer holder days are invite only (usually) and sent exclusively to students who hold offers. The numbers attending tend to be lower, so you can ask more questions and speak to tutors more easily (in theory at least) and there are more tours of accommodation etc. At the one we went to for my DD there were taster lectures for each topics and activities, rather than the generic ‘about us’ type department lectures. And more of the department facilities seemed to be open on the offer holder day, but that may just have been the uni we visited.

That's such a shame about the free bus service at Bristol. My DC is very keen on Bristol (more so than Warwick although let's see after the offer holder day as never went to the open day). Good to hear your DC got the halls they wanted in Bristol as I heard that is rare! I heard accommodation at Warwick was a challenge this year and lots of students got placed off campus so that doesn't sound great either.

My daughter has offers in from Leeds, Sheffield,Exeter,Lancaster and is waiting on York for law. If there are five offers on the table how do they decide which ones to focus in on? Any helpful advice gratefully received

@Travelling3 DS is in exactly the same position except waiting on Warwick, instead of York.
He has a slight favourite but will be using the Offer Holder days to narrow down to two.
Factors could include:
Travel - if you're northern, like us, then Exeter is a long way (but DS is not too bothered by that).
Grades - if predicted AAA then only Lancaster is lower (from your selection), so do you concentrate on that as the insurance. Or do you pick two of the others (that really are the top two) and hope that if grades are dropped then you still get in. For context, Exeter will drop a grade if firmed. Sheffield was in Clearing last year. Same with Lancaster, so could probably pick that one up, if not insured, anyway.
Options - a particular option of interest, although no gtee that it will still be on!
York - allegedly more geared towards Problem Based Learning as a method - may suit, may not.

But, ultimately, it will probably come down to feel!

Good luck for the TMUA to our DCs!

@Wehaditsogood I'm not convinced that DS has done enough practice to get a high enough score. But fingers crossed he might surprise me.

He is more keen that he doesn't have to go to school on Thursday.

@Travelling3 a different subject here, but DS will decide after the offer holder days for his favourites. But he’s looking at a mix of course content/how it is taught, rankings/reputation for the subject area, and whether he likes the environment.

Oh yes - good luck for TMUAs and ESAT! We bailed the ESAT and took Imperial off the pick list as my concern was that it was going to be a distraction from A Level revision/study for my DS. He is highly motivated to go to uni, but it ebbs and wanes so I suggested just focusing on the exams.

Am hoping he doesn’t now get 3xA** and then resent me for guiding him away from Imperial 😬

Happy New Year everyone.
Good luck to those sitting the TMUA and ESAT later this week. My DC took it in Oct so glad it’s over with. 🤞 offers will start rolling in later this month.

@AuntyBulgaria Same here. DS is convinced he has no chance without doing FM. I keep telling him that he has 3 decent offers already. If he does well in the TMUA, brilliant. If he doesn't, it is not the end of the world.