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?

@Muchtoomuchtodo
Any new from LSE? Nothing here.
Where else has your DC got applied?

Not that I know of @Llangewydd57 but ds has gone straight to work from school today.
We heard last week from some applicants at the Warwick OHD that the LSE decisions seem to get released at 9pm!

He’s got offers from Manchester, Bath and Warwick so it’s not all bad!

Is your DS just waiting to hear from LSE too?

I have just heard from DS that Durham have offered him an alternative course. He applied for economics and mathematics and has been offered straight maths.

Not a particularly bad outcome, but I'm not clear yet what the offer is. I think it will be higher than the course he originally applied for. Also maths required TMUA but the original one didn't so I know know how that works.

@WhisperingAngelisnotbad, I have 1 dc at Warwick and 1 at Bristol - they are quite different unis for the obvious reasons and I would really encourage a visit especially to see the north village accommodation in Bristol and being aware of how far the accommodation is spread across the city. Warwick is very active with its societies and campus based social life in the first year. I dont think my dc at Warwick who needed the campus social life would have lasted 1 month at Bristol but both my dc love where they have ended up.

Yes, he has Warwick, UCL, Imperial and waiting on LSE. He’s not even sure he wants a London Uni now-after applying for 3 in London 🙄 due to cost etc and we can’t contribute that much. He is gap year, has worked for almost a year full time (50 hours a week) to help out with uni cost and is now travelling with mates for a few months before going back to work until Uni.
Your DC has great offers. I loved Bath when we visited there for an open day.

Both sound great @hockeyfun . My DC says Warwick as a great Maths reputation and is so much cheaper than London. Oxford was first choice but I think being on gap year let him down.

That’s great in hard to Durham. Will this be theirs 1st choice?

@Llangewydd57 I think DS would be thrilled and very flattered to get an offer from LSE but unlikely to firm or insure it. Again due to costs.

He was impressed at the open day which is why he applied but the reality of living away from home with a fairly limited budget is starting to hit home.

Your DS has done well with working so hard this year. Hope he enjoys his travels.

That’s good news. The standard Durham offer for maths is A star in both maths & F/M plus A in a third subject. A TMUA a score of 5.0 or above decreases the need for A star F/M to A.
We took DS to the maths OHD last Saturday & it will be his firm unless Warwick make him an offer.

@maturemummy thanks for those grades. Those offer grades are higher than Warwick so he will likely firm Warwick (for MORSE). Just waiting for UCL before final decision.

DS has his Manchester offer, following the interview yesterday. A*A*A as expected/advertised. Means he is binning the epic trek to Birmingham on Saturday thank goodness, and will be hitting the books instead!

DH is ecstatic as can now have a lie in he loved Manchester too, being a Midlander himself.

Great news, well done to your DS on the Manchester offer. My husband was there in the 1980s.

Thank you @Llangewydd57

He is a combination of chuffed, relieved and ‘crapping’ himself over the significance of the next 2 months. I found him sitting at his desk at 7am in his boxers doing some exam questions the other day. I immediately assumed he had forgotten some homework but was told in no uncertain terms that he was ‘an A grade student, mum; early morning revision is just part of that’.

Had to smother a smile as he probably spent most of his GCSEs gaming and watching anime… hence the disappointing grades. So satisfying to see he has learned his lesson!

Just wondering, now that many of us are in the phase of firming/insuring offers and keeping a beady eye on the calendar - it’s less than 8 weeks to DS’s first exam eek - how cool are you all playing it with them? Or are you cracking the whip?

I’ve had to pull DH up and slap a virtual gag order on him as I could see the ‘why aren’t you studying tonight?’ and ‘why are you still in bed, son, you got two months to hit this out of the park’ comments were less cheer-leader and more stress-inducing, however well-intentioned.

Last night I sat with my DS over dinner and opted to say ‘I am totally going to zip it with any well intentioned chivvying and questions. I know you are motivated and working as hard as you feel you can, so am going to trust you to get on with it and come to me if you need anything, even if it’s just a hug’. But it is going to kill me…

We have found it really hard to find the balance - our parents were not involved at all as we were the first in our families to go onto HE.Rrevision, UCCA [as it was called in our day] applications, uni visits and interviews were [in my case at least] completely self directed and funded out of a Saturday job, though my DH did do a tour of the unis (and adjacent pubs/cricket grounds) with his dad the summer before he applied. We’ve felt DS needed support [nagging] after his GCSE blip but we are trying to step back in case we now just add to the pressure. I am, however, finding it really hard to sit on my hands and zip my lips!

My son needs assistance to get what needs to be done, done. I asked him if this is really what he wants (to try and get AAA) and he said yes, so I am providing check ins to make sure he is doing what we planned together.

When he gets to uni he will need a study mentor to take my place and with DSA I assume (hope) that's what will happen and that he will gradually develop these skills and manage on his own (he is neurodivergent and I can see them slowly appearing but it is behind his peers)

If I left him to it I feel in our circumstances it would be a disservice to him but I hate it and wish our relationship wasn't so heavy on me telling him what he needs to do and making sure he does it.

Roll on June 18th 16:30.

@SilverBlue56 I feel you. My DS will be eligible for a mentor/support too, but so is my DD and at KCL they have been non-existent and useless. She has had no support whatsoever as the allocated key person is always off sick and she has never met them yet. It takes 3 weeks for them to reply to an email and they closed the drop in centre so you need an appointment (booked via email they don’t reply to). I think that is why I am trying to step back as I won’t be able to supervise and oversee at uni. My godsons had fab support at Bournemouth and Reading so we assumed all disability/ND support was largely equal, but have completely lowered our expectations now.

That said we have been very directive and involved until now. We’ve been very lucky though that his teachers have been equally so. I’m not sure I’d be in a position to step back a little if I didn’t know they were on his back too.

Wrong thread - sorry.

@CautiousLurker2 i know of 2 currently at Manchester and they are really enjoying it. It is a great city.

So glad my DC is gap year, I feel your pain!
I am just worrying everyday while he is away travelling instead.
Good luck to all your DC, they’ll
smash their A Levels.

This is such a shame, it's not right that the can just leave them without the promised support.
Mine is going to Bath (well, if he gets the grades!) who have a good rep for this stuff but I know it might be all talk! I am close enough to stick my oar in if needed so we shall see.

I’ve heard good things about Bath too. Honestly, most places seem to be excellent - and within Physics (my DSs subject) there seems to be a heightened awareness of ND and support being needed in most unis. When we went to Surrey Uni open day the ND support within the department [because they are ‘aware they have a higher than average ND cohort’] was part of the presentation. It was such a relief to know that many unis are proactively geared towards it. DS didn’t apply there though, as it’s too close!

My friend’s ND son, he went to Southampton for Physics and they were amazing in their support. He completed his PHD last year at Warwick and they were fab too.

Southampton will be his insurance - though I think he’s actually tempted by it as a first choice because the grades are slightly lower and they have an exchange programme with a year in Okinawa that he is rather star struck by. Half a dozen of his friends will be/are there so I suspect it could be a better fit. Especially now I know they are so supportive - he messed up booking an interview on the OHD a few weeks ago and when I called them to explain they bent over backwards to fit him in and reassure him. He had a brilliant interview with them. I think he’s leaving in the lap of the Gods (ok A Level examiners) which one he gets into now!

The end certainly seems to be in sight.

DD firmed before Christmas so that particular stress is long gone, and her required grades for Durham are well within reach and below her predicteds, so there isn’t as much pressure on her from that point of view. Of course the pressure she puts on herself is another thing altogether.

We don’t have to motivate or cajole DD at all - she does it all herself, and always has done. My job with her is to keep her steady, feed her and help her to break things down into smaller chucks of time so that she isn’t overwhelmed with the idea of 3 months of nose to the grindstone.

This is the countdown on her phone - she updates it weekly and it helps her to break everything down and make a plan just for that specific chunk of time. So there will be a revision timetable for the Easter break, another one for the last 3 weeks of school, and then one for actual study leave.

Image under review

I also wanted to say that I understand the stress of getting the balance right in how much you support your DC. DS was a completely different kettle of fish to DD and needed us (mainly me) to sit on him to get stuff done. Turns out he had undiagnosed inattentive ADD and it didn’t really become apparent until A levels.

We have continued supporting through uni - checking in with him that he had submitted assignments (and physically sitting in the room with him in first year when he came home for a break and we realised he was overdue on 2 assignments that he hadn’t even started!), keeping an eye on his grades, helping with suggestions of how to manage his time with studying etc.

He’s now 3rd year and completely independent and thriving. He doesn’t need us anymore, but still checks in of his own accord and keeps us involved with what he’s up to regards assignments etc. He just needed a lot more support to get there in his own time, but he’s done it now and I don’t regret the time and intention we put into helping him succeed.

Every DC is different and you as a parent know best how to help them.