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?

I'm very surprised it came so soon. Apparently they're well known for waiting til March. Which engineering branch of mechanical has your son applied for or just 'plain' as we call it! Mine is aerospace.

Great he's got an offer in the bag before Christmas 🙂

Congrats on the Bath engineering offers @SilverBlue56

Am I imagining it or are some unis which offered really late last year getting their act together and getting offers out to students earlier?

DS hasn't heard from Durham yet but his friend (different course) got a really low contextual offer the other day. He and the school are baffled by it. It's 2 x Bs for Politics & IR🤔

Agree, my son isn't the only one to have a Bath offer so early (politics) and Bristol seem to be giving them out earlier (or sending an on hold and then offering not much later..)

WOW, fantastic offer. Well done your son’s friend 😀👍

I was hoping this thread would be full of ‘waiting for Warwick’ posts, as that’s the one DS is waiting for after getting fairly quick offers from elsewhere.

Out of interest, I see there have been a few mention of Sheffield offers on here, has anyone been sent or found offer holder open day info? Keen to get a hold of the date as need to organise some other stuff around it.

Good luck to everyone waiting!

DS sent his application on the 8th and got his first offer for Bristol two days ago. He’s applied for various forms of software engineering or electrical engineering depending on uni.
Still waiting on Birmingham, Warwick, Bath and Exeter (insurance choice).

My son’s just had a reduced offer through from York, so we’ve now heard back from 3/5 unis

Well, we are waiting for Warwick @WhatWouldTheDoctorDo , but DS hasn't done his TMUA yet. So it will be a while yet.

Bafflingly we are not in a contextual offer post code. Our old house 10 doors down the street is. We are closer to the rough parts now. Very strange.

Thanks @Wehaditsogood no seperate exam needed here, but good to know that other people are still waiting! Annoying about the postcode for you! We used to live in a contextual offer area, DS often bemoans our ability to have moved somewhere else which meant he could go to a much better school 😂

@Wehaditsogood is it straight maths that your DS is going for at Warwick. - where TMUA is a requirement?

My DS has applied for MORSE and is sitting TMUA in Jan. He got an Warwick offer a couple of weeks ago but there are two offers, one if he gets +5 in TMUA and another without.

@WhatWouldTheDoctorDo I know what you mean. We had to move, because DS quite literally outgrew his room. Now he says "I would have been fine!" His feet would be out of the window!

@AuntyBulgaria My DS is going for Econ.
Good luck to your DS!
The October TMUA sounded like a bloodbath.
I can see on DS's term report that he totally focused on maths this term. I hope it will be enough. 🤞 Also hope that next term he can knuckle down on his other subjects.

Wow! DS wants to do Politics and IR and didnt even look at Durham. Hes predicted 3 x B but his history and politics teachers reckon he can get A's I think he will be able to get an A in one of those two as hell have to really motor but not both. He got a low offer for NTU so I wonder if that particular course is not as popular as it was in previous years? We have offers from everywhere except UEA.

Yes, it’s a strange offer. He is going to query it, he is predicted 3x A star and already has an A star in an a level he took in June, so I guess that was also taken into account with his offer.

My DC has no offers yet. Maybe they’ll get something in Jan.

Ds has offers from 4/5 , waiting to hear from the last one.
The university he thinks he will firm is a contextual offer, so the grade requirements are actually lower than his insurance choice will be.

Oh yes that would explain it. He has a grade in hand and they probably expect him to get higher but want him even if he doesn't.

Joining the thread as DN is tearing her hair out and I'm hoping for some good news.

Applied for Law at Manchester University, Nottingham, Leeds, Manchester Metropolitan and I think LSE (or one that needs LNat). She applied in October, got Nottingham, Leeds and Manchester Met within the first 2 weeks. Desperately waiting to hear from Manchester University, which is her one and only real interest.
Still heard nothing despite seeing lots of her friends that applied many weeks after get Law offers.

What could be going on?

Presuming she isn’t applying with grades in hand, how do her predictions compare to the typical grade requirement for the course at Manchester?

DS only told me about the existing A level today. I never get the full facts to work with! It makes much more sense now.

Do the admissions teams carry on working until Christmas or will they have finished at the end of term?

I’m trying to persuade DS on the attractions of Warwick university but it’s hard, he is really anti for no reason other than it’s not a particularly attractive part of the world 🙄

I never get the full facts to work with! It makes much more sense now.
Same here. These kids are so inconsiderate. How do they expect us to post about them on Mumsnet unless they give us the full facts?!

My daughter has had an offer from Sheffield, Aberdeen and St Andrews (!). She visited Edinburgh Uni and loved it but St Andrews was always the one she was aiming for. We're very proud but slightly scared parents.

Did Your DS go to the Warwick open day? DS loved it when he went, though in all honesty, it was a bit slick for my tastes. It’s his no. 1 choice though.

Did you know if your daughter got info about offer holder open days at all. DS is fed up of me haranguing him about it. You must be delighted about St A’s!

She knows about the offer holder days, but hasn't said when they are. I'm hoping we would go up as a family if she does go. We're excited, delighted and a little scared. We are a very normal family, I think of St Andrews and think of very rich people and/or glamorous overseas students.

There's a Reddit thread where lots of sixth formers post their offers - can be useful to see what's out although you have to wade through a lot of posts agonizing about how badly they did in their Oxbridge interviews!

https://www.reddit.com/r/6thForm/