2026 UCAS - Offers, Rejections and then the exams! (Thread 2)

[EducatingRosemary]

Starting a new thread as our original is almost full…

Original thread

Usually the insurance choice would confirm at 8 am on results day as described above but I have seen in previous years people just miss the offer at Durham and Durham take a few days after results day to give them an answer which is really unfair as clearing options are being taken and insurance places’ accommodation is being allocated. It must be rare but Durham seems to be the worst for it. The insurance place would still be there in this case of Durham finally rejects but the accommodation may be more difficult.

@ArchitectureMum thanks, that's interesting to know! There is a few days' leeway with Warwick for accommodation but it would be very frustrating if that deadline was missed and then he was rejected by Durham! The thing about most universities is it can make a big difference being housed with other freshers in the uni accommodation as opposed to having to look for private accommodation. Warwick does have the benefit of some private halls in Coventry but the ones I have seen have a high proportion of overseas students so not quite the same atmosphere!

Is it actually possible to reject your firm choice in a situation like that where they are dithering over whether to accept after the required grades were missed?

@Llangewydd57, @hockeyfun and @ArchitectureMum thank you also to all of you for telling me how it works!

@ArchitectureMum Despite having older DC go through the Uni system I wasn’t aware that delayed confirmation was a possibility ….one more thing to worry about!
Now that DS has received all his offers (including Durham) but is still deliberating over firm & insurance choices that’s another consideration. Why would Durham be allowed to do this? Surely they have a set number of places on each course & have nothing to gain by dragging results day out? Are there some applicants (overseas?) who don’t use the UCAS system?

my son also has confirmed typing arrangements and nothing on the letter. Well the school have confirmed it.

I think it is rare as I said. I was searching through the history on here trying to find an example and didn’t find it but I remember being quite shocked reading about it. I think Oxbridge can be similar (again rarely) with some missed grades when they ask for raw marks and decide which offers to confirm based on that but of course they can’t get that information until results day from the applicants themselves. I think Durham are seeing who comes along in clearing and comparing there. I agree it shouldn’t be ‘allowed’ but on the other hand the other option is a straight rejection and maybe they want to give people a chance (but then surely just accept them). I am not sure if there is an option in this situation to move onto the insurance university before the decision is made.

@ArchitectureMum thanks.

I found an example from Bristol in 2023: here

And this on the Student Room from 8 years ago regarding Durham.

Both quite old now and I do think this scenario is rare so please don’t worry about it.

Agree it's rare enough not to worry about now, especially given that Warwick is already much better for having post-results day accommodation allocation - in places that are more first come/first served there'd be no chance of the halls you want, but at least with systems like Warwick you're on level pegging whether you firmed or insured and all in for the same mix at the same point. So unless you need a remark for Durham and it takes a long time for some reason, it'll be fine.

Funny how there is always something to worry about in this process though - even with Durham firm and Warwick insure sorted, it's onto to the next unknown, plus the big unknown of the actual exams and then the wait results. Gah. Good as ever to have this thread running throughout so no one goes through it alone.

The system does seem to be very complicated now - it seemed so much easier in my day where every first year was guaranteed accommodation in uni halls and it was allocated after results day (or earlier if you had an unconditional offer, which was far more common back in the 90s). You applied via UCCA, went to open days if you could afford to but generally replied on the barely up to date prospectuses in the college/school library, the unis wrote to you directly. No youtube vids on course content, uni life, and 3d accommodation tours. You just pitched up and made the best of it without all the marketing build up.

All the tech/apps and processes make it all more complex and emotionally loaded, I think?

Following on from this, we have confirmed with college that DS DOES have his extra time and that this is NOT detailed on the individual exam board certificates of entry - I clearly misremembered this being the case last year, unless we also have a separate letter detailing the extra time and my meno/exam-fuddled brain has merged them. But again - it’s because the extra time is authorised by one body, the exams by several different boards, and the actual exams by the college and the exam centre… and that’s before we get to UCAS, SFE/DSA, the individual university portals/discords/facebook and WhatsApp groups.

Am longing for the days of chalk boards and snail mail.

I think it's less the tech/apps and processes than the vast difference in the numbers of students and the huge holes in funding, so unis are having to take in more students with less capacity to cater for them all properly. I went in 90s too, in the last year of grants and agree there was none of this but it's incomparable really, totally different world now. On the upside, the halls are much nicer now! But of course you are paying a lot more for the privilege.

And to some extent, the tech etc is empowering - we just had UCCA and PCAS brochures chucked at us and left to muddle through so from a v non-aspirational college, I could have definitely chosen my path better armed with the knowledge I could get now on online and saved myself a decade or so of figuring stuff out.

So there are positives - this thread included! Great about the extra time, I think there's more understanding of additional needs now. Not much student support where I went back then, and on open day I noted that what used to be a student bar had now become student support services, which is a kind of progress.

@pinkdelight you are right, of course. Having a vent as we spent the weekend panicking as there was nowhere to check and now DS is missing Economics due to a migraine!

I think as an ADHD family we find it all a bit overwhelming at times as it is all on so many different sites. Maybe someone clever needs to invent an app that makes it all linear for ND applicants/parents - takes us through each stage and then directs us to the sites/apps we need at each stage of the process, with a tick box space so we know we’ve dealt with each bit, and then we can stop worrying that we’ve missed something. 🤣

@pinkdelight UCCA & PCAS for me too in the mid 80’s. I paid £30/week Inc. bills for a room in a student flat in central London!

@ArchitectureMum Interesting, thanks.

Wow @maturemummy! I know £30 was more then but still, that's incredible. Bet you wish you'd bought somewhere back then. Or maybe you did?? I paid £40 for a room in a grotty south London flat mid-90s, classic student living conditions, all good fun and no debt incurred. As I say, very different world now.

@pinkdelight Unfortunately I did buy a flat in London in 1990 & then sold it five years later (too small for our growing family) at a substantial loss. Negative equity was a big problem at that time for so many people. We ended up moving out of London & were ‘lucky’ enough to have a 108% mortgage!

Ah yes, quite the rollercoaster! Still, easier to buy in London back then than now. But here's to our DC finding their way through the challenges of this era as we did (and continue trying to do) with ours...

Thanks @Architecturemum, that's very useful. Having taken a look, it seems things could go right to the wire on accommodation allocations! My DS has only one grade difference between offers from Durham and Warwick. He's confident he should at least meet Warwick's offer but if he ends up the position of dropping a grade required for a firm acceptance at Durham it does look like he could be in a 'holding pattern' which could threaten the neat plan we had to still be on an equal footing for Warwick accommodation allocation if it was his insurance acceptance. From the Student Room posting it looks like they were allowing an additional 6 days after results day to decide on 'near misses' - and until 8pm in the evening! Not sure what time the accommodation allocations close for Warwick but that does sound like taking it right to the wire!

@Getbackinthebox, I know it’s hard but you are overthinking this considering your ds hasn’t sat the exams so has no idea how they will go. Warwick also hasn’t opened the accommodation portal for 2026 - in 2023 you applied early for insurance places too although I can see this changed for last year. I’m sure it will work out fine and best of luck to your ds with the exams.

Yes - I am sorry I mentioned it. The student room example was 8 years ago. Lots of people come a bit later to accommodation and are fine. Remarks are not uncommon. There are so many scenarios. Honestly I think firm and insurance universities have become more flexible now with fewer international applicants.

@CautiousLurker2 when I went to university in the 90s, I didn’t get into halls initially and was put in temp accomodation. I didn’t get into halls eventually, but there was definitely the odd accomodation crisis then. £100 a month though, seems like pennies now!

Ds2 was at the ohd at Bath on Friday, also for MechEng! I think it's his favourite now-the other is Southampton.

But- he can't firm Bath and insure Southampton, because the Southampton offer is higher than Bath. So if he wants to firm Bath, he'll have to insure Exeter, which he only really included because he needed a 5th (the other two were Durham, and Cambridge which he got an interview for but wasn't offered.)

My preference would be Southampton, but that's only because it's a bit nearer to me for beginning and end of term moving days (plus his brother went there, so we're all quite familiar with the area). He was very taken with Bath though.

Blimey, what are Southampton asking for when Bath is Astar Astar A?

Second the surprise at the Southampton offer - is it worth contacting them check the offer and to see whether they offer an interview with a view to a lowered offer and mention that your DC is trying to decide whether to firm or insure them? The admissions team at Southampton were absolutely brilliant when we reached out over a muck up over his interview - we were so impressed and very reassured as it is likely he will actually end up there.

They did that for my DS, so it was lowered from an AstarAA to AAA. They’ve also since written to say that DS/students should just focus on doing their best in the exams and not to stress over grades because there is always some latitude.

This latitude was something we’ve been told about by people who have applied in the last few years and was why we’ve insured as we were more confident of getting in with, say an AAB [which was what DS got in his AS levels last year] if he doesn’t pull off the AstarAstarA he needs for Manchester. [Physics, not Mech Eng, but DS’s GF is looking at similar offers to your DS2 as she is also a Mech Eng/MEng applicant).]

@SilverBlue56 @CautiousLurker2

Thank you for the querying! It prompted me to ask DS2 what was actually occurring 😁

It turns out that it's only in DS2's opinion that he can't firm Bath and insure Southampton because a) he's been told that the insurance uni should be two grades lower and b) because he's taking 4 A levels, Bath's offers (Astar A A B/Astar Astar BB) are more flexible than Southampton's offer (standard Astar Astar A, with no mention of the 4th A level.)