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

[EducatingRosemary]

Starting a new thread as our original is almost full…

Original thread

@Muchtoomuchtodo at Loughborough it's Maths with Economics.

Doesn’t the UCAS page include contextual offers? This is why I haven’t’ really used it in earnest. The website says it offers based on the whole application and the are just under 5 offers per place. Does this mean they are unlikely to accept reduced grades on results day?

Yes the stats do show contextual offers as well but you cannot on grades and see the the percentage accepted at that grade (who were already offer holders). Then make a judgement call as to whether they were all contextual. 5 offers per place makes sense as lots of people will have 5 courses to choose from.

That should say you can put in some grades.

That’s really helpful, thank you @ArchitectureMum. I’m very glad it’s DS applying not me!

Thanks @ComingInByAnsible we did go to last year’s offer day so DS has at least had a look around. I genuinely don’t think that it’s his favourite choice any more, but having waited this long he just wants to know what they say! If they don’t want him the should just bloody reject him! Annoyingly, we’re in Scotland so he has his Highers already and could have dropped one of his Advanced Highers to concentrate on his two best subjects (he only needs one AH for his preferred choice and has an unconditional for potential insurance) but because English Unis are so inconsistent in dealing with Scottish quals, and it was hard to get a clear steer on Warwick’s approach he stuck with the three, so a very heavy workload, possibly unnecessarily!

After much back and forth (mentally and physically!) between Warwick, Durham and St Andrews for Maths, DS has finally made his UCAS choices- firmed St Andrews and insured Durham. Quite a distance from home, but he really liked the feel of both when we visited on OHD.
Good luck to all DCs with exams coming up in the next few weeks!

@nutella8 great choices!

One week until first exam! (Economics)

@nutella8 Such a relief when the decision is eventually made! DS has been dithering between Durham, Manchester, Warwick & Birmingham. He finally made his mind up last night & has firmed Maths & Physics at Warwick & insured Birmingham for Maths. Although I liked all four options I’m rather please that his top two are only about an hour from home 😊

Also one week today until first exam (econ). They are not kindly spread out either. Loads before half term then only a couple afterwards 😬

@EducatingRosemary it’s wild how their exams vary so much.

ds starts on June 1st and finishes on June 12th.

Good luck to them all, they’ve worked so hard to even get to this stage xx

IB here - exams already in full swing.. and will be over in 2 weeks time (really looking forward to that!)..

I think Maths is one of the last to finish on 18th June. Good luck to the economists and IB students. Advantages and disadvantages of getting on with it and getting them done I guess.

Same here. Economics first starting next week…

UCAS decision finally made for DS (mech eng): firm Bath, insure Durham. He liked them both and the offers are very similar - plus he is seriously considering a year out and reapplying if he hits his PGs in which case he'd withdraw so it'd be moot - so there was quite a lot of decision paralysis. I'm just glad he can put it mentally aside now, first A level (French) next week, then physics and fmaths and the rest of french spread out until mid June.

@ArchitectureMum Further Pure on the afternoon of the 19th for DS. The school ‘need’ the hall back on the 18th apparently so the final exam will have to be held elsewhere! A bit of a cheek IMHO but it is what it is.

Still waiting to hear from LSE. DS applied in October so it’s been a long long wait. It’s his first choice so doesn’t want to firm& insure until he hears from LSE. In the meantime I’m worried about losing options of reasonably priced accommodation as I understand some universities have opened their accommodation booking for those that have firmed.

Anyone else still waiting for any responses from anywhere?

@Holymolyrigmorole
I’ve edited my post (as I have just looked it up). There was a deadline for accepting offers on 6 May, but that is only if you received your last offer by 31 March. I think there are other cut off dates if your dc receive very late offers - (there is a cut-off in June I think) but might be worth contacting LSE admissions, to follow up on it?

You can either get your dc to check with LSE admissions (for an update on progress), or you can draft your dc an email, that they can send to LSE admissions, which gives you the authority to speak to them on your dc’s behalf, then you can contact LSE admissions to chase up on a decision. (Ps - I think it is really poor of universities to make someone wait that long for an offer..). Good luck..

I had a panic when I saw your post @SundayMondayMyDay😂

Having just checked, the final date for putting in your firm and insurance is 3 June.

DS has now received all his offers but the final one only came in recently. You have my sympathies, these late decisions are agonising. Have you checked the accommodation policies for the offers he is holding? Of my son’s offers Birmingham was the only one which prioritised firm holders, Durham, Warwick & Manchester all asked for preferences to be supplied regardless of whether an applicant had accepted, firmed or insured. Some Unis do have deadlines though so best check asap.

@Gazelda Sorry!!!

😂to be fair, I seem to be permanently stressed at the moment, so my family (and heart rate) didn’t register any abnormal tension!

Sympathies here. I have been managing selling my mums property, buying her new property, interviewing for a new job and DS2 leaving doing his offers to the last possible moment this week (he had last decision date before the March date ago so his deadline was 6th May) and the stress nearly sent me over the edge! Hopefully we will all have a period of calm now before the exams and results ...

@Holymolyrigmorole our ds is the same. An early applicant in October and still waiting to hear from LSE. It’s extremely frustrating

It’s really not acceptable. How does it take this long?! It’s tainted my former admiration for the institution.

I work in a russel group uni in a school with a highly competitive and oversubscribed course: the effort/resource/attention that goes into processing applications and communicating with applicants in a timely way is immense. I do not understand why LSE can’t do this.