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Original poster

Which Uni?????

90 replies

UniMum2012 · 28/05/2012 10:51

Not sure if I have posted this in the right place....

My DD is 17, in the lower 6th at school and is now thinking about University. Her favorite so far is Durham because she likes their mix of liberal and traditional outlooks. If she can't go to Durham she wants to go to a University in the south because that is where we live and she would therefore be able to visit home to see us and her home friends easily and as frequently as she likes. She also doesn't want to got to a London university because we live in London and she wants a new experience. She wants to study history.

Here are the 5 possible choices we have picked out so far (in no particular order) but she needs a 6th choice....

Durham
Cambridge-not banking on getting in, just want to apply to see what happens
Sussex
Bristol
Kent

We were thinking of warwick but apparently you have to study a language alongside history and this is not something DD wants to do.

If anyone has any suggestions they would be much appreciated. :)

OP posts:
creamteas · 28/05/2012 20:55

The reason lots of offers have jumped this year is because of the core/margin policy introduced by Government.

Each uni had a quota of places (and fines for over recruitment). In 2012/13 students with AAB or above are outside of the quota. But to ensure that the overall numbers didn't increase much, these places were deducted from the quota.

So for example, assuming your standard offer was ABB for 100 places. Previously you recruited 80 @ AAB and 20 at ABB.

This means in 2012/13 you can only recruit 20 students at less than AAB so your standard offer needs to rise to account for this.

The grade boundary is changing again next year, so expect required entry grades to change again. My uni pushed most courses up above AAB this year as we lost most of our quota, but are already discussing bringing some back down to ABB in line with next years split.

JustGettingByMum · 29/05/2012 13:58

Sorry to hijack

Creamteas - your post has confused me!
If the standard offer was ABB, but you make 80% of your offers AAB, then surely your standard offer was AAB, ie, thats what most of your offers were?

I need to try & understand this, as my DS wil be applying in the Autumn, and I would like to believe that if a Uni "advertises" ABB as their standard offer for a course, then most students getting an offer, would get an ABB offer.

Help! Confused

titchy · 29/05/2012 14:31

Cream tea is talking about the grades the students came with being Aab against the offer of abb. so they mostly did better than their offer.

titchy · 29/05/2012 14:33

2013 entry will have no limits on the number Of ABB places so this is likely to be the offer if that's what they say it is.

JustGettingByMum · 29/05/2012 17:40

Ah, so when cream tea talks of recruited she means students who took up their place, rather than offered
So the actual grades achieved were higher than needed for the offer that was made, yes?

titchy · 29/05/2012 18:30

Yes!

WineOhWhy · 29/05/2012 18:43

Back in my day (many years ago), if you applied to Oxford or Cambridge and Durham, you would not get an offer from Durham (or at least I dont know anyone who did) - I think Durham did not like to be thought of as the place for "Oxbridge rejects". Bristol was similar, although less extreme. May have changed now, but worth checking if Durham is genuinely her first choice.

TheWoollybacksWife · 29/05/2012 18:51

DD1 is hopefully off to Liverpool in the Autumn to study Ancient History. She looked at Leicester as well for the same course. Both made her offers of ABB, although the History course wanted AAB IIRC.

outtolunchagain · 29/05/2012 18:51

i went to Durham over 20 years ago and it was full of Oxbridge rejects ,I married one !In fact I was distinctly unusual in not having applied to Oxbridge.Judging by ds's contemporaries this year the same is true now,definitely a popular second choice to Oxbridge as is Bristol .Two of his close friends who put it second have offers ,the only thing is their offer is often as high if not higher than Oxbridge so no use as an insurance

VashtiBunyan · 29/05/2012 20:25

I was at Durham in the early nineties. Most of the students I knew there had applied to Oxbridge. The interviews at Durham were timed so that they would not clash with the Oxbridge ones, so I'd be very surprised if Durham were now discriminating against Oxbridge applicants.

Indith · 29/05/2012 20:32

I graduated in '08 and it was very much full of Oxbridge rejects.

GetDownNesbitt · 29/05/2012 20:58

I have it on good authority that History offer would be A*AA.

And that Moatside is indeed rank.

Racers · 29/05/2012 21:16

Londonmother I work at Lancaster Uni and did a history degree back in the day (93-6) so I'm glad you mentioned us. Lots to offer as you say and... 2.5hrs to Euston, 1 hr to Manchester and 40mins to Windermere :-)

Indith · 29/05/2012 21:16

Moatside is better than it was though! My old room doesn't exist :( as with the bigger kitchens it got knocked together with the old dark room. Mind you I last saw the inside of Moatside as the paint form the refurb was drying so it probably is rank again by now!

Posh rooms, ensuits and double beds and stuff deprive students of important life lessons such as how to smuggle a boyfriend in and how to shag sleep comfortably with said bf in a slightly smaller than standard single bed.

nonapandknackered · 29/05/2012 21:35

I went to York and lots of my friends were historians and really enjoyed their courses. The collegiate system at York is different (assuming it hasn't changed) in that you just get assigned a college rather than choosing one. I think you may have a little influence in that you can choose what standard of room you want in halls. But each college has a good mix of students and a college identity develops very quickly once you're there.

ilovefishfingers · 29/05/2012 22:06

Have you looked on the studentroom website? There are loads of threads for 'which university', 'which course' etc...with contributions (some biased of course) from prospective students, current students and ex-students.

Molesworthiscool · 29/05/2012 22:20

UniMum, you cannot apply for Oxford and Cambridge in the same year unless you are an organ scholar... Sussex is excellent, also York. Good luck to your DD. Aberdeen is fantastic, but obviously beyond the Solar System!!

Yellowtip · 29/05/2012 22:54

History at Durham is not as difficult to get an offer for as Oxford or Cambridge! A student has to pass a different test though, all paper, with no chance to supplement it with written work or an aptitude test. If it was as difficult then Durham wouldn't still merit its reputation as a rest home for Oxford and Cambridge rejects.

But why do you need six choices? If your DD is a Cambridge applicant then it's arguable that she should pack her UCAS form with five top flight choices such as Cambridge, Durham, UCL, Bristol, Warwick/ York because she's very likely indeed to emerge with one offer where she'd presumably be happy. If she compromises with universities lower down the scale and limits top choices to two or three, she might feel she's compromised too far if none of those top ones make an offer, for whatever reason.

It's not worth trying to replicate the idea of an Oxford or Cambridge collegiate system because it doen't exist. Durham's colleges offer more identity than an ordinary hall of residence but no teaching is done within the colleges and the colleges bear no resemblance to Oxford or Cambridge colleges, not even Castle :)

Yellowtip · 29/05/2012 23:03

Wine, not true. In the old days lots of people bought into the myth of 'you can't apply to Bristol and Durham' (never heard it about Oxford or Cambridge and Durham though) and simply did themselves out of an offer. Unless I was very unusual which I don't think I was. These days no university knows which the other choices are, so it's totally irrelevant (though the rumour mill has it that some info is passed informally).

In the past four years my three eldest have all got offers from both Oxford and Durham as have lots of their friends, so, with respect, I don't think OP needs to worry one iota on that account.

outtolunchagain · 29/05/2012 23:04

Yes I have heard that the History dept at Durham offer is AAA with the A in History ,Oxford's offer is AAA,although one of DS friends needs an A* in history for Cambridge.

crazymum53 · 30/05/2012 08:17

Plenty of Oxbridge rejects at Bristol university as well.
Interestingly though a member of my family turned down an offer of a place to read History at Oxford and went to Durham instead!

BringBack1996 · 30/05/2012 09:53

Average UCAS tariff for entry to history at Cambridge is 577, Durham 544 and York 520. If you were thinking of Durham/York as an insurance offer for Cambridge then I would think again. Bristol however is 470 so whilst still incredibly high it would also fill the quota of an insurance offer (that is if it offers the right course).

Yellowtip · 30/05/2012 10:38

BringBack, with Durham asking for an A* at A2 specifically in History, it's not actually a viable insurance. Durham was getting very shirty in the 2011 cycle with students who held it as an insurance.

BringBack1996 · 30/05/2012 11:55

That's what I was meaning Yellowtip. There average tariffs are practically indistinguishable so you'd be better off putting Cambridge/York/Durham as your firm with somewhere like Bristol as an insurance.

boomting · 30/05/2012 12:42

BringBack those are the number of UCAS points that you average student holds upon entry, not the number of points in the offer. Given that UCAS points are assigned to everything from Grade 8 Music exams and pony care qualifications to general studies A Level, you can see how the points that people have can be far in excess of those that the university actually wants.

It should also be noted that the better universities don't express grades in terms of UCAS points - because they don't want people turning up with shoddy A Levels and a pony care qualification. That means that they express offers in terms of grades e.g. AAB, and so UCAS points are somewhat irrelevant for them.