Starting Y13 (y12 support thread contd) - number 3

[Littleham]

Thread continued folks...

Decorhate, thanks, will do too! And best of luck for your DD for next wed, so much more useful than a Saturday job! Tbh, I think it's hard for them to find time for paid work, so well done to the ones who manage it!
Hellsbells, best of luck for your DD's other interviews! Let us know how they go.
Polka, Skype and FaceTime are great!
Def agree that early applications are best! A huge hurdle out of the way. And I think the unis are impressed too, as it shows organisational skills and time management ( in theory anyway!).

Thanks Mumslife that was sort of what I meant. Think DD will have to put down actual AS grade (as school bank them) and then again as pending in 2 of her subjects, one module resit in each.
Not sure how much school will need to explain prediction above grade, as one of those is n the subject without resit.

Re the early applications - I thought one advantage would be that an early offer would give more choice of applicant days, as the better dates must fill up quicker.

Does very one need to decide on firm and insurance by the same deadline, or do they get given a date once all offers/rejections in?

Yes, depending on the date on which you get your 5th decision, you get a deadline of when you have to make your choices. So I guess you could firm one, and then go to another offer visit before you do your insurance. I'm not 100% sure on that though!

I did think of one downside with an early application, which I will call The Exeter Blight. It is possible that some universities will ask for higher offer grades if they believe your dc is applying to Oxford / Cambridge.

So the best course of action might be to get the application completely finished and submit it the week after the Oxbridge deadline in October (unless of course your dc is applying to Ox / Cam).

All I remember about dd1 choosing Firm and Insurance last year was that she had a personalised deadline (given after last offer came in) which showed up on the Ucas page. She picked Firm and insurance at the same time and they gave a weeks cooling off period in case of a change of mind.

Yes, Littleham, it is rather a large clue when an applicant sends in an October application.

Back in my day it was quite usual for Oxbridge applicants to receive four rejections from their other choices. I think in those days the universities could see where else you had applied and where you had ranked them.

Re early application; could the DC put Oxbridge app in and leave the others blank then submit them a week or so after Oxbridge cut off?

It is madness though because oxford has received around 20,000 applications for around 3200 places. That would mean that other universities that give out really high offers will be deterring around 17,000 really good candidates!

Wouldn't the added universities in such an application have the original Ucas submission date?

Yes, all those "Oxbridge rejects" have to go somewhere. It's all a horrible gamble.

Good point Littleham. I haven't seen the UCAS form, so no idea of the layout, but I imagine the date would show as the original submitted.

Not entirely sure, but it is worth ringing Ucas to check it out. The helpline staff are really good.

Brenda - since there are early deadlines for other things (CUKAS for example - I know that you don't have to send in CUKAS and UCAS forms at the same time but some people will - and medicine) I don't think that being prompt is necessarily an automatic dead giveaway. When I and my best friend applied to uni in The mid 80s we got offers from all our choices despite applying to Cambridge.

Just musing whilst taking dog for a walk...

surely the Exeter thing will encourage more students to apply to Oxbridge? I mean, if you were thinking of not applying to, say, Oxford and putting Exeter first, if the offer is equal to or even exceeds Oxford's, then why not have a bash at Oxford, it's only one choice. Whereas if Exeter's offer were slightly lower (but still high), then they may be attracting excellent applicants who for whatever reason preferred Exeter.

Dd got an offer for English from Warwick today and it is a lovely sensible AAA offer. So pleased for her as she has AAA from York as well. The less said about her AAA offer from Exeter, the better!

Great news MrsB, well done your DD! :)

Thanks! She hasn't even visited Warwick yet so we need to find out about post offer visits etc now.

That's more like it Mrs B! Really pleased your dd didn't get another silly offer.

Thanks, Littleham - I was so worried that the rest would be stupid as well!

Where else is she waiting to hear back from? Guessing she has two still to repond like my dd.

Well done Mrs B. So glad someone else has put in a application without looking at the uni. My dd has too but for Bath I don't know where it is??? Apart from its far away and everyone tells me it's a beautiful part of the UK.

I live quite near to Bath - absolutely gorgeous. I know all the best tea shops.. The university is about ten minutes from the centre up an enormous hill (but can take the university bus) and is a modern campus, with outstanding spoting facilties and a swimming pool to die for.

sporting not spoting

Littleham - she is waiting to hear from Cambridge and Durham. Hopefully should hear about interviews for Cambridge soon (now that her essays have gone off) but I think Durham could be a long wait.

polkadottyme Bath is one of my favourite places -it is my weekend break destination of choice! I didn't look at any of the universities I applied to before applying and that worked out ok!

Well done to your DD, MrsB.