University visits - class of 2020

[Sandra & co]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

My son studied English lit with film studies in Southampton over ten years ago now. He really enjoyed his time in the city and stayed there after uni working at management level in education. He now works in Vietnam teaching but still has many friends from his time in Southampton uni.

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The uni is lovely, I hope she gets in! Well done to your son, he’s done very well!

[Photogirl62]

Southampton is my daughter’s second choice - for maths. Loved the feel there plus it’s a direct train back home!
We are getting ready for the Oxford interview now. DD has to be dropped by 5pm on Sunday and then collected at 12pm on Wednesday. She’s very relaxed about it all and simply looking forward to the whole experience. I’m wondering why Oxford have this residential process for interviews compared to Cambridge who just interview in one day?

[disneylover43]

Originally Posted by Photogirl62

Southampton is my daughter’s second choice - for maths. Loved the feel there plus it’s a direct train back home!
We are getting ready for the Oxford interview now. DD has to be dropped by 5pm on Sunday and then collected at 12pm on Wednesday. She’s very relaxed about it all and simply looking forward to the whole experience. I’m wondering why Oxford have this residential process for interviews compared to Cambridge who just interview in one day?

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I think oxford do their “pooling” at the time of interviews whereas with Cambridge you get invited back at a later date.

[Photogirl62]

So I dropped DD at Oxford yesterday. Accommodation is pretty dire in comparison to other universities so that was a shock!
She has had 2 interviews today within St Anne's and said they both seemed to go well. Each one was just one person conducting the interview with a notetaker present. Mainly consisted of working through some maths questions plus asking her about her experiences on the UK Mathematics team and her time at the Oxford Uni training camp and the team trip to Hungary.
Tomorrow she has interviews with other colleges but the details haven't yet been posted up as to which colleges want to interview her.
She's very relaxed about it all and is just immensely proud of having got this far. I can't wait to have her home - it feels like a trial run of going to uni next autumn!

How is everyone else doing? Any more offers/interviews coming through?

[scoobydooby]

DDs school finally forwarded her UCAS form after a protracted delay. She has only made four choices as couldn’t find five we liked. Has had two conditional offers through but for her third and fourth choices. At least we are getting moving now.

[mrsdjh]

My daughter will be submitting her application this week hopefully. She has been finding it hard to make the final decision as her predicted grades are slightly less than she expected. Her teachers have said she is capable of getting 2As and a B/C but they have put the predicted grades as 2Bs and a C based on her mocks. She is worried that two of the courses she liked the best, both state ABB and that with her predicted grades they wont give her any sort of offer and I think this is stopping her from submitting it. She has a very good reference from school and her personal statement looks strong for the courses she is applying for.

Has anyone's son or daughter had an offer for a course higher than their predicted grades and if so was it for the published grades?

[WhereIBelong]

Originally Posted by mrsdjh

My daughter will be submitting her application this week hopefully. She has been finding it hard to make the final decision as her predicted grades are slightly less than she expected. Her teachers have said she is capable of getting 2As and a B/C but they have put the predicted grades as 2Bs and a C based on her mocks. She is worried that two of the courses she liked the best, both state ABB and that with her predicted grades they wont give her any sort of offer and I think this is stopping her from submitting it. She has a very good reference from school and her personal statement looks strong for the courses she is applying for.

Has anyone's son or daughter had an offer for a course higher than their predicted grades and if so was it for the published grades?

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it is complicated... DD17 who is applying now has had offers with maybe one grade difference overall - so published AAB became an offer at ABB... This is for a science based course (biochem/pharmacology?)

DD19 who took a year out, waited til she got her grades - published grades ABC given a place with A*CD (English - the A* was English)

DD19s friend who went last year - offers were all published grades, did not make the published grades (AAB, she had ABC) and was given a place on the course anyway. (Psychology)

So would say that unless the course is under-subscribed, there would not be a lot of movement on offers - maybe a grade's worth here or there (not main subject) - BUT offers are not the be all and end all they first appear to be. Especially this year as they reckon there will be many more places available through clearing since it was a low birthrate year and the change to GCSEs affected this cohort strongly.

Good luck to her!

Edit to add - sorry, just realised I did not answer your question at all - about the predicted grades being lower than the required grades for the course - again, have only heard of people getting offers if they are maybe one grade off overall - so predicted ABB instead of required AAB etc... the predicted grade for the subject/type of subject to be studied has to be strong in that case. But if quite far off and it is a course they want to do, they could take a year out and apply again with the grades they achieve - then they get a straight yes/no...

[marypoppins38]

As above, it depends on the course and how over/under subscribed it is really.
Dd had predicted grades of AAA last year and all her required grades for the Uni’s were AAA. She wouldn’t have got past the first sifting of applicants and be considered for interview without AAA predicted as the course is so hard to get on to (vetmed). As it was she got A*AA and went to her first choice uni. I would recommend doing a bit of digging. Find out how many places are available and how many were taken this year. Does the college tutors have any contacts at the unis to find out if they will consider lower grades? Contact the admissions department of that subject and ask them for a little friendly advice. It would be horrible not to get offers at all based on predicted grades but you should be able to find out how flexible they may be with a bit of work. Hope this helps.

[marypoppins38]

ChoppyGirl - Any news? Just saw on my FB timeline that dd got her offer on the 18th last year so should be any time now. I’ve got everything crossed!🤞🏻

[ChoppyGirl]

Originally Posted by marypoppins38

ChoppyGirl - Any news? Just saw on my FB timeline that dd got her offer on the 18th last year so should be any time now. I’ve got everything crossed!🤞🏻

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Not given an offer for Liverpool unfortunately - came through yesterday. But all is not lost as still have Surrey which she really liked the look of due to the partners involved. It's a big deal to get any offers so still really pleased although part of me thinks "how dare they reject my daughter"