lack of Uni offers - How long do we wait

no.1swimmum

My son only put down 4 uni's but a mixture of maths courses, he restricted his choice of uni as he wanted to continue his swimming as he is a high level, and has so far had one out right rejection, one offer (he's least favourite option), and just recieved a letter telling him that he falls just below the 3rd uni's requirements and they can't confirm or deny an offer until 15th January and his top choice uni we have heard nothing from at all - he was very down before todays letter arrived and is no almost inconsolable, What a wonderful Christmas we can look forward to -he is shouting that if he recieves no offer from favourite then he's not bothering to go to uni. I am a little annoyed that he has been predicted lower than he got at AS, his head of maths is obsessed with him swimming and tells him every lesson to give it up as he is doing no good at school - at AS he was predicted C in Maths and D in further maths and got and A and B and the only area that he let him down on further maths he is resiting in January, his choice, but they have predicted him a B and C, but at a resent parents evening they all told me to expect A's as he was doing so well, so why predict him so low - and I am assuming that we can not now appeal these grades - I am really upset for him and don't know what to do or say he so wants to study Maths and is good at it. sorry for rambling but I am so at a loss on how to comfort him

bestpud

Good grief! It's not the end of the world!

Do his predicted grades meet the entry requirements for his top choice?

The_One_Who

Well the UCAS deadline hasn't passed yet, and some universities like to wait until they get all the applications in before making offers. So if you have heard nothing by late February your son should call up the admissions people and ask what is going on.

If he doesn't get in this year then there is no harm in taking a year out. Applying with your actual grades makes things a whole lot easier.

Lokolo

To be honest theres not much relation between AS. I went from B Maths, B Computing, C Business, C Physics to A level A Computing, B Business, C Maths!

My best mate went from B Further -> D Further. But managed to get A Maths for AS and A2.

Have you looked at the other 2 requirements? It will say X Ucas points, you should have looked at these before applying (assuming you didn't as one uni has said he is below the requirements). This will give you a decent idea of where you might stand.

Also, don't forget about clearing! Although it might limit his chances of accommodation unfortunately.

And finally.... no offer could mean anything, they might not even have looked at them yet. Has any of his friends got offers from the same unis on the same course?

Browntrout_2

If he does not get accepted at his chosen Univ then take a year out and get a part time job to pay for his swimming costs of fees and travel!

Then he can judge what he really wants to do.

StudentMoneySaver

It's probably best not to worry to much about it until late February. As said above, a lot of Universities do not give offers until after the deadline in January. I'm not sure what the volume of applications is going to be like this year but offers could still be rolling in mid March.

I've always been sceptical about teachers predicting grades for students, it's not an exact science and can be based on performance at the time of writing rather than overall performance. Also, there is a tendency (at least there was in my college) to predict everyone one grade lower than they got in AS as a general rule and only amend it if they are an exceptional student.

In my college, people who weren't happy with their predicted grades were able to have a word with their teacher and get them changed in order to give them an increased chance to get into their chosen Universities. This does have it's pitfalls, e.g. giving false hope, but I noticed only people who thought they actually deserved the higher prediction (and ultimately achieved or surpassed it) made a fuss.

I can't remember if it's possible, is there a way to add a fifth University choice at this stage? It may be worth thinking about doing that before the deadline. As well as clearing, there is UCAS Extra where, if he has no offers (including rejecting an offer from a University), he can apply to another University with places. It is between the main application process and the clearing process so keep an eye out for when it starts.

melancholly

i guess you wait until you hear from the uni.... there's nothing at all you can do to hurry the situation along....

some unis offer grades as applications come in, some wait until the deadline and then work it all out. some (many?!) will be currently thinking about student numbers due to the news of lowering government funding and therefore only just be finalising what student numbers may be! the admissions officier may have been off with flu for 2 weeks! there are just so many free parameters that you can't know!

just don't put any pressure on him and tell him that this is normal... anything that makes him more worked up or feel somehow unfairly treated will make things worse.

Oldernotwiser

If he's got one offer out of four and hasn't heard from another, then he's doing pretty well and you should help him get things into perspective. Anyone who limits their choice of university to only four places is going to be restricted and he really shouldn't have put one of them down if he doesn't want to go there.

Is there anything else happening in his life at the moment (girlfriend/swimming problems) because the reaction you describe

" is no almost inconsolable, What a wonderful Christmas we can look forward to -he is shouting that if he recieves no offer from favourite then he's not bothering to go to uni."

sounds totally over the top given his situation!

MrsManda

no.1swimmum wrote: »

he is shouting that if he recieves no offer from favourite then he's not bothering to go to uni. I am a little annoyed that he has been predicted lower than he got at AS, his head of maths is obsessed with him swimming and tells him every lesson to give it up as he is doing no good at school - at AS he was predicted C in Maths and D in further maths and got and A and B and the only area that he let him down on further maths he is resiting in January, his choice, but they have predicted him a B and C, but at a resent parents evening they all told me to expect A's as he was doing so well, so why predict him so low - and I am assuming that we can not now appeal these grades - I am really upset for him and don't know what to do or say he so wants to study Maths and is good at it. sorry for rambling but I am so at a loss on how to comfort him

As others have said, this is not the end of the world. Most people won't have all of their offers yet. Universities have different ways of processing applications and individual departments also have different procedures. It's a possible issue when you haven't recieved offers by March but not now.
If he's not planning on going to university unless he gets a place at his preferred university why did he bother applying elsewhere? Does he really want to go to university or is his swimming the most important thing? It may be worth him thinking about his priorities and aspirations.

In terms of places, there really is no reason for him to worry about it yet. And as others have said, he has other options should his current plan not work out. For now he should be concentrating on making sure he does as well as he can on his January exams and not concentrating on his current lack of offers

rev_henry

College's policy on predicted grades seems totally unreasonable to me. At my school often if one teacher refused to up a prediction we can just go to another teacher.

I wouldn't worry too much about not having all offers yet. When did he apply? Deadline's not till 15th Jan after all. My app went off beginning of November and I've only just had all my offers through. I also applied for 4 (but I withdrew from one as I didn't want to bother going to an interview). Anyway, those maths grades are really good (I think? I don't do maths), what are the required grades for his first choice?

Zack1

As others have said, I really wouldn't expect anything yet. The only person I know who has got any positive decision so far this year is one that's been accepted to Cambridge - and that's because Cambridge & Oxford deadline is 15th Oct

The first deadline when applicants are rejected by default is May (it was a few days after my birthday last year, so the first week or two unless it’s changed). The later you apply the later the deadline (i.e. some applications can be outstanding in June or July if you applied after a certain date). Universities are encouraged to reply by the end of March, but a lot don’t. I didn't get my offer until the start of March last year, and knew others still waiting a long time after that

Best of luck anyway