Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

poet123

The point is, its not how you feel about it, but how you are viewed by prospective employers. Be honest,if you were an employer those stats would affect your judgement when comparing the CV'S of 2 applicants. The marketable value of a 2.1 does vary depending on the awarding institution,that may, or may not be fair, but it is true.

You say that if I studied at Bolton I would feel differently, but that is not borne out by the drop out figures,it would seem that many students did not feel the way that you and your friends feel.

Voyager2002

robnye wrote: »

is it the consensus that the higher entry requirements the better the university...... as my eldest daughter is currently trying to choose between universities that have offered her a place, some have lower entry requirements than others.......

Not necessarily.

A very good university may decide that they really want a particular candidate (especially if their offer comes after a series of tests or a gruelling interview) and so may make a low offer for that particular candidate, to take some of the stress out of 'A2' exams and to give them some certainty about their future. Or perhaps the interview has revealed that the candidate is at some disadvantage, so that low grades from her would be as great an achievement, and as good an indication of future excellence, as would high grades from someone else.

melancholly

robnye wrote: »

on another line of thought.
is it the consensus that the higher entry requirements the better the university...... as my eldest daughter is currently trying to choose between universities that have offered her a place, some have lower entry requirements than others.......

the best thing to do is to look at where the unis lie in the league tables for the specific subject your daughter wants to do - and then to look at the different locations and see where she'd be happiest. if you have time/money to visit some unis or just the cities, that can be useful too.

lots of info on the guardian website (and probably others too but this is one of the more comprehensive sets of info):
http://education.guardian.co.uk/universityguide2008/0,,2027789,00.html

poet123

All things being equal though, and leaving aside the very good and correct points made above,the higher the grade requirement the more confident a uni is that students will compete for places. So, the grade requirement(relevant to the same subject) is a good indicator of the standing of any given institiution.

melancholly

poet123 wrote: »

All things being equal though, and leaving aside the very good and correct points made above,the higher the grade requirement the more confident a uni is that students will compete for places. So, the grade requirement(relevant to the same subject) is a good indicator of the standing of any given institiution.

yes, but as Voyager says, not always - a friend was offered EE for Cambridge! i'd recommend double checking with league tables, talking to staff at the school and even posting the alternatives on here. there are also other considerations - do some offer year aboards/year in industry etc. guessing based on entry requirements alone isn't great advice - it's just one piece of available information and it's always best to gather it all.

poet123

melancholly wrote: »

yes, but as Voyager says, not always - a friend was offered EE for Cambridge! i'd recommend double checking with league tables, talking to staff at the school and even posting the alternatives on here. there are also other considerations - do some offer year aboards/year in industry etc. guessing based on entry requirements alone isn't great advice - it's just one piece of available information and it's always best to gather it all.

That is really interesting,was any particular reason given for that offer?

melancholly

no particular reason was offered, i think they just really liked him and wanted him to go there. it's certainly not uncommon for unis (perhaps especially oxbridge) to offer low grades to some students to take the pressure off them once they know they really want them. this is only usually after interviews though, i think it is much rarer based on just the UCAS form alone.

Stubert

poet123 wrote: »

That is really interesting,was any particular reason given for that offer?

A friend of mine was offered EE for Cambridge as well. As pointed out its all after interviews and exceptional grades in GCSE and A Level and all good round extra curricular stuff.

I'm sure they only offer it to the students they expect to get all A's anyway, but as mentioned takes the pressure off.

digsby202

One of my daughters friends at Cambridge was made an offer of 4A's - she did infact get 2A's and a B, but they just wanted her. She had a lot of very good extra cirruclar activities, mainly involved with Freetrade, and they appreciated her grades would have been higher without this.

Back to my daughter, thankyou for all you lovely feedback, I was concerned I may come accross as a bit 'full of myself' - just wanted to put forward a bit of advice.

To get her newspaper of the press involves 3 overnights in the office, and study during the day, she also has to manage her reporters, some 40 of them, most of them graduates. I'm picking her up at the weekend and expect to carry her into the car! She is passionate about good journalisim, and begins a 6 week internship at the BBC on Monday. She will still be upset if she doesn't get a first, but I just want her to be happy.


If your daughter does go to Uni this year, in her first week ( at freshers fayre) she should approach one of the student papers. Offer to do anything with an aim of eventually writing music reviews and interviews etc. she's got to get that passion accross as quickly as possible.

Love d

freebie_junkie

poet123 wrote: »

The point is, its not how you feel about it, but how you are viewed by prospective employers. Be honest,if you were an employer those stats would affect your judgement when comparing the CV'S of 2 applicants. The marketable value of a 2.1 does vary depending on the awarding institution,that may, or may not be fair, but it is true.

You say that if I studied at Bolton I would feel differently, but that is not borne out by the drop out figures,it would seem that many students did not feel the way that you and your friends feel.

You can't deny that in the creative industries, many people are freelance. We all already do freelance work and actually do a unit about how to generate employment opportunities as a writer without havign to have a 'day job' aswell. Our emplyers are us. I have also been offered a full-time teaching post, as I said before, but I don't want it. I didn't apply for it, I was asked. They know I went to Bolton and they still asked, funny that. I'm sure that there are many people doing PGDEs/ PGCEs this year who achieved a 2:1 in their degree and didn't go to Bolton, so why would they ask me? Must have liked all of the other stuff I do, much of which I go involved with becuase I am at Bolton Uni.

On teh subject of drop-outs, do you think that many of these students leave because they don't like the Uni itself? I left Man Met (I did my 1st year there) and transferred to Bolton becuase I wanted to move back up North (I was at MMU Cheshire), nothing to do with the actual Uni or course itself. Many people leave becuase they can't handle their finances, becuase tehy miss home, the work load is too much for them or becuase Uni just wasn't what they expected. I know this as I used to work for the MMU SU as an adviser.