A levels 2021

[silverysea]

Good luck to all doing interviews this week. I have been banished to the freezing stairs all weekend while much pacing, frantic tech tests and practice sessions have been run in the warm room. The astonishment of getting an interview after all the downers, deadline dodging, dawdling and dithering the last couple years has been a great boost, so we are hoping that ‘twill suffice to carry us through the next few months. DH will be stationed to field Amazon deliveries, and/or hold the poor dog’s jaws shut, as required!

[nyr]

Good luck to your DD too.

Some of DS' friends have already had their interviews last week and are done and dusted. DS is remarkably chilled and if he doesn't get through then one of the many factors may be that he just didn't want it enough. Though, in all honesty, as he's aiming for a STEM, I think there are some very good options elsewhere, so maybe he's right not to fret. I guess it's different for humanities or languages.

[Hebden]

Good luck to your DCs for their interviews this week, my DS had his Cambridge interview from home over zoom last week, I was nervous incase there were any IT glitches, but everything went smoothly! My DS really enjoyed his interview, he’s just waiting to hear from Imperial College now and has offers from his other universities. It’s such a waiting game!

[loobylou]

Good luck to everyone for interviews and offers.
DD has her interview later this week - hoping for a good internet connection!

[BlueBerry22]

Lovely to hear about all DC's interviews and offers. Well done.

My DCs school yet to arrange submission - struggling to get individual teachers to write their bits.

Fingers crossed the process can move forward soon as finding it disheartening with friends in other schools already receiving multiple offers.

[nyr]

Sorry that your DC's school teachers haven't quite got their act together. Hopefully soon.

FWIW, I get the impression that there seem to be extra places available. Maybe there's fear of a large drop-out rate for this year's intake and some universities want to recruit more next year, to take the slack for the 2.x years where they would otherwise collect less fees, rent, money from catering, ....

[ToadMum]

Sorry that your DC's school teachers haven't quite got their act together. Hopefully soon.

FWIW, I get the impression that there seem to be extra places available. Maybe there's fear of a large drop-out rate for this year's intake and some universities want to recruit more next year, to take the slack for the 2.x years where they would otherwise collect less fees, rent, money from catering, ....

I haven't actually tracked down the document, but I'msure I either read somewhere , or heard on the radio a few days ago, that the drop-out rate for the 2020 intake has actually been lower than usual.

[nyr]

That is interesting. I was only going by the fact that some students seem to have received rather generous offers.

[kenyancowgirl]

The generous offers are more to do with universities filling the obvious gap from the education department. Unis understand about the rubbish disruptions this year and are trying to mitigate.

ToadMum is correct, the drop out rate is no higher than normal and, conversely, the rate of 19 year olds applying is higher (ie those who did not apply last year, plus any reapplicants is higher this year) which could mean fewer places - however, I think it is more likely that slightly fewer applicant may have made early applications through ucas (ie planning on taking a gap year, or schools are slightly behind because key ucas teachers are isolating and haven’t done references etc) so unis are sweetening deals to early applicants. Remember there is still a month before ucas “closes” to ontime applicants.

Interestingly we have also heard of more than usual rejections without interview to some of the traditional big hitter unis (Oxbridge/RG) amongst friends in various schools - some real “shockers” however, it just confirms (like with 11+) that you have no idea what the rest of the cohort are like.

[hwood]

DD having Cambridge interview this afternoon, trying to calm down the nerves. UCL offered conditional offer, so its good that a backup in place.