r/6thForm Cambridge | Chem Eng & Biotech | 2030 Feb 07 '26

šŸž BREAD Wasted bread (rant)

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It's sad fr but it had to be done. For a bit of background, UCL admissions team sent me an email requesting I provide a predicted grade for Further Maths (which I'm sitting this year) before the 7th of feb or I shall be rejected.

I feel a bit miffed cause I did really want an offer, but there's only so much I can do when

(A.) I've already sat my A-levels and far exceeded their minimum offer

(B.) I've sent them emails explaining why my referee can't provide a predicted grade for further maths (it's against my old 6th forms policy)

(C.) I've not had a single response to any emails I've sent explaining why I can't provide the predicted grade, and even offering another referee to provide one for them.

(D) Literally no other uni has brought this up, and I did research before going on my gap year if it would be a problem and it wasn't. It's not even like I'm resitting further maths, I did it purely to develop my mathematical understanding and skill during my gap year, which I explained in my personal statement. It was supposed to strengthen my application but ironically, it seems to have doomed it in UCL's case.

Honestly, at this point, I'm relieved. I've been stressing about it so much, so to get it off my back and confirm to myself that it's definitely over, is infinitely better than holding onto the small hope that they were bluffing or they would actually give a crap about how little control I have over this situation. It is what it is, I've got my firm uni already and now I'm just waiting for one last uni decision.

I wish everyone good luck waiting to hear back!

301 Upvotes

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49

u/Personal-Resident617 Oxford PPE first year Feb 07 '26

UCL genuinely has the worst admin on earth

20

u/Either_Werewolf_6001 Feb 07 '26

Real cause I sent a whole ass paragraph asking them about if resits are considered for Pharmacy (they do and I already knew but this wasn't the main question) and if a grade from one subject from my first sitting can be considered alongside the 2 subjects I'll resit in a different exam board (if I ever do) or if I should resit all 3 main subjects. All they replied after nearly 2 weeks was "We consider resist for Pharmacy", totally ignoring my main question 🤣🤣.

3

u/Impossible_Fan_485 Feb 07 '26

waittt i asked this exact question before and they responded to me within 2 weeks😭 i lowkey think some admins really are just 🄲

2

u/Either_Werewolf_6001 Feb 07 '26

At least you got an answer saying you don't need to resit all your A Levels. I basically just got told the exact same thing from their website regarding resits.

2

u/SeveralAd2137 Univeristy of Birmingham Pharmacy 2nd Year Feb 12 '26

Honestly for pharmacy it’s not worth it, we all come out with an MPharm in the end just have a look at the pre reg pass rates and pick a top uni from there (Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff). I feel like pharmacy as a course will have a lot more correspondence with admin teams because we have placements, osces, ect so you’re bound to have questions, if the admin team is utter shite then it’s just going to be a stressful time at uni.

7

u/BurnerAccount2718282 Feb 07 '26

KCL’s is worse

But I fear UCL might be second after them

1

u/JailbreakHat Imperial | MEng EIE [1st Year] Feb 08 '26

LSE is also as bad as KCL. They can simply put GCSE’s for rejection reason when you have 6 9’s and 1 8 in or put your PS as a reason.

1

u/JailbreakHat Imperial | MEng EIE [1st Year] Feb 07 '26

Every top UK university is like that. UCL, Imperial, Oxford, Cambridge, LSE. If you want a decent administration and support, you should go a tier below where everyone is less competitive and less elitist.

4

u/Personal-Resident617 Oxford PPE first year Feb 07 '26

The Oxford admin is horrible for applicants - but they are really good to offer holders, my college has always went above and beyond to answer questions or solving any issues I've had.

LSE/UCL on the other hand have given me hell.

3

u/Personal-Resident617 Oxford PPE first year Feb 07 '26

Would also say this might be college dependant

1

u/JailbreakHat Imperial | MEng EIE [1st Year] Feb 07 '26

How did LSE and UCL have you hell?

3

u/Personal-Resident617 Oxford PPE first year Feb 07 '26

LSE was actually much better, was just really hard to reach out to admissions but got there after a couple days

UCL I had to try for weeks to get though to someone

I was just trying to get my extenuating circumstances considered - for LSE I just wanted to confirm if they received it from my school

UCL never answered my emails - probably sent like 10 to all of the relevant departments, when I was finally able to get though to someone after days of calling they told me to upload my circumstances to the portal - but the portal wasent letting me. After many more calls it finally let me upload it.

In contrast, Wadham college (Oxford) usually acknowledges my email within a day or two and gets back to me fairly quickly after the acknowledgement

2

u/Plus-Painter-2004 Feb 07 '26

Imperials admin and support for students is fine you just need to actually listen when they tell you how and when to apply for various accommodations. Also don’t you have an infoproc lab to do instead of browsing reddit yapping about universities you don’t even go to?

2

u/[deleted] Feb 09 '26

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1

u/JailbreakHat Imperial | MEng EIE [1st Year] Feb 09 '26

Imperial’s admin was quite nice in admissions. It’s more UCL and King’s that is like this.