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Students on campus, Nottingham University
University of Nottingham
Nottingham
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Unfair rejection?

Hi, I applied before xmas for civil engineering with foundation year. I phoned them up the other day to inquire about visit days to the relevant department, when the woman on the phone told me that I should have received a decision ages ago and that she would look into it for me. Yesterday I got a phone call back from the same woman, apologizing that she doesn't know what happened, I should have received an offer and that one would be made in the next couple of days. Next day (today) I heard back from ucas, rejected!:frown:

I can't help but feel hard done by, that I got rejected because my application was mixed up or something, and they had maybe filled there targets already.

Maybe it's just sour grapes, as I really wanted Notts. Am I reading too much into it? Was it just a coincidence? :s-smilie:
Don't stand for it, I had to call up Portsmouth to get them to get their butts in gear (only to get rejected in the end, but that was because of my points). It's an irritation to you, and it means they may not be doing their jobs very well. Ring them up again, tell them what happened, don't be afraid to get pissed off. Having said that, only get annoyed if they give you a reason to. They screwed up, if they were going to give you an offer but something happened admin side, you should ring them up and demand that place. If that doesn't work, talk to your parents and see if they'll help you. Don't give up yet!
Students on campus, Nottingham University
University of Nottingham
Nottingham
Visit website
Reply 2
I heard something like this happened at another uni too and to be honest, if something like this happened to me, i would let them know exactly how i felt!
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 3
Yeah I think i'll give them a ring tomorrow to see what they have to say. I mean in all honesty, even if there was a mess up, would they even admit it? Or just come up with an excuse? Or better yet overturn the decision? I can't see the latter to be honest, but i'll phone up anyways for my own peace of mind. If there is a genuine reason then that's fair enough, as its not the end of the world, I have other good offers including Southampton and Cardiff. But as I said before Nottingham was the first one on the application :frown:

Just seems fishy!
Reply 4
Wow, calm down! She said you would receive an offer and it is clearly a mistake. Contact them and ask about the issue politely.

There's nothing fishy about mistakes...they dealt with more applications than any other British uni this intake and there'll always be mistakes, it's just up to those involved to sort it out. MMU made a mistake on my application so I pointed it out despite it being my fifth choice.
Reply 5
Without trying to be negative, are you sure she didn't say 'you should have received an offer' in a more general way? I received email correspondence from Durham last year saying that I would 'receive notification of an offer' and was rejected :/

The other thing is that because all universities make more offers than they have places, its unlikely that if you SHOULD have been made an offer you wouldn't have been.

That said, as previous post, polite enquiry is definitely the way forward. Getting angry is not going to endear them to your position and will make them less likely to change their minds re the application!


Edit: Negative response for being realistic? :/
(edited 11 years ago)
Reply 6
Yes, that sounds unfair it's especially annoying when you want to go to that uni!
Reply 7
No the way she said; "you should of had a decision ages ago", sounded like she was pretty surprised and told me she would investigate further. Bear in mind I only asked about a visit day and never mentioned my application until she asked me about it.

I hardly need to "calm down", i'm obviously not going to ring up and start giving abuse :rolleyes:
Just seems to be too much of a coincidence, after being told it would be followed up and then a day later I get rejected.

Or maybe there is nothing in it at all, and I was rejected fairly! A polite phone call tomorrow to see what the reason was :colondollar:

Looks like I will have a hard decision to make between Cardiff and Southampton :confused:
Reply 8
Original post by tweeto
No the way she said; "you should of had a decision ages ago", sounded like she was pretty surprised and told me she would investigate further. Bear in mind I only asked about a visit day and never mentioned my application until she asked me about it.

I hardly need to "calm down", i'm obviously not going to ring up and start giving abuse :rolleyes:
Just seems to be too much of a coincidence, after being told it would be followed up and then a day later I get rejected.

Or maybe there is nothing in it at all, and I was rejected fairly! A polite phone call tomorrow to see what the reason was :colondollar:

Looks like I will have a hard decision to make between Cardiff and Southampton :confused:


If it was said in that way then it seems that they haven't made a mistake and that they intended to reject but obviously sooner than this. Still, contact them and ask to make sure and to get feedback...it probably won't allow you to get into the uni you initially wanted but the info will certainly put you at ease a bit.

And that's a no-brainer...Southampton! :rolleyes:
Reply 9
Original post by scbond
If it was said in that way then it seems that they haven't made a mistake and that they intended to reject but obviously sooner than this. Still, contact them and ask to make sure and to get feedback...it probably won't allow you to get into the uni you initially wanted but the info will certainly put you at ease a bit.

And that's a no-brainer...Southampton! :rolleyes:


Phoned them up just now and she couldn't give me a reason. She said if I wanted to email them, then it would be followed up and I may get a reason. To be honest i'm in the middle of coursework and exams in a few weeks, I don't really have the time to be chasing after something.

I was at a visit day in Southampton for civil engineering and I wasn't impressed at all with the department, nor the city for that matter. The campus was nice and I liked the feel around it. But even the accommodation was brutal and a complete rip-off! The common area was so small! I know Southampton is academically better, but its not just about the university, I have to live there for at least 4 years.

Cardiff on the other hand was amazing (city and accommodation) and I liked the engineering building and facilities. Great overall feel about the city and university as a whole.

Decisions, decisions.....:confused:
Reply 10
Cardiff is still a fantastic uni to be honest.
Reply 11
Original post by scbond
Cardiff is still a fantastic uni to be honest.


Especially for civil engineering. :rolleyes: I don't have to reply until June, so I might take another trip over to Southampton, just to put my mind to rest. To be fair when I was over there it was raining, that might of had an impact on my views.

I did hear that a lot of the students there are quite stuck-up. I didn't pay much attention to this, as I always make my own mind up on those type of things. Though I did get that impression when I visted. The lecturers did seem quite posh! There was a few parents there who gave the lecturers a very difficult time, demanding specific answers to there questions (in a very rude way) before the speech was over. Made me feel pretty uncomfortable and it had nothing to do with me! So I could possible see where the students would get it from.
Although it would be extremely unfair to judge everyone on that, as im sure its only a small minority (I hope):mad:
Reply 12
Original post by tweeto


Especially for civil engineering. :rolleyes: I don't have to reply until June, so I might take another trip over to Southampton, just to put my mind to rest. To be fair when I was over there it was raining, that might of had an impact on my views.

I did hear that a lot of the students there are quite stuck-up. I didn't pay much attention to this, as I always make my own mind up on those type of things. Though I did get that impression when I visted. The lecturers did seem quite posh! There was a few parents there who gave the lecturers a very difficult time, demanding specific answers to there questions (in a very rude way) before the speech was over. Made me feel pretty uncomfortable and it had nothing to do with me! So I could possible see where the students would get it from.
Although it would be extremely unfair to judge everyone on that, as im sure its only a small minority (I hope):mad:


To be fair, you'll get that sort of thing at most of the Russell Group unis but it's not something to judge the entire uni on.
Reply 13
Original post by tweeto


Especially for civil engineering. :rolleyes: I don't have to reply until June, so I might take another trip over to Southampton, just to put my mind to rest. To be fair when I was over there it was raining, that might of had an impact on my views.

I did hear that a lot of the students there are quite stuck-up. I didn't pay much attention to this, as I always make my own mind up on those type of things. Though I did get that impression when I visted. The lecturers did seem quite posh! There was a few parents there who gave the lecturers a very difficult time, demanding specific answers to there questions (in a very rude way) before the speech was over. Made me feel pretty uncomfortable and it had nothing to do with me! So I could possible see where the students would get it from.
Although it would be extremely unfair to judge everyone on that, as im sure its only a small minority (I hope):mad:
Hello!I was reading ur post..I would like to say that I've got the same problem,I received 3 offers from Cardiff university,Univ of southampton and univ of Nottingham at civil engineering ..I'm an international student and I couldn't go to visit the univ..so I found some useful information from some friends who are studying in uk ..I decided to chose Cardiff as firm and Nottingham-my insurance,I hope I made the right decision:smile:!good luck and maybe I see u there:P

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