My daughter is considering applying for UK universities in due course. She is currently at a French lycée in the first year of her baccalaureat course (this will be the French bac, NOT the international baccalaureat). She has been educated entirely in the French system, but is completely bilingual with a high standard of written English. She has dual citizenship.
At this stage I'm looking for advice about whether it is a sensible and realistic to consider UK universities, from a practical and financial point of view, and also whether there is any preparation we need to do or any pitfalls to avoid for eg in choosing her baccalaureat specialisation and obtaining "home student" status.
She is a good all-round student expected to get a top grade. She is following a special bilingual (French-Spanish) course which will result in her being awarded the Spanish bachillerato simultaneously with the French bac. Her bac "series" will be science (Bac S) and she wants to take biology as her specialist option - but this isn't set in stone.
She is very unsure about what she wants to do - she is thinking about life sciences/medicine but I wouldn't say this is a vocation or passion (her passion is music, but she will not consider a music related course). She might also consider a language course especially a more unusual language like Russian. In terms of ability, languages are probably her strongest point - she speaks and writes English, French and Spanish, and is learning German - but her grades are very even across all her subjects.
It seems to me that the English HE system may not be a good choice for an undecided all-rounder, though a Scottish university might be an alternative worth considering. Does anyone have any views on this?
If she were to consider applying for medicine (and yes, I know how difficult this would be), how would a (very) good bac be regarded versus A levels?
What evidence of a good standard of English will be required/ accepted?
Finally, she is one year ahead of her UK peers and will be 16 turning 17 when she takes her bac. Will UK universites consider taking students under 18? Is it even possible for a 17 year old to organise student finance and contract a loan? Or would she need to take a year out?
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Applying to a UK uni with a French bac - lots of questions!
30 replies
Mistigri · 31/08/2015 09:58
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