(I'm a Year 12 mum now, just not changed name for a whole year)
I'd be grateful for thoughts and advice please.
A bit of family background - DD1 never in any doubt about going to university, handled the whole process herself with school, arranged and attended open days on her own and basically told DH and I where she'd applied to once the UCAS form had been submitted. I only saw her Personal Statement when she cleared out her room last year and tossed over a copy she found in a pile of paper. She went to Oxford and graduated last year. Loved it and now doing an MA at UCL.
DS1 two years later again treated university as an obligatory next stage in his education, didn't go to any open days and was happy to choose universities which offered his preferred course, which was a fairly limited number. Because I insisted he did go to two post offer open days, albeit complaining bitterly. He has just completed his second year at Durham reading PPE and is very happy.
And now it is the turn of DD2. She has had a tougher time than DD1 and DS1 at school ( she has had CFS for the last four years). She goes to a different school than DD1 and DS1, and her school seems to take a much pushier approach towards the university application process, holding talks and sending emails and chasing up on open day plans. It is relentless.
DD2's CFS has brought with it anxiety issues as well as the overriding fatigue and "fogginess" which makes many challenges seem insurmountable. She doesn't share the same excitement of her friends at the thought of university and seems to want to bury her head in the sand and hope all the decisions she is expected to make will somehow go away. At the weekend she said "she knows she has to go" but doesn't want to think about it. I wondered if a Gap year would help, allowing her to concentrate on her A2s this coming academic year, lift the pressure of wider reading and aptitude tests and interviews and give her the chance to recover from her CFS before starting uni. She says she doesn't want to do this. I think the effort of opting out of the conveyor belt process is itself too much for her to contemplate.
Sorry this is long. Any thoughts or ideas?
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Higher education
Fear of/ambivalence towards university?
28 replies
Year11mum · 10/06/2013 12:09
OP posts:
TheHonourableAlgyLacey ·
10/06/2013 16:07
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