To think my DD should go to Edinburgh Uni instead of Kent?

I've realised the convenience of having my son at a closer uni.. the travel to get them home etc....something to consider..

As the UK Astronomy Technology Centre at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, led the project to design the Mid-Infrared Instrument of NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope ever to be launched into space, I’d suggest it’s likely the RG course up there is highly likely to be ahead of other universities in both knowledge and opportunities 🤷🏻‍♀️

Another added bonus is that there are many more observatories in Scotland due to lack of light pollution. Husband has visited a few and raved about what can be seen compared to here (we live in Kent, approx 30 mins from the University of Kent!)

Kent is an excellent university. It’s absolutely her choice. I assume she only applied for the further away ones because you pushed her into it?

My DS was choosing university two yrs ago.
He got great grades and could have got into a RG uni but he didn't want to leave home so he got into our local uni needing really low grades but he is happy. If we had insisted he goes away he would have returned home.

You need to drop the "us".

Your post has a lot of “We” and “I” in it.

What does your dd want to do?
What will make her happy?

This is her time to make the big decisions on her future, you’ve had your chance at that age to choose your own pathway. She has to make her own decisions.

It needs to be her decision

it doesn't matter what you prefer. This is her life. Her experience Not yours.

Hopefully Durham accept her, would she be ok with the distance to Durham if she gets an offer?

would she not have fancied Manchester and the possibility of a lecture from Brian Cox?

if she has Durham or st Andrew’s she absolutely go to them. They are completely different to going to Kent

Wait until you hear back from the others. You may need to revisit each city before making a decision if there is time.

She may need reassurance about what it will be like, maybe from chatting to a student who is there now or recently graduated. Do you have any contacts in Edinburgh so she could talk to them and be reassured that she has a network up there?

I think you need a really open discussion about what is driving her thoughts. And perhaps with a view to taking a year out and applying again start the search again. Not sure where you live but Sussex would be a much better choice than Kent. Or Bristol or Bath. Or London unis. I wouldn’t try to force her to go to Edinburgh if she’s not keen though. Better to take a year out and be more sure of her decision.

Please let her make her own decisions- and own them. You've chosen er name, where she grew up, went to school, etc. She's a young adult now, and needs to start having more independence, and making her own choices and decisions about her life. Sure, you might not like them, or she might realise that she has made the occasional mistake... but then it's on her, and she won't resent you for it.

I say this as someone who deliberately went to one of the furthest away universities to escape from crippling family pressure... and although I now live in a completely different part of the UK, I'll never move back to live close to my family. Getting out and away is one of the best things that I ever did.

I would normally be totally ‘it’s her decision keep your nose out’ but Kent is on the border of going bust, staff are miserable and at risk of redundancy and doing such a specialised subject she would be really impacted by even small scale redundancies. So I think you need to have a very very big chat with her and try to dissuade her from Kent. If she’s anxious about moving further afield, gap year and London unis?

Edinburgh all the way. Tell her that if she’s applying for jobs, Edinburgh has more kudos than kent.

You don't try to persuade her. You let her choose. My DD applied to St Andrews, was given an offer and had an all expenses paid trip to the university to visit the town. She loved it. She also had offers from her second choice - an RG university where she had been to several workshops and residential courses and her insurance choice.

When she got her results she realised that even though she got in to St Andrews the travel would be too much - it was a 13 hour journey by train. The RG university didn't really capture her imagination and she settled for her insurance choice.

I can't say I wasn't disappointed. I really loved St Andrews. Her insurance place didn't appeal to me at all. But I had to trust her.

A couple of months into her 4 year course she met and fell in love with a fellow student. A year later they got engaged and a year later they got married. They graduated at the same time, both work really hard and have been able to buy their first home less than a year after leaving university.

I don't know how her life would have turned out if I had pushed her to go where I wanted. But I do know that she is happy and content and has a standard of living that many of her school friends will struggle to attain for many years.

This must be her decision. Staying closer to home really sounds quite sensible to be honest.

This has nothing to do with you frankly. She's an adult

I disagree. She has obviously has good reasons and feelings for Kent. It needs to be her choice. She may be much happier there. Also a campus uni is so nice when you’re young.

Are you kidding? Edinburgh is right on the coast, it’s bloody freezing. Have you ever been to the Edinburgh festival ? Cause it actually makes it a fucking horrific place to live for an entire month if the year. It really isn’t all that.

For me the shorter days in winter (I worked in Newcastle for a while) make a difference. Edinburgh today has 45 minutes less than Canterbury.

I would emphasise the risk of course reduction and other impacts possible with the finances of Kent.

Being Edinburgh to London distance away from home will be incredibly hard for her. Her reasons for not wanting to go there are completely fair.

Saying “how do I make her change her mind” is very wrong of you. This is her decision. You can’t make her miserable and struggling for years just because you think the school is a little better.

This is her decision. Respect it.

Surely the wish is that she’ll very soon NOT be wanting to go home at weekends anyway, so choosing the inferior uni and course is a very silly idea indeed, quite apart from the ultimate worth of her studies. Is there a boyfriend involved here?

She has the most thrilling opportunities on offer; I do hope she’ll make the mature decision, which also happens to promise the most fun and adventure.

Edinburgh seems to have its own microclimate, warmer than most of Scotland. How about going on about the Festival.

Kent is highly likely to get rid of more specialist/smaller number degrees as the merger goes ahead. Think they have done for languages and iirc a poster on here had a dc at Kent doing some sort of more specialised degree and recruitment for that degree was stopped when she was already a student.

yes they have to “teach the course out” but they can only do it to the extent that they have staff. And of course lecturers don’t hang around for three years when the writing is on the wall. So suddenly you’re halfway through a degree course and you find your only options are more mainstream physics ones as nobody is left who can teach astronomy or space science. It’s a possibility.

thats what happened to that Mumsnetters Dd, suddenly the modules she was expecting weren’t available.

I was going to say let her decide for herself, but reading what previous posters have said about all the problems at kent it looks like she would be best to avoid it.