Thread 25 - Covid Cohort - Christmas Trees, No Omicron Please!

@Volterra so pleased you've had good news!

Lots of other good news for others too - at least there seems to be progress.

DD breaks up midday tomorrow, and DS comes home from uni. It's been a very long term!

@Oblomov21 so many people invested the CTF in socks. Ds has many friends with several thousand in theirs. Ours just went in the nationwide. It's has gone from £250 up to £400 Ds told me off for not investing it with the stock market.

We had an email from school today about the contingency plan if exams are cancelled. They said there will be several tests under exam conditions starting January.

Ds said the ucas form has been sent by school. Will he get emails of offers or do they go to his ucas portal? I told Ds to use his own email address. I remember ds1 using his school email address then lost stuff as school closed the addresses down over the summer.

Ds1 is still messaging me from his uni house, telling me how ill he is 😞 not sure what I'm meant to do. He won't phone the gp. He also messaged last night to say his laptop had broken yet again. It was only fixed 16th nov. It first broke at a year old and HP wanted £400 to look at it. But our local pc shop fixed it. Apparently ds's dissertation proposal is on it and is due 21st. that's the extended date as apparently he's far too ill to do it. So dh picked went to get it and it's just at the shop. I can't believe ds1 didn't save the work somewhere.

Then ds2 came home from school saying there was something wrong with his car. DH promptly went off in it mumbling that there won't be anything wrong, but there was. So now Ds doesn't have a car and I'm heading off to my mums on the south coast first thing. He said Ds can pay to get on the bus (it's sort of a dedicated school bus, but one you can pay per trip so mostly 6th formers or children who are out of catchment and not entitled to free transport, not the free school bus ds3 gets) Ds had planned picking mates up tomorrow and going to the cinema to watch Spider-Man. Dh won't take him because he enjoys being awkward. Dh always says Ds won't do what we ask so why should he help Ds. Also Ds can't get home from school as he finishes 1pm tomorrow and thurs. he will have to wait for 4pm bus. Typical to happen when I'm away. At least I won't be here to hear the moaning 🤣

I plan to leave at 6am. It's about a 3 hour drive to my mums near Hastings. I'm looking forward to the break. Though I will be worrying about things at home, especially ds1.

I found this which answers my own question about how common it is to get rejections www.savethestudent.org/freshers/which-universities-are-easiest-to-get-into.html
I hope her PS was good enough to get offers from somewhere she applied.

@Alsoplayspiccolo what a fantastic thing to win, so lucky to see the dates before they ended, I'm forever telling DS to check things but it goes in one ear and out the other!

Welcome HibiscusIsland. I’m not sure Biology rejections I’m afraid, sorry.

Welcome Island.

That is good news Volterra.
And Piccolo.

I read Ds1's recent CTF letter yesterday m, his doesn't qualify till his birthday in Feb. And was shocked at how crap it is. Worth £300 less than deposits made. By me. (And Dh)

Thank you all very much 😊 I have hip dysplasia, probably since childhood apparently which was a bit unexpected but explains a lot!

Picccolo that’s great news for DD! Can see DS missing emails.

Glad people are enjoying Cardiff. DD loves it there, I did too. Can’t wait to see her again, not long now. I think this is a bit identifying so might need to name change again soon, apologies in advance.

I'm new to the thread and have read back a bit. Dd is applying for Biology. Does anyone know how common it is to get rejections? Her predicted grades are the same as her summer exam grades and she applied to places where she would get in if she achieved those grades. Nottingham was one she applied to and I saw others had just got offers for Biology from there. She's in the middle of exams at the moment so I will wait til the weekend to suggest she checks in case her first reply is a rejection!
Her PS seemed fine and school OKed it, although I'm no expert.

Ooh, lots of good news to distract me whilst DS is grilled by Manchester!

So happy for you @Volterra!

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail definitely better to audition in person at Cardiff. Our friend (current 3rd year music at Cardiff) had such a lovely experience for his interview, they made him feel really wanted!

Piccolo that made me laugh. Their generation often skim read and are miss stuff. I have been telling DS to look out when interviews are being given on TSR, he really would have missed Newcastle as it went into his “Promotions” folder!

@DoggerelBank great to work well under pressure!

Thanks, ealing. Yes, Ive always been a bit at these sorts of draws too, so I’m chuffed!

Anyone got any ideas for a good laptop for an English and film undergrad?

Volterra, hope you have a fabulous Christmas. You must be so relieved.

Good for her Piccolo, puts some faith back into these ‘draws’!

Doggerel, nothing like a bit of healthy adrenalin to get going, well done to him for pulling it out the bag.

We’ve had a surprise bit of lovely news here this morning (not Uni related).
DD’s Child Trust Fund matured recently, and while I was looking at what to do next, I saw that her fund provider runs a monthly draw for grants of up to £500 to purchase educational equipment. I made her apply for it; a quick and simple application form, saying what she needed and why.
She sent me a text this morning with a screenshot of an email, saying she’d been successful
She’s got £500 to buy a new laptop and printer, which she’s in dire need of and we haven’t been able to afford.

It’s been a very telling lesson, however - the notification email was sent to DD on the 4th, but she’s only just seen it! Had she wanted to claim the money now, the closing date for this side of NY is tomorrow; as it is, she has until the beginning of March.

I have had a text shout at her, pointing out that she might miss important deadlines (UCAS!!!!) if she isn’t checking every day.

That’s wonderful news, Volterra! You must be so relieved, but I bet it will take a while to fully let go of the stress of having to go through the tests and not-knowing.

Boys, Doggerel!! They will send us to an early grave! Glad he’s had a stroke of inspiration now, though.

Orange, I think either choice would be great for music. I get the sense there are lots of amateur performing opportunities here, and of course your DD could always sing in the BBC NOW chorus

This is all very uplifting amongst the doom and gloom 😊I had good news on the health front which is a huge relief.

DS has had an email from Bath. Offer holder days are online and they sent a January date.

I wonder how much the international cohort skews those London working class results as well.

Glad it looks like he's on it now Doggerel - fingers crossed it all comes together.

I'm still reeling from stressful weekend of EPQ. By mid-afternoon Saturday, DS had written a first draft of about a sixth of an essay, which was in no way answering the essay question. DS and I both went to bed that night thinking it was probably unrealistic to meet a Monday morning deadline. If missed, his teacher would give up on him and he'd have to pay the wasted entrance fee out of his own money - apparently in many years of running EPQ she's never had anyone as late to submit things as him. (I guess everyone excels at something, but I do wish DS had found another USP!) But something clicked on Sunday, and with a crack of dawn start on Monday he seems to have pulled something out of the bag. Fingers crossed it's not too terrible. No time to relax - he has to give a presentation on it on Thursday, which of course he hasn't started planning - and then draft 2 before Christmas. And still has some UCAS tweaks to do this week. But it does look as though there may soon be a satisfactory end in sight.

Oh ok Fruity, thanks I didn't know that.

Well done for all the offers coming through.

Monkey, we're with him all the way. Must be particularly scary with only two rolls of the dice, but hopefully his brother's experience has left him a) readier to get well prepared for interviews and b) relatively relaxed about trying again next year. Really good luck to him!

Bit of a sensationalist headline but some might find these stats interesting.

Yay for York, Sheffield, Manchester and Durham, interestingly

thetab.com/uk/2021/12/13/named-and-shamed-the-17-russell-group-unis-failing-to-recruit-enough-working-class-students-231915

Unsurprisingly, not looking so good for the London Unis. Accommodation and living costs are always going to be huge factors which need addressing. looking at their benchmarks it is obvious they also aren't attracting local students from pockets of deprivation,

Cambridge edges Oxford and Warwick showing improvement.

I'd love to see Scottish uni stats!

@Oblomov21 they accidentally posted and requested the ranking form for the colleges at the time early applicants had applied and then apologised and withdrew it. If students get an offer after Christmas then a new form will be sent out for ranking.

I think she’d made the right call to do an in-person audition, Orange, but I’d probably want someone to go with her, just because. That said, she’s been to open days on her own, hasn’t she, so she sounds much more independent and willing that my DD.
Is she going to go for an earlier or later audition date?