Year 12 - 2024/25 - Support, Discussion and Looking After Each Other (Thread 2)

Wow @Waspie you have a tall one on your hands! He’ll need to consult this table for rooms which could comfortably accommodate him:

https://www.exeter.ac.uk/v8media/specificsites/accommodation/docs/UG_Accommodation_Comparison_Table_2024.pdf

Whether they give preference to tall students for spacious beds, I do not know. DD (5ft 4in) seems to think she “needs” a double bed as well as an ensuite. Maybe she is dreaming of a tall boyfriend!

Thanks so much for the FCH-specific feedback, which sounds very promising. DD thinks she might send an email enquiry once the staff have had a chance to catch their breath after Open Day weekend.

oh look at those happy prisoners (although they seem to have misplaced their orange jump suits and ankle shackles).

DH said he eye rolled at the prison block comment in a reverse teenage moment.

DS may have a problem with some of the rooms though. He is 6'6" and (please please no) possibly still growing. The 4' beds would be okay as he could sleep diagonally but a built in bed like the one the happy prisoners in Rowe house have would be really uncomfortable as he wouldn't be able to lie flat.

Yes, Lafrowda was shown I think and also Pennsylvania court as a catered option.

Dh took dd to Exeter on Friday and she loved it. He said it took her a while to settle into it - she’s currently very daunted by it all (was similar in year 10 about leaving school a year later so it’s the same pattern). Anyway, she came home absolutely buzzing and it excited about university. She’s looking at biological sciences so the under ground aquarium fascinates her.

Dh found it really helpful too and felt it was very well organised. He also asked a question in the subject lecture and dd was trying to disown him 😂🙈

Our next visit is Bath and Bristol Friday after next. Two in one day 😳

Also LOLing at prison block! (Anyone want to time-travel with me back to my 1970s school boarding house?).

DD has decided if she does go to Exeter she’s applying first preference to Rowe House (small, friendly, centrally located) but we were shown some very snazzy new rooms in East Park and some even snazzier previews of the not-yet-built West Park. (Birks Grange is also in line for a big update, as they convert chunks of catered accommodation to the much more popular self-catered arrangements).

I think it was Lafrowda they were mostly showing at open days.

Here’s a single room at Rowe House, and some contented-looking prisoners.

LOL at prison block accommodation @Waspie
Both my nephews are in Glasgow, when the eldest went the youngest wanted to see photos of his "apartment" he was sadly disappointed with halls

We aren't doing open days until the autumn, DS was booked for the UCAS discovery day, but school have booked a history trip to the university library for history course work the same day 😡

DS and DH had a great time at Exeter yesterday. They were complimentary about the organisation of the day, and the approachability of the staff members and students. They both really liked the campus and Exeter itself. DH said one of the best interactions they had all day was with the student working at the cafe in the theatre who had just finished her history degree and has enrolled in a law conversion course for 2025/26!

DS said that the talks were mainly just repeating the content of the website, but were fine nonetheless.

@JessyCarr - DH said the FCH is aimed squarely at students wishing to take MFL with another subject strand. The year abroad for study is organised, facilitated and encouraged by the university. Degrees are awarded as either Subject X and Subject Y, if the subjects are studied 50:50, or as Subject X with Subject Y, if the subjects are 75:25. They are single honours. They can also be awarded as Subject X and Subject Y with specialisation in Subject Z, if appropriate.

Lectures and seminars are around 6-10 hours per week in the first year and timetabling for FCH students is managed by the faculty team. In the unlikely event that there are clashes the lectures are recorded and posted to the student intranet/teams channel within minutes of the end of the lecture.

DS said he felt very safe and the campus was warm, welcoming and friendly.

He said accommodation was a bit "prison block" but I suspect that will be the same at all universities. He has also never visited a prison so I suspect his comparison is way off!

DH said that there is campus security and if a student gets lost, or feels nervous, coming back from town alone late at night, that they can ring security and they will follow them on the CCTV to make sure they get back safely. He also said that the university security also have an arrangement with the local taxi companies that if the student needs to get home but has no means to pay, the taxi company will bring them back and security will pay (presumably recharging the student later). Overall DH said that he was very impressed with how well looked after the UGs would be on campus.

Next open day for us is Bristol in two weeks.

Good luck to those returning to exams tomorrow!

We have enjoyed Exeter yesterday. It was buzzing but well organised and didn’t feel too busy. Economics was the only talk we did which was prospective students only, I could sit in in all the others (PPE, law, politics and IR). Very good impression overall and the weather definitely helped!

Absolutely @Waspie. If we go to the October open day it will really be to ask similar sorts of questions (and in particular how the year abroad would fit in - one strand would be a non-European language). Other course options are available, but the dream combination would be “bespoke” and feels a bit risky!

I will @JessyCarr . I agree, it's hard to get a good understanding from the website. Hopefully, while DS attends the talk, DH will be able to find an opportunity to talk to the staff about how the course would work in practice. DS would be looking at combining three subjects, which the website says requires discussion with them in advance before they would accept the application.

@Waspie I’d be really grateful to hear what your DS thinks of the Flexible Combined Honours talk. How that really works is one area you can’t really get a full sense of from a website.

That sounds like a very worthwhile day @BlackBean2023.

we’re heading down tomorrow, hopefully it won’t be too much busier! 🤞🏻

Sounds like a really good, positive day @BlackBean2023!

DH and DS go tomorrow. Their train arrives at 9.15am and DS is booked on five different talks - history, PPE, law and flexible combined honours - which seems quite unique to Exeter (from what I've seen anyway).

So glad Exeter was a hit @BlackBean2023! DD is now regretting not going (today or tomorrow) although we have visited the campus in the past. She will now have to pick from the competing charms of Edinburgh and Exeter for their clashing 4 October date.

Was it teeming? Well organised?

That’s great! What is she interested in studying? (apologies, you’ve probably said up thread somewhere).

That's exactly what our instructor offered for 10 lessons too! Do we have the same instructor?? 😄 For my DS1 we paid £34 three years ago so looks like inflation has hit your area harder.

That’s what ours are too @JustHereWithMyPopcorn - or a bargain £380 for 10 hours!

It was £32 per hour or £300 for 10 hours when ds1 learnt 2 years ago.

We paid £40/hr @Muchtoomuchtodo and she wasn't the most expensive round here either!

@JustHereWithMyPopcorn congratulations to your son!

Ours isn’t 17 yet but I couldn’t believe how much driving lessons have gone up in price since our oldest learnt 2 years ago! I hope he’s a quick learner, I’m not looking forward to taking him out to practice though!

Congratulations to your DS @JustHereWithMyPopcorn! Big relief I’m sure to have that over and done with, and for the end of driving lessons!

Welcome @ellieinfrance. I hope your daughter enjoys the open days. She's probably thinking about her mocks more than she is letting on. My son's school don't offer EPQ so we were spared that trauma at least.

Well done to your son @JustHereWithMyPopcorn - great news!

My son had a big meet up with his friends from his previous school and he said that there was a fairly equal split between those not considering university at all, those wanting to move away and those wanting to remain close to home.

DS is certain he wants to go to university but uncertain on what to study. He's still keen on a London university but appreciates it will be very expensive to live in central London for the full three years. He's considering living in halls for the first year and then commuting for the other two years. Like your daughter @TeenLifeMum DS doesn't want to go too far and has put on a 2 hour travel limit. We're in Berkshire so there are plenty of options.

We haven't had the UCAS/next steps talk from school either yet. It's work experience next week and then back to school 9th June to get their end of year results and UCAS predications..

Woohoo, DS passed his driving test this morning!! I am so relieved (and also happy not to have to pay for any more driving lessons!). Got a short notice test off an app and just grabbed it despite it being at 7.13am and his instructor being on holiday!

DD says most people she knows are not engaging in the uni thinking. She thinks a lot of people don’t want to go away. Which is wild to me as I was so desperate for adventure at this age! DD is keen to go away but more for the course / pretty uni aspects which were not the highest on my priority list. St Andrews is falling further down the list by the day though as she contemplates quite how small it is - she is not interested at all in partying but does like a cinema/shops/eating fun food etc. We’re going to the Durham open day soon so she has high hopes for that. That’s our last one (thankfully for my budget).

@Wehaditsogood we've got the school talk on UCAS in mid June which seems later than lots of others. But I'm hoping it will focus my DS's mind as he has recently decided that economics is boring and he should have kept doing physics. So is currently flitting between courses involving maths, finance and electronic engineering. He basically has no clue!

If we wait until the autumn open days he will at least know his Maths grade (as it sits his first exam next Wednesday) and he will know what kind of uni/course is realistic.

But talking to him about courses and where he would like to study is basically like talking to a blancmange!