Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other (new thread from y12)

@Countrylife2002 There won’t be many university towns and cities in which rental costs are that high. Here is some guidance from Manchester’s website (just as an example) ahowing that rental costs after the first year are typically lower than those incurred in university accommodation in the first year.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/student-life/experience/cost-of-living/

I thought I typed a long reply, but looks like I haven’t posted it. We will be paying the rent and using loan for all other expenses. I don’t think I will be able to afford single rooms or anything like that, but again we are looking at London and Bristol.On FB thread ppl ask this every other week, and it varies a lot between parents. Some of them have grandparents funding and each parents separately funding along with loans. I don’t think there is no way they will all be of same standard anyway, so each needs to learn to live with what they have.

Should also say she’s aware she will need to work at least in the holidays, I won’t be funding her at all then save obviously feeding her !

I’m planning for the maintenance loan to cover accommodation , and then I will give her £100 pw for food and everything else. I’m taking this from our food budget (it’s just me and her so impacts only me). I am having a minor panic having just read on the bbc that accom in y2 onwards can cost £12k!! Her maintenance loan should be about £8k, I have absolutely no idea where I will find that extra &4k. I have just started setting a side business up anyway as I’m sick of penny pinching so am going to drive that forward a bit now! I will also look for an evening job I think.

My son will live off his minimum maintenance loan and we will pay his rent (possibly with food credit included depending where he ends up and what accommodation he ends up in)

We are just about able to do this as we only have one child and I've been saving for this for about 4 years, and so has he (from birthday money etc - he has yet to manage to find a job)

Well, DD is back from her weekend in Leeds, with a thumbs-up for the social life but a thumbs-down for the course following the open day. So I think Leeds is off the form now.

Is anyone else thinking about budgeting for their student-to-be? At this point likely destinations for DD are Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester. We are thinking we need to top up her minimum maintenance loan to cover accommodation, plus around £100 per week (in term-time) for living costs. She’d probably have her mobile phone contract covered too. For those who are comfortable with sharing (I do not mean to pry) does that sound reasonable? We expect her to work when she can (especially in the holidays) to cover leisure travel and luxuries, but would like to provide for her at a level where she is not financially stressed while studying. Her course will have high contact hours at any of these universities.

Congratulations on the offers so far everyone, how exciting! Nice to have the pressure ease slightly with those in hand.

We are having a lull waiting for possible interview invites maybe end of Nov. I am trying to not discuss things too much as DD did get slightly stressed in the run up to sending application, then had tests in all her subjects which she was revising for. She then joined a zoom session on interviews for med and I think it almost was too much for her to think about 😁. She is on half term break from Thursday so I am not discussing uni for the time being with her to give her time to mentally steel herself for her for weeks of interview prep.

It is so hard not become overinvested in it all!

Congratulations on the offers @Muchtoomuchtodo, I was going to say we sent in very last minute and no offers yet either. She was out on yesterday night for a BDayParty and reached home at 11pm, left home 5:30 am for a CCF competition. So no idea whether she got any offers yesterday, I was told, she will let me know if anything! 🤨 I suppose I shouldn’t ask anything lol
Because she didn’t go to work Sat before Entrance, last week on uni visit and this week CCF competition, her work place decided that she is taking too many days off, these were all informed in Aug! It s a tuition centre, I really want to fight on her behalf, but then they pay just min wages, 4 weeks into month ending, so Sep salary not came in yet. I don’t know whether it’s worth her use of time now! Especially that she would need days off again for CCF. @temperedolivecongratulations on your offer too.
@Countrylife2002I think it’s just us waiting to hear at this point! We had couple of acknowledgements. DDs school didn’t let her leave the last option open, and I think of the PG doesn’t come through, then most of this will
be out of reach. I am really cross that their teachers doing all these, but happened at the very last minute and we were not even seeing each other in the evenings to talk it through, so just did what they said. We had plans to visit Manchester/Birmingham and some others from now until Jan and put one of those :(
DSs school news letter highlighted few PS from different subjects and that all sounds like kids are doing a lot more to get into top universities. Their school is amazing in that sort, asking to research and spent time doing one subject from year 9, so definitely would have amazing extras to put on in year13. DD just across the road and the school just is not interested in anything other than curriculum. She is well jealous!

Fantastic news on offers coming through! So exciting.

DD has gone off to the Leeds open day today, and will stay there overnight with a friend who’s a fresher. I must say I am very ready for that UCAS form to be signed, sealed and delivered now. Her rather lukewarm half-term report suggests she’s forgotten there are exams still to do before these big adventures can unfold!

Fantastic @temperedoliveand @Muchtoomuchtodoon those offers. Lovely to have some in the bag!

DS was out last night and at his part time job today so he won’t have checked email. His friend who has applied for maths has had offers from Exeter and Warwick too, although his application went in a week before DS’. Interesting question about algorithms. I wonder if they do a PG filter first and then admissions look at those which have passed ?

I hope you are all feeling better soon @ComingInByAnsible

Yay, congratulations @temperedolive and @Muchtoomuchtodo, great news! Excellent universities too!

Everyone here is ill apart from me. DS is collapsed with fever and feeling dreadful. I am glad the TSA isn’t until the week after next, but he’s still got tons of prep to do as well as history NEA to finish. DH and DD seem to have a different lurgy that involves incessant coughing. I am just waiting to see which bug I get to experience first (or maybe a combination?). So it’s looking like a great weekend!

@Ventress ds was out last night and I didn’t see him after school. It turns out that he’s had offers from Manchester and Warwick! We didn’t get to either of those open days but he’s very keen on the look of the courses. I’m amazed how quickly they’ve come through. Do you think it’s a person looking at them or just a computer algorithm? Secretly I like to think it’s a person who looks and decides - thinking that they can see how fab ds is the same way that I do!!!

‘Just’ Bath and LSE left now, apart from Oxford but we know that’ll be the end of November / early December if (a pretty big if!) he does well enough in his MAT to get an interview. Having 2 offers in already will hopefully help him to relax a bit in his MAT 🤞🏻

Which universities has your son applied to apart from Oxford @Muchtoomuchtodo?

DS ‘s application only went off Tuesday afternoon too and he’s had a couple of acknowledgments but no offers yet. He is applying to Oxford, Exeter, Warwick, UCL and Durham (no “safety net) university despite my pleading. A couple of these are known to be late for offers but he’s hoping for a reasonably quick response from Exeter and Warwick.

It probably also depends on facility and course as they may have different processes in giving offers.

How early did the dc who have got offers put in their ucas applications?

Ds’ only went in on Tuesday (pretty last minute!) so I’m not expecting him to hear anything for a few weeks, but a couple of the universities that he’s applied to have made offers to others on this and the other thread so I’m wondering if it may be sooner. I’m trying to not get too overly invested but it’s such an exciting time for them!

She decided to just check UCAS once before bed, and there was an offer from Exeter waiting! That's two sorted!

I suppose this is an advantage of needing to get things in early; they get to hear back early as well, at least at some places.

Waiting now on Leeds and Nottingham and possible Oxford interviews.

I still wonder if she did the right thing by not trying for Durham since the campus was so lovely and everyone we met was very supportive, but ultimately she just didn't feel the course was right.

It’s very exciting to see offers coming in already!

TMUA done this morning and school should be sending his UCAS application off today.

MAT is next week, then it’ll onto revision for mocks (after Christmas) and a driving test thrown in along the way once his cast is off.

What a rollercoaster! The worst is yet to come though I think…….

That’s great @ComingInByAnsible! Exeter is also on DS’s list. He is meeting the schools UCAS coordinator at lunchtime to (hopefully) click “send” on his application.

I have read that both Durham and Edinburgh are often late with offers @Countrylife2002Durham is on DS’ list too.

There is no HAT admissions test this year but DS has got some past papers to work on and has had the first of his mock interviews which he found really helpful.

Congratulations@ComingInByAnsible - very exciting! Exeter is on DD’s list as well, due to submit imminently. She has definitely had her head turned by Manchester’s open day, though!

Yay, congratulations! Exeter is on our list too - lovely uni!

Yeah I think it's fine to ask that question when there are offers coming in already from several unis. It's also fine to have not applied yet. And fine to be stressed or calm in either/both scenario(s). This is generally a nice place to share feelings whatever stage of the process we're at and get supportive replies and insights.

fwiw I'm realising that the two uni's DS has applied to (alongside Cam) are both known to be fairly late in offering so won't be holding our breath here. Also having to be patient as waiting for tmua results before filling the final two slots. Thought he'd have a stronger sense after today but though he's happy with how it went, he's not confident at this point to use a slot up on Imperial so we'll wait to see how that shakes down in late Nov then decide on the final two. Then hunker down for more waiting.

And congrats to your DD!
You’ve summed up how I feel exactly - I was never interested in Oxbridge but credit to those of our dc giving it a whirl, despite it being very much a long shot !

That’s a great offer! Well done to your DS!

🤨 not sure there is any call to be so rude. I’m calm, am simply asking as people are already getting offers so am interested to hear which unis. This is the relevant thread for such a question! Maybe hop off if you don’t like it.

It's the 13th October! There's three months til the deadline and most of our kids haven't even applied yet because they aren't early applicants so probably try and calm down...

No offers in yet for anyone from Durham or Edinburgh ?
would so love dd to get one offer in to take the heat off a bit !!