2015 Yr 12 support thread

I think the open day is far less necessary now that with a few clicks you can get all the info you need, and first hand accounts/youtube videos of places etc - in my day in was necessary to actually go to the places to get the info.
DS school does not allow time out for Open days, probably for the same reason. If you want to visit the campus/city and wander around to get a feel for the place, no-one is going to stop you just visiting eg any Saturday in term time..

DD2 has just been to a ucas convention. TBH she and her friends thought it a waste of time but they got lots of goodies! It was very busy and huge queues at the desks. I think you may be better doing Internet research etc. and then booking some open days. Look on which university; what uni; unifrog; TSR and on the universities own websites.
School give the appearance of helping with uni hence the ucas convention but in reality most of the research is done at home with Google.
Good luck!

Eatyourveg, you can book as an individual. It says parents can go too but I don't know if that would be odd. Someone on here might know.

Thanks sammy just seen on your link that the local ucas convention is next month - would have thought the woman last night might have mentioned it ds didn't have a clue what I was talking about when I mentioned it. ds1 went with school and picked up loads of useful info. Will get ds3 to ask college if they are sending a cohort but I think they will probably give him a blank look. Don't think you can go as an individual though. Might get him to ask school if he can tag along with them.

Seriously beginning to regret ds leaving school now

Ugh, typing on a tablet. I'll try posting those links again:

UCAS parent info page UCAS event

Eatyourveg, as my family had moved abroad for half of my school years, I went to uni abroad & know very little about the process here. Along with mumsnet of course, I found www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/parents-and-guardians UCAS parent info page really useful. There's a guide (pdf) & other helpful info on there. You could also encourage your DS to go to the closest www.ucas.com/events/convention-exhibition UCAS event where I'm guessing he'd be able to talk to lots of uni's in one day.

Thanks secret think the main worry I have is that as he is on a vocational course as opposed to A levels, it is all new territory for me (trying to work out how assignment grades are translated into unit grades which then become 3 final grades, is a completely different language from the A, B and C grades I understand) and I have no idea which unis are respected or worthless for what he wants to do.

eatyourveg - student room is also a good source of information (although also check each universities website as things change).
DDs' school, I think allows 4 or 5 days off for open days but do be aware that some courses require interviews. Last year we tried to keep open days for DD1 to weekends as much as possible as she also missed time from school for a summer school plus 4 days for interviews and 1 day for a post offer day. School had no issue authorising the time off but DD didn't want to miss her lessons.
DD2 (year 12) is currently looking into open days and we will be trying to keep to weekends as much as possible.

eatyourveg You always have good advice for others on here, hopefully you can help compensate for his college's lack of expertise.

Went to the ucas talk in college this evening - I was the only one there!! The woman was really pleased to see me and said often no-one goes - she did her powerpoint presentation which was rather embarrassing because it would have been much easier to just chat.

ds is at a land based college where only the minority move onto HE and the majority of those that do, stay to do their degrees at the college but his course is only offered at HND and he wants to head north anyway. Only 2 from the year above him on his course have made an application this year and both have applied to the same newish and bottom quartile institution.

Rather worried that the college won't be able to advise ds in the same way as school would have done having sent almost everyone in Y13 onto a wide range of unis since before the ark.

Our school has a policy (2 days) but they seem very flexible.

She is though going on two afternoon courses at London unis so will hopefully get a feel for them.

DD has 4 days off (specified days) for Open Days but unfortunately there is only one she would be interested in on those days. And, sadly, she is busy for almost every single day throughout the summer. I wish we had done some last year.

DD's school allow them to take 2 days off to attend open days etc Leeds. I'm assuming that doesn't include the 2 conventions that the school have booked them on/taken them to. And I'm also hoping that they'll reset the clock next term as DD has already attended one subject open day on a school day. Of the 3 she's booked so far though one is during the Easter hols and 2 are on a Saturday.

What are your DC's schools "policies" on attending open days during term time? Just looked, and DD will be able to attend one at the moment, which is causing me concern! (one, out of places/courses that she is likely to get into)

Maybe it means Ucas applications start in September after the AS results?

I didn't understand that comment either Atia

DD has booked a couple of Open Days now and registered her interest for a 3rd which hasn't opened for bookings yet (Durham). She also attended a subject open day last week which was useful in that it confirmed she doesn't want to apply for a joint honours course.

Mocks are done and the results she's had so far have been encouraging. She has an Oxbridge Conference this week then breaks up for Easter on Friday thank heavens. This has been such a busy term and her workload has been really heavy too; she's really ready for the holiday as am I even though most of it will be spent revising.

Just reading back on this thread a bit, and wondered what I know that the RG Unis really are not interested in detailed applications till after the results are out so its all informal at this stage means?

DS has done another C2 mock and practicals in all his sciences. He's doing past papers now for revision although in some subjects they won't cover all the curriculum until close to the exam.

When DS1 was looking at open days he went to most without me. I took him to a couple and wandered around while he went to the talks. When it came to looking back at the visit a second pair of eyes was really useful. I saw no sign of pushy parents. In hindsight I wish he had visited more and that I had gone with him to more and will be encouraging DS2 to visit as many as possible once AS are over.

DS2 is going to a science department taster day for year 12s at York tomorrow. These can be as useful as a full open day because they get a talk on admissions, a little tour plus some sample lectures.

at booking open days.
Had no idea they should be doing that.
When DS wakes up - need to ask him about that...

needmoresleep and hellsbells thank you for your impressions. DS thinks, and I agree with him, that he would probably be happier at a campus university. Trouble is, for his subject, a lot of the good ones are non-campus, big city universities.

I wish they could all have a good rest at Easter, but there doesn't seem to be chance of that. It'll fly by in a haze of past papers!

Morvah - Manchester and Bath were 2 that we visited last year. DD1 liked both but they were very different universities/experiences. Manchester is a City university with a main road running through it (although separate accommodation campuses) whilst Bath is very much a campus university (I found it a bit claustrophobic to be honest but didn't say that to DD).

DD2 has had her first official AS exam this week - a science EMPA (practical) and has 2 more next week. She has a lot of revision to do this weekend! Plus she had a maths C2 mock last week.
We did some open days last year as she was dragged along when we were looking for DD1, but she will be looking at booking ones relevant to her for June/July. Some do clash so try and do some as soon as AS exams finish. They also get booked up so do book as soon as you can. If your DCs are applying for Oxbridge, medicine or vetmed, then schools will be expecting their ucas applications to be done during September as the deadline is in October. DD1 (who wasn't applying for that deadline) submitted hers around 20th Oct and had completed her interviews and received offers by Xmas which was great so she could then concentrate on mocks etc.
I can't believe after going through it all last year, I've got to do it all again!
Also hoping that DD1 gets her grades, otherwise we will be going through clearing and having to to more open days that week.