School's approach to UCAS - is this typical?

Are you sure that some info about timescales wasn't given to your son....and he was expected to relay the info?
So in schools I have had contact with, the kids are told about applying to uni in general studies or PSE or the equivalent. They are told about when they should visit, when they should work on personal statements and choose courses etc. They are told who can give help....but then they have to get on with it and be a bit proactive. Most do involve their parents. Often kids do need chasing about personal statements and are not good about getting on with it, but it isn't the school who are failing to do their bit.
I'm surprised you could get to October of the U6th without having given any thought at all to uni applications as a parent. Wouldn't it be obvious that they would need to be happening. A quick glance at any websites or probably the schools might have revealed the timescales pretty quickly. Did you not have any conversations with our parents after AS results about future plans or ideas, which indicated to you that people were thinking about it?
Did the school really say not a word about the whole process? That sounds surprising that they was never a letter or an email or a meeting about UCAS at all? If there was not a single word (directly or throug I do given to child) then I think you are right to think they should have been making some contact with you, and you should probably tell them. Perhaps spell out exactly what you would have found helpful.....perhaps it will turn out some of the info was available?

With regard to finance think of it this way, it is easier for the providers to process applications now and amend them slightly when results come in than it is to process completely new applications in August.

You will need both your and your partner's (if relevant) earnings and other financial info at hand.

In Scotland we started that process at the start of April.

And surely the point is that if I, a well-educated, confident and assertive person, can't get it right, then there must be other parents too who aren't on top of this stuff

Most do get it right though, and most parents of applicants have never been to university at all, so yeah you have to take some blame for not being on the ball, particularly as you know your ds has difficulty organising himself.

Your ds will have had numerous emails about the acceptance deadline, student finance deadline and emails from the universities he's applied to about accommodation etc.

You really can't expect his school to be chasing him when UCAS and the universities will be doing exactly that.

Well we had no issues at all and had parents evenings and help throughout the whole process with regular scheduled sessions for the students. DS got five offers and went to his preferred uni, DD got three for a massively competitive course and is at her first choice a top RG.

Co-ed Comp kids here LOL, YANBU especially if you are paying for the privilege of support.

DD's school (a GS) has been good, but most of the communication is with the students not the parents, and dealing with UCAS is very much the student's reponsibility, from various MN threads some parents are having to nag a bit but I don't think anyone has thought the school should be on the case.

Registering for student loans is the one bit which does require parental input as well as the student - DH did DD's with her, I think he just needed info from our last year's tax return so you may want to dig that out. The other thing is applying for accommodation choices - different unis open this at different times, some just if they're firm choice, others also allow it if its the insurance.

join in some of the support threads - in secondary and/or higher education topics.

Grumpy!!! Are you for real? Have you read nothing about this process? Of course you can pay up front if you wish. Just pay the bill - it's easy. Open days have info on finance so did you attend any of these or were the lectures for potential students detaining you?

Student Finance deadline is 26th May, OP.

Link is here: www.gov.uk/student-finance

UCAS reminder email was sent a couple of days ago so a little more info on there.

Honestly, just think about it - is it really feasible to process everyone's student finance applications in what, four weeks in some cases, between the A level results coming out and university terms beginning?

I'm not sure you can try to partly blame his lack of engagement on being a boy, when you're female ....

I knew I didn't know much (anything) about the modern UCAS process, so I started reading Mumsnet A level threads when my eldest was doing her GCSEs. It was very useful.

And yes, your son needs to apply to student finance. Soon, preferably.

It isn't tiger-parenting to be aware of this stuff.

Kid wants to go to university - application to be done by Christmas of y13* - they need to do open days in y12 - 6th form is full on therefore need to have some clue as to where they want to go/what they to do by y12 = start thinking about it in y11 & look at a couple of websites.

Nothing is set in stone, but they need to start thinking about it at some point.

(*yes that isn't the closing date but a realistic date to work towards)

Op, if your DS knows when the deadline is and he has told you, then I don't think you can blame school for not pressurising him into accepting/declining places.

Just in case anyone is interested, you can actually visit a University at any time, not just at Open Days. You can even turn up on weekends and ask to be shown around or just view yourself-happens all the time.

Hope this helps.

Hi Op. Your DS will have been receiving emails from Ucas reminding him of the deadlines etc. If he struggles due to having Aspergers, it might be worth you having access to his emails. I would suggest he has a separate email address that he uses for personal emails and one that you have access to that he uses for 'official' emails like Ucas and student finance. Has he applied for student finance? Has he filled in the bit to declare a disability so that he can apply for DSA? If he gets accepted for this, he will then have an assessment so support can be put in place at university.

But i had to google to find the deadline myself - next week - and ds still hasn't done it.

Your DS can log into UCAS track any time he likes and see the deadlines. It will also prompt him to make decisions by email. If he can't cope with this, then he just isn't going to cope at university - where important deadlines are put on VLE and email reminders are not always sent out.

You seem to be making a lot of excuses for him. I find it very hard to believe that nothing was said in school about university open days in year 12. You admit that his friends were going to open days in year 12. So why did he not do something about it?

Really mousy? I am not sure that what we do is all that unusual is it? I alwyas feel a bit bad as I would like to do more but in a very comprehensive school, we have other stuff to worry about as well so there are limits

If I had paid for school damn right I'd want spoon feeding. I'd want them to drive ds round open days, write his personal statement and possibly take his exams for him.

love it!
What a scream MN is

Going through the same process now to get DS to submit his offer acceptance & the deadline is next week! He made his decisions ages ago, but hasn't done it yet, and the school does not seem to be putting any pressure on him. Again, I am the one who is having to do all the chasing.

I wouldn't expect the school to be involved at this stage. Both mine went to the same kind of school as you son's and they didn't get involved with nagging students about axcepting offers. Once you get to this stage it is up to the applicants.

Gosh, passmethecrisps, lucky pupils at your school! We had a parents' information evening but it was very, er, dumbed down and much geared towards, er, newer institutions.

It's all very well saying "look it up online" but how are you supposed to know at what point you are supposed to do this without a bit of guidance? Not everyone is immersed in the education world, and if it is your first child then you are likely to be a bit green.

Ds didn't go to a private school, but I was on a thread last year bemoaning the fact that the school had made no mention whatsoever about open days. As ds was my first dc, and there had been a few decades since I went to university, I was not on the ball. By the time I got round to steering ds towards thinking about such things everywhere was booked up. In fact I found that for places such as Exeter/Warwick, the open days were booked up half an hour after the booking system went live!

I don't think it's reasonable to expect students to be total self-starters (especially boys!) and rely on mums scanning MN education threads and impersonating kids on The Student Room.

If I had paid for school damn right I'd want spoon feeding. I'd want them to drive ds round open days, write his personal statement and possibly take his exams for him.

I am the UCAS coordinator in a perfectly normal state school and I think you are reasonable in some respects and not in others.

We start the process in June before we go off for summer holidays (Scotland) by meeting with those considering applying and introducing the concept of open days, personal statement and such like. In September We then have a series of lectures/information sessions from guest speakers and ourselves covering the application process and setting deadlines. We also have a parents information evening where we go through all this again. Everything goes on our website, twitter feed and email.

Based on that it sounds like you have either completely missed some information or there wasn't any to miss.

Standard applications are all sent by mid-December so your son's sounds slightly behind that but still well in advance of the January 15th deadline.

As for actually making and accepting choices I have no role in that at all. I keep an eye on the adviser track report for those who have been rejected by all so that we can support them but beyond that we do not step in as we presume that to have got this far they must want to go so should be motivated on their own.

We have supported many young people with a range of additional support needs and we would still step back from actually ensuring they accept their offer.

So a mixed bag really when you compare against our experience. I must say that I would have presumed that an independent school would be all over this like a rash but I, foolishly, would have presumed the same of the parents.

TBH my DD is now at a uni which she didn’t even visit for an open day prior to applying, due to it being 350 miles away. Open days are not the be all and end all in uni applications.