School's approach to UCAS - is this typical?

I work in a university.

Most open day attendees are self directed/motivated. Not many are directed by the school.

I think you should have gotten yourself/your son clued up earlier. You can't expect everything to be the same as when you went to uni 25 years ago.

GrOlB one must ask whether a housekeeper (in that situation, more a hybrid PA/butler) is better value than fees. You realise of course that uni is considerably cheaper than school fees, so plenty of wiggle room there.

Our school has spoon fed us over the uni process. The kids go to a couple of universities in the lower Sixth to look around. Loads of talks. Allowed two days off for uni open days. Then from September onwards in the Upper Sixth they work on their personal statements etc for an afternoon every week in school time. Their applications are always in with loads of time to spare.

Now his applications have been submitted he should be receiving regular email updates regarding dates, finance etc from UCAS

You should have known, OP. There really is no excuse.

surely you can read about the UCAS application process online! It is quite straight forward.

I don't know what dd's school will do since she's only in year 11 but she's been reading prospectuses, looking at university websites & reading about various courses for the last 18 months or so. She's already got a list of places she's interested in looking at. She actually booked one open day without telling me but it clashed with a holiday so had to be cancelled

Certainly my school (state) didn't give us any information in the 90s when I applied - though neither did my parents tbh - I just got on with it, wrote off for dates and got them organised myself. It is a much quicker and more convenient process now everything can be done online.

I consider that dh & I work hard; he has an incredibly full on job & I home educate three kids (one disabled) in addition to dd1. I think being on the ball with these things is pretty basic. I would imagine a dc who was aiming to go to university would be able to start the ball rolling without prodding from school. Perhaps that is wishful thinking!

My DD went to private school. They were really on the ball with UCAS and set deadlines for the students. All applications were submitted by around Christmas. They didn’t give any information on open days but allowed the students time off to attend any they wanted. There were lots of international students at the school and they could not have worked out all the open days for all the universities around the world that were being applied for.

Another thought comes to mind...

Centuries ago, when I was at uni, there was a chap who was always impeccably turned out, not just to look at but on time, properly equipped, etc etc... until he said that he had a housekeeper! It crossed my mind then that one of those would be immensely helpful, but I was insufficiently organised to make it happen myself.

Perhaps worth sorting out before October?

I am so sorry but it does seem rathernthat you expected to be spoon fed.

I don't know of any school I have worked in who told parents when Open Days were. Judging by your DS telling you others were going on Open Days it seems other parents knew what to do. Did you do any research?

With regards to the UCAS application, you do seem to change your story. You say you had to chase for weeks and weeks / Days (which was it) for the last day of the deadline but then you later say he did it by November and the school finished the application by the last day of December (being a private school was this 16th December or near abouts? So it wasn't he final deadline, which was a month later.

It takes two to three weeks to finalise a UCAS application. The Personal Statement is then checked by three people including Head. The reference is checked by three people including the Head. The actual application is checked by five people including finance and support staff. This takes time with many applications and normal day to day jobs. It's not just a case of pressing Submit.

With his offer and acceptance, your DS has had months to do this and no, I don't know of any school who has had to actually tell parents you need to accept or decline an offer. It's all there on UCAS!!!

I really don't think that you do accept your DS is an adult at 18 and expect him to have responsibility for himself. Your entire thread suggests he still needs to be spoon fed and this is the problem universities are having to deal with, in regards to their students who rely on parents and 'teachers' to do everything for them

Don't most schools both State and Independent have a UCAS
co ordinator on their staff? My DCs have gone to very different schools but all had talks on the UCAS process and arranged trips to some Unis and allowed time off for others. All my DCs did however do their own research, request prospectuses and arrange visit days themselves. Ds3 who is going through the process this year constantly got emails and letters from the Unis he had shown an interest in about Open Days and Offer Holder Days and from UCAs too about dates and deadlines.

the point is we had no communication from the school saying "Open days take place after the exams in the Summer Term & you need to book in advance for the most popular ones."

Seriously? That sounds pretty pathetic I'm afraid. It would have taken you or your son about 5 minutes to find that information. I'm not sure you can blame anyone but yourselves for not thinking about it at all. And there are plenty of autumn open days anyway.

(Btw I certainly went on open days in 1987! They've existed for a while )

My kids' schools sent messages about this time of year saying only 3 school days allowed off for open days, so I suppose that was a clue! They were very efficient with UCAS forms. But it's entirely the pupil's responsibility to actually accept the offers, I don't think that it's a school's job to be nagging them.

Do other parents feel the same way? Surely it depends on what your "contract" with the school is?

If execution is an issue, most things can be delegated. Could you not have hired someone to get this stuff right "automatically"?

Open Day practices vary and often depend on what the institution in question feels like doing for that year; there are no rules. Most places will agree to special visits, within reason, even if they say they won't.

As for deadlines, schools can only work on the basis that UCAS candidates have enough motivation to meet them... again if its critical, it must be possible to hire someone to project manage, or generally organise one's life as needed. Through school, university, and beyond. As you, I have seen many many people with disabilities who perform exceptionally despite them when it's important enough.

It is never unrealistic to expect a school to deliver what it has agreed to, whether you pay or the state pays. However I'm not entirely clear what a school can be expected to do in these circumstances.

Bertrand - why do you think fees at a private school include sorting out visiting open days? Parents don't absolve themselves of all responsibility by paying. My local state grammar schools put on a coach for a few popular universities but they have huge 6th forms with a total of around 450 pupils in each year of the 6th forms. Our smallish school had a handful visiting each university. I know the boys from Harrow went to a lot of open days by train and sorted it out themselves. They have the independence and confidence to do it.

You shouldn't be expected to know everything automatically, but you can look into it yourself. My DD is the same age. I found out most of the information from MN and the UCAS web site.

The school sent us some bumph explaining the process at the end of Y12, but that was it. However, the students themselves received a lot of input about uni applications at the end of Y12 and beginning of Y13.