How does this work for academic year/university?

[kmo0416]

If someone was born in August of 2006, that means that when they were at school their classmates were born between September 2005 - August 2006.

Anyone born after August 2006, was a year group below them; anyone born before September 2004, was a year group above them.

Growing up, a person born in August 2006, would have been socialised with their age mates ie those in their year group. They would have done GCSEs/A-levels at the same time; gone to university at the same time (unless they didn’t go or took a gap year); would have taken part in the same championships and competitions due to the same age etc. This means they would have much in common.

When someone born in August 2006, was at school and in say, Year 13, for example, they would have likely thought they had much more in common with other Year 13s than someone in Year 12, even if that Year 12 was born in September 2006 (so only a few weeks after them).

This is as such person, even though a few weeks younger, would have been behind in terms of a year of education; would not be eligible for the same championships or competitions if they were based on year group etc.

All of this leads people to strongly identify with their academic age mates.

So, I wonder how this functions in university. Imagine if someone took a gap year and so the majority of the students in their cohort were not their age mates so a year group below, even if only a few weeks or months younger, they would not be their age mates. So, would this mean that such a person would profoundly find it difficult to relate to or understand such people because they weren’t part of the same academic year group?

How hard do you find it to relate to people who are not your age mates?

This might sound a bit odd, but it’s also because when we were doing our GCSEs in 2022 on TikTok, people were sharing their reactions to how they found the different exam questions because everybody in the country was doing the same papers if they did the same exam board; and everyone was sharing memes and jokes and it was like a massive moment of shared socialisation - a collective experience. This year’s Year 13s weren’t involved as they did GCSEs in 2023 so, for instance, I couldn’t relate to them on that and they wouldn’t understand the inside jokes we had which still are sometimes brought up on TikTok 3 years later!

But OP, what is your concern here? What are you worried about?

Not making friends? Not having anything in common with other people? No longer being superior?

Step away from social media. None of it is real.

I would imagine that people moved on from GCSEs as soon as they took their A levels. Please don't turn up at Cambridge asking everyone what they got for their GCSEs and A levels. It will immediately make you stand out for all the wrong reasons.

OP, university is not like school. Thank God. Move on.

My daughter took a gap year and then made friends with students she lived with who were a year younger and also some a year or so older, I don't think it really matters.

For the 100th time university is not school OP, move on!

Yes that is a very odd way of thinking. Noone my dc knew used social media that way. Stop looking to it for validation and focus on finding your niche at uni.

Do you realise that in College you won't be segregated into year groups or subjects? You will just be one of a blob of students.

There is a far wider range of people in a university year than a school year. Even back in the 80s when I went to University I was just turned 18, being a summer born who had gone straight there from school whereas plenty of my cohort had taken gap years or were mature students. Not to mention the fact that there were loads of students from other countries whose education systems are different anyway so they weren't all 18 year olds. It didn't occur to me that ages mattered,
My elder DS took a gap year and was older than some of his cohort, younger than others. My younger one went straight from school but as he was born in September he was 19 the day he started. As he went to a Scottish university some of his new course mates were only 17, others 18, others older. Neither of my sons had any problems making friends.
One of the very best things about going to University is, in my opinion, that you meet a huge range of people from different backgrounds from yourself and that the opportunity to have a really diverse friendship group is so much greater than in most schools. Plus of course there is no reason why you have to restrict your friends to those who are in the same year. I had some great friendships with people who were in the years above and below me.
You're probably thinking of University as being like school but bigger OP but it's really not like that.

@kmo0416 do you socialise or have any meaningful activities in real life, as opposed to TikTok? Because TikTok ‘engagement’ is honestly, honestly not an argument for making important decisions in real life.

I would have thought that someone with your leanings towards the elite and exclusive would be racing towards the Cambridge Foundation course. Do you not understand you will be surrounded by the whole Cambridge student body + those researching and teaching? When I look back, the global fame of some of the people who taught me there in the 80s was gobsmacking. And you would be able to attend lectures, seminars, conferences and public talks well beyond your own subject. I truly don’t think you’ve even begun to understand the splendour of the opportunity you’ve been offered.

No one you meet in the future will give a shit about what you and your school mates joked about on SM during your GCSEs. And you will discover a million other fabulously exciting things that you’ll share with an unfathomable number of people over coming decades. Is there no one who can help you to break out of that frozen moment? You need to start looking forward, and actually living your life.

Most adults don't even ask each other how old they are when they meet never mind what school year they were in. Not in my experience anyway. If you're meeting another adult in a professional context what really matters is whether they can do their job, if it's a social context you're interested in whether you share the same interests. Whilst it is true to some extent that you are more likely to have shared interests and life experiences with people who are roughly the same age that's not guaranteed and people of very varied ages can have great relationships. One of my best friends from my sports club is over 10 years older than me but I only discovered that recently when she had a party for her big birthday. We talk about lots of different things but the years we were born in isn't one of them.
At your age a year or two seems like a big difference. The older you get, the less important these things seem. At your stage in life more or less your whole life has been centred on school so school years seem important. As your life experience increases you'll realise that they're actually pretty insignificant.

So you’re going to struggle to relate to those
a year younger than you because they don’t get your TikTok jokes?! 🤦‍♀️

You will be mixing with people from different years regardless of what you may or may not have done, people who’ve done different exam boards and - within your college (or halls if you don’t go to Cambridge) even if not on the foundation course - with overseas students who’ve not done GCSEs at all.

discussing TikTok ‘in jokes’ from 3 years ago would be pretty weird tbh.

you will get to know people in your college, and on your course, and via any clubs and societies you may join. All freshers are new, at Cambridge you’ll all be clever and likely to be used to being ‘ahead’ of your school cohort - if you go into it realising that, you’ll be at an advantage over any who think they’re ‘superior’.

OP, this is honestly not a thing. The second you get to uni, you and your fellow students will be making jokes about the price of beer in the student bar, or the terrible team colours of the tiddlywinks club, or a hundred and one other things as you build common experiences with your cohort.

OP I don’t think you have the social or emotional maturity to be going to uni.

Hence most of us recommending the Cambridge foundation year 😀

It's very similar to school IME in that you will mostly stick with and have most in common with your year group - being a year older is neither here nor there, but might get you a bit of kudos/respect. In the second year you will know more than the first years - but you're more likely to be living out so won't mix as much as they do within their year. But there will be some mixing with people having house parties, in the student union, people dating older or younger years etc

The Cambridge Foundation year - which the OP seems to think will be a classroom in a community hall with half a dozen no hopers and them - rather than the whole of Cambridge at their fingertips.

But if op joins societies they will meet people from a mix of years including postgrads. Some unis have a system of “academic families” where students studying in the same faculty are allocated to a group across all years. Some optional modules may be open to several year groups, especially if they do not run every year. At Cambridge the number in each college taking the same course can be very small so mixing among subjects and years is inevitable.

OP, what do you mean by IME? You haven’t had experience yet of uni.

I couldn’t tell you who in my year (at one of your target institutions 😀) had a gap year and who didn’t: it doesn’t give any kudos!

If you go to Cambridge, you might live in college all years. But you are pretty unlikely to give the freshers a second thought once you are in second or third year.

I may have missed a few posts, apologies if this has been raised already, but might you be neuro divergent OP? You sound to perceive social situations very differently from most people.

This is why the OP has re-sat her A levels this summer. She received BBB last year but received a formal diagnosis which gave her extra time in her exams.

Ah OK. So presumably she will have been offered some kind of counselling and or advice about all of this?

Dd1 born Aug 05 has decide after 2 yrs of apprenticeship to go to Uni, not just any Uni a Scottish Uni where because of the different rules around school dates, there are likely to be many 17 yr olds starting at the same time.

I have no worries that there will be a huge variety of age groups starting the course, but she will find her tribe.

I’ve just read your additional posts, basically you’re going from being a big fish in a very small pond to a tiny fish in a massive sea.

I’m not sure your perceived ‘status’ translates to university where there are people from all walks and stages of life…. My daughter will enter her course having had 2 years practical experience, but then she may struggle with other aspects, it’s not a linear equation those ‘younger’ students may have lived away from home before and be able to help her with homesickness etc.