To ask about uni course advice here ? ( for timely response ) I know that this should be posted in education really ...!

[ginorwine]

Dd in utter panic re uni application .
Her school requires that she applies early whereas at our ds school we did open days in October .
She does 4 As courses at the mo sociology
Psychology
Re and ethics
Biology
not keen
Loves
Re and sociology - passionate arguments and morality etc
She thought about going into the police or nursing at one point but no longer really really does not know what to do at uni but wants to go to uni !
She has often thought that she wants to be an equine physio but realises to get there she has to divert from social sciences and she doesn't know if she will be good enough to do it at uni level
I made a mistake in my course at uni and feel concerned for dd
She keeps veering from equine physio which means another year at a college before uni - specialist course or just to go and do subject she loves .
Any advice much appriciated she is watching friends go to open days and is in spin
Ps
Been around horses much of her life .

However , my dd is doing the Linear A level s where everything is on the final exam .No course work etc . She can be a but unpredictable either way - in her gcse she was a predicted a but got c , then got a run if a grade s when predicted b.

My last child is currently doing their A2s, so I am speaking theoretically.

I realise what I am about to post has a whiff of pre-Revolutionary patisserie (or do I mean boulangerie) to it.

If I had a child in Y10/11/12 doing or about to do linear A Levels, I would plan for a gap year. I would strongly advise them to take their A Levels and then, with their grades in their hand, apply to their chosen universities when UCAS opens in September after their A Levels (ie, what one might call Year 14 because seventh term entry is a phrase from a lost age ), get an immediate unconditional offer and then spend 11 months working, travelling, whatever.

Yes, this assumes some parental willingness to underwrite the year, and yes, there are a tiny handful of courses (the most selective of maths courses mostly) where (a) gap years are discouraged and (b) there would be the wild card, which I don't really understand, of STEP.

But I suspect that grade predictions, offers and the results of offers are going to be utter madness in the first year or two of linear A Levels, particularly as there is the added complication of both falling numbers and radically changing demographics of 18 year olds, and I suspect that a student able to follow the above strategy would do very well out of it.

I'd really advise her to take some time out of education to get a better idea of what she wants to do. Funding for uni isn't available every time she'd want to go back so it'd be wise of her to make her first degree count so she doesn't find herself in a position of having to self fund if she realises 10 years down the line that she's made a mistake and wants to retrain.

10 years of getting a better idea of who I am and I'm now starting a nursing degree in a few months. After college as a teen, I very nearly ended up doing fine art at uni. It's a massive difference.

Doing it later also comes with the advantage of her not having to abide by the school's dodgy deadlines. Do UCAS even accept non-medical applications before September??

This is actually my role at work advising and taking kids through this process it is crazy to be doing it this early. I see absolutely no reason why they are! In your situation I would be saying to your sighted go and get some work experience get yourself booked on some open days asap. As well they should have a careers advisor? They can be really great and point her in a good direction. As for home have you looked at websites like kudos, national careers service etc? Try looking at possible future roles rather than the degree - go forward to work backwards as such.

This is so unusual I hope your dd manages to find what she is looking for!

Do UCAS even accept non-medical applications before September??

UCAS don't accept any applications until 6 September. Oxbridge/medicine/etc deadline is 15 October, main deadline is 15 January, Extra opens 27 February.

In theory (and kids, don't try this at home) you can apply for entry in 2016, from cold, until 20 September 2016 and likewise in 2017. You'd be applying for clearing/adjustment places, and I wonder quite how much choice you'd have by then, but in theory you could take your A Levels, get your results, think about it for a month, find a place, apply, and start university the following week.

I also know people who have arranged transfers between institutions in late October, having started somewhere else, to places to which they had not originally applied. Schools massively catastrophise this stuff, and force people into bad, early decisions. You have much more time, and much more flexibility, that people make out.

And you can always take a gap year (with exceptions that only affect a minute proportion of people).

passionate about ethics makes me think study Law.

combined biology + law: Liverpool Hope & www.derby.ac.uk/courses/jhs/abyjlaj/

An "law and emerging technology" course could be ideal, lots of admin bots have to understand both science & legal processes.

I agree with look forward and then work back. What type of work? Office, outdoorsy? With people?

I've known quite a few in recent years go off to uni to do a degree and end up in non graduate jobs as they don't really know what they want. The value of a degree has diminished somewhat I think.
Awful to realise what you want you don't have the skills for..
Look at uni stats for info on what students go off and do.

I work in a uni although I only have a small amount to do with admissions.

Your first step is to ask the school exactly why they are enforcing this deadline. The UCAS deadlines are the important ones.

Lots of people go to uni without knowing what job they want at the end. If she's academic and has career aspirations then it's likely uni will help her achieve those. But only she can make that decision. Not a bunch of randomers on the internet who have their own perceptions.

Does she have access to career guidance?

DS2 did Psychology, Sociology and Biology at A2 (and Chemistry at AS) he's doing Adult Nursing. He absolutely loves it.

Has she thought about something like Occupational Therapy, or Radiography perhaps?

I can't see how the school can force them to apply early. A lot of open days haven't happened by the 7th October. The school are being really unfair.

If you daughter is unsure about what career path she wants to go down I would definitely recommend a gap year. My DD was barely 17 when she finished 6th form and didn't have a clue what she wanted to do. She took a year out, had a part time job and did an As she thought she might need. She went on to do a computing degree, graduated then announced it wasn't for her and got a job in hospitality which she loves. She now says she wishes she had done a hospitality management course rather than computing.

I studied sociology (recently, as a slightly mature student!) I loved it, still love it, and you can do so many different things afterwards. I'd encourage anyone who loves a passionate argument to do it!

But the school shouldn't be rushing her, this is a big important decision! I'm pretty sure they can't force her before the deadline anyway. Most uni's don't even look at application until after the deadline, so there's no advantage to early application.

Thanks all
The school just said that s what they are doing but could not justify it. My daughter is very practical and technical as well as academic and I m bit sure which way get Intrests will go for eg at a young age she remembered how to hook up a horse trailer whereas I found it difficult every time ! , likes movement and not siting in a office . She is very compassionate and loves ethics . She is patient and very good with horses for eg spend s hours exercising horses with physical problems , doing stretches with them but engages with essays with passion . She says she prefers animal s to people but recently I was with her in town and an old gent dropped his stick and was struggling to pick it up and she was there like a shot to help him
It sounds like a gap year would be a good idea !

I suspect the school thing is something to do with their results .

If she isn't sure right now, I'd recommend taking a year out and using that time to do some work experience and get some ideas of what she would really like to do. DH and I both made the mistake of choosing our uni courses too young and have been back at uni a second time to do what we want. It's cost more money and pushed us backwards and I really wish I was able to take the year out and wait to realise what I'd have preferred to do.

The school shouldn't be pushing for early applications. Talk to them and find out why they're doing this.

£9000 is a lot in fees to be paying out to go to uni. Your daughter has no real interest or passion and she doesn't really sound that academic. I would be suggesting she took some time out to work out what she actually wants to do. No point going to uni for the hell of it.

Nutella
I think the experience of uni for many is invaluable -it's not just about a degree .
I grew up at uni and had my eyes opened to things I would have never done otherwise such as doing Route 66 accross the USA in my first summer - my pals from home would never gave done that with me .
I come from a traditional working class background and was the only girl to go to uni in my year . There are many things beyond the degree to be got from uni.

So it's not about going for the hell of it .its about expanding horizons .

How about training to be a farrier?

Physio is more of a luxury but (most) horses will always need shoeing.

7th October is a ridiculous deadline. My son knew what he wanted but didn't finish sorting out his personal statement until late October. His school dealt with Oxbridge and medicine first and was more keen on getting them right. Agree that if she has no idea what she wants to do she is better off leaving it another year than deciding in a rush. I don't see how a school can force an early deadline. Are they going to refuse to write a reference? I can understand they don't want to do them all at the last minute but the early deadline is nuts.
The school should have been encouraging her to think about this all this academic year though. A large part of my son's S5 year was career choices and discussions/ aptitude tests/ interviews on career choices.

Jumping in re equine physio too. I very nearly did it and looked at varying routes. Very hard to be particularly successful. Would be a nice hobby but it's a lot of effort for the chance of not loads of work. Lots diversify and do farm animals and or dogs too but it's definitely not a linear or easy career path.

Human physio I suppose would still give her the option to convert further down the line and isn't a bad career eg. I would say it's a 'nicer' choice than nursing and the earning potential greater. Lots of clinical staff go on to work non clinically in managerial roles so it's not like you're stuck forever in a clinical role.

Thanks for the comments
Yes farrier did occur to me and her - good idea -however at this point she feels it would not stretch her.... . She is , according to school going from an a/ b student to an a and she seems to be enjoying flourishing over time

• Dh and her seem to think alike - he left school to be a mechanic as he didn't think about uni- no one on his family mentioned it Wd be a choice and he left home at 16 .

He then won a national award for ability as Mechanic of the year . He did a levels, and his teacher suggested uni - he went at age 22 - maybe dd needs more time , like him ,to think . I am hopeless practically but academic - tho you certainly can't tell from the way I post as I hate typing 😜 This thread has really helped - thank you . It has slowed down a panic in us which seems to have been in response to school pressures - now I have a little more confidence and time to reflect- and get a little more insight to what was going on . I now feel she has time to grow and take stock rather than run a race promoted by school into who knows what direction !

Foxy
Where you talking about animal physio course ?

2 Rebecca
I will talk to school about careers interviews and aptitude tests - there is no mention of this - it seems very very uni fixated .
If anyone knows of any tests we could do that would be fab .
Our friend is a youth worker and we did do one with her and the direction from them came up as
Police
Law
Ot
Physio
Nursing
Her response was oooh no .!!!

I work in FE and have been a UCAS tutor for many yrs. The process between student submitting their first application and actually getting sent off usually takes a couple months in total, including a few backs and forths, checks through several layers of management, corrections etc. It's quite usual for schools/6th forms/ colleges to set an early deadline for students but the UCAS deadline is January 15th so there is usually room to take into account students who do not meet the school's internal deadline (which happens A LOT! ). It sounds like your school has gone with just one deadline for all - I.e. Oxford, Cambridge, medicine have earlier deadlines - rather than setting different deadlines for different types of applications. However, as I said above with the UCAS deadline in mind, you shouldn't over stress about the October school deadline.
On the other hand, it is important for your DD to really look at her options and start drafting her personal statement. Tell her not to apply for several different courses, as the personal statement will then have to be generic and unis frown on students who appear to 'not know what they want' by applying to varied different courses.
If she's really unsure, a gap year may be a good option, although doing the application in house is easier for students, as they are usually talked through each stage of the process, and each page of the form, etc. rather than having to do the form on her own, and just request a reference from the school.
Ultimately, what I always say to my students is that it has to be something they enjoy and have some passion/interest in, as they will need to rely on this when it gets tough and demotivating. Also if you're going to spend 3/4 yrs studying smthg, you don't want it to be laborious and smthg you do not enjoy. Physio/Sports therapy courses are particularly tough, and very demanding, as they are specialist and professional degrees, so if Biology isn't her favourite of her subjects atm, she may well struggle. It would be worth her booking in with a careers adviser and going to a few open days over the summer to gain more insight into the courses she's thinking of - this will also make her personal statement stronger!
Good luck, it's daunting and stressful for young people to make such big decisions early on, but the experience is usually great in terms of growth, in particular if her school has a good UCAS team for support!

That's great info thank you tiny
I'd love to book a careers advice session but I don't think that the school have one . I will check on Monday !
If they don't , do you know how that service can be accessed please ?

If your daughter is at a state school, there should be an independent careers adviser attached - although this is interpreted loosely. I'm not sure whether this also applies to private schools.
But there is no longer a centralised careers service for young people.