support thread for those of us who have DC submitting UCAS applications in the next few months

[mumoverseas]

Thought we should all get together and calm each other down/mop fevered brows/hand around glasses of wine etc. We've seen other go through it over the past few months and it will be our turn soon.

DS has just got his AS results which were not too bad. AAAB. The B suprised him as it was for maths and we'd expected a B for french which he had not studied for a few years as sat his GCSE early. He says he will re-sit one of the maths modules and one of French ones to get a higher A

He (we!) has been considering various Unis over recent months and has visited 4.
PS is all in hand as is extended project (whatever all that is about) but time is creeping by and not long now til his mid Oct deadline (one of his choices is Oxbridge)

There has been so much in the papers over recent days about the lack of places at University at the moment and stories of how so many good students did not get places as they didn't put 'insurance' choices.

How is everyone else coping and how do we get our children to make realistic choices?

Yes that's what you'd get mumoverseas, though it sounds as though your DS is fine :)

I think getting as early as possible to school so that the Ho6 can do the pleading is the best plan, it seems to be a double act between the school and the student that stands the best chance of success.

DD3 got one A2 out of the way in January and only had two papers this month, so it's been very different for her than for most. Last year DD2 was convinced she'd messed up in the subject she'd applied to read, so very nail-biting indeed!

The Mojave Desert, just gorgeous, esp. at night - like Scotland but without the rain or midges and quite a lot warmer (we were next to Death Valley) :)

yellowstone sounds much more exotic than Riyadh!

DD2 probably won't be looking at the STEP results ever! Doesn't your DD have a non STEP offer for Bath IShallWearMIdnight?

The StudentRoom is a bit like AIBU on here - not for the faint hearted! DD2 did find it useful when she was in despair about FP3 that everyone who took it found it difficult even the people with Cambridge offers. Fingers crossed for low grade boundaries on that one.

When DD1 got her results two years ago she didn't get the grades she needed for her first choice university but they took her anyway. She checked UCAS at 7am and her first choice had changed to unconditional, it was only when she got her results that she found out she was under the offer. I think she was lucky though.

webwiz, because she told them she was doing STEP, she only has that offer I think. Once this morning's Physics exam is over adn she can stop revising, I'll get her to check properly. She need to fill in a scholarship application in any case, so needs to focus a bit on something other than Maths . How did your DD find STEP 1? It was a bit better than 2 apparently (but not much)

DD2's Bath offer is interchangeable for STEP/non STEP so I would check that out.

I have now idea how STEP 1 went as she didn't want to talk about it!

Morning everyone. DS has his last exam this morning, then the anxious wait begins.

DD2 finished hers last Thursday afternoon. Now she's even tidied her room and thrown out all her old papers.

Just book return day & prom to go, then the wait until August.

Have your DCs got anything planned to do over the summer? DD2 hasn't thought about anything except her exams until now.

I've been attempting to encourage DS to at least look for a summer job. I can't afford to fund him through Uni and he will have to take out loans etc. I'd hoped he'd get off his arse and find something to give him a little bit of a head start.

DD2 is coming on holiday with us to france in a few weeks and she has a week's holiday with some girlfriends in september but apart from that her plan is to be OUT! DD1 got some summer work through a temp agency last year and I was hoping DD2 might do the same but I think she does need to unwind a bit first.

I have set DS1 & 2 a 2 week challenge to live on £20 pw. I thought it would be good practice for uni - they just think I'm mean

Anyone else tried this?

ooh, good idea jgbmum I can just see DS's face

Just caught up on this thread having been absent since March. I don't think my nerves could stand it through the exam period!

Just to add to various experiences with UCAS Track on results day (deliberate lower case - not that important!!!!), DS saw very early on that his insurance had accepted him, but there was nothing against his first choice - Durham. When we got his results he'd got A* in Physics (which he is studying) A in Biology and B in Maths. It took Durham a week to finally decide they weren't accepting him, which gave him (and us) and added week of uncertainty, which was really frustrating at the time. He's actually very happy now in Sheffield - so all's well...........

DD didn't have any absoluely disasters that she could tell, although she found a few papers tough. Having said that, she's hopeless at judging, so may well end up with an E on a paper she thought she'd done well on. I don't know if I want 18th August to come or not!

Hope you're back and settled mumoverseas.

hello all, back in the real world/UK now. Went to leavers service and ball at DS's school in past week and felt very odd. I've hardly been there since I took him for scholarship exams and now he has left! I think it is going to be a very long time between now and 18th August. I am already getting the countdown. 39 days, 38 days.................................

Thankfully/hopefully DS still feels he has 'done it' ie got his AAA. Only time will tell.

I suggested the 20 pound per week (arse, no pound sign on this laptop that I bought in KSA!) and he looked horrified. I took him out to his favourite chinese restaurant last week and it was 49 pound for both of us and I pointed out that would be 2 1/2 weeks worth of food for him from September

Hope everyone is doing ok

Welcome back to the UK mumoverseas!

Its bedlam here at the moment so time is flying by.

DD1 is has been home from University this week and we've been sorting out things for her year in America (she went to the American Embassy in London yesterday for her visa interview and I sat outside for the three hours with all the other relatives and friends - fortunately it was sunny!).We just have health insurance left to sort out now which is ££££.

DD2 finally had a day when she was in the house after spending most of the last two weeks out all the time and so spent over 7 hours tidying her room (yes it really was terrible in there).

DS seems to be constantly on school trips that require early morning drop offs or very late pick ups. Last friday's trip to Belgium was a particular highlight as we had to get up at 5am. He was away for three days and had put a wet towel back in his case so everything was nice and soggy. He's gone on another trip today and won't be back till 7.30pm. Obviously not much schoolwork is getting done at the moment.

Anyway the girls are off to Norwich for a week to stay at DD1's boyfriends house which has 6 bedrooms and not everyone living there at the moment. I am looking forward to the peace and quiet to get an essay done that is due in next week and get organised for going on holiday. PILs are coming to stay the day we get back from holiday so I can't leave the house in a mess like I usually do! We are trying to squash in a family meal for MIL 70th birthday before DD1 goes to America.

So happily we are not thinking about A levels at all here!!

Welcome back ajandjjmum - very wise words!

MOS - welcome back to UK.
The two week challenge ends today, so I am expecting to get home and discover all the fruit juice, milk and biscuits will have gone! DS would happily drink a litre of juice each day if I didn't stop him, but when he was buying for himself the Tropciana was replaced with smart price orange squash!

Webwiz - sounds frantic in your house. What's your essay about?

Hope everyone is enjoying the holidays, is it 30 days to go.........

jgb well done on enforcing the two week challenge. I'm met with scorn/shocked looks every time I mention it. We are being brave and trying tescos or sainsburys 9p curry sauce tonight (although I did just nip to M & S and buy a Plan B in case it tastes like shite!)

I was reading a thread last night about how much peoples food bills are and am starting to wonder where I'm going wrong. A lot of people claim to be spending 65 to 100 pw and I've spent more than that in afew days Mind you, in my defence, I'm stuffing myself with pork products and alcohol at the moment just to get it out of my system so hopefully the bills will reduce soon.

jgbmum the essay is "Outline the key feature and characteristics of quantitative and qualitative approaches to social science research. Critically discuss the extent to which these methodological strategies can be seen as being in tension with one another" and I will happily pay a huge amount of cash to anyone who wishes to have a go at writing it for me.

mumoverseas I'm think the pork products urge might subside but not sure about the alcohol especially with teenagers in the house

oh christ webwiz that sounds like hard work so will decline your offer.

Pleased to report the Sainsburys basic 9p curry sauce was actually very nice so no need for M & S emergency back up.

webwiz hmm, might be best to leave that to you then

DS got a letter this week from UCAS re clearing, fingers crossed none of our LOs need to take advantage of that service!

....how many days?........

hello all, just back from a (nightmare) week away with all 4 of the little darlings/gits (delete as appropriate) and just trying out my new name
Do UCAS normally write to everyone about clearing? DS hasn't said anything about having got a letter.

Has anyone else got lazy sponging teenagers? I'm starting to get a little pissed off now with the fact that DS is 18, has made no effort to get off his arse and get even a part time job and clearly expects me to continue funding him. I have offered him what I consider a reasonable amount of money to do chores around the house (gardening, painting front of house etc) and he seems to think that he should get money for nothing as 'all my friends do'. Am feeling myself getting angrier and angrier. I was out working at his age and giving half my salary to my mother for board and lodgings. Hard lesson but I think she had a point. I seem to have bred lazy gits

Hi MOS - like the new name, very clever!
DS letter does say it gets sent to everyone, I hope that's true, and it's not just being sent to "some" candidates

I think it's quite hard getting a part time job (round here anyway), but it is frustrating when they expect cash for "free". I think that in your shoes, I would turn into evil-mum and insist on the jobs being done. But I do threaten to take away DS access to the car if he doesn't help around the house

Hi jgb, lucky I live in Sussex or I would have had to have moved to somewhere starting with 'S'. Needed to keep it similar so my old friends would recognise me
I'm sure you are right and everyone gets the letter, DS only appears to communicate with me when he wants something

You are right, it is very frustrating. I have 3 younger DC and DH is back in KSA working his notice so effectively I'm a single parent so some help would be really appreciated. According to DS1 a few days ago 'I expect too much of him and his life would be so different/much better if I hadn't chosen to have 2 more children'! I have to say that really upset me. DH and I have sacrificed so much for him to send him to the best schools etc and he has had the advantages that DC3 and 4 won't have.
I appreciate it is difficult to get part time jobs but have offered to pay him 7.50 ph to do stuff like gardening/painting front of house etc. which I don't think is too bad. Trouble is, how can you insist they do things? Do you pay your DC regular pocket money each month or just when chores done? I'm paying him 100 pcm by SO every month and other money as and well but am feeling like cancelling that payment until he gets off his arse and pulls his weight. I thought life would get easier when he left college

MOS - PMd you

Thank you Must get around to reading that book about teenagers called 'whatever' sadly I think its in a box somewhere between KSA and here!

Hello MOS - DD2 got the UCAS letter as well, so I think everyone gets it. It's not very exciting, so your DS may have not thought it worth mentioning.

I have a sponging 20-year old at present, as DD1 has graduated from uni & is making no effort to look for any sort of job - she seems terrified of the whole process & dismissive of any parental suggestions. Any ideas what a graduate with a 3rd in Physics can do?