Guidance on supporting child through A-levels and university choices

[Mikespa]

Hello Mumsnet, I hope it’s not an issue that I’m not a mum, but a dad. I am seeking some advice and guidance on how best to support my 16 year old, year 12 daughter through her A-levels and applying to university.
My wife passed away in July, it was unexpected and she had always been the one to be incredibly involved with our children’s education. I also have an older son but he is already at university. I am not from the UK so I’m not fully familiar with how the application process, open days and all the systems around applying to university work.

About my daughter, she’s very intelligent, she got all grades between 7 and 9 in her GCSEs. She is not yet sure exactly what she wants to do or study so I am looking to support her in making this choice. For A-levels she is studying English Literature, Classical Civilisation, French and Philosophy but has been told she can drop one if she wishes to, right now she doesn’t want to drop any. We live near London and my daughter has been quite clear that she would rather leave home for university, so not attend a London one.

Does anyone have any advice or guidance?
How do applications work? I’ve heard of UCAS?
When are the open days? Do we have to register or just turn up?
How do I support my daughter in figuring out what she would like to study and eventually do?

Thank you for reading this and for any replies that may come.

Most universities will start holding open days again in June next year. Her school may well hold an open evening for parents to talk through the options available. You won't be the only one who is worried about supporting their child and it would be understandable if you had mixed emotions about her going away.

With strong gcse grades your DD might want to consider Oxford or Cambridge. They have an early application deadline in mid October and extra tests for many subjects. If you are in London you could easily visit both cities and see if they inspire her.

There are lots of helpful threads on the Higher Education board where no question is too stupid to ask.

How incredibly hard for you all, I’m so sorry for your loss @Mikespa

UCAS usually opens at the beginning of September for the following year. School or college should help her to register but she can do it on her own next September.

If there is a Uni or a course that she’s particularly interested in you can sit together, if she wants to at look at them online, check that she will have the right entry requirements, look at when their Open Days and have a chat about how far away it will be, what travel to there and back will look like and how accommodation will be financed.

You’ve probably missed most of the Open. Days for this year but there is nothing stopping the both of you going to look towns or cities that she might be interested in applying to.

One thing we realise with our DC1 was that they didn’t know whether they’d prefer a Campus style Uni or a City Uni so we waited for a warmish day and took them for a walk around the nearest Campus Uni and for a coffee there so they could get a feel of what Uni life would look like.

There is Higher Education Section that is just about applying to and being at Uni. You can ask literally anything in there, generally everyone is really supportive

Open days: your DD should register next spring or early summer. You can go with her as lots of parents do. She can find out about the different subjects & accommodation. You can find out more about student finance too.

My own DD went to one by herself, one with me, one with her dad, one with both of us and simply visited a couple other places not on open days. Some were over 250 miles from home before people question why she didn't go by herself & we combined them with weekends away.

Firstly, I’m sorry for your loss.
Welcome to Mumsnet - despite its name it’s ’by Parents for parents’, and it’s absolutely fine for you to look for information and support here.
Re UCAS - yes, that’s the central platform for uni applications. Take a look at it - there’s a lot of clear information there on the process and timelines for applications.

Other posters have already given some responses re open days - in addition there is of course lots of info on uni websites. If there are aspects of a course your daughter is interested in which aren’t clear then there will be contact details for admissions tutors - they’re there to help.

How do applications work? I’ve heard of UCAS?
When are the open days? Do we have to register or just turn up?
How do I support my daughter in figuring out what she would like to study and eventually do?

Ok firstly sorry to hear about your wife's death. Your daughter will apply using the UCAS application where she will be allowed to apply for up to 6 universities. This is a good guide to the timelines of applying
https://www.ucas.com/applying/applying-to-university/dates-and-deadlines-for-uni-applications

She will need to write a personal statement and then do the choices.
https://www.ucas.com/applying/applying-to-university/filling-in-your-ucas-application
Your daughter can apply to up to 5 universities. She can apply for the same courses in each uni or for different ones if she wants. Sometimes different unis will do similar but different courses. For instance I was interested in Sociology and Psychology, but some of the courses were "social science" some were "sociology". Eventually she will need to decide on up to 5 courses and rank them in order of 1st choice to 5th choice.

She will then need to write a personal statement about her. https://www.ucas.com/applying/applying-to-university/filling-in-your-ucas-application#adding-choices
Obviously the choices can be where-ever she wants, but it's sensible to apply for at least one or two where the entry requirements are a little lower than she is likely to get, so that if exams go wrong on the day and she gets worse results than expected, she isn't left without an option. For example, if she was predicted AAB at A-Level it might be sensible to apply for a couple that wanted BBB or BBC.

Open days will be advertised on the uni's websites and she can go to as many as she wants. They don't usually make you register, but they do like an indication of who's coming (their websites will usually have a form where you do this). They often have particular meetings/events for specific courses, or subject areas, so registering with her areas/courses of interest will allow them to target her with details of the things most relevant to her.

On their websites and further more at the open days they will have information like location and cost of accommodation, self catering or catered options etc. These will also feed into what she maybe wants to consider when finalising her choices.

She will then pick up offers - which will be each uni offering a specific place on a specific course, subject to particular entry requirements. Eventually she will be able to hold two offers - the two she likes best, but also bearing in mind probably grades. If she likes one that asks for her predicted grades, it is probably best to accept a second with lower requirements in case she screws up an exam. When she gets her results she will confirm which offer she is accepting and which she isn't.

I’m sorry for your loss.

one thing to know is the school should and will normally give students guidance on personal statement writing and timeframes for ucas form. So she will get information about this. I didn’t get involved with Dd about that side of things at all.

i did have conversations about potential universities (she always knew what course she wanted to do). She will have predicted a level grades which convert to ucas points. So BBB might be worth something like 128 ?.? So this gives her an idea of what universities /courses to aim for….they will have their ucas point requirements for each course on their websites.

So when deciding which options to put down on the ucas form people are normally recommended to have some aspirational courses and then some safer ones. When she gets offers she will firm one and can also put down an insurance which should have a lower offer than her firm. So if she doesn’t get the grades for her firm then the insurance course have to accept her.

you do have to register for open days and it’s open day season now, so I would go to some this month and into Dec. There will probably be more in June/july. If you wait till year 13 it becomes stressful trying to squeeze them in and sometimes there will be two open days on the same day and you can’t make both! So I’d say hit the ground running with this asap at looking at some dates. You could potentially go to one next weekend.

if she’s not sure what degree she wants to do yet get her looking at university websites and literally go through all available undergraduate courses. I think sometimes sixth formers don’t appreciate the wide range of courses available, she doesn’t have to only consider subjects which she’s studied at A level. Though obviously some degree courses will be off the table if she didn’t study them at A level,

You can also look at league tables like guardian league tables for information for specific courses like student satisfaction for that course.

theres a good fb group…..what i wish i knew about university.

Definitely join WIWIKAU on Facebook. It will explain everything needed.

@PodMom Nooo! The Guardian is useless! Their tables have universities that just aren’t great very highly placed. Look at subject league tables in the Complete University Guide which is respected.

@Mikespa What subject? She’s certainly got the subjects for law. Take 3, not 4 A levels. The Morrisby test can help pin point a career (you pay for it) and then a university course can be identified. Many jobs don’t specify a degree, so she could take what she enjoys. But - I would strongly suggest she goes to the best university possible. Also get some work experience and be aware many jobs are hugely competitive. So make a plan for her cv.

Personal statement is now guided by questions. School will help as they will on applications. If she chose law, she might need to do the LNAT aptitude test too. The best universities mostly want this. Plus look at employment stats. Some universities are better than others for employment as are some subjects.

Good luck - hope all goes well.

@OhDear111 ha ha, you’re probably right. I’m a bit biased as the course I teach on is top 10 in Guardian rankings. Lower on CUG 😁. Love the guardian league table

@PodMom Not saying it’s all rubbish but it does have Solent and South Wales at 6 and 8 in the Law subject table which, by any common sense is total XXXX! Exeter is 53. You could not make it up - except they have!

Well quite. Stuff like the staff to student ratio isn’t right by a lot for my course. No idea if the guardian got it wrong or if my institution just made it up 🤣

@PodMom It does make people who might not know about LNAT (for example) misunderstand which courses are best. It’s a negative influence in my view.

Yes. DH and I are chemists, some years guardian was bizarrely off base for that.
in addition to CUG, I used to find the Times one seemed pretty good

Do take a look at the Higher Education board, OP, there may be threads you find generally helpful but also most years there will be a ‘support thread’ for parents with kids going through the process plus additional ones for aspiring medics or oxbridge applicants.

Yes, the Times and CUG are the best. Consistent!

I think you have to take them all with a pinch of salt to be honest. CUG for architecture rank Loughborough 1st above much better thought of courses such as UCL, Edinburgh, Cambridge and Manchester. They have UCL 9th when it’s very much thought of as the top course in the country and are actually ranked 1st in the world in the QS rankings.

@PodMom You have missed out Bath and Sheffield for architecture. Yes, Loughborough is a bit odd but it’s not Solent or South Wales. It is a highly regarded technical university. The Guardian doesn’t like Manchester at all! Employment puts Loughborough up there. However in general cug and The Times are more consistent and reliable - cross reference though.

Do ask school they will likely have information sessions for parents and pupils. Ask when theyrun .
Do pursue her interests outside school eg local museums . Look for public lectures etc at eg british library you can both go to etc

I am so sorry to hear about your wife.
Students apply through UCAS, and the school will support with that. Your daughter can research on what is needed.
You can definitely help with registering for open days and driving her there!
What I will say though.. and it might be a little controversial, is that if you have the means, I would splurge on a private consultant who could help with figuring out a career pathway and study pathway, as well as a lot of support and guidance with the application.
If you don't have the means, this information is widely available online but just takes time to sift through. I personally got a little too stressed out sitting on forums every day whilst having a full time job and juggling two teenagers, so having someone do the uni stuff for us definitely helped.