Parents of Year 12s - exam time again! (oh no!)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Just noticed we were running out of thread!

Anyone going to York today?

OYBBK that's a tough one. DS1 was similar - Cambridge, and in his case, Durham, and nothing else. He though had the advantage of applying for humanties subject, both Cambridge and Warwick want STEP for Maths too (presume that is still the case) which is a further serious cull after the standard A level offer.

Warwick isnt quite so bad now, if the student does very well in the MAT in the autumn they dont need the STEP. Also if they get AAA* they dont need STEP.

Raspberry, sounds like your dd is getting her ideas together. I've passed on the info about not having to put all the unis on the form, that's helpful, thanks :)

Not that DS has an interest in Warwick but is that A star, A star, A star kitten? I'm assuming it is and the bold has eaten the stars.

Raspberry is there another route into what she wants to do with the A levels she has?

Well interpreted Knitting

Icouldbe she wants to do Classics, most unis don't require ancient Greek or Latin, but she decided the only courses she wanted had Latin as compulsory entry requirement . She has now decided that other unis are acceptable and also that Classical Studies/Civilisation is also OK, which is an option at the 4 unis requiring Latin.

Also, OYBBK, I seem to remember everyone applying to Warwick for Maths got an offer, with the various permutations of STEP and A*s.

Dd1 liked Durham and York. Durham slightly ahead but needs slightly higher grades so will depend on her AS results whether she risks it

That's one of the good things about applying to Warwick Raspberry. Though it seems that if you have it as insurance you aren't guaranteed a place in halls.

A lot hinges on these AS results.

When my sister went to Warwick many years ago, it was her insurance. It was the year of a summer postal strike, and they had no idea who was going to turn up or not. Hard to imagine in these days of instant communication!

She spent the first week in a lecturers house while they sorted things out. Which wasn't great as transport links weren't good and she missed out on a lot of things. She found it very hard.

Incidentally I know someone thoroughly enjoying Maths at York OYBBK. And York guarantees accommodation to Insurance! It was DS's insurance. He only liked 2, though he did have a shot at Oxford he was never as keen on the course.

We went to York on Friday. Dd was keen on the course and quite liked the campus. She was less keen on the accommodation we saw but they did say that once she had accepted an offer they would work with her to get the right place for her and make any further adjustments necessary. Not sure what happens if she then doesn't get the grades but it was quite reassuring.

Didn't manage to make it to York today although DS had booked, however, he has decided that he needs to be sensible and practical. If he doesn't get the grades he needs for favourite choices he needs back ups.

Although we have Sheffield left to look at next weekend we are also thinking of looking at Hull (any info regarding this uni gratefully received as I know nothing about the place) and Leicester.

We need to look at Hull as well. The medical school at York is actually the Hull York Medical School and the students are split between the two universities. Places are allocated at random so DD wants to see Hull.

York was the busiest university we looked at. I think it was because their open day clashed with York races, so they moved the Saturday session to Friday, and most people must have gone today.

I didn't realise Sheffield were doing an open day next weekend. It is local to us so we might pop down.

Dd went to york on Friday, wasn't a fan. She's applied for a few summer schools in the holidays to go to.
Last week of school here, dd is extremely exhausted. Her eye has started to swell again

DD went to Surrey on Saturday, and York on Sunday. Hated Surrey, badly. A nice enough campus, but the course structure just made no sense to her - only covering major elements of the subject for a term at a time. She loved York though, and it is now officially on her mental list.

I wish there were able to be more open days into July. I understand why there aren't, but with various clashes and the as exams, it would have been so much easier. I hadn't anticipated how valuable they would be.

It is the same for us OYBBK. We've been to four now, and I feel really only now are we getting to what aspects of the course, and environment are going to be important to DD. On top of that, we just couldn't get to some that she wanted to visit (Durham e.g.) for practical reasons. Durham has course presentations up on line, so we can watch those again now, with a clearer vision of what she wants, but I don't think any of the others she is half thinking about do that, so we are at a slight loss. That said, today I am feeling quite brave, and between us may email a couple of other possibilities over the next week or two, if we have specific questions not covered by either their website, or random YouTube videos that have been posted over the years.

It would have helped too of course, if DD hadn't changed her mind about what subject she wanted to study so relatively recently. We may have been able to get to another one or two at the start of "the season"!

We visited several on non open days in the summer and actually got a really good feel of the locations and the unis- even getting to talk to an admissions tutor. Worth a thought? It was good to see the places not crowded!

Same here Arsenic. DD had an epiphany moment in Newcastle on Saturday, and has decided she doesn't want to do biomed but medicine instead. As a result she has only been to 2 med schools.

Good to know we can look round some in the summer.

Both DD and I feel a little steamrollered by having to make major decisions so quickly.

Ds1 had booked for Notts but he had left it late and the vet stuff was all full. He has rebooked for September.

He's still 16 though and seems very young to be making such big decisions about his future.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one feeling this way.
We will do some visits over the summer. Just need to nail dh and dd down so I know what their current plans are.

DS has all of one lesson tomorrow (it should have been two but one has cancelled) and then that's him done until September. I will not miss the 6.20 alarm, not at all.

I'm glad to hear that you can add establishments to the UCAS form after you've sent it off because DS started with three and has discounted one. I didn't think three was enough so you know exactly how I feel about two.

Two more days for dd. I shan't miss the alarm either!

We are starting to plan a few trips around the country over the summer. Sort of like Thelma and Louise, but by train and probably a lot better behaved. I'm looking forward to it. Mini weekend breaks on the pretext of helping dd choose her choices.

All the other 6th forms round here have finished or are finishing on Friday. As DD's 6th form is part of a school she breaks up on 25th July.

I think we will be doing some university visits over the summer as well. I quite enjoyed traipsing around the country the last two weekends.

DD has just told me that they were told about Unifrog today at school. It would have been more helpful if we had known about it a few weeks ago. They haven't been given a log in yet either. I don't know why they have left it so late.

21st here though dd1 is away with school for the last week