New Batch of Year 13 parents this way!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Hopefully this thread will appear on TIO! No need to use it til our old thread is done, but at least we have it for when we are ready.

She liked it. Seems to be gravitating towards History now which I'm delighted about.

I am concerned that she says she would prefer a room with its own kitchen so that she didn't have to mix with others. I'm not sure whether it is chronic shyness or extreme grumpy witch.

I could practically touch the homesickness in the first room we looked at.

And whoa. This thread seems to be taking a turn towards competitive early applications.

Lovely if your children are so single minded that they have always known what they want to do.

Not everyone is made that way.

Sorry Ursula, I hadn't meant it to sound like a race.

To be fair DS1 was very singleminded about what he wanted to study and because of that he was grateful he was able to deal with the application process in good time and leave that part behind.

A wave from someone whose DC isn't applying for uni at all (well, definitely not for next year anyway) - just in case there's anyone else in the same position and not sure whether to post

A wave from someone whose DC isn't applying for uni at all (well, definitely not for next year anyway) - just in case there's anyone else in the same position and not sure whether to post

same position here for DS2 chocolate , :)

:) chocolate a good reminder for people who haven't been following these threads.

I think this may be how this thread goes for a bit. For some there's an early deadline that feels very looming and close. Once that's done, I expect it will settle down back to general Year 13 discussions. There's a lot to come that isn't specifically uni based. For instance, I reckon that it won't be long before loads of our kids have a2 mocks, as mocks seemed to come very early.

Hi boys3 - I don't know about you, but it feels kind of scary to me that my DD may be ending education in about 9 months time!! In some ways I wonder if I would feel like she was a child for longer if she was going to uni. She's got a PT job (well, in theory it's part time, but some weeks she does around 30 hours) - but somehow it will be different when she's off to work 5 days a week 9 to 5.30.

kitten I don't have any problem at all with the focus being on PSs etc - I know you guys will rally round me with support if I need it. I purely wanted to invite people like boys3 to join us if they fancied it

DS1 might not apply this year, or even apply at all.

Perhaps he'll have more of an idea after his first (only?) university open day tomorrow.

:) chcocolate I do have the advantage of having been through it once before, albeit with very focused and early entry DS1. DS2 keen on uni, but also as he really is not clear on what he wants to really study is not going to apply in this cycle. At some point he will need to think about what he wants to do in that gap year tho'

have to add he is quite attracted by the chance of earning a reasonable amount of money and have a bit of a financial cushion of his own before any uni entry.

second which open day is he off too?

DD is thinking about doing an apprenticeship after college. I do think it is fantastic that there are now higher level apprenticeships. DH works for a very large employer who are becoming increasingly keen on apprenticeships.

DS1 has looked into level 4 apprenticeships but a lot of them seem quite technical/practical (engineering, IT etc) which is not where his strengths or interests lie.

On the subject of knowing what they want to do, I have a 15 year old who knows what subject he wants to do at undergraduate level (and some ideas about his postgraduate studies) and a short list of universities. And a 17 year old who doesn't.

I think the difficulties in making decisions come from which subjects they are interested in too. Ds was clear that he wanted to study computer science but he could do that at almost any university in the country so making choices was much trickier. We also had the complication of inconsistent exam results due to anxiety.
Dd on the other hand is equally sure what she wants to study but only has a choice of three with virtually identical offers.

Thesecond
Apprenticeships are becoming quite common at dds school rather then uni

Dd is off to Essex! Took her to the station there was football hooligans drinking at 6:30 swearing and making racist slurs I reported to staff and told dd to keep quiet and do her essays
She's excited and has just decided she might want to study Philosophy at university

boys your ds is being really sensible. It's daft to pick a course at random just because you feel that you really ought to go to university and end up in debt for something you don't really enjoy. Again, lamenting the way colleges deal with things, I do wish they would promote the alternatives equally. There are so many good options out there. My nephew has done really really well for himself, leaving school at 16 and getting a job. He earns more than our household does.

Predicted grades arrived by email last night. One subject grade was lower than what our DD needs to apply to uni. She is devasted. She has straight A* at GCSE and all predictions were A except one which was a B and she needed all A for Law. I might post on one of the other boards for advice.

Agree with earlier poster that focus of thread will change as each Yr 13 stage passes.

boys He's looking at Leicester today.

Sunny and cold here in Newcastle. Not looking forward to this one as not campus based so I will struggle to get round.

Very sorry to hear that double I do hope you find a solution

We (well D's and DH) are at Newcastle today too, apparently the Premier inn last night was just full of open day attendees!

Huddersfield for us today. I get to sit this one out as DH hasn't had a share of the open day experience and this is his last chance to do so. It's been a venue for an audition in the distant past (as was one of the other unis he's looked at) so DS should recognise it when he sees it.

I have not reminded either of them that the last time I let DS make all the arrangements for the day he navigated us (on time) to a different HE establishment in the same city. Pro tip 1 - make sure you know where you're going before looking up the postcode.

That's rotten Double. It's a good idea to post in 'Higher'. There are lots of knowledgeable people in there.

I dom"t think Newcastle is that difficult to get round. It is quite compact.

We stayed at the Premier Inn as well. It is a bit shabby and run down, but very convenient.

TheSecond we are in Leicester today.