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.

Good luck to your ds Shanghai :)

Looks like I'd best get planning our hols then Good idea to have an emergency contact for her here just in case. Our first one in umpty-ump years where we don't have to factor in the cost of extra flights and an extra room. Hoorah!

He's applied to Bath, Warwick, Lancaster, Leeds and Loughborough for accounting and finance. Top two are Leeds and Warwick.

There's a UCAS fee?

ursula according to this website www.ucas.com/ucas/undergraduate/getting-started/ucas-undergraduate-when-apply it's £13 for single choice or £24 for multiple

DH and I can't wait to be able to go away and not be tied to school holidays. We are thinking of lots of mini breaks in the UK though.

Puppy DD1 has just started at Sussex & it seems a brilliant place. It was very much her top choice after the open days last year. So worth going to several.
EPQ - urgh! DCs school made it mandatory for the past 2 years. None of the unis we visited were interested; DD1 did it, with a struggle. Relieved DD2 (yr 13) has been allowed to drop it. It's a tall order & supervision very variable.

I often wonder how much the schools and colleges really know what universities want.

We had a UCAS parents evening in June and the advice the school gave about applying to university was completely different to what we had been told at uni open days.

Some of DD's friends did World Challenge last year. Unis aren't interested. It just indicates that the student comes from a family who can afford to pay for it. I know the student is supposed to do their own fund raising, but in reality the parents subsidise the trips.

Just on the subject of EPQ's....

One of DS's possibles has an ABB requirement for grades but could alternatively offer BBB + EPQ at grade B. On speaking to admissions tutors at both Liverpool and Newcastle we were told that they may consider the EPQ/Personal Statement if you're on the cusp with A level grades for the course he is interested in.

DD was told the same somewhere (I'm over open dayed).

So am I Ursula. We still have one more to do, and then, hopefully, we are done.

I know what you both mean! Open day fatigue!

I am done with open days. I managed to palm the last one off on my husband and I didn't feel the slightest bit guilty about it.

DD is sacking Lincoln and going to Liverpool on Saturday. On the train. With friends. Yeah. Day off for me.

She spoke to a careers person at school and agreed to go with history and that Hull could be her insurance

Well this thread is educational, I didn't know what an EPQ was until now and also was clueless that there was a fee for the application. So, educate me further, DS1 looked blank when asked about predicted grades, how do we find these out and where do they go on the form [clueless emoticon]. Also looked at the POLAR map, how much of an influence does this have on grades asked for, we are in a L3 area but bounded to the south by a L2 and east by L1. One of the poorest areas in the UK apparently, hard to quantify personally when it's where you live and what you are used to!

Kitten book the holiday but keep an eye on the weather .

Mrslant, I didn't know about the fee either-best factor it in to next months budget!

www.hefce.ac.uk/postcode/

This link should tell you your polar number. It doesn't help much with funding (as far as I know) but may help with applications. It applied to ds1 for his Sutton trust application and goes towards some courses aimed at getting dc from poorer backgrounds into higher education.

I know this will be very useful for ds2 and may come into play for Dd. Have a look into it. Some contextual offers refer to it as well.

MrSlant college include the predicted grades in their bit of the form together with the usual phrases on attendance, punctuality and attitude to learning. How and when they are communicated to students seems to vary hugely.

Here when the student hits the button to complete the form it doesn't vanish off to UCAS, it goes to college for them to complete their part.

shineyshoes quite a lot of universities have quiet flats. They don't all mention them up front but if you ask you will find that they exist. A few have whole quiet halls.

DS (ASD) was in a quiet flat which was good for him. Although it may have been a bit too quiet as he didn't get to know his flatmates at all but that is probably just him.

It's £24 for the application. I paid last night then form goes to school who fill in predicted grades and details about student - ds's school calls it a letter of recommendation and then the form goes to UCAS.
Ds's school sent the application to UCAS this morning so the waiting begins.

As your son applied to English universities does he get offers before our applications are even in?

There's another thread about whether applying early gets you a jump start on the places. It is a UCAS requirement that all on time applications are treated fairly so an early applicant may get an early offer but they would have got that offer whenever they applied.

Ursula - as I understand, all applications need to be treated equally and therefore there should be no detriment in applying one day before the deadline. Ds applied early as we are on a slightly different timetable to the UK - eg have 2 weeks national holiday in October, three weeks at Xmas and then Chinese New Year so it made sense to submit in September. Also his school has students applying to UK, U.S., Australia, Europe, Korea and Canada - all with different requirements and deadlines so the school encourages students to plan ahead.

Ooh well done Shanghai's DS, the first to send their application!
Hopefully he'll get some lovely early offers - good luck!

DD has sent hers onto the school system but has been warned it will be the end of this week at least before school have added all their bits and officially send it to UCAS.

The early applications thread is a fascinating read - lots of insight into the application process.

But if they have enough good applications before the deadline to which they make offers, are they not then already 'full'?

Off to find t'other thread.

Inchy, my DD is at Warwick, about to go into her third year and she loves it there. Living on campus in the first year was a great intro to uni life. She's now in a houseshare in Leamington where there's a thriving student community but a few too many tempting shops and eateries!

The only downside is the bus journey in rush hour which can be tough when they need to get in for early lectures!

DS is going to the open day there this weekend.

The Polar map was interesting. We live in a former mining village next to a collection of naice leafy villages. It didn't tell me what I didn't already know, our area is split L1/L2 (the lowest levels of HE participation) and a mile down the road is L4. On a scale that runs 1-5 we have 1-4 within a mile or two.

DS is following a vocational route, to be on time his application has to be sent off at the end of next week. Someone in the household is somewhat stressed and it isn't him. Is it finished? Has his tutor seen it? Has his subject teacher seen it? That would be no, no and no. I appear to be unreasonable for asking, don't I know that he has it all under control? If it were under control DS the answers would be yes, yes and yes and you'd have submitted the dratted thing already.

On the positive side (because heaven knows I need one) he has spoken to one of his referees who would be delighted to write his reference and is in danger of doing it before DS has submitted his application.