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.

Lobster congratulations. It couldn't have been any faster!

DD has finished her PC etc but can't get anyone to check it yet as the staff are all involved with the Oxbridge applicants of which there are quite a few.
She needs to email on of her university choices to ask about applying for different courses at the same university, but keeps forgetting.

She is also struggling with one maths topic. She can't ask the teacher as part of the problem is the way he is teaching it. Specialist school so the place is awash with maths teachers but though she is more comfortable about asking for help in or after a class, seeking out another teacher is beyond her.
I am not sure whether to intervene. The difficulty in asking for help is due to her SEN but on the other hand she is 17.

Congratulations Lobster! That's great news.

NoHaudin Please step in on her behalf. I nearly gave up my course at uni in the second week because I couldn't get something to melt and so work out what it was. I spent two weeks totally stuck and not knowing what to do. It was horrible. I was 18 and supposedly at the top of my game but I didn't know where to turn. You don't build confidence overnight and something like this can knock you even further back.

(For anyone who is wondering, I had a full set of the highest A levels you could have at that time but had no confidence so leaped to the conclusion that it was All My Fault rather than the melting point being higher than the top temperature of the machine)

NoHaudin might it help to look up a video on that topic online? A lot of my students find that easier than managing to find me at lunchtime. There are some good videos on khan academy, or loads of examples and worked solutions on physicsandmathstutor.com. If she still doesn't understand then she may need you to step in. None of us ever mind someone asking for help, even via their parent if there is a reason they can't ask themselves.

Thanks knitting and msdragon. She thinks she managed the latest homework ok so we will see how that went and then I will decide whether to step in. I will get her to look at the videos anyway.

dd has pressed send on her form. Hooray! I have no clue as to what happens next though... I guess she needs to wait for college to attach their bit.

www.ucas.com/connect/blogs/applying-15-october-deadline-make-sure-you-avoid-these-last-minute-dramas

There you go kitten, it tells you what happens after they hit send when they are applying through college.

thank you knitting. Perfect!

Hooray Kitten! if it’s anything like at DD’s 6th form, they’ll say it will take the a couple of days to attach all their bits (will actually be more like 2 weeks!)

Your dd should receive an email from UCAS today/tomorrow confirming that she’s submitted her part.
Then when school/college finally do their bit she’ll receive another confirmation, plus her login details to get onto “Track” and then emails from each uni will arrive confirming that they’ve received her application.

And then she can sit back and wait for the offers/interviews to roll in!

DD has had a major setback. She was told today that her PS wasn't good enough to apply for medicine (why wasn't she offered any guidance with it?) and it was a waste of time applying and she should do something else instead.

I am so angry with the school for leaving it so close to the deadline to tell her that she was doing it wrong.

Congratulations to your DD Lobster. How come she applied so early? What subject is it for? I didn't think offers were made this early.

Lonicera, are they offering any advice about how to improve her PS? What do they think is wrong with it? If she doesn't have enough work experience or something then that's one thing, but just to say the PS isn't good enough with no guidance to improve it is completely unfair.

I have emailed school this evening asking them to ring me tomorrow as I feel that DD hasn't had enough guidance or the right guidance.

She has struggled to get work experience as she only turned 17 at the end of the school year. Her plan is to take a year out to get experience and then apply.

That is awful Lonicera. Does so much depend on the PS?

For medicine I think it does. Everybody applying for medicine is predicted fantastic grades, everybody applying for medicine is doing a lot of work experience/extra-curricular/volunteering. So your personal statement is what's going to sell you to the university, you need to stand out as somehow different to all the other applicants just to get to the interview stage. BUT it's not fair to put the pressure of getting the PS absolutely perfect onto a 17yo, the school should be giving enough guidance that the applicant will be able to turn that into a fabulous PS. My school are amazingly hot on helping Oxbridge/Medical/Conservatoire candidates write their personal statements, we have one teacher who is an expert at helping them write it, then the head takes an interest too, so they aren't allowed to hit send until he's approved it, and he writes their references too. Other schools aren't so good at that, but the schools that get lots of kids getting in to Oxbridge and Medicine do so because of the support given to those candidates.

I hope school can give you some concrete answers tomorrow Lonerica, like why they've left it so late to tell her that her PS needs massive improvements, what improvements they need to be, etc.

That makes it sound as if we get lots of kids going to oxbridge or doing medicine. We don't, we get around 5 - 10 applying each year and possibly 3 or 4 get offers. We are pretty successful with Conservatoire candidates, only 1 or 2 a year apply but they all seem to get in, I'm not quite sure why we're so good at that (I'm not, I have no idea, but our school in general is amazing at helping those candidates with their application)

Can I join please? DS1 is applying this year and we're just getting to grips with the whole process. I have a question about the part of the UCAS form where it asks about what support you might need for disabilities. DS has a diagnosis of autism, but I have no idea what kind of support requirements we're meant to put on the form. I imagine he might benefit from some counselling for anxiety, and help with organisation and social interactions, but until we get there I don't really know what to put. Do we need to put anything now or not?

Lonicera that’s awful, your poor DD. Completely unacceptable to make a comment like that, when they should be offering guidance and support.

Doistay welcome to the loveliest thread on Mumsnet! Does your DS have a SENCO in his current setting you could talk to? I imagine they’d be experienced with helping applicants.

Lonicera early application for Oxbridge, she’s applied to do Classics. The early offer was from Bristol.

Lonicera is it the content of the PS i.e. she has not done enough 'stuff' or the way it is presented?

Lonerica I suspect that "doing it wrong" isn't to do with the presentation (because that's a quick fix) but the content. If she has to have work experience/volunteering and doesn't have it then there's no way to rewrite that. As you say, this should have been identified early enough for her to have done something about it but in reality that would have meant last year.

If she was already planning to take a year out is there any harm in her submitting it this year? If she gets rejected then she's no worse off than she would have been in that she reapplies next year.

Lonerica that is difficult. I hope you get some useful feedback from the school today.

Doistay I have been through this process with my Ds now in 2nd year at university who also has ASD. I think that on the initial UCAS form all you need to do is outline the outstanding things you can think of. The list you gave in your post is fine.
The detail of his support needs will come when he applies for DSA (Disabled Students Allowance). You do this at the same time as applying for Student Finance once you have accepted your offers. This process involves an assessment with a disability assessor who are very experienced with the needs of students and, in our experience anyway, suggested support that neither ds or I would have thought of.

NoHaudin Thanks for that information...it's very helpful. Hopefully that's one more box on the form that can be completed...nearly there!

The other bit I'm struggling with is the parental education box...both DH and I have NVQ level 4s in our professions, and DH went to agricultural college back in the day, and has a diploma, however this was straight from school at 16 so not really degree equivalent...not sure where these fit in!

I agree Lonerica that the way this was put across to your dd was awful. This sounds more like what not to say to a 17 year old to me. Yet another example of the "lack of level playing field" by the sound of things. I hope that whatever it is that is wrong will be clarified and that it's possible to have a plan of action for the way ahead.

Lonerica, you can add my voice to the chorus of what a shoddy way to treat your dd. How rubbish to tell her at this stage :( I think the idea of having a go now just on the off chance (but not really telling people) and then making next year the proper go of it could be the best solution if it’s a matter of not enough for her PS.

Why don’t you start a thread asking the question? There are a lot of parents of prospective or current med students in higher education.

Lonerica that is a pile of poop from the school !!! A lot of medical schools done even read the Personal statement - at all. Was surprised at this but was explained but admissions tutors. For some they rank by UKCAT or BMAT and as long as you the minimum grades that's it. Some use PS but only for a small part. So she can still apply. There's a medicine 2018 thread in Higher so pop over there and there's lots of advice. Or I can help a bit.

Sorry !! Don't read !!