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.

that’s a horrifying thought Lobster! dd has had another standard (but thankfully achievable) offer from a place. Not one of her favourite two, but they will be ages yet and she does quite like this one. I think it would be her reserve reserve iyswim.

Kitten congratulations on the first offer . DD is ready to submit, but tutor hasn't done her reference yet - 2 weeks on! Lobster that's the stuff of nightmares!

Ds1 has had his first questionnaire through from one of his favourites. This is good as it means everything else is in order.
The interview stage is if he passes this one so fingers are crossed he does ok.

DD is getting frustrated that she hasn't had an actual offer yet, when most of her friends have two or three. She has had two interview invitations though, but doesn't feel these count . One interview invitation says she will definitely get an offer after interview (so it is slightly irritating that we have to spend £££ going for interview if it is a formality). The other doesn't say, but is the only place that may offer her an unconditional, so hopefully if she gets the interview out of the way, she'll get something after that.

She said this morning that she'll do some practice for the TSA over half term. Given that some others at school have been doing Qs for months, I'm not sure if that's ok or not, but it's her application, so her call I feel.

Knowing that the one she really wants won't offer till January, is frustrating her massively though. Not a jot she can do about that though!

inchy if it’s any consolation dds offers were places from places that she really probably won’t go to, so it was very much a feeling of ‘that’s nice but....”
like your dd the one she really wants to know about won’t offer til January. Her second favourite is likely to be end of November or early December.

Making good steps there LDG :)

Yes, very glad school spotted it...having checked it again after he'd spoken to the teacher this morning, it has been amended to show all four subjects at A level, but only the four he had actual results in at AS (so maths but not further maths). Hopefully this is right as the school have now submitted to UCAS

Someone had managed to only enter the first half of their NI number. It would have been such an easy thing to spot, if only I'd been allowed to look at the form.

that’s not good knitting.

Ds1 had to fill in the form, print it and take it into school with his ps for checking.
His school got him to check the reference which needed a minor change.
This seems a good way of making sure the information is accurate but it doesn't stop you worrying.

College caught the weird NI number, it's not difficult to spot unless you are 17 and clueless about what they look like. I'm assuming that he didn't make any more mistakes but again, I wouldn't know because he would't let me look at the form.

He has not seen either of his references, they are returned separately to the form that he fills in. I know that he could get a copy with a freedom of information request but he doesn't know that and I'm not telling him.

How do you know when Unis are likely to make offers??

If you really want to know Spababe, then by looking up student room threads from this time last year.
Basically Durham seems to be last, Bristol first now, Oxbridge in January and everyone else in between.

dds college won’t let them see their reference.
Out of curiosity, who does the FOI go to, do college know it has been requested?

help.ucas.com/contract13/index.html

Right at the bottom, apply to UCAS, costs £10. It would be easier to ask college to show what they wrote seeing as the student can get to see it anyway.

thanks knitting. Seems to be college policy. I won’t upset the apple cart, it is what it is.

DD's school not only let them see their reference but one form tutor let the DC make any changes they wanted too!

I haven't seen DDs though. I would very much like to, but can't decide how or when to approach asking!

DD has seen her references. They were all really positive.

are there more than one reference?

As far as I know the school only did one for ds1. He had others from work experience placements that he had to ask for as well though but they were uni specific.

All of DD's subject teachers wrote a reference.

I’m pretty sure there’s a subject reference from each teacher plus a general one from form tutor/head of year.
DD hasn’t seen any of hers, but there were very comprehensive comments for each teacher on her end of year 12 report so I’m guessing they were used as the basis of subject ones.
Her form teacher asked DD for a list of things to include in her reference - basically all the extra curricular stuff that dd couldn’t fit on her PS.
So we have a pretty good idea of what they all looked like.

At ds's school each teacher wrote a reference and then the student counsellor combined them into one reference which was submitted on the form. Ds also not allowed to see reference so not sure how well this worked.

Only one reference from school is sent through to UCAS. What most schools do is get each subject teacher to write something (I've written 250 words about each pupil I taught in y12), then the form tutor/head of sixth form/whoever is actually responsible puts those together into one coherent reference of the right length. The official reference from my school generally consists of a paragraph about the general aptitude of the young person for the course they are applying for, then a paragraph about each subject (the most relevant subjects have the longest paragraphs), finished off by a paragraph about relevant work experience/voluntary work and a different aspect of why they would do well in the subject they are applying for.

I know that of the many words I've written, only a couple of sentences will actually make it into each reference. That's because a) none of them are applying for mathsy subjects and b) the other maths teacher they had is much better at writing references than I am, so they'll use his sentences rather than mine. It all seemed a bit pointless as I was writing them, but I do know they are useful really.

Ds has his second offer - 36 points from Bath.

Congratulations Shanghai, it's a long drawn out process for the early starters but at least you get to see something happening.

MsAwesomeDragon Thank you for the other view of writing the reference. DS said his tutor said that she's done it. To him that means job done, to me that means it's passed along the chain. His tutor is new in September so if it was a solo production she would struggle. They don't know about his work experience, voluntary work, stuff he does outside college but that's why he put it in his PS.