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.

welcome Troodie :)

Dds school were quite insistent that they should try to visit all Universities to which they intended to apply.

I think it would be daft not to Ursula. Especially for DD as she wants to do medicine. If she gets in she would be there for 6 years, so it needs to be somewhere she wants to be.

DD doesn't mind the thought of being a distance from home, but wants to be able to see family or close friends when she wants or needs to. This has left us with a bit of a distance mismatch on the surface, but to her they make sense.

A very close family member had a breakdown in first year, and family were a flight away. That has swayed thinking somewhat, and means e.g. she's not considering Durham even though it rates highly for her course, because she just doesn't know the area at all, and it is a long and expensive journey from any of her 'important people'. Edinburgh on the other hand has family and friends on tap, despite being several hours drive or by train. She feels comfortable in the city, and knows her way around.

It's such a complicated balance, isn't it. She's seeing from her friends too, that everyone is coming up with their short lists using different criteria. Personally I'd like her to go to the one on her list that is closest to us. It will be interesting for us as a family to see how different an approach we take with DC2 and DC3!

Is anyone else here going through this for a second or third time? Do you find it very different?

But how much can you really learn from an Open Day? And we are cramming them in so I am sure they all will meld into one! I think probably the course itself is the most important thing.

I can't see DD settling wherever she goes.

It's hard isn't it. Bristol is 5 hours away, and it would have to completely trounce the others for DD to really want to go there. They offer a course that she is really interested in that the other unis don't though.

Warwick is definitely out of the picture now.

Bristol is lovely though.

The open days mostly seemed to be a way of dd crossing things off her list. So places like Imperial, which I thought would be amazing, she decided she really didn't like after visiting.

It is hard!

The course DS wants to do is (in my opinion - although not sure if that counts for much!) a better structure for him at Liverpool but he prefers Newcastle as he likes the city more. If they are going to spend the next few years away they need to be where they are happy.

I'm going with the flow - I'm sure he will make the best choice for him. He just needs to put the work in now....

DD has already had a bollocking for her Festival Hair.

Oh joy.

First draft of the PS done. That lasted all of five minutes to be quickly replaced by draft two which had the advantage of being complete. It's only twice as long as it should be which is not that bad.

It took him about half an hour to come up with something reasonable, it's taken months to get him to sit down and start it.

Isn't it funny how it's less daunting once they actually get going.

Anyone else off to Exeter tomorrow? Just finished planning events to do there & reading course structure again, so back on the Uni bandwagon again! Not sure about DD's predicted grades now though, until school starts back & get some idea from her teachers after her AS results.

Personal Statement draft number 2 been done, but not had any time to look at it. I think the next 9 months are going to whizz by!

inchyrablue DD is my second DC and it does feel.completely different. Very different personalities, different courses, and different ideas of the ideal uni.

I'm trying very hard not say to DD that any PS would be better than a nonexistent PS!

DD is going to her second open day tomorrow, but we have visited a few unis to get the feel of them. This has excluded At Andrews but included Liverpool.

As I type she and DH will be looking at Warwick, they've also just had a look at Birmingham.

OK this might make me look very stupid but to be honest I'm clueless, you are all talking about the PS and we haven't even started the application process. Should I sit DS1 down tomorrow and get going on the online application business? I think because of his SEN we are going to be limited but this means his PS is more important, he won't ever get grades that reflect his actual intelligence and some of the courses he's going to apply for ask for more points than he is likely to get so should we persevere and try and write an amazing PS or just apply for the one course he wants to do and leave other slots blank. Is there someone at school who should tell us this? I'm completely in the dark!

inchyrablue this is our first time but I know already it will be completely different with DS2, he isn't as intuitively clever as his older brother but is very academic and will want to stretch his wings, I'm dreading it because I think he will want to go off and away. I think the first time I do a campus visit will be with him! (He A*'d the hell out of the exams he took this year, it was so strange/complicated to give him the praise he deserved without making DS1 feel he hadn't done well with his GCSE grades. Why is having children so difficult and confusing!)

MrSlant the school/college should be providing guidance with personal statements and applications, especially if your son has extra needs.

DD's school has already gone through the ps process with them at the end of year 12 and everyone has already written their first draft. They spend the last four weeks of year 12 concentrating on UCAS stuff.

The spent the last four weeks concentrating on the Welsh Bacc, although I found out after the fact DS1 spent the time gazing out of the window wishing he wasn't there rather than completing the actual work. I love him dearly but sometimes...

DS brought home a slip at enrollment that said that A2 students start a day before the others and it's a UCAS/apprenticeship day. They got as far as filling in the educational section at the end of term, I suspect they are starting the PS when they go back.

MrSlant he can submit the form with one or two unis on it and add more later. He can stick with one or two and go through clearing when he has his results if he needs to, he can take a year out and apply with his results. There is most certainly someone at school who will help him with this and it's still early days in the process except for the Oxbridge and performing arts candidates who have much earlier deadlines. You may find that it's one of the first things they do once school starts up again.

Ps not started at DDs school.

I do hope they know what they are doing.

Medicine is early entry too.
MrSlant if your ds is amenable it might be helpful to have a chat about what sort of things could go on the PS, maybe make some notes. Then if they start it at college he has a starting point. Have you looked at the UCAS site? It has info about applying to uni and apprenticeships.

Hi. I am just dropping back in. Dd went back on Tuesday. She has finished her first draft PS but says it is unbalanced in terms of her two subjects so needs a lot of refining.
We are going for a remark of her history AS. I know that it doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things but it will encourage dd and her teacher thinks it is worth a try.

MrSlant you asked further up about having dcs a long way away. Ds has just finished his first year about 3&1/2 hrs away by train. He has quite significant additional needs. I can't pretend that it hasn't been tough at times (and I know that railway journey far too well now) but he has survived and in some ways thrived and is looking forward to going back. I think the two important factors where that it was the right course for him and that he had a good support system in place at the university.

Thank you for all the info, I'll have word with him tonight when he gets in from work (I love saying that! Also as it's connected with what he wants to do it's going right at the top in capitals on his statement )

You must be so proud NoHaudin, it must have been very hard for both of you this time last year. When I think of how scared I was of him going to secondary school I can't even contemplate uni! Your DS must feel so strong for getting through the challenges and thriving. Good luck for this year.

Thanks MrSlant. It sounds as if your ds is keen and knowledgeable about his area which is a great start. I have the feeling that because my ds was very good in some areas of his course, the staff were more willing to help him in the bits he found difficult (ie anything that wasn't maths or coding!).

You fell off my threads I'm on again.

Back to school on Monday :( Dd has roughly half a personal statement, but it's random sentences with no sort of order yet, so it's nowhere near finished. I really hope school have more success in getting her to write it than I have.