Year 12 #2: Carols, commutes & a few stocking fillers

[Stickerrocks]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/3410431-year-12-1-gcses-are-sooo-last-year

Wow. Can't comment really. There seems to be a totally different support system going in the UK as opposed to what I'm used to here in the middle of east. We just pay for flights when they get interviews. Hopefully. Am sad to say that my niece has had a horrible time at Oxford. She's now kicking out at all of us who love her the most. It hasn't been pretty and it breaks my heart. My dad was also at Oxford, and he has also changed in his outlook. It's so alien to me, I'm not sure what to say. However, having lost the eldest today and feeling pretty miserable, I might be rambling.

Clearly rambling. Posted twice! Sorry.

What has happened to your niece, Veiled?
I'
it's only natural to feel lost when your child goes away for months.

Blimey. Can't begin to explain about my niece. She is super clever. Only ever wanted Oxford. Got there, and it's all gone horribly wrong for her and my sister. She's now denounced them. Claims they have been abusive. In a horrible abusive relationship with a girl, turned boy. And as far as we can see it is an abusive relationship, but she doesn't want to know. I understand that she is very clever, my Dad is very clever, but sometimes you just want normal. Thank god my sister is coming. I just want to love her at the moment. She needs it.

Found you! You had dropped off my tio. Had a quick read through.

Shame about not being able to swap subjects, I really hope a politics epq helps fill the hole.

DD has dropped English lit this week, down to three A levels. I'm glad, I think she will cope much better with 3, and is more likely to get 3 decent AS which will go on the ucas form, rather than the possibility of 4 mediocre ones if she spread herself too thinly. I'm proud of the way she talked it through with us, went to her teachers, then made an appointment with the head of sixth form.

She knows what she wants to study at university, but apart from our local university she hasn't really looked much further. She needs to think about booking some open days.

Finally some progress here - she now has a Uni spreadsheet and is gradually whittling down the potentials. She has selection criteria to score them against, weightings and a few snazzy formula with conditional formatting- she clearly takes after her mummy after all 😀

Although if the last 4 years are anything to go by she will wait until the last possible moment and then pick something totally left-field.

At least I feel like we are slightly ahead of the curve for once!!!

Does anyone else's dc have "distance from primark" on their spreadsheet?

It's bad news for Durham but Birmingham is in a very strong position

Mind you I refused to look at anywhere other than Liverpool at her age because of the football team so I can't really criticise

Distance to a premiership rugby team v distance from us would be on DD's spreadsheet. DUnc was on hand today to give some advice on admissions.

He was also discussing plagiarism. They automatically run all assignments through the software and he had to report someone yesterday for submitting 55% plagiarised material. He is also finding an increasing number of references to Wikipedia being handed in, in preference to using the recommended set texts.

DS1's old school (aka DS2's current school) appear to be advising attendance at a mid-ranking university that is 20 mins door to door from the school.

I've met several mums of year 12s recently and they've all named it as their DC's first choice.

It's not a bad choice (if you want to be able to pop home, pick something up, and be back in halls within an hour), but so many seem to hope to be headed there that it is making me think that the school is pushing this university.

Whistl that's interesting, but worrying. It sounds like a fairly safe option - which is great but it can't possibly be the best option for every student! Are they applying for the same or very similar subjects? Or does the school use it for an introduction to uni and it has great student ambassadors?

Nothing to add but you'd disappeared off my I'm On list so I am blatantly placemarking

I don't know what the relationship with the school is ,TBH, even though it's close by, I'd only vaguely heard of it before.
There's another university nearby, that's even closer and slightly higher ranked, so I'd have thought that that would be the one for the school to have a relationship with, if any.
The boys in question are hoping to do completely different courses though, so I reckon it's just the generic advice.
The school is a bit like that... it makes everything into a production line. And that's great if you fit the profile, but if you are in anyway unusual eg good at something, then the school just ignore the talent and refocus on their League table results.

Most universities have access programmes, where the university works with state schools to increase awareness amongst able pupils that a degree might be a possible path for them. Each university tends to have a "patch" of state schools where they do outreach.

DS2's school had regular activities run by Imperial College.

Imperial is Premier League though. This university is more second division. It out it another way, I've never seen any reference to it on these threads.

The closest (county) university has strong links with the local FE college, and they try to encourage profession from the Level 3 courses on to foundation degrees for those who want that.

The sixth form at DS2's school is academic in focus; they tend to suggest applications to Oxbridge for the top 10-20% and encourage Russell Group for most of the rest. They do offer information about apprenticeships (and recently had a visiting speaker) but not many take that path.

I think it's great that universities have their outreach programs, and this could be how these students came to think of going to the particular university. It might be a coincidence but I've booked into five woman who I used to know from the days when the DC were younger and all the more are saying the same thing: my DS is hoping to go to XXX university. So the university must have done a good job on presenting itself. Maybe this is good it fills is places?

Yes, it could be the university is quite canny and has put in a lot of effort to attract sixth formers - they need to in the current climate!
(My Access students are all quite different but most tend to apply to RG as their top choices unless they want to do something quite niche like creative writing.)

Whistl - intrigued! Would you consider pm ing which uni it is?

We have 5 universities within a 20 mile radius of where we live. An increasing number of students are choosing one of them simply because they can live at home and not have to take out vast maintenance loans. They then remain in the area for their professional training, continue to live at home and have a chance of getting on the property ladder within 3-4 years.

We have 2 here Cambridge and Anglia Ruskin! Opposite ends of the spectrum. DS won't apply to either! Mainly to enjoy the experience of going somewhere different!!

I just read back my last post. Apologies. It's almost indecipherable. The screen size for typing is tiny as most of it is filled by the keyboard and I have autocorrect on.
I should read back first, but, tbh, I find the MN website not very robust so I'm usually just glad to get it to accept that I'm hitting the post button.

And as an example of that, I had to click the post button 3 times to get it to accept the post I made a minute ago!

Sticker staying at home to keep the debt down makes a lot of sense, but it doesn't apply in this case.
I asked 2 of the mothers if their DC were planning to commute from home and they both replied that their sons are going into halls for the first year at least "to get the full university experience".
These were 4 separate conversations when I just bumped into the women that I used to know from when our DC were young.
It could just be a coincidence, but it's strange that they all have the am me plans.
I guess I'll find out how this came about, if DS2 stays on at the school for sixth form. Ft
It's not a bad choice. It makes sense in a lot of ways. My only thought I'd that it seems a bit unimaginative and surely one of them would want to be a bit more ambitious?

I have been proactive and booked DS on a philosophy taster afternoon. It's in London and on a Saturday in June,so all pretty straightforward!

One of my chums DC selected our local university and immediately bought a house which he is sharing with a couple of lodgers to fund his mortgage and contribute towards his living costs. He is only 20 minutes from home if he needs to pop back for dinner!