Thread 21 Corona Cohort - Nervous waiting, so frustrating

[Monkey2001]

Continuation of OrangeCinnamonCocktail's threads

This is a thread for supporting all young people post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting. It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, please don't within this thread. Please also be sensitive when responding to threads about grades.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue.

Our DS/DD may go down various paths (such as employment, apprenticeships, higher ed) We have decided for anyone interested they will most likely find us within the Further Ed board.

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/a4354626-Corona-Cohort-Statements-Scripted-Grades-Predicted?msgid=111487286#111487286

@Wheresthebeach

Anyone have any views on Swansea for Marine Biology or just general feedback? DD heart is set on Southampton, but insurance will be Plymouth, Portsmouth or Swansea. We are seeing Plymouth in Nov, and Portsmouth in Dec. If she gets an offer from Swansea we would probably go look then (unless she loves Plymouth or Portsmouth).

I know nothing about Marine Biology atSwansea BUT have visited the Bay campus when it was ds1’s turn a few yrs ago. Fabulous campus right on the beach. Accomodation was ver very nice. Modern, clean fresh, nice common space. Superb facilities in every department. Swansea climbing pretty fast up the ranks. I hear the original campus is (Singleton) is also beautiful. There’s a bus that runs all day long between both campuses. Lots of societies and great social life by those I know going there. There’s a street (forgotten the name) full of eating places & clubs etc that all the students hangout off campus.

@Piggywaspushed LOL - Football don't get it but know how seriously it's taken by friend's DHs but don't think football trumps Uni lol

@EwwSprouts - St.Andrews is a great place have several friends who went there or their kids have. Durham is aspirational one here. York is on DDs list too but discounted Warwick without a visit (I liked the sound of it but I'm not going lol). DD also ruled out London as too busy not student centred enough. Sheffield also on there so fairly northern feel to the 5.

@Piggywaspushed - What kind of social sciences?

At Sheffield, Quantitative Social Sciences with sociology.

Shimy, Plymouth is my stomping ground, was the nearest place to go nightclubbing, 30 years ago. It has a superb reputation for anything marine, my very close friend her son is there finishing his BA marine engineering ? And going on to do masters in costal engineering I think.

@Piggywaspushed Nottingham are mid-build a shiny new social sciences hub. On the map just up from the Weston Museum & just over a lane from the sports facilities (all pitches had football matches on yesterday).

@Fruitygal DS liked Warwick but I have concerns from the thread about lack of F2F teaching of biosciences compared with other subjects, allegedly because took in too many this year.

@Piggywaspushed sounds like an interesting course but not one I have heard much about - do they do it in lots of places or is it fairly niche? what other degree courses is DS looking at?

@EwwSprouts F2F is so important in all degrees but especially science and something we are keen on - some unis also seem to be using it as an excuse to cut costs.

Quants is quite niche as some unis get this special Nuffield Foundation Q Step funding in an effort to try and produce social scientists who have those skills. Applied social sciences is available at quite a few unis (it's a bit more research focused that say straight sociology) and then social policy (which is what he is interesting in ) at another handful. It's quite complicated to find the right combination. His dream course is at Edinburgh but it may just be too far.

[quote EwwSprouts]@Piggywaspushed Nottingham are mid-build a shiny new social sciences hub. On the map just up from the Weston Museum & just over a lane from the sports facilities (all pitches had football matches on yesterday).

@Fruitygal DS liked Warwick but I have concerns from the thread about lack of F2F teaching of biosciences compared with other subjects, allegedly because took in too many this year.[/quote]
Thanks sprouts, didn't know that. Unfortunately, Nottingham's courses don't much appeal- shame, since I think it is a great uni and convenient for us.

@Shimy Oh thanks … sounds like it worth the hassle of a visit.

We got on well at Reading yesterday, nice campus, well organised day, both the departments we visited were friendly and helpful, as were the people manning the admissions etc desks. The courses sound good too. DS is still torn between History and Environmental Management. Two more to go.

Thanks for the info V Birmingham and Sheffield, very helpful.

@EerilyDisembodied glad you had a good day - where else are you looking?

DD is being typical her at the moment - she is this afternoon working on a MOOCS that she had planned to do over the summer holidays. She needs to work on it now because she needs to write about it in her PS.. talk about last minute...

@EerilyDisembodied they are super different courses but we were like this for DS2 and somewhat for DD. Friend went to reading uni and said was good also. Where else are you looking at?

Well we've paid our money and hit the button. Now it seems that it goes to school for final submission etc. Fingers crossed it all happens pretty soon and hopefully see some offers...gulp!

Dd was writing her personal statement in the car earlier, on the way back from church. It seems she does plan to submit it this side of Christmas after all!

@EerilyDisembodied they are quite different courses! Does he have any long-term goals or no idea yet?

A quick question following up on the discussion about BSc or MSci - what's the difference between an MSci and an MSc? I hadn't clocked that an MSci wasn't the same qualification, anyone able to explain?

MSci comprises 360 undergraduate credits plus 120 masters level credits

MSc comprises 180 masters level credits (typically the final project dissertation is 60).

With an MSc for some subjects there is some knowledge grounding required (as students may not have studied that subject before).

The MSci for some subjects usually incorporates a research project /training/ diss but it is structured in a way that these can be studies from year 2 or 3 of the programme.

The benefits are the loan system..integrated comes under the four year allowance for undergrad funding.

Master's PG loans have a different funding system.

see gov website

Oh, I also thought that MSc and Msci were the same thing! Not on our radar so I had not looked into it.

DS finally got his feedback on his PS from his tutor. Frankly it is crap as feedback goes, such as ‘Can this be improved?’ With no comment as to how or why!! Other comments just show she has no idea what the universities are looking for from an engineering student. I am really disappointed and blinking glad that we have done a lot of research into it and what the universities say they actually want. To be fair we have taken on board a couple of her comments but really it was far less use that I expected. It now goes to the head of sixth from who reads them all himself.

Anyone got any idea on where to start with picking Durham colleges? It’s not DS’s favourite so we haven’t looked into it as much as we probably should. Am I right in thinking they ask you to rank them after the UCAS form has gone in?

On a totally separate note, as the Tesco site has been down for two days and I’ve been unable to amend my order I’m looking forward to my delivery of 8 cartons of milk and 4 bottles of Prosecco for my weekly shop tomorrow

No long term goals for Ds at all, no. He has plenty of things he doesn't want to do (work in an office being too of that list) but no burning ambition towards a particular career, it's more that these are two subjects he's really enjoying in 6th form and has aptitude for. I really worry about his employment prospects because of his SENs. Although it might seem that the subjects are quite different, there can be quite a lot of overlap, heritage, conservation, the shaping of the countryside is very much due to historical management practices. This is where we're going with the personal statement.

The other issue is that because of the SENs he doesn't want to go too far from home so we are looking at Chichester, Winchester, Royal Holloway and Bournemouth for history, Royal Agricultural at Cirencester for another countryside management course. But I do foresee problems with a practical career in the countryside, it's anyone's guess whether he'll ever manage to learn to drive and operating equipment is hard for him too, he is very dyspraxic. Whereas history doesn't require much strength or manual dexterity.

I have had a sudden thought : might he like archaeology?

We didn’t dwell too much on the colleges 20newnames, other than did she want catered/SC (we went for one that SC with option to eat flexible catered), en-suite or not, party college or not, sports etc, how far from faculty etc. DD is very sociable but also needs her sleep (probably from the early wake ups), and is trying to avoid where there is a higher proportion of ‘London’ party types only.

There’s a spreadsheet on the Durham site that gives you a one page breakdown, that helps as a start point.

@20newnames

On a totally separate note, as the Tesco site has been down for two days and I’ve been unable to amend my order I’m looking forward to my delivery of 8 cartons of milk and 4 bottles of Prosecco for my weekly shop tomorrow

With Sainsbury's they allow you to cancel by phone on the morning of delivery and even offer to take back the botttle of expensive whiskey that I use to book the slot then forget to amend

@20NewNames That’s disappointing (or crap if I’m not being polite). Makes me realise I’ve not seen DD’s final version as it’s been through several edits!