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

@20newnames I think Tesco is up and up and running. But looks like there's a queue to get on the site.

Thanks @icanbewhatiwant I am in the queue!

Thanks @ealingwestmum. That’s a really good starting point. How do you find out which ones are ‘party’ colleges? DS likes to go out but he would get really annoyed with people disturbing his sleep every night! He also likes a drink but is totally anti drugs. I wish there was something between ‘party’ and ‘quiet’!! Also as he will be doing engineering which has lots of hours and a heavy workload so he can’t afford to be sidelined too much.

I agree that there should be 3 levels of accommodation class - quiet, normal, party. So many poor kids on WIWIKAU end up in party flats and struggle. My DS also would want fairly civilised, but I don't think he would request quiet.

A mix of subjective reviews to be honest. Reviews of The Tab (but take with pinch of salt), The Student Room, vloggers etc. We (the royal we. Me basically) didn’t spend too much time as I am going to be honest, I hate the sound of the administration there from previous threads, BUT, it’s not first hand experience and she has friends who really love it there, and her course rates highly.

@20newnames not sure the queue works either. I left it on my phone ages ago, but still says I'm in a queue.

@icanbewhatiwant nope, the queue doesn’t seem to work either. Not the end of the world as we’ll drink the milk and prosecco , just might have to go out and buy some proper food.

@ealingwestmum thanks for the pointers. If DS gets an offer from Bath then Durham is out the window anyway, it’s only there in case he doesn’t get an offer from Bath. We (royal we again no doubt) will do some brief research into it. Which colleges did your DD go for?

@Piggywaspushed

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

I know, he should, but no.

Although I might ask him again, it's a while since he ruled it out.

20newnames: I think she put South College on UCAS, but not had anything back or request to list the order as some have.

I think we need Kingscote to give us the lo down as I do feel a little out my depth having made recommendations to her based on snippets from tinternet!

Think Catered or self catered? University is fab but busy In terms of offers - boys seem to love catered and girls self catered

I wrote incorrectly Fruitgal. You’re right, DD would prefer self catered but understands catered helps to get to know wider groups of people. Potentially.

Yes DS would prefer self catered too, not bothered about ensuite but also not a shared room. I think the catered options can often be restrictive.

I think dd would love the social opportunities of catered but I can see her not getting her money’s worth/ending up making her own stuff or buying out anyway as she can be quite faddy. Not fussy exactly, but she’ll have a phase of loving a particular food, then going off it and moving to something else. It drives me mad… I end up with excess food in the fridge that I bought for her lunches and now she’s ‘gone off’.

I noticed Nottingham have mainly catered accommodation and it really puts the price up.

@crazycrofter

I think dd would love the social opportunities of catered but I can see her not getting her money’s worth/ending up making her own stuff or buying out anyway as she can be quite faddy. Not fussy exactly, but she’ll have a phase of loving a particular food, then going off it and moving to something else. It drives me mad… I end up with excess food in the fridge that I bought for her lunches and now she’s ‘gone off’.

DS is exactly the same. Eats something for weeks then just stops overnight.

He quite likes cooking but I can see him struggling with the mess of a student kitchen and the whole never being sure when the cooker is going to be free sort of thing.

Glad it’s not just DD who does the food phase thing…we’ve recently ended up freezing a lot of hummus…

Due to allergies DD will be self catered…shame about the social side of catered but it’s just too restrictive

It’s so annoying isn’t it! I have a pack of ham in the fridge as she was enjoying ham sandwiches for lunch - until last week just after I’d bought a pack for the week. I threw away an almost full box of Cheerios too the other day. I wonder if they’ll stop the faddiness when it comes out of their own pocket?!

DS has never eaten ham. Or eggs, or sausages, or potatoes of any description or baked beans. In fact all the things that most people knock up when they can't be bothered to cook a full meal. He's not even keen on toast, it always has to be wraps or pitta breads. It's lucky he likes pot noodles.....

He went off Cheerios too, luckily DD likes them.

@Wheresthebeach last year S/C was easier socially as they had a ready made group of friends and communal areas to gather in. Life in a catered hall was more difficult. DS1 was in a catered hall for first year and has stayed there for second year, he likes most of the food and loves the convenience. DS2 would not consider catered, he needs to know exactly what is in his food and a catered hall would not give him the protein he considered essential!

Cheers @Monkey2001. Nice to hear that self catering works well socially too

Thank you @OrangeCinnamonCocktail

Is there much of a difference in terms of how they are regarded / valued?

I think if it were me I'd wait and see what the first year was like and where my interests were settling before deciding.

@crazycrofter

I noticed Nottingham have mainly catered accommodation and it really puts the price up.

I believe there are a lot of self catered accommodation just off campus - very closeby so that shouldnt' be a problem. Although saying that if DD ends up going to Nottingham she says she wants catered as it's so closeby... Re cost - even catered at Nottingham seemed cheaper than non catered at York, so I didn't think it was too bad.

I have told DD no ensuite (will probably get talked around) but a big part of me thinks why should we fund that when she doesn't need an ensuite. DD isn't cheap, so Im guess Im trying to cut the costs somewhere :-)

Yes - as far as I can tell, all the accommodation on the main campus at Nottingham is catered. Broadgate Park is a large self catering student village and is across the road from campus. It's the opposite end from the medical school and science buildings but I think only about 25 mins walk.

@singingstones I'm really not sure. It may depend on the particular field/discipline and employers themselves. It is certainly better than a BSc though. I didn't explicitly state the advantage that you get a maintenance loan with the MSci. There is no maintenance loan for a MSc it is just a set amount(10k) and universities tend to.charge that amount (or more) as tuition.
Programmes should be structured in a way that you can.change to the BSc /MSci after year one.

I have York in Langwith (modern college, shared bathroom) as the mid range option at £6023 for 40 weeks and a catered college at Nottingham as 8k? The self catered en suites in York in the modern colleges do nudge up to nearly 8k admittedly.

I looked into al this but have forgotten exactly the league table of prices : pretty sure Birmingham and Bath came out priciest of the ones we have been looking at.

Accommodation is nowhere near covered by maintenance loans : it's quite ridiculous.