Thread 25 - Covid Cohort - Christmas Trees, No Omicron Please!

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

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 posts 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 goodwill continues.

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.

Orange Cinnamon (Head Monitor )
Previous Thread Found Here

We’ve had a surprise bit of lovely news here this morning (not Uni related).
DD’s Child Trust Fund matured recently, and while I was looking at what to do next, I saw that her fund provider runs a monthly draw for grants of up to £500 to purchase educational equipment. I made her apply for it; a quick and simple application form, saying what she needed and why.
She sent me a text this morning with a screenshot of an email, saying she’d been successful
She’s got £500 to buy a new laptop and printer, which she’s in dire need of and we haven’t been able to afford.

It’s been a very telling lesson, however - the notification email was sent to DD on the 4th, but she’s only just seen it! Had she wanted to claim the money now, the closing date for this side of NY is tomorrow; as it is, she has until the beginning of March.

I have had a text shout at her, pointing out that she might miss important deadlines (UCAS!!!!) if she isn’t checking every day.

Good for her Piccolo, puts some faith back into these ‘draws’!

Doggerel, nothing like a bit of healthy adrenalin to get going, well done to him for pulling it out the bag.

Volterra, hope you have a fabulous Christmas. You must be so relieved.

Thanks, ealing. Yes, Ive always been a bit at these sorts of draws too, so I’m chuffed!

Anyone got any ideas for a good laptop for an English and film undergrad?

Ooh, lots of good news to distract me whilst DS is grilled by Manchester!

So happy for you @Volterra!

@OrangeCinnamonCocktail definitely better to audition in person at Cardiff. Our friend (current 3rd year music at Cardiff) had such a lovely experience for his interview, they made him feel really wanted!

Piccolo that made me laugh. Their generation often skim read and are miss stuff. I have been telling DS to look out when interviews are being given on TSR, he really would have missed Newcastle as it went into his “Promotions” folder!

@DoggerelBank great to work well under pressure!

I'm new to the thread and have read back a bit. Dd is applying for Biology. Does anyone know how common it is to get rejections? Her predicted grades are the same as her summer exam grades and she applied to places where she would get in if she achieved those grades. Nottingham was one she applied to and I saw others had just got offers for Biology from there. She's in the middle of exams at the moment so I will wait til the weekend to suggest she checks in case her first reply is a rejection!
Her PS seemed fine and school OKed it, although I'm no expert.

Thank you all very much 😊 I have hip dysplasia, probably since childhood apparently which was a bit unexpected but explains a lot!

Picccolo that’s great news for DD! Can see DS missing emails.

Glad people are enjoying Cardiff. DD loves it there, I did too. Can’t wait to see her again, not long now. I think this is a bit identifying so might need to name change again soon, apologies in advance.

Welcome Island.

That is good news Volterra.
And Piccolo.

I read Ds1's recent CTF letter yesterday m, his doesn't qualify till his birthday in Feb. And was shocked at how crap it is. Worth £300 less than deposits made. By me. (And Dh)

Welcome HibiscusIsland. I’m not sure Biology rejections I’m afraid, sorry.

@Alsoplayspiccolo what a fantastic thing to win, so lucky to see the dates before they ended, I'm forever telling DS to check things but it goes in one ear and out the other!

I found this which answers my own question about how common it is to get rejections www.savethestudent.org/freshers/which-universities-are-easiest-to-get-into.html
I hope her PS was good enough to get offers from somewhere she applied.

We had an email from school today about the contingency plan if exams are cancelled. They said there will be several tests under exam conditions starting January.

Ds said the ucas form has been sent by school. Will he get emails of offers or do they go to his ucas portal? I told Ds to use his own email address. I remember ds1 using his school email address then lost stuff as school closed the addresses down over the summer.

Ds1 is still messaging me from his uni house, telling me how ill he is 😞 not sure what I'm meant to do. He won't phone the gp. He also messaged last night to say his laptop had broken yet again. It was only fixed 16th nov. It first broke at a year old and HP wanted £400 to look at it. But our local pc shop fixed it. Apparently ds's dissertation proposal is on it and is due 21st. that's the extended date as apparently he's far too ill to do it. So dh picked went to get it and it's just at the shop. I can't believe ds1 didn't save the work somewhere.

Then ds2 came home from school saying there was something wrong with his car. DH promptly went off in it mumbling that there won't be anything wrong, but there was. So now Ds doesn't have a car and I'm heading off to my mums on the south coast first thing. He said Ds can pay to get on the bus (it's sort of a dedicated school bus, but one you can pay per trip so mostly 6th formers or children who are out of catchment and not entitled to free transport, not the free school bus ds3 gets) Ds had planned picking mates up tomorrow and going to the cinema to watch Spider-Man. Dh won't take him because he enjoys being awkward. Dh always says Ds won't do what we ask so why should he help Ds. Also Ds can't get home from school as he finishes 1pm tomorrow and thurs. he will have to wait for 4pm bus. Typical to happen when I'm away. At least I won't be here to hear the moaning 🤣

I plan to leave at 6am. It's about a 3 hour drive to my mums near Hastings. I'm looking forward to the break. Though I will be worrying about things at home, especially ds1.

@Oblomov21 so many people invested the CTF in socks. Ds has many friends with several thousand in theirs. Ours just went in the nationwide. It's has gone from £250 up to £400 Ds told me off for not investing it with the stock market.

@Volterra so pleased you've had good news!

Lots of other good news for others too - at least there seems to be progress.

DD breaks up midday tomorrow, and DS comes home from uni. It's been a very long term!

@icanbewhatiwant - when offers come through the candidate gets notified by email as well as UCAS being updated.

I haven't read all the updates so not up to speed with everyone's news, sorry. At work we had the most devastating news yesterday that one of our juniors took his own life over the weekend. Although I didn't know him very well (well enough to chat and gossip but very superficial) I am absolutely crushed - it is so awful to think of a youngster in their early / mid 20s seeing no other option. Understandably all of his colleagues are tremendously upset - dealing with their feelings but on top of that everyone actually having to pick up his work (because as awful as it is, there are still court dates, contractual deadlines etc that need to be dealt with) when all they want to do is go home and cry.

I don't need any messages of support (I know how lovely you all are but I don't want to exaggerate my importance in this) but please give your DC an extra hug tonight.

Welcome @hibiscusIsland try not to worry too much at this point. Some Unis give early offers and some dont. Anecdotally some don't even read statements. Where else has your young adult applied?

Life is so shit for so many right now Horace

OrangeCinnamonCocktail Bristol, Southampton, Warwick and Surrey.

Oh @Horace123 I’m so so sorry to hear that. What a terrible shock. Awful to think that such a young man has thought he has no other option.

Just to update that DS has received an offer from Plymouth - 112pts.

Aww, horace, how terribly , awfully sad.

Oh Horace, that’s incredibly sad 💐
Delphigirl good news !
IcanbewhatIwant I hope you do get to relax a bit with your Mum and hope DS1 feels better soon.
Hibiscus I think Bristol sometimes puts people on hold until after the official closing date which is apparently normal for them and nothing to worry about.

Welcome @hibiscusIsland.Thanks for sharing that list. An interesting read! Nice for the people at artsy unis to have that to counter the considerable dissing they can get from their friends at RG unis. A lot of unis are tough to get into in different ways, and arts unis can be very competitive.
This website is also useful, although a lot of (all?) the data is from pre-Covid times and the number of deferred places from last year may or may not skew things considerably.
www.admissionreport.com/search?q=biology&school=any
It sounds as though you have no reason to worry, though! It's more than likely that the offers will come.
My DS is applying for Biotechnology, which is a niche bit of biology, often with a bit of business thrown in to change things up a bit. He's not got to the offer stage yet either - will be nice if/when he does. Fingers crossed for you.

Thank you.
Well done to all who've had good news and sorry for the awful news Horace

@Horace123 what devastating news it really puts things into perspective when something terrible happens.

@Volterra good news health wise at least it is one less worry.

DS still being difficult no communication whatsoever. A difficult house to live in at the moment. Hope he comes out the other side soon as I can't take much more 😡