Thread 26 - Covid Cohort Hoping for a Stable, Successful 2022

[OrangeCinnamonCocktail]

previous thread

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.

Had email from school saying that as per DofE guidelines they have to notify parents about large number of Covid cases in school. Anyone have any idea what sort of level that means? They are reminding of daily testing if close contact. Mocks this week and next!

@Wheresthebeach I could be wrong but I think it might be something like 15% testing positive - it would trigger putting certain measures in place such as bubbles.

@Heifer I’d probably plump for Nottingham or York. If she likes them all equally in terms of the course content, does she have a preference in terms of the uni city?

Thanks @Decorhate. They haven’t mentioned bubbles (yet). Gah

Both my two's schools have said we can stop registering negative LFTs with them but must still notify positives. They are no longer notifying parents of close contacts but it's probably still important to track the numbers.

@Heifer I’d go for Nottingham and Loughborough because both those courses are accredited by RSB

@Heifer Nottingham as firm, Loughborough as insurance

@Heifer @BlueMarigold
York is also accredited www.york.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/bsc-biology/

Just posting otherwise I don't have the thread in my active posts! I like keeping up with it

@Heifer @BlueMarigold
So is Sheffield. Looks like accreditation doesn't narrow the field at all! www.sheffield.ac.uk/biosciences/undergraduate/courses/molecular-biology#:~:text=All%20of%20our%20undergraduate%20degrees,our%20MBiolSci%20undergraduate%20masters%20programmes.

@EwwSprouts - ah ok sorry. We didn’t look too closely at York so I don’t know too much about it. I guess if everything is equal, go on gut feeling when you look around. On paper Nottingham was perfect for my DD but it didn’t feel right for her. She can’t really say why.

@EwwSprouts we also looked at Sheffield and the actual Biology course isn’t accredited even though Molecular biology and some of the other bioscience courses were.

Interesting, looked as if all were accredited including the integrated masters. DS is going to one of the open days so can possibly clarify then.

@EwwSprouts and @Heifer. There are 36 courses at Sheffield that are accredited but Biology wasn’t on the list.

www.rsb.org.uk/education/accreditation/courses/University+of+Sheffield/Accreditation

@Wheresthebeach

Had email from school saying that as per DofE guidelines they have to notify parents about large number of Covid cases in school. Anyone have any idea what sort of level that means? They are reminding of daily testing if close contact. Mocks this week and next!

@Wheresthebeach not sure if primary and secondary are the same, but DS is in primary school and we've received a letter from the headteacher over the weekend about special measures being implemented as cases have exceeded 10% of the year group. From the year group FB group we've worked out there's about 60% off.

60% ! Yikes.

Thanks @Decorhate, @BlueMarigold & @EwwSprouts.

She hasn't been to Sheffield or Loughborough at all so she can't compare. She wants to put Nottingham (AAB) Firm and York (BBB) Insurance and I just want to make sure we aren't missing anything. Should I be pushing her to look around Sheffield. She has said Loughborough has dropped off the list as gone back to thinking the course doesn't suit her really. She loved the idea of Loughborough but I think getting an offer was enough.

I think I am worrying unneccessarily because on the League Tables, Nottingham is lower than her other offers.

Complete Guide:
Loughborough Uni 7 - Biology 17
York Uni 18 - Biology 13
Nottingham uni 24 - Biology 29
Sheffield Uni 26 - Biology 15

Guardian
Loughborough Uni 10 - Bio 52
York Uni 18 - Bio 17
Sheffield uni 27 - Bio 29
Nottingham uni 52 - Bio 42

Nottingham comes last on both league tables for her course Does it matter? Should I just leave it as DD seems happy enough. I was suprised it was 42nd on the guardian list, it was a higher last year when we first started looking.

@Heifer

I think covid affected the tables a lot and not everyone answers the survey.

Nottingham is high on the QS world league table.
www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2022

And for Biosciences:
www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/university-subject-rankings/2021/biological-sciences

And The times higher education table
www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2022/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/locations/GBR/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

And when sorted for life sciences
www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2022/subject-ranking/life-sciences#!/page/0/length/25/locations/GBR/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

The advice on using the tables for medics is that you need to be wary about how they are weighting the things you care about. For example research excellence is irrelevant for most undergraduate degrees, in fact universities which are not focused on research are focused on teaching which matters more at this stage. Some of them weight entry tariff high which distorts towards Scottish qualifications because the UCAS points are more generous for them. Student satisfaction looks a little worrying for Nottingham, so might be worth talking to current parents on WIWIKAU to find out whether there is anything to know there. There person in know who went there graduated 3 years ago (French) and loved it, is still living there with her doctor BF who she met there and he loved it too.

Graduate prospects look good and I think Nottingham is generally perceived as a very good university.

Also remember that at least for some of them, entrance marks are used. Which I find odd...I'd rather understand outcomes.

First day of mocks!

Nottingham has been consistently very popular with students from my area over the past decade. I know several young people personally who have gone there & have not heard any complaints.

Ds2 probably decided against applying there because of its local popularity- he wants to strike off on his own!

I'm hoping Notts is OK as that's where DS wants to be!

Student satisfaction scores are low for Psychology at Notts too, which has put me off a bit! And I had a message from someone on Facebook saying it had all been online this year (but that’s subject specific). Dd is still considering it though, partly as almost everyone she knows has it amongst their 5!

Mocks all finished here, still no sign of any movement from Warwick.

DS had an email from Warwick last week @ChristopherTracy saying they were 'processing' his application. Hopefully they will hear soon.