Thread 29 - Covid Cohort - Whirlwinds and Waiting

[OrangeCinnamonCroissant]

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 28

I understand the high alert feeling.
I feel like that all the time too.
It's easier not to get DH involved in things, as he can't be relied on.

DD having a night off for 18th party - think it’s needed

A night off revision @Fruitygal? Hope she has a good time. Dd managed both parties last night - 3 hours at each!

Just catching up as usual -@JustHereWithMyPopcorn Sorry to hear about the rejection which is extra annoying having waited so long (looking at you BATH!). Glad he's got a very good choice in Nottingham though, I think they are excellent for Law.

@Zebracat As it happens we went to offer day at Warwick today. I'm not sure I can help as it was very course-specific most of what we did but if you have any general questions I'll be happy to help.

@crazycrofter night off NEA - revision starts Tuesday. Well done to your DD two parties in one night - very impressive x

@Shimy is Warwick still in the mix ? Insurance or firm - did you see the accommodation?

@Fruitygal - Warwick will be ds's firm. Waiting on Bath as possible insurance. We saw a room in Rootes - decent size, but couldn't see much else. Apparently, they're not showing people inside because of Covid. We spoke to a random student we saw outside who gave us a tiny peek or her room.

Lots of other accommodation though and we brought an accommodation booklet -- OMG! after the accommodation at Cardiff my jaw is on the floor at the price, they range from £85 to £218! most of them are in close to the £200 bracket. DS already complained that 'Rootes' won't be good for his mental health and it's meant to be one of the cheap ones at £111. He was uming and ahing at the one a student ambassador was telling him about coming in at £185 .

Blinking flip at the Warwick room prices @Shimy . If DS gets an offer from Bath he will firm that but at the moment Warwick is top choice. I knew Bath was expensive but didn’t realise Warwick was so expensive £200pw for a small room is farcical to be honest. Some people have mortgages on a whole house that are less than that.

I’m kind of regretting not pushing dd towards applying to Cardiff @shimy, their accommodation is so reasonable by comparison to most of the unis she’s applied to.

I think I’ve convinced dd that she won’t be getting an en-suite. We just need to weigh up catered for 31 week vs self-catering for 44. That’s assuming dd sticks with Nottingham.

@Shimy is Cardiff much cheaper? I think Warwick is cheaper than Bristol!

I'll try again... Hello! I asked for my first post to be deleted in case it was too identifying!

May I please join you? I met Piggy on another thread and she suggested I venture over, as my DD is currently in Y13. She's had 4 offers back but is still waiting on Warwick.

Congratulations on all the offers/firm choices!

@NCTDN Cardiff is waaay cheaper!. This is where DS1 was last yr Arofan House it's gone up in price a bit, so it was £120 when he was there in 2020/21.
I have attaching a pic of all the Cardiff halls fees in 2019/20 when DS joined, I've also attached a pic of the halls fees at Warwick from today for comparison. Although I'm sure Cardiff fees must have gone up by a little by now but they're stillmiles away from Warwick's.

Hi harriet! 👋

@22Newnames I was pretty shocked at the prices too and thought Coventry prices would be reasonable, Bath is touristy so accommodation is premium.

@crazycrofter Shame she didn't put down Cardiff. En suite you say? I'm shoving DS hard towards sharing and hyping up all the virtues & opportunities of it '...you'll meet loads of people...have loads of friends..good life skills'.

Hi Piggy! 👋

To be fair we did tell DS not to base his choices on finances. He will get minimum loan and we are in a position to help so if that didn’t have to be a factor we didn’t want it to be. I realise that is a fortunate position to be in.

We did however say to him not to expect an ensuite and he is fine with shared bathroom. It really depends what you actually get allocated in the end though, I would imagine the cheaper ones are popular so hard to get.

Welcome Harriet, to the business end of Y13
What's your DD hoping to study?

Hi Harriet, welcome aboard .

Welcome Harriet

I’m hiding my head in the sand about accommodation prices, we have been very lucky on that front with DD. DS not really talking about university but we were talking housing costs in general and he said he had heard how expensive Bath is and how will add up over 4 years. At that point I remembered I had suggested he apply for the MMath and he thinks he did, have told him to check.

Grades are high for that so he needs to be really happy with his insurance .

Crazycrofter we are moving. I feel a bit up against it with that plus dealing with all the paperwork etc relating to my Dad plus one doing A levels and the other finals and decisions to be made about September.

Those Warwick fees look a bit cheaper than/similar to Birmingham. I'm still a bit put out by their fees!

I wonder if this thread might win the award for fast moving?
I’m so sorry to hear of the little flurry of rejections, hopefully your dc will bounce back quickly and see all of the other possibilities open to them.
We went to an offer holder’s day at Warwick and came away rather underwhelmed. We got chatting to two other families and both children said it ‘gave off weird vibes’, dd agreed with them. I think the issue was that the uni didn’t really shmooze them or seem happy to see them. I think they are so over subscribed and have such a strong academic reputation, they don’t really need to do a big sales pitch like some other institutions do. I think it’ll be a no from dd, which is a shame as she wanted to love it!

*fasted moving

Welcome Harriet

A million years ago when I was at Warwick I was in Cryfield in the first year as it was the cheapest at £35 a week. They were great, despite being small rooms and on the third floor meant I had a great view and was just across the road from the SU. I see they are now over £100 a week!

DD didn’t have a good last mock on Friday, she said she started crying and just couldn’t stop. Thankfully she has separate invigilation took 4 rest breaks but with extra time still didn’t finish. She said she misread the first question after she’d already written a page, restarted then panicked then thought she was letting everyone down and then tried not to cry which made it worse. She came home after and we had a good chat and I said she hadn’t let anyone down, it didn’t matter and mock is just that. She’d had a busy week with mocks, her actual music performance recording (which went really well) and 2 evening concerts. Went out yesterday for cake and shopping to have a bit of a break from it all.

@22Newnames I also thought that the cheaper accommodation would be more popular but someone told me it’s the opposite. The more expensive accommodation is sought after by international students.

[quote BlueMarigold]@22Newnames I also thought that the cheaper accommodation would be more popular but someone told me it’s the opposite. The more expensive accommodation is sought after by international students.[/quote]
Fingers crossed