Year 13 2023/2024 - General support thread

[Rollergirl11]

It’s now the time for our young adults to sit their final year at sixth form/college. Everyone is welcome!

Does anyone know how finance works if you do A 5 year course, such as integrated masters with placement year/year abroad. I think the uni charges only 10% fees for these years. But student fiancé will only fund 4 years? Is it possible not to take out the student finance for the placement year and then pick it up a year later when they are doing year 3 of course and then year 4 for the masters ?

On the subject of Oxbridge, recently a family member failed a module in their first year at Oxford (a shock given that they are hard-working and hitherto academically very successful). Everyone was aghast at the complete lack of pastoral support offered. It totally disrupted their whole summer (the retake wasn't until September), and it messed up plans for the start of second-year learning (don't want to be more specific) significantly. Awful approach.

@Rollergirl11 totally saddened by your DD's treatment by her teacher regarding her personal statement. Totally shocking that any teacher should think it acceptable to write a young person's PS. Good to hear that she is sticking to her guns - that takes a lot of backbone.

Student finance England usually funds the whole course (however long that is) plus one additional year. If you look on the government website an integrated masters is listed as being eligible.

It’s DDs 18th birthday today 😊

Happy birthday mini Miranda! 🍾🎉

Happy Birthday to your DD @MirandaWest

@MirandaWest - happy birthday to your dd!

Happy 18th Birthday to your DD MirandaWest Hope she has lots of fun.

I asked DD last night what she wanted for her 18th .. a girl cat so Mr Floof and her can make baby kittens.

Happy 18th birthday to your DD!

Happy 18th to your dd @MirandaWest! Hope she has a great time.

First set of topic tests coming up already for ds just before half term. He seems to have a fair few free periods now AS has finished so hopefully he'll use the time wisely (although I suspect there will be extra gaming!).

Happy Birthday to your DD @MirandaWest .

DD doing tests this week, then another round of mocks in six weeks, and a third round in February '24.

Apologies for the negative comment about Oxbridge but just something to consider. Obviously, one would hope that one's young people wouldn't have to resit an exam but one never knows. Even high-flyers can have an academic wobble.

Happy 18th to your DD @MirandaWest !!

@MirandaWest Happy 18th Birthday to your DD from me too - a milestone & an exciting year ahead!

Thank you everyone - she had a good day 😊 at school all day but a friend had made a red velvet cake and school was fine. Went to a friends house after school for a bit then back here for presents and DS FaceTimed (went away to university last Friday 😊).

She then drove off to nearby village for a singing lesson then we had morrocan flat breads followed by pancakes and birthday cake and then played a card game.

And now I should go to bed!

Thanks for the advice upthread re DDs predicteds.

I should’ve known she would surprise us again, she’s nothing if predictably unpredictable! Banging predictions, earlier than expected.

Think all her choices will be conservative so fingers crossed it’s not the rocky road we had with DS, don’t think my nerves could take that again!

The thread on Economics offers is quite worrying. School have warned DD as well about their past failures in economics. I thought it was just negative nancy people but looking at the thread it looks true. Her GCSEs are really strong, extra curricula is strong, predicted grades are fine but no FM and no Economics. She is applying for joint at some but all very difficult to get into saying she will take a year out if reject. It will be so awful after all she's been through if that happens with rejections though she will be fine for year out.

It sounds like your dd has other qualities though @Silkierabbit which might make her shine if she gets to interview. Economics seems to be tough to get a place on at the very top, Oxbridge and LSE, but there are other excellent courses out there. If she's genuinely happy with a gap year then she hasn't got anything to lose by going for it.

Thanks Light I would take her but I may be biased. She gets every job she interviews for and is beautiful which always seems to help with the male interviewer. 😂 I just never considered her getting no offers but someone with something like all 9s and all A stars just had 1 offer on that thread. 😱 I think she would do well at a year out, she would probably spend everyday doing her punting job and she gets really well paid for that, sometimes she gets £300 a day. She did say she was going to be an air hostess for a year and travel the world as well, not sure that's possible but she has no shortage of plans. She was talking of travelling around Asia with friends. And I also had 3 safe choices but I did not want any of them.

@Silkierabbit My colleague's son has just got into university to study economics with BCC (which was 2 grades lower than his offer which was BBB). I only skimmed the economics thread, but it seemed to be following the common MN theme of only recognising that about 6 universities exist. Yes, it's competitive at top universities, and your DC may have to manage their expectations downwards slightly compared to where they might apply for taking a different subject, but we not talking not getting in anywhere at all levels.

@Silkierabbit DS is studying Econ and quite a few of his friends who targeted the top unis with stellar grades only got 1 offer. DS veered away from the ultra top tier and there isn’t nearly as much competition there. The ones that seem super competitive apart from Oxbridge seem to be Warwick, Leeds, St Andrews, Glasgow, UCL, Durham, LSE and Bath.

As pp said on the other thread, Econ is v popular w international students and some unis have much higher quotas than others, meaning that some have much less places for home students.

With this in mind, I’d veer away from the league tables a bit, as that is often where the international students will be focusing their applications. I’d also veer away from the “pretty cities” that are popular with tourists, for the same reasons. (These places also can have awful problems with Y2/3 accommodation).

Having said all that, someone has to get the offers! Got to be in it to win it.

Thanks Sooper and Sheep I discussed this with DD last night and she seems that she wants to put all super competitive and pretty cities and do a gap year if it fails. Her school have pointed out of 9 students who did this last year only 1 was successful at Oxford and none at LSE. Though she has stopped the I'm going to put 3 courses at LSE as she has found out if you do that they only give 1 offer or no offer and they allocate you to course they think best. I was quite concerned by the FM comments on that thread saying no-one gets in without FM but she found data on that for LSE and Warwick and it appeared a lot harder to be successful but not impossible. Atm she has compromised on just putting Oxford and LSE on form and adding more in January when she will know if she has Oxford or not. Its a 5% chance for Oxford. She was adamant about Warwick as well though I asked her to look up course as I remember I hated their course and then she discovered their grades are super high and went off it a bit. She did mention Bristol the other day though I think the put 2 and leave rest strategy works, didn't realise it was possible. Hope it won't disadvantage her though. Though basically she wants Oxford or LSE. At least its opened our eyes to this possibility, before I was assuming she would get offers from all or at least most. Though her A level choices do worry me but nothing can do about that.

@Silkierabbit What’s the benefit in waiting to hear from Oxford before adding the others? Might it be quite tight deadline wise?

DD’s internal deadline is Monday and she still hasn’t had a meeting with the UCAS coordinator and head of college. Think that’s happening on Monday now. She still doesn’t know if they require her to include all 5 choices now which she can’t really do as she doesn’t know yet till she’s done the Warwick open day.

From what DD said it was OK in terms of deadline but she said unlikely to hear back from LSE before it but would know Oxford. Tbh I am not entirely sure what benefit there is and I wonder if you could disadvantage yourself. I think the idea is if she gets Oxford that's her first choice and then its about an insurance. If she doesn't get Oxford its about another first choice. Though there are 5 choices. But she seems like she only wants Oxford or LSE and would reject other offers anyway and do a gap year. I think its partly she can't decide so gives her longer. Oxford and LSE are similar grades so I am not sure of the benefit of this strategy but her strategy changes by the week. The school I think have given some dubious advice on personal statement as well. Though she is ignoring 90% of that. Personally would ignore 100% of it.

Personally I think only selecting 2 of 5 choices is limiting herself. She can still choose an insurance place without knowing if she’s got an Oxford offer. And she can still decide to take a gap year with putting all 5 choices down. If Oxford and LSE have similar grade requirements then why would she only put the 2 as she would then have a firm and insurance at the same offer and if she doesn’t meet the grades she’s lost both.

DD is going for 2 first choices, 2 insurance choices and a “really bad exam day” choice. This is based on the grade requirements. But in reality one her favourites is one if the insurance options (because of the lower grade requirements) and she might end up firming that and insuring the bad exam day choice.