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!

I probably should know what the different grade offers are for the universities DD is going to apply to. Will work it out

Oxford AAA
Durham AAA (I’m not sure why she is going to apply there - she says she’s not sure she likes it enough but I think that may be because she really wants to go to Oxford)
Bristol AAA - she prefers this to Durham
Edinburgh AAA (repetitive theme here)
Queen’s Belfast ABB. She liked it here when we visited. Plus they give a bursary towards accommodation….

I feel there must be somewhere she’d consider between AAA and ABB….

She wants a specific history and Spanish course rather than a construct your own joint honours course (think Newcastle does this plus DS has just started there which semi reasonably puts her off!) Am going to do a bit more research although will probably be like talking to a brick wall.

Her predicted grades are A star A Star A Star but after the A levels this year I feel anything could Halle.

dd is also finding it tricky to find courses with different entry grades, especially as not a huge number of universities offering natural sciences.
this is one of the advantages of the IB as there can be more variation. Ds applied for Warwick who wanted 38 and Loughborough who wanted 35, but when it comes to A levels this all seems to translate into AAA. For DD her back up will be Exeter with AAA or Loughborough with AAB -assuming she gets offers from them!

Thanks everyone. Useful to see what others are doing. Still stuck at 2 here of Oxford and LSE and I think Warwick has now been ruled out. Said before she was adding it and I queried would you go there, no, then she looked up grades and sky high so that is pointless to put down.

DS is predicted 3 A*s he has his heart set on a London uni but he's having a go at Oxford so applying to

Oxford AAA
UCL AAA
KCL AAA
QMUL ABB
but he's nervous so putting down Royal Holloway BBB as an insurance.

I think he's hoping to get an offer from one of the top 3 and then use QMUL as the insurance, time will tell.

Well that's a pain in the arse @StColumbofNavron. I hope you get it sorted.

Oh, how annoying, @StColumbofNavron

At our school, we would just arrange for them to do it the next day; hopefully they will accommodate.

@ShanghaiDiva DS is doing IB. We're finding that the entry requirements do vary more than A levels, but less so when you look at the HL subjects only. For example, the published entry requirement for his subject is 38 from Durham and 36 from Bath, but both ask for 766 at HL, so the wiggle room is only in the SL subjects. Did your DS find that, do you remember?

Anyone here not looking at courses that require 3 As or A stars (or similar?). We're not at that level and all this looks very scary and are looking at Art Foundation which is very different requirements, and mainly focuses on the portfolio instead. Most require 2 Cs.

Us @Aaarghthepancakes . DD has decided to take a gap year so the process has been put on the back burner and I haven't posted for a while but we are looking at Bs and Cs.

@MoonLion there did seem to be more variation in HL grades when Ds applied. Warwick wanted 38 and a 5 in HL maths and Bath 36 with a 6 in HL maths- same course.

Interesting - thanks.

@singingstones i totally agree with you and you have managed to succinctly lay out my thoughts on her applying to Durham. I think she still will though as she won’t know where else to apply in its place. Also never know, her feelings might change later on down the line.

@StColumbofNavron oh no that’s a pain! Hopefully the date of the mock is not set in stone and they will let him do another day. It would be very unhelpful of them if they refuse.

Us too @Aaarghthepancakes and @EversoDetermined . DD is a bit all over the place in her studies, and how she tends to do in exams. She is most likely to get middling grades, not being super diligent, or an academic perfectionist. She's also quite specific about the type of universities she's prepared to consider, not leaving her with a lot of choice.

We’ll be looking at creative subjects for DS2 and his profile is much more B-C. We’re in Sixth form discussions with him at the moment and though he doesn’t know what he wants to do, I feel like he has a good deal more choice than DS1. DS1 wants a law/professional services career and is very very specific about his history offering so has very narrow choice. DS2 will be able to be a bit freer with exactly what’s on offer and where, which I think is quite nice.

dS3 is 12 but has told me not to expect uni and that he will make his millions some way.

DD has just changed one of her A levels at the start of y13 as she has been so unhappy with one of them. She seems as if a weight has been lifted off her shoulders but realistically it is going to affect her grades. She doesn't have any particular course or uni in mind yet hence opting for a gap year so she will be applying with grades in hand which takes the pressure off a bit.

DD is really struggling over the choosing a spread of grades thing. As you can only "keep" two offers - is it worth going for a much lower grade university, if you wouldn't actually choose it for firm or insurance?

She's also taking essay based subjects so is really worried about the danger of bad questions/subjective marking meaning she gets a lower grade than expected.

Anyway, she is predicted A star A A and already has an EPQ A star.

Her list so far is
Warwick (AAA or A star A B)
York (AAA is standard offer but reduces to AAB due to EPQ)
Birmingham (she already has an offer in principle of ABB with her EPQ result - standard offer AAB)

She's then torn between putting Leeds and Loughborough (both AAB; they might drop for EPQ ) or including somewhere with a lower standard offer (Surrey looking possible; Open day in a couple of weeks).

Her favourites are Warwick and York.
But would it make sense to have them as firm and insurance (we are presupposing here that she gets offers which of course might not be the case)?

DD is off on a train to Oxford - she's got a choral scholarship audition tomorrow and they let you have a night in college if you're more than 100 miles away, which we are. Tomorrow is an INSET day and today she's only got one actual lesson plus she'll be seeing her grandparents and also her dad down there so she's gone now. Am hoping the trains all behave themselves (and that the audition goes well!)

Best of luck to her @MirandaWest

Spanish teacher has been totally reasonable and is letting DS sit paper 2 (lit/film) during the actual assessment week which is week of 16th.

All the best to your DD for tomorrow @MirandaWest

Great news that the clash sorted @StColumbofNavron

DD has gone head down again and not engaging with uni prep (hardly anything done for PS which needs to be in in a month) since she got her predicted grades last week. I think they freaked her out a bit as she doesn’t think she will achieve them and won’t speak to the teacher to understand their rationale in giving them.

So I am trying to back off and not nag but man! it’s hard

There is no point choosing a uni she wouldn’t go to. We are visiting the fourth Uni with lower grade requirements next month and really hoping DD doesn’t write that off like she did the other three….

I do know of people that only put one Uni on their UCAS and both said if they didn’t get it they would try again the next year. So you don’t have to choose 5.

DD will probably choose 4 and add another depending on offers and how she’s doing/feeling in January.

Good luck to your DD Miranda Sounds fun the staying overnight.

I wouldn't put a university down you wouldn't put as insurance or main. I know my Mum made me put down 3 for bad days but it was a bit pointless as I didn't like any of them. Though DD is still at 2 she likes and saying she will leave rest to January. Though she changes plan every couple of weeks but has been consistent about only wanting these two or a gap year.

Good luck to @MirandaWest DD, hope she smashes her audition.

Excellent news for @StColumbofNavron that they will move the Spanish mock.

The internal deadline for DD’s early app is this Friday and I knew that DD was still waiting for a meeting with deputy head to go through her UCAS application. I’ve been on at her to go and see them herself as I was worried that she was supposed to be doing stuff for Friday and she hasn’t. It turns out there was a meeting last Wednesday where all applicants completed their applications and got final sign off for their PS. DD missed it because she had a subject trip to London. Luckily she was able to sit with Deputy head of college yesterday and she went through her application and has approved her PS. They are still adamant that she has to put all of her options down now which is a bit annoying but DD has had enough arguing about it. They are giving her until after she has been to the Warwick open day on 7th Oct to submit but its reassuring to know that everything else is good to go.

Fingers crossed for your DD @MirandaWest hope she really enjoys the experience.

Saw some pictures of my DN being dropped off at uni, it's scary to think that will (hopefully) be us next year!

I agree that there is no point putting down a Uni you would not be willing to go to and it's tricky to know how to spread the likely offer grades. DS has excellent predicted grades but I know they are not guaranteed (in fact I think his Chemistry teacher has been quite generous!) At the moment I think he is still planning to just put down his top three for now and add a couple more later. The ucas advisor at college said he needs to mention STEP in his personal statement so hopefully he can do another draft before his meeting with his tutor on Thursday.

Good luck to your DD @MirandaWest I hope she enjoys herself also.

Still all up in the air here, waiting to see what DS's predicted grades are. Should find out tomorrow. Then it will be all systems go, if he wants to apply for Oxbridge as school expect the UCAS forms to be in on Friday.