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!

Wasnt planning to ...

You said you were tempted though...

Hopefully they will all respond by Christmas, but it could be months and months yet.

It's been a busy week here as DS had exams in all his subjects and the SMC on Tuesday and today we have submitted his UCAS form (he needed me to pay the charge!) College should check it and add their reference to send off before the 16th. Think he was fed up with tweaking his personal statement by the end and couldn't think of anything else to add so it's quite short but hopefully that won't count against him too much. He did mention he is dyslexic in the relevant UCAS box. He only put three choices down but I think he should be able to add a couple more later (hopefully college will be ok with that).

Ds is expecting his UCAS form back from school tomorrow. Quick, last minute check then will press send.

Us too. Ds has a meeting tomorrow with one of his physics teachers just to polish his PS then we can pay the fee and press the button! Eeek.

Not school related, but definitely growing up related, I had a rather surreal experience tonight. I've recently had surgery and can't drive yet, so DS gave me a lift to my hobby.
After 20 plus years of driving my various children to their activities this was the first time one of them has taken me to mine and it definitely felt a bit weird! It's useful, but I am not quite sure I'm ready for this stage!!

There's a fee for submitting the UCAS form?

(Clearly I need to start reading the small print. Or maybe ask DD to do so).

Yes £27

Re submitting etc, when the DC presses submit, the form only goes as far as the school I think. The submission to UCAS is done by them once reference and predicted grades have been added.
(Just in case people are checking for offers thinking the form has gone off to universities when it's still sitting with the school.)

If your young person is applying for a highly competitive course at a league table top ten university, the chances are that they may have to wait longer (possibly until the May deadline) to hear back from some of their choices, than someone applying for a less in-demand subject, such as MFL or even geography.

DS applied to do geography a few years ago (all top 20 universities at the time) and had all five offers back within eight weeks of submitting his UCAS form at the beginning of December. The highest-ranked university on his list (Durham) was the slowest to make him an offer (and also messed him around on A Levels results day when he didn't quite make his grades).

Good luck to everyone's DC. DD has until the end of the month to finalise her UCAS application. She's submitted her draft PS already. Hoping there's not too much more to be done on that. Now she just needs to make her mind up about universities to apply to.

Hope you're recovering well from surgery @MrsAvocet .

£27 is quite a bargain for UCAS fee. Think it was £20 when I was a student many moons ago, so it's not been as badly hiked compared with most other university-related expenses!

I'm not 100% sure how it works. Ds said school are returning his and then he presses send? Either way, do they receive confirmation of submission?

@Lightsabre If you're applying through a school, they are the ones that submit the form to UCAS, I don't think it's possible for the DC to do that themselves.
Yes I think you do get an email from them saying thanks for your application, but he can also check its status on the UCAS hub if he wants to know whether school have submitted yet or not.

Great, thanks for clarifying @singingstones

Thanks @singingstones . That sounds like what DD’s college do. She pays and submits and then it goes to them to add the PG’s and references.

UCAS woman has chased DD a further 2 times this week for her application despite DD telling her every time she asks that they have ok’d her submitting after Warwick open day tomorrow. I don’t know how this woman is going to cope when everyone else is applying next month. There are only 10 of them doing early app and she doesn’t seem able to keep on top of it.

Now Ofsted is done at DD's school hopefully they can finish doing their bit and her UCAS form will get properly submitted (we've done the pay and send part and now school has it).

I don’t know how this woman is going to cope when everyone else is applying next month. There are only 10 of them doing early app and she doesn’t seem able to keep on top of it.

I am slightly sceptical about the admin at DD's college. I mean, I know they do this every year and they're not going to forget to submit anyone's form, but I will definitely be checking with a couple of days to go 😅

Is there any reason why a uni would increase requirements for a course for 2024 that was in clearing for 2023?
Specifically talking about cs at Liverpool.

Hi @sambamyty I think it can be a strategic thing. They may have other goals rather than simply trying to maximise student numbers. For example, if they want to move up the league tables for that subject, average UCAS points of the incoming students is one of the items that feeds into the algorithm used to calculate league table position.

Well, we are supposed to be at Birmingham today but my massive hangover after a work event yesterday coupled with DS arriving back from a college trip to Spain at 3am meant that I didn’t need much convincing when he said he was happy to look at the website and online videos and decide whether to
include it. A 7am train just wasn’t for us this morning.

I was being friendly to DD and got her a meal deal before she went off to her volunteering stint today at a National Trust place. And discovered her one concern about one of her university choices, Queens Belfast.

We went over there to have a look at it in August and based on the sandwich selection in Tescos not including tuna and sweetcorn she is unsure whether she would be able to cope there.

I did well and didn't laugh! (personally I'd prefer not to have her a plane journey away but I feel she could probably create her own tuna and sweetcorn sandwiches if necessary).

Teens take against the funniest things @MirandaWest

@MirandaWest hah hah, perhaps Tesco were just having an off day…

@StColumbofNavron i don’t blame you for swerving. They’re tiring at the best of times without feeling below par. 😬

DD and I went to the Warwick open day and she really liked it. Feels like what a campus university should look like. The English talk was very good. And we looked round some accommodation that she immediately liked. I think she can see herself going there.

So she will be submitting her UCAS application today with: Cambridge, Durham, Exeter, Warwick and Lancaster.

Now needs to start revising for mocks in 4 weeks time.

@Rollergirl11 I wish I could sell DS on Warwick for english - their offer of AAA/AstarAB is really appealing in case of a dodgy a level paper. He was put off by his school mates who went to the summer open day reporting chaos, which is silly on several levels. I might try to get him to reconssoer for his last slot. Otherwise I guess, like your DD, Exeter.

@Revengeofthepangolins i don’t think DD was expecting to like it as much as she did to be honest. She also had some friends who went to the summer open day that weren’t impressed. She really liked the campus. And Warwick is doing amazing for English currently, I think they are 5th in the UK which puts them above Durham at the moment.

DD (also English Lit) loved Warwick as well. She just got a good vibe from the campus that she didn't get in other place (although it's a downside that most students seem to live a fair way off campus after the 1st year).
It's currently her first choice, which suits me as it's close enough for day trips, unlike some of the other places on her list :)