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!

She was having a massive crisis of confidence last night about the entrance tests she'll be doing next week - for her course she needs to do two tests which are both on the same day and with only a small gap between them. Tried doing a practise test last night and couldn't do it and decided she'd not done enough preparation and that there was no point doing it.

She seemed a bit more cheerful later on and OK this morning I think. She's gone early to pick up a friend whose car was being mended. Am glad that after a shaky start she does enjoy driving now :)

@QueenMabby Hi Organ scholars do have their full offers now - we know of two; for many (but not all) subjects they did the academic interviews in early sept the same time as the organ trials. So yes people do absolutely have full condition offers (but as @MirandaWest says) our DC have possible choral scholarships to be confirmed if they get their academic offers in January as usual

Conditional not condition!

I was wondering about how it works with organ acuolars @Headingto18

Gotcha! One will definitely have been for organ. The other is choral but maybe ds was only referring to one with a full offer. It all sounds so stressful!

I have a feeling that my dd (current year 10) will be looking at Oxbridge. She already sings in a church choir so it might be something she'll be interested in. What's the level/expectation like? Is it very high?

@StColumbofNavron DD3 is applying to St Andrews for ancient & medieval history - it’s her top choice because she said it had the best course. Pity she doesn’t like the cold much! Hard to get into of course, and I’ve warned her she might not hear till the spring, but we’ll just have to see.

We’re on the south coast but she’s picked two Scottish unis and York so we’re starting to think she doesn’t like us much!

College have submitted DD’s UCAS application today and she’s had the confirmation email so just wait to hear now. I think she’s relieved that it’s done and she can concentrate on other things now.

Yay! Well done DD, it is a relief to have it in!

DD has sent hers internally but school are still awaiting one teacher to input third predicted grade and he's been off with illness, in theory it comes on Friday. She is wondering if she should have chosen Law rather than Econ and Mgmt as Econ and Mgmt is so hard to get but not sure Law would be much easier and can do after. Also Econ she enjoys, law would just be for the money. Only 2 choices in Oxford and LSE which I think are only about 5% offer rate each then she adds 3 more later, seems determined to do it this way. She is happy with year out. Her 18th is coming up. She is doing so well at her job.

Congratulations on all of the early university submissions and good luck to those doing entrance tests in the next couple of weeks.

Ds has a major maths test today which he was stressing about - I hope it's gone ok. Looking forward to a half term break as it's been an intense few weeks.

I think Law at Oxbridge is hugely competitive too @Silkierabbit but her confidence might carry her through. I'm not sure if it's been mentioned on this thread but Land Economy at Cambridge has lots of economic and law modules and according to a family member lots go on to law training contracts afterwards.

Still struggling a bit with the personal statement here. DS is way over the character limit and struggling to reduce it.I had a go at editing last night but it's hard! I know they don't want pages and pages of waffle but it's very difficult to cover everything in 4000 characters. It's got to be submitted to school next week so he has the weekend to make final changes.
On a brighter note he's been pleased with grades in a few tests this week and has been reselected for the talent programme in his sport so is in fairly good spirits and seems more motivated to get on with the application process now.

DS2's application is in, Oxford, Edinburgh, Durham, Manchester and Lancaster for Maths. Stressing about the MAT exam next week, he knows the offer rate for Maths at Oxford is only 1/13.

Yes Land Economy is a good point Lightsabre though DD has her heart set on Oxford rather than Cambridge. Its commercial law she has expressed an interest in but I think its basically anything high paying she is after as she loves money. 😂I am also in support of anything high paying then don't get the money demands. The Oxford test is on her 18th birthday.

DS submitted his UCAS just over 2 weeks ago. He’s applied for English Lit. He has had an offer from York and several friends have had offers from Bristol and Leeds too.

York might be his insurance, so he’s pleased to have one in the bag. Hoping some of the others (Birmingham, Exeter, Durham and Oxford) might offer before Christmas too, but know Durham is often very late and Oxford is such a long shot…but at least he will know if he’s definitely ‘out’ in November if he doesn’t get to the interview stage.

Does anyone know if Birmingham and Exeter tend to offer early to candidates with top predictions, or do they wait until Feb/March?

Thanks …and nice to think there are other people going through the process too.

Does anyone know if Birmingham and Exeter tend to offer early to candidates with top predictions, or do they wait until Feb/March?

Birmingham is definitely already making offers.

DS said a friend of his has been made an offer of BBB (normal offer is AAA) for the subject if they will firm as first choice.

School have finished their part now and submitted to UCAS. DS has his Cambridge application additional info to submit although he is not planning on writing another PS. Partly because he can’t think what else he could write but mostly because he can’t be bothered. Don’t blame him!
DS has applied to Cambridge, Lancaster, Leeds, Sheffield and UCL. Really hope he gets an offer from Lancaster, Leeds or Sheffield soon.
Looking forward to half term next week.

Last year DD2’s friend had an offer from Exeter in October (Classics) and DD2 herself got an offer from them in January (Law). They both had top predictions. It probably depends on subject.

(Leeds was her last offer, she didn’t get that till mid-March. Didn’t apply to any of the notoriously slow ones like Durham!)

Exeter came through very quickly for DS the year before last, it was the first to arrive and within a week I think. He didn't have spectacular predictions, either matched the standard offer or maybe one grade higher. It's so course dependent though.

@BiancaBlank DS is thinking straight History but his interests are in Middle Eastern History so the fact that they had a whole slide devoted to that was a massive plus. We’ve got Edinburgh to look at, which I think has a decently comparable course.

Ahhhh, wish I'd found this thread earlier. DD's application went in on Monday - and she's just had her first offer, from Liverpool. This is a possible insurance choice so she's delighted to have this already. A bit of much needed reassurance ahead of the Oxford tests next week.

We have third predicted grade finally in now so 3 x A star though they are still insisting on entering her for EPQ even though she's not started it but she has got a lot of special circumstances so think a form will go in with that. Would have been more sensible not to enter her but school is very rigid. They have been great on pastoral care though to my surprise. So school should send form off shortly and its Oxford and LSE atm with rest added later.

Congratulations @TenSheds on your DD’s offer. She must feel buoyed by that!
@Silkierabbit good news on the final predicted grade. Although you’re now in a similar situation to singingstone in that is very late in the day to have to be doing an EPQ. Assuming that the EPQ is going on the application for Oxford and LSE how will they arrive at the predicted grade for it given that she hasn’t even started it yet?

I think they may just enter a U for EPQ, seems crazy to me not to just withdraw her. I don't think she will ever do it. She did write the actual project bit but she said that's 10% of it. They just got her to write about her river tours job which is fine but also a bit pointless as she has the skills already and can talk about it without an EPQ. Though she is being as stubborn as school over it.

Well done to the DC already getting offers - fantastic! DS finally submitted yesterday (nothing like leaving it to the last minute) so hopefully the school will get on to it and do their bit quickly. He's gone for Cambridge, Durham, Manchester, Leeds and left the 5th one till later. @spacechimp79 I'm relieved to hear that your DS isn't planning to submit anything extra for his PS, as mine is thinking the same. It's just that after spending so long getting the PS down to 4000 to squeeze everything in, it's a bit disconcerting to think of starting again!