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 don’t think that’s likely as it’s a big sixth form with the majority applying for unis and few additional staff to help (state school). All the references and PGs need to be put in and then the whole application checked for about 300 people.

She doesn’t want to ask and put pressure on for worry the references won’t be as good! It’s annoying as DSs school managed to turn them round in about 3 weeks so he had all 5 offers by early January.

Thanks Stoney. That's what DD said but I said she could be a surgeon, they often have no empathy and she said yes it's a surgeon she wants to be. Thanks Rollergirl. I think she will let her tutor know and see what she thinks.

I wouldn't worry about no offers at this stage, plenty of time and you only need one. Its lovely to have 5 but you'll only go to one at the end of the day and there's also the option for a gap year as well. I was given a deferred offer myself as my professor was off for a year, it was a shock but was good experience in the end. DD is getting a bit distracted by earning money again. 😎

Good luck with the mocks this week for those who have them.

Lovely to see the offers coming in.

DS sent his personal statement to school last week, he shared it with me afterwards & I have to say I did well up a bit reading it, we should all be so proud of our young people! It really brought it home how grown up he now is!

Another 18th on Friday & they all wore their suits from Prom - looked great.

@Silkierabbit that is really nasty, imagine being someone who thinks in that way, sounds like jealousy to me.

DS UCAS sent off Friday and first offer today for Physics from one of his favourites (York) so good news!

We are waiting on Bath too. I checked last years offers thread on TSR and Bath did start making offers late November, but some still had to wait. I'm hoping as my DD has her grades already she might get one in November. She's well above grade requirements for the course and I think while it's popular, it's not extremely so. Durham too but not expecting to hear from them this side of the New Year, though I think some offers have been made. And of course Cambridge. She has her written assessment late November.
She only did one set of mocks Y13 in February.

Congrats! My ds is also holding a York offer for physics. He got a golden ticket from them in the post today to congratulate him on his offer and to tell him he was epic! A nice touch I thought and ds was pleased.

My daughter applied to Bath last year and she got her offer during the Christmas holidays! She's there now and is loving it.

Youngest daughter is in year 13 and hoping to do Geography with a year abroad. She hasn't put her form in yet but she has completed her personal statement.
Her favourite is Lancaster, she absolutely hated Durham which on paper was ideal. She has no idea where else she wants to apply to.

@loobylou44 what did she not like about Durham? We haven't been but I know someone who did Maths there and really enjoyed it and now has a good job after graduating a couple years ago.

Great to find this thread! My son is about to finalise his 5 choices for Comp Sci and I feel I’ve visited every corner of the UK over the last few months!!

DS’s predicted grades are A star, A star, A and so far on the list we have Bath & St Andrews as top choices, York and Southampton next and spot number 5 is still to be decided! We have Sheffield’s open day coming up and DS has just added Durham to the list to check out.

For various reasons DS did not connect with Nottingham, Bristol, Leeds & Warwick and he doesn’t want a London uni.

School deadline is the end of November for UCAS forms and it’s all getting very real now! Congrats to all those with offers already!

It’s such an exciting time 😊

Hoping DDs application is sent by school before Christmas as she got it in two days before the deadline (apparently this was fall -off-the-chair early 🙄) and the school are processing them in receipt order. But she’s heard this on the grapevine and won’t ask the right people so who knows! Just got to trust the school.

@loobylou44 DD is hoping to have Lancaster as her insurance. We all loved it when we visited but it is very far away for us. I heard there’s a new Eden project opening near there.

Ds has heard from Lancaster - to invite him to attend an interview day. Oddly it says that if he doesn't want to attend the interview day then he'll receive the standard offer via UCAS! Anyone have any previous experience of this? Ds keen to go to one - I advised him to pick the earliest date - but when he went to book it less than 24 hours after getting the email the early (pre-Christmas) date was already full! The one after Christmas is in the middle of his mocks so he called them today. They can't fit him in on the early one but are opening up a third date so he'll probably take that as it's after his mocks.

I'm sure doing the later date won't have an adverse affect on his chances but that's where the mind goes!

Hi @QueenMabby I've heard of York doing this. My friend's DS has been invited to interview. If he doesn't attend he's been told that he'll get the standard offer but if he goes to the interview he may be given a lower offer.

Thanks @MoonLion - that's what we're hoping. He should already get a reduced offer of AAB (from AAA) as he has an A at EPQ already but any further reduction we can get would be great!

@QueenMabby DS also applied for Lancaster so expecting an interview hopefully. There is a good Youtube video from about 3 weeks ago specifically about Lancaster physics interviews if you haven’t seen it yet

DD was thinking she might get a reduced offer for her EPQ at Lancaster but it was just the standard offer. In fact she has had no acknowledgment of her EPQ in any of her offers. 🤔

@PaddingtonPaddington - yes I spotted that and forwarded it to ds. No clue if he's watched it though.

@Rollergirl11 - that's odd. Not acknowledged by York for ds but they said they didn't reduce their offer for it but took it into account if you just missed your grades. Keele dropped two grades for one subject on DS's offer there. Not sure about Sheffield. Maybe unis don't drop for all subjects? At Lancaster open day ds asked specifically and he was told that they did. Bath do too and even publish that on their website. We still haven't heard from Bath though. What has your dd applied for?

Warwick offer for DS. He’s pleased and surprised it was so quick. 3 more to go…

Congrats for your ds @PaddingtonPaddington that's great news.

She said she didn't like the feeling of the university when we were walking around. It didn't seem very diverse and that really put her off. The final straw was the accommodation and the fact is was spread out.

Lovely to hear all the offers coming through for our DC’s!

DD has survived her mocks this week. She said that they were all hard. Their History paper included a section that they haven’t even covered yet so think that was a bit mean of them! Luckily though DD isn’t relying on PG’s from these mocks as she’s already done her UCAS application.

She’s also had an invitation for interview for Cambridge so a nice way to round off her mocks. She needs to get her head down and start prepping for that now. It never stops does it!?

Great to hear the news of more offers. Ds has his first offer in for Warwick so is relieved. He has Physics and Chemistry tests this week so will have to revise this weekend.

Congrats to your DD @Rollergirl11 on the Cambridge interview.

@Lightsabre great to get a first offer in the bag.

DS has an offer from Loughborough which is possibly going to be his insurance.

Great news @Rollergirl11 & @Lightsabre

We're on our way to (hopefully) the last open day, Birmingham. These early mornings on Saturday are not popular!

DS's Personal Statement is still with his form tutor...very keen to get submitted now as I have an irrational fear there will be no offers left 😂

Congrats on all offers and on the Cambridge interview @Rollergirl11

We're going to Birmingham today too @legosunqueen
Hopefully will have five choices on the form tonight 🤞