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!

May I join please? 😀

DD & I have been to see a few unis already (1 loved, 1 liked, 2 hated) plus she’s visited her brother’s one which she thinks is amazing but that’s because she got to see it on a “working” day - library and SU full of students etc. She won’t be following him as he’s 450 miles away and she’d like to be within a 3 hour drive.

The sticking point at the mo is her predicted grades. We don’t get these for another few weeks and her UCAS has to be in to school by end Oct, so that gives us about 2 weeks to decide which unis are suitable. 😵‍💫😵‍💫

She’s not easy to predict either, being a bit wayward in her tests! Halfway through Y12 was predicted D in her degree subject but in mocks last summer got A*. She got Bs in the other two.

So all these lovely unis we go to see we have no idea if she has a chance at and sadly the two we’ve seen so far that have lower entry requirements she hated. 😩

Anyone else in a similar situation?!

@SooperOuting
We don't know predicted grades yet either, so DD has also been visiting unis based on assumptions which may be wrong.

Can she explain her predicament and ask individual teachers to give her an earlier heads up? Even if they gave a range of a couple of grades that would help a bit.

On the plus side, if she does well over the next few weeks the later predictions might give her time to persuade them towards the higher grades.

That’s an idea thank you. She is however super shy and likes to fade into the background so not sure she will have the nerve for it!

@SooperOuting Don't forget the option of a gap year, if the predicted grades end up not being good enough for the universities she really wants but there is a reasonable chance that her grades might be better than expected. There is a lot to be said for a gap year, and it is really not required to go straight from school to unversity. Earn some money, have some time to think without the pressures of school, travel a bit, and go to unversity more sure of what you want.

In addition there are chances to trade up on the day she gets her A level results if they have gone better than predicted - although that can involve a lot of tense work on the day, and I don't quite know the procedure (but there are people out there who do, it might include both formal clearing and ringing around). But if her dream universities are out of reach based on her predicted, but not on her actual results, options can open up on the day.

Thank you yes I would love her to have a gap year, not least because she is v young in the year and could do with time to grow her confidence. She won’t even consider it at the moment but maybe it’ll be a good option when the time comes!

DS1 won’t consider a gap year either. Last weekend he was going to hand his CV into a few shops and he just couldn’t because he is so shy. On the one hand I was thinking a gap year, if he can get a job might help, but perhaps he just needs to go to uni and hopefully find his people and come out of himself a little that way.

He sees a gap year as sort of impeding his progress by adding another year to things.

To the previous poster who mentioned expense, I have chosen not to calculate how much it has cost to visit. The problem was I thought he would like to spend some time in each place and get a real feel so I booked overnights and it turns out he literally only cares about the course. For autumn, other than Scottish options we’ve gone for day trips.

It’s looking like we won’t make the Lancaster open day next weekend. DD is still struggling to cover her shift at work. Also we were planning on staying over at the in-laws in Liverpool to break up the journey but that can’t happen now so would mean booking a hotel night before and then driving 5 hours home after the open day. Neither DD and I fancy that. I think Lancaster is likely to be a potential insurance option so she will probably still apply and go to an offer holder day instead if she gets an offer.

Getting round to open days is so tough. DS and DH up early this morning to head to York. There and back in a day but it's about a five hour round trip. It's our next to last one but I'm hoping it's a success. DS really liked Lancaster (currently his second choice) and so think it's got a similar feel (but slightly lower grades!) so I hope he likes it.

@QueenMabby we did York in a day too in July. It was heavy going as a 4 hour train journey each way. Didn’t get a chance to look round York either which was a shame as we felt we didn’t get the whole picture.

@Rollergirl11 - what did your dd think of the uni? My ds was excited to see the Astro lab - it took me a while before I realised he meant Astro as in physics and not Astro as in turf for hockey! Stupid really as the astrophysics is what he's going for!

@QueenMabby we did York before the summer holidays. DD1 really liked despite the force 10 gale blowing around the lake. She wants to study Biomedical Science and really loved the labs. Accommodation was ok and at the moment it's probably top of her list.

We're off to Southampton tomorrow and then Kent in October (she's considering it for her insurance place)

We've had to pull out of the Durham open day next Saturday as DS forgot to book the day off has to work. Luckily we have been once already so it's no big deal.

The 18th birthday parties have started - DS was out until 2.30am this morning 🎉😂. The young are so resilient though! He has a shedload of homework to do on Sunday for Monday, feels like school is setting the scene for an intense year.

York is a really lovely city. DS feels it's a bit near to home I think so wasn't interested, but a friend's DS has just graduated & loved it.

@QueenMabby DD really loves the course. Purely from an aesthetic point of view she wasn’t that enamoured with the campus. Deffo has that post industrial feel with lots of concrete. Having said that she was impressed with the library. She liked the accommodation on Campus East but I think it is the most expensive accommodation that we have seen so far.

Exeter, Warwick and York all require AAA for her course. Exeter is a dead cert for DD so I imagine it will be a toss up between York and Warwick, which we are visiting next month.

@Rollergirl11
doubt your dd will be enamoured with the Warwick campus either! 😆 ds was in lakeside accommodation which had a decent view, but it’s not the most attractive campus.

@MrsScrubbingbrush
have fun in Southampton; I was there in the 80s.

@ShanghaiDiva I'm sure we will! I come from a village the other side of Southampton Water and used to go shopping in Southampton.

@ShanghaiDiva hah hah! I had no idea that the architecture held so much sway within her success criteria! 😂

Unfortunately Exeter was the first place we visited. She instantly fell in love with the campus (and why not as it is beautiful) and so it’s become the benchmark for all others.

i went to York in the 90s and moved back here 13 years ago. I live less than 2 miles from Heslington West Campus so sometimes run round the lake. Is a good place although the university is much bigger than when I was there and York in general is an expensive place.

The new students will be moving in next weekend.

DD was at another birthday party last night although this was a slightly delayed 17 birthday one.

She’s also had the date through for her choral scholarship audition at Oxford. Will be on 27th September - is a bit weird it gets done before you even apply to university and has nothing to do with whether you get an interview even but as we’re over 100 miles away she gets to have a night in collage Accomodation and one set of grandparents are there so she gets to seem them too.

I've not posted for a while. It's been a busy summer. DS has spent most of it away. Not got a job so has basically had a 2 month holiday. He's done his college work so that's been good and he went on a course related to his Uni subject choice.
I'm just back from a marathon Uni open day visit. York yesterday then Sheffield this morning and Leeds this afternoon. Madness but we concentrated on the departments rather than accommodation. They were all so different. DS liked York best. I liked it but felt like walking round a movie set - not real life. I loved Sheffield and the course is 5th in the league tables, Leeds I got horribly lost and it felt very concrete jungle. Didn't think it was as welcoming as York and Sheffield.
The courses are all a bit different so teasing out the best one for DS is tricky.

Three in one day has to be a record @chocolatenutcase

Good luck to your DD for the audition Miranda, a nice opportunity to spend a bit of time in Oxford

@singingstones it was over 2 days but still exhausting. Fortunately we live in NW so no overnight stays just very early starts.

Blimey that sounds exhausting, especially in this heat @chocolatenutcase
My DS and his friend decided not that keen on York although liked the sound of the course. Found the campus bland, with nothing there and then decided the city was too touristy and everything too expensive.
DH and I had a great day and thought it was lovely but obviously not up to us.
Hoping to do Lancaster next week but depends on his shift at work as no annual leave left.

Good luck to your DD @MirandaWest

@spacechimp79 yes I felt that York campus was like being on a film set. It was such a student bubble. It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining so the 60s architecture was ok but I can see on a rainy miserable day it would look a bit grim.

@MirandaWest good luck to your DD. I'm in awe of the students applying to oxbridge but to add a choral scholarship in as well. Amazing!