End of Year 13: Results, Summer and plans for September and onwards

[Rollergirl11]

Noticed the current thread is almost full so thought I better start a new one for discussing results day and our DC’s plans for uni/gap years or anything else!

Goodness this thread's been busy!
Sending very unmumsnetty hugs to all those who were disappointed yesterday.

DS feeling a bit more sanguine today about not making his firm. He's processed and is more positive. Accommodation choices have gone in for his uni so fingers crossed!

We're off out for a celebratory dinner tonight and I feel we can celebrate today in a way he wouldn't have appreciated last night.

Now just facing the fact that I only have him for six more weeks. 😭

Have had issues with DDs accommodation - should have been allocated yesterday but it didn’t get allocated until today,

not only did she not get any of her choices but the building she’s been allocated isn’t available until the 14th September as it’s new,y built with freshers week starting 9th September (and DD has choirs she wants to join that audition that week). By the time she found out the office there had closed

DD very upset so I had to go into logical sorting it out mother mode. On a Facebook group for Bristol parents someone did speak to them and basically they said to. Ok a hotel or Airbnb for that week! I also discovered instagram groups for students which DD has joined and has been finding people in the building and I think one in her flat.

Spoke to XH who knows more people than me and his wife’s sister in laws cousin can probably have her for the week or there’s someone else who may be able to. Have also booked a refundable premier inn.

She's cheered up now but Bristol have been pretty rubbish just suggesting people can book hotels etc if they want to be there that week…..

@Neveragainisaid When my eldest left for uni, the empty nest did feel very real. The first week was very strange. I knew that first freshers week to try and keep little on the contact to avoid them thinking of home and becoming homesick. Previous mumsnetters advised this and seemed to work. And mums net had been a godsend as everyone else was going through the same thing. Only thing she messaged about in first week was where i packed her fairy lights. We had purposely set a date from move in day when we would be facetiming and we had that to focus on.
From then on in we facetimed a couple of times a week. Usually a Wednesday and a Sunday, and made sure that we visited half way through term. After a couple of weeks it got much easier, and having these little facetime goals and visit goals did make the process much easier.

Ugh! That's bad on the uni's part @MirandaWest. Hopefully the accommodation will be nice when she finally moves in as it is brand new.

Yes, that’s what she’s been saying. She has got more positive about it all as the evening went on.

@sammyjoanne THANK YOU. I mean that. DC goes off earlier than most for a Foundation year, and to a half empty hall because of a staggered start to the courses, so it's daunting for them and us. Our only child too. I have lots of jobs planned at home to distract me, but think I'll be on here for support. I shall also aim to keep home contact down to help them with the move.

Sorry about the accomodation for your DD Miranda but hopefully it will be lovely and new. DD, whose boyfriend is off to Bristol, told DD last night his family is friends with a girl who wasn't allocated any of her nine choices and got that new accomodation as well, also now staying with someone who lives close. They thought it wasn't even a choice. It's not ideal re first week but it can be nice to be the first people in somewhere and presume it's overrun.

DD is just off to her punting job, just telling the cat goodbye and she loves him. She said her boyfriends Mum has said DD can go down to Bristol with them for her boyfriends first day. I think his start date is a month before hers and DD was saying what will I do for a month. Though she is off to Venice with a friend for 4 days of that. DD got first email from Oxford yesterday and says she has a single room but don't think they know which one until day they arrive or the price, she said there's only £200 in it and one is in college, one 5 mins walk, one has ensuite, one doesn't. Then we got I don't know what colour the walls are how will I know what bedding to get without wall colour. And if it's not ensuite what do I wear between room and bathroom, I will need different pyjamas for that but I don't know what everyone else will wear. No reading list yet.

A bit of a pain that your DD has to find somewhere else to stay for a week @MirandaWest but think brand new accommodation will end up being a real positive once she’s in there.

It’s a no (again!) from Cambridge for DD so I think we can safely say it wasn’t meant to be!! Onwards and upwards with Exeter for DD now, which she is 100% happy with. She just needs to find out what accommodation she has now but I understand that it can take a week after results to get that through. She is praying she gets one of her options with a double bed.

I guess the next thing to tackle is securing a student bank account.

That's not good Miranda - I would have expected the University* *to be a bit more proactive than that. Hopefully the accomodation will be lovely when she eventually moves in though.
DS doesn't get to choose a hall, it's just allocated, but everything is so close together at Strathclyde that I don't think it matters hugely. He had to fill in quite a lot of information about himself for the accomodation office so hopefully he'll have like minded people in his flat...I hope so for their sake 😂. Though yesterday's "How many guitars should I take?" conversation did end with agreement that it might be better to meet his flatmates first and I can drive up with guitars and amps in a few weeks onvce he's figured out just how receptive to blues and 80s rock they are. I think that's a good excuse for me to visit considerate thing to do. He's also decided he fancies joining the shinty club despite never having so much as seen a shinty match. In addition to the sports he already plays of course, not instead of. I've issued a very gentle reminder that the primary purpose of University is to get a degree, but at the moment I think it's fine to be excited about the other opportunities.

My daughter is also off to Exeter (with what seems like half our town!) and still waiting for accommodation email.

What were her choices @Tulipvase? DD went for East Park, Rowe House, New Lafrowda and Birks Grange. I’m kind of expecting she’ll get Birks as all her others are over subscribed.

What subject is she doing?

@Rollergirl11 hmm I don’t know. I know Lafrowda was one. Tbh, we pretty much went for the cheapest/closest……. I shall have to ask!

Also slightly panicked about potentially having to pay a terms accommodation before the maintenance loan arrives.

she’s doing Eng Lit.

@Tulipvase I think I have seen on WIWIKAU when people have voiced similar concerns that Exeter tend to not ask for accommodation fees until around November so that’s a result if so! 😀

Oh wow DD is doing English lit too so I assume they will bump in to each other at some point!

Good luck to all the DC waiting for accommodation offers. DD got hers through from Edinburgh yesterday and hit lucky as she got the one she most wanted. Super old building in the heart of the city. From videos online it looks as though it will have light coloured walls with a deep red door, so we can now go IKEA shopping. Her thought processes have been very much the same as your DD’s @Penguinsa, both over the colour scheme and the shared bathroom. One of her thoughts on that is a nice toiletries bag for taking her stuff to and from the bathroom.

Blimey @MirandaWest that is so awful of Bristol to do that but glad you have a contingency plan. Feel sorry for the other freshers who won’t be able to sort anything else. That is surely the earliest of any freshers weeks?
Sorry to hear it was another no from Cambridge @Rollergirl11 but glad DD excited about Exeter.
Love hearing your DD’s thought processes @Penguinsa as my DS says very little.
DS off to UCL on Saturday 21st September but not managed to book a moving in slot as for whatever reason his account is not set up correctly and only shows previous years. Bit stressful but he has emailed the team so hopefully will get sorted.
I actually can’t believe how many school friends of his are going to Durham. There are always a fair few but this year is a ridiculous amount.

Glad your DD is happy about her accommodation allocation @PumpkinKnitter It’s so interesting to hear how the DDs think in comparison to the DSs who I can’t imagine would think about what to wear to the bathroom or how to carry their toiletries 😂

That would be good, but actually I think my daughter has enough saved to cover it if it came to it.

You don’t happen to live near Oxford do you? My daughter has heard of lots of children locally going to Exeter but our town does seem to have more than its fair share of private schools.

I hope they (and everyone else) has an amazing time there.

@Tulipvase not too close to Oxford. We are Surrey. I know that Exeter has the nickname Surrey-by-sea and that lots from the area go there but DD doesn’t actually know anyone from her college that had it as their firm. Quite a few going to Durham though which is the other popular destination.

@MirandaWest It is great she is managing to concentrate on the positives of it being a new building. It is very poor of Bristol to not have made sure it was opened for Freshers though!

@Rollergirl11 sorry it wasn’t good news - but you know she is going to have a great time at Exeter.

Fingers crossed for those waiting on accommodation offers.

It is interesting to read where the favoured destinations from various schools/colleges are. Bristol and Leeds are apparently the most popular choices although a lot will stay in London. There are 2 others going to Durham that he is aware of.

Luckily we seem to have avoided the Durham reallocation nightmare. He had a welcome email from the college on Thursday and a form with preferences yesterday so it looks like we are in. We should have confirmation he has been allocated an en-suite room (pre-arranged through disability support) in the next few days and given they are almost all in the same building I also know his room will likely have neutral walls, a green carpet and red curtains/chair upholstery. My son won’t have noticed or cared.

He is an only child and I am going to miss his enormously so many thanks for the tips @sammyjoanne.

We have a nice cottage booked for a week about half an hours drive away from Durham. He will move in a couple of days early (autism support scheme) so we will be around for an extra day in case he needs us to pick up more stuff for him or the unlikely chance he wants to spend a bit of extra time with us. I am hoping this will ease the pain but my dh still predicts I will be in tears on the way home.

That sounds an excellent idea @Jaxx. Close enough to be on hand but far enough to leave him to it if that is what he wants. It is definitely bittersweet. We are proud of our young people but will miss them.

We have sorted out the week before DD's accomodation is ready (it had better be ready on 14th!) and she'll be staying with XH's wife's sister in law's cousin. And I will probably spend my birthday (8th September) going from York to Bristol and back.

Newcastle is a popular choice here; also Leeds and Manchester. Not so many head south

I will miss DD a lot if how I was when DS went last year is anything to go by. And he's only an hour away by train. Did end up seeing him a lot more than expected due to health issues mostly although he comes back to do gigs with his band as well

I'm glad we don't need accommodation as she's staying home, but she had a panic that her student loan wouldn't cover her train fare. so I've spent an hour going through it and she'll actually have a surplus of around £1100 each year so she's much much happier.
That means she can treat herself to lunch on uni days and carry a pack lunch!

Bristol has changed the timing of the year from this academic year with an earlier start so they do exams before Christmas rather than revising at home over Christmas which overall is a good thing. I suspect it wasn't communicated fully about when the building needed to be ready and then suddenly realised.

Am very glad she didn't find out on results day (original day meant to be told about accommodation) as that would have put a downer on that day. Better to hear on Friday.

An only one here too. I'm expecting she'll be excited enough to tell us all about her first few weeks without us seeming like we're not letting go. We get a taster of what it'll be like as she's off on a fortnight residential course in September, then she's back for an emotional booster frantic packing before she actually goes.

Exeter is a fantastic university, lucky them @Rollergirl11 and @Tulipvase .
Not many high achievers round our way, but York seems to be popular this year, as are degree apprenticeships. The Manchester and Liverpool unis are perennial favourites, and many are staying within Wales, either so as to live at home or to do specialist courses. A couple have scholarships, plus there's a decent grant for doing part of the degree in Welsh, which is naturally appealing. Other than those off to performing arts in London, DD's the furthest away I think.