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!

A belated Happy Birthday to your DD @MirandaWest.

Sounds as if it's the final push for those young people still to go up to university.

@Penguinsa good to hear that you are back home now, and pleased with how your operation went. Wishing you all the best in your recovery.

Anyone remember how soon their DC who submitted UCAS applications early (i.e. by the mid October deadline for Oxbridge, etc.), got any offers? DD submitted hers at the beginning of last week and hasn't heard a peep (although her school seemed to think she would have got a couple by now). Presume there's only been a trickle of applications through as yet, even with grades in hand, hence the radio silence? Slightly unnerving though.

Good to hear all the positive freshers' settling in stories too.

Hi everyone, sorry for not replying. I started a new job at the beginning of September and am back working full time so finding it difficult to get on Mumsnet at the moment.

Thanks @MirandaWest and @sammyjoanne for asking after DD. She’s doing good actually although thinks she’s coming down with Freshers flu. She’s settled in well with her flatmates and made friends with people on her course. Her boyfriend seems to have calmed down a fair bit following a fraught couple of days when we dropped her off so I think that’s put her (and mine!) mind at rest.

Happy belated birthday to your DD @MirandaWest and hope you’re recovering well @Penguinsa!

@LouisCatorze I made a note of when DD got her offers last year. She submitted her UCAS application on 12th October. She had her first offer (Exeter) exactly 2 weeks later and then Lancaster and Warwick at the beginning of November. Cambridge was a no in January and then final offer from Durham mid Feb. Where has your DD applied? Hoping she hears soon. 🤞

Thanks everyone. Great to hear of the good starts.

Louis Think it varies what subject and where you applied with what grades as to what is typical but certainly would not be concerned about offers coming in. DD applied for Oxford and LSE in October, Oxford offer c10 Jan, same date for everything there, LSE May ! Bristol added c end Nov offer early Jan, c 3rd. Bath added Jan, next day or so offer.

Good to see the the DCs are settling in. Great to see you back @Penguinsa - so pleased it went smoothly.

@Rollergirl11 and @Penguinsa thanks for your insights re when DD might expect to get offers in this UCA cycle. I guess I'd thought that with grades in hand (and likely good enough for four out of five of her university choices), she'd hear quickly. It seems a 'no brainer' that if a young person hits the target academically in terms of the usual grade offers given (for not super sought after subject courses), they'd hear yay or nay very quickly but maybe we are being naive!

Thanks Lego Hope your lovely DS gets a Durham offer again through quickly.

Louis From the threads it appeared if it was a competitive uni and /or course or a slow to deal with applications university, looking at you LSE, then offers could be slow including with grades in hand. I think if you are significantly over their average applicants results so they know the equal consideration rule won't be an issue if they aren't a slow university, tended to be Scottish and some London ones, you can have offers back quickly. Some appeared to do in batches. But it's very early days at the moment, not even at Oxbridge deadline. It's a bit frustrating but they will come through later and once first is through it feels better even if it's not one they most want. The Student Room had records of offers coming through on their forum though some are fake on their so take with a huge pinch of salt, I think the Oxbridge ones in particular attracts jokers but normally it's pretty obvious.

@LouisCatorze DD wasn’t an early applicant but applied mid Nov. The fastest offer was Exeter which came within a week.

Lovely to hear of all the DC settling in. Reading some of the Facebook forums you get a skewed view of freshers and just hear about the ones stuck in their rooms alone. 😢

DD has been so busy socialising she still hasn’t finished decorating her room. Plenty of time for posters etc.

@Penguinsa great the op went well. @GreatWorldAtlas hope you weren’t up til silly o’clock. @aramox1 if he’s anything like my DS will use as an opportunity to stock up in the vintage stores!

DD suddenly packed 3 suitcases yesterday and then went to a local party for students from this area going to Oxford. She has Freshers flu already from Bristol Uni visit and swapped them a cold.

DS is doing the last packing today, ready for a Durham start on Saturday. We are travelling up to family in Yorkshire tomorrow, so there’s a much shorter journey on Saturday, ready for an 11-12 slot for move-in to college.

DS has been doing pretty well, but it’s me thinking ahead to stuff like Christmas and coming home on the train, and having the right kind of bags for train travel. He has booked a train ticket while it’s cheap. We are thinking we will visit mid-term (by train) but it’s unlikely he will come home for a weekend. If he goes away, it’s more likely to be to visit a friend at another uni. Not planning to drive up again (hopefully) until end of summer term, but for train journeys to be the thing for DS and also for us with what will probably be a termly visit. Will see if it actually works out like that.

DS is ready to go now. Friends have vanished over the last 2 weeks and not many left now and he wants to get going. Odd to think tonight will be his last week in his bed at home until December in all likelihood.

Really glad to hear about people settling and finding their way even when things aren’t easy or feel strange and uncertain.

And re timing if uni offers, DS applied on 28 Sept last year. He had York, Exeter and Nottingham offers in Oct. He had an Oxford rejection in early Jan and a Durham offer a week later, so mid Jan.
Applying with grades in hand - bearing in mind some unis can’t offer to everyone who applies, even if they have all A star predictions or grades, even grades in hand won’t guarantee an early offer at some places. The further above the standard offer you are though, the more likely an early offer for grades in hand seems to be for most places, if they aren’t that bothered by the PS. If it’s all about grades, if you’ve got all A star then no-one can really beat you on that metric. But some places will very much be looking at PS too, so it’s important that it’s really good and if there’s a year out going on, some relevant things are happening. Guess we’re talking Econ, Computer science and a few v cmoetivie courses. But for most courses too grades in hand will secure lots of offers.

DD now has 2 college parents, one PPE and one E&M, a girl and a boy and a slot to go down on 7th October and now has taken over the corridor with her packing. Was hoping her floor would be cleared now but nope. I have my hospital check up on 30th but just routine one. I am banned from a lot of things atm and keep getting told off for moving too much but we have a big cat and lots of floor beams as very old house which come up to above knee height so not much I can do about that. Full movement and no pain just tired now but I don't want to sleep. DD said the event yesterday was a bit awkward but it's often like that at the start but she said a biochemistry guy had messaged her during it and they chatted for an hour.

@SooperOuting we managed to get to bed at 2am, which is just on the border of acceptable to me! We were up at 7am and left at 9am so got to Luffbro bang in the middle of her 'slot', and they were all very helpful, helping with all the carrying. We didn't get that for either of our others (covid times for one, and no slots for the other) and it felt much more like dropping her off at an exclusive boarding school! Only thing she managed to forget was her raincoat, which was left out to be handy, so it went in the post yesterday. So we did a decent job of packing I think in the end. Loved the vacuum bags for all her clothes!

Her room is nice, lovely view of trees as she was hoping for, flatmates so far are nice, and she has picked up her safety gear from the engineering school. Nights out have been had and they have an induction for the course today. I think she is loving it! She's proud of her cooking and even won a cool bag at the coop by spinning her wheel (we're jealous of this, it's a nice one!). Sports stuff going on this weekend. Glad it has all started for her.

I'm just relieved to get all three kids settled into their new accommodation and getting on with their courses/job. And Operation Sort-out-the-house is starting when I finish work today.

The university I work at gets its freshers in this weekend, and as I started work there over the summer I've not seen it all studented so that will be interesting when I'm up there next week (I work hybrid). A couple of dd's friends are going there.

Good luck to anyone still to go! I wish it was me starting again, and I'm really envious of dd3's course as it sounds so good.

@GreatWorldAtlas you are a more impressive person than me - not sure I could do the moving in with less than 5 hours sleep! lol @ the raincoat - I walked off with DDs umbrella and it then tipped down for two days before I managed to send her one via Amazon. The next day she found one at the back of the “useful drawer” we set up 🙄

It’s only useful if you look in it…..

@MrsAvocet a wedding! How lovely. Do you have an outfit picked out?

Ds moving in early afternoon, lovely sunny day for it thank goodness.

No outfit chosen yet @SooperOuting though I probably should get onto that fairly soon. I'm not sure what's appropriate for the Scottish Highlands in Winter...wellies maybe?!
DS continues to enjoy himself. I haven't had many updates on his actual course yet so I do hope he's remembering to do some of that, but he's definitely playing lots of sport and having an active social life! It's only 2 weeks but already it feels like he has been gone a long time and we're getting used to the new normal. Today feels a bit weird though. I coach at a kids sports club. DS was a member from being very young and more recently also a coach. This afternoon is the first session we've had since he left for University and it feels odd and a bit sad getting my kit ready to go and not his. I'll have to get used to it though!

We're taking ds tomorrow. Packing up today. I've been absolutely fine up til now. Today I feel sick, can't breathe and keep randomly crying! This is not me at all. Tomorrow's going to be carnage. Dd is VERY emotional about ds going to uni and I'm not going to be able to hold it together once she starts.

Done the drop at Durham today. It was very well organised, with about 6 Freps (older students) per car to enable a full unload in one go. Lunch provided for us all in college, which was great and even better because DS charted to some other boys in the queue and went to eat with them and not us. Room pretty decent and lots of storage and we left him about to go for a walk into town with people from his corridor. He seemed happy and it was nice to leave him as he was going off to do something.
We are now back in Yorkshire with family before doing the big drive back tomorrow. Feeling okay and haven’t had the tears I thought I might. Can’t quite believe Ds won’t be coming home with us. Today went as well as could be hoped really, so very happy.

I have been avoiding this thread for a bit as I was in denial that my boy was leaving. I just caught up - it seems that everyone who has already gone has settled in well and an so glad your op went well penguissa.

We got back last night from dropping my son off in Durham (autism early arrival). We moved his stuff in on Wednesday and said our good byes on Thursday. He has a nice room and although the straight on view from his window is of a small bit of lawn and a brick wall, he can see the Cathedral when in bed! Food has been good so far, especially his first formal last night which is a big relief. We had initially ruled out a catered college as he has always been such a fussy eater, but he has become much more open about widening his diet in the last 18 months that we decided to give it a try,

Contact from him has been minimal which while upsetting is a good sign that all is well. I hope he has some footage of moving in weekend on the peninsular as I would like to see it even though I am glad we weren’t part of it. Hope all goes well for everyone moving in this weekend!

Glad to hear drop off successes. Still a week to go and we've just started going through what she's taking, so it's not been sinking in really. Then they played Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone on Strictly 😭😭

Good to hear that drop offs have gone well. Still have until 7th Oct here, time slot now, gown etc all got for matriculation and 2 college parents, one pre party and she's already in touch with quite a few going already and chatted to one boy for an hour the other day. She was working punting today and has packed 3 suitcases.

Whilst she was out we sorted out her birthday present and put in car boot as it will be shortly after she starts and also cleared car boot of things other than DDs stuff mostly. Got DS some posh peppermint hot choc so he doesn't feel so left out and he moved to make it very fast. I won't be able to go to drop DD off due to surgery and also lack of space in car as she is taking so much but DH will take her and think she will also want him gone ASAP so she can be with other students anyway. She did say to me it's good he's not the sentimental type. 😂I don't currently feel she is leaving so much as its such short terms and think she will come back mid term once as well. She's so excited and we are happy for her.

DS dropped at Lancaster today. Arrival was fantastic, really well organised from being directed where to park to being escorted to pick up keys by the college freshers rep right to the door of room. We had stayed in a hotel near by the night before so popped to Sainsbury’s after breakfast and arrived at 9.30am for the 10am slot. By the time we helped unpack and had some lunch it was extremely busy. DS was ok when we left though looked a little teary but was smiling and had already chatted to the lad who moved in opposite. 5 hour drive home and the house seems very empty.

Glad to hear today's drop offs went well. Good luck for tomorrow @QueenMabby I hope it's not as difficult for you as you're expecting.

Glad to hear it went well today @PuddingtonPuddington. Our drop off day is tomorrow (different college). I feel oddly better now the car is packed. Dd VERY wobbly - she adores her big brother.
They are both in the den together now on the PlayStation and I can hear them chatting away.....

@QueenMabby hope it went well today.

had a FaceTime with DD today who has her timetable through. There will be Significant Adulting for her this week as she works out how to diarise it all, and work out where all lectures tutorials etc are. She’s a terrible relier-on-others so this is going to be a real
milestone for her! Looks like she has Manic Mondays, zero on Wednesdays and light Fridays so not a bad schedule for year 1.

She looked a little green around the gills from a heavy clubbing night last night but is still in good spirits. DS didn’t make the family FaceTime as he was eating a slap up lunch out - also soaking up a hangover from last nights excesses. Oh to be young again!

Thanks @SooperOuting. DS well settled and says his flatmates are all nice.
DD is absolutely devastated. Utterly bereft. Lots of crying. It's going to be a while before this becomes normal.

Hope those dropping off at Lancaster today didn't have too terrible journeys. We were heading South on the M6 to visit family today and were virtually stationary for about 45 minutes almost opposite the University so I was thinking of new students and their families. Hope you all got there and back safely.