Year 12 - 2025/2026: Here we go again!

[QueenMabby]

A new thread for the new school and college year. A friendly thread for parents of those going into year 12 in September 2025.

I think Manchester would suit him down to the ground.

DH and I did uni in manchester - DH at old UMIST and me at Manchester - they were merging when we were back in the city few years later - loved it only thing that put us off for DC was distance from us and the media reports about tight accommodation for students.

Bath near us is the same - they have to look very early - one of DD1 friends is there and was looking with friends by christamas Yr 1.

Will be looking for DD2 though as it's one of the few with courses in her more niche field possible option though they are asking for really high grades and no idea if that's in her ball park yet. Though another option for DD2 niche possible subject area is York - they do a few courses though again very far away and again heard issue with lack of student accommodation and having to scramble and get sorted for next year very early.

She might be better off doing a more general degree like chemistry and then a masters in her wanted area - she hasn't decided at all yet.

I have happy memories of my time in Manchester but it was a very long time ago. Dh went to Oxford also a long time ago. Ds has just started in Edinburgh, a long way from home, he did open days with dh but the options were quite limited as he had a particular subject he wanted to do. Dd wants to do medicine so she’s now narrowing the options!

Same uni names coming up here
Edinburgh
Lancaster
Bath

add in Imperial “are you fucking joking” as H sees early retirement age disappear over the horizon because of uni accommodation costs “fucking Kensington” whilst also saying “I can’t think of anything better to spend money on”

haven’t mentioned youngster (who does probably have the option of wherever he wants) is pondering LSE (he wants to be emperor of the world)

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY, 🎊 🥳 Ratty!!!!! I hope you have a fabulous birthday and driving lesson!!! 💕💕💕💕💕

@frozendaisyuni costs donlich. dh is 15 years older than me. He now gets his pension. So ds2 at uni has had his loan drop right down. We aren’t huge earners. Ds1 received not far off max loan for maintenance so that was helpful. Ds2 has always had about halfway between min and max. But this year because dh has his pension Ds got £4,300 loan. Rent alone is £7.5k. I know a lot only get min loan anyway. It’s a lot of extra money to find. Dh and I are both dipping into savings to make up the amount for Ds. I saved for all the ds’s for uni. Not a massive amount, ds1 didn’t use it, ds2 blew the whole lot on his uni year abroad. It must be so hard for those with 2 dc’s at uni at the same time.

Instructor only needed to take control once!

In true Ratty style he’s jumping the gun and asking if he can take the car to college!

Not yet sunshine you need the provisional bit taken off your licence but instructor thinks he’s bright enough to book in a theory test.

I’m too young for this! And too hungover grandma wanted a desert cocktail so ordered something that I hadn’t heard of basically all the ingredients because it was the only one without coffee in it and it was far too strong, alright for grandma she didn’t have to get a teen up at dawn!

I’m doing sober October, November and up to Christmas!

And whilst I thought I would happily get the rod back out today all I might muster is some vague “5 hours per subject at home per week” quotes when he’s back “around lunchtime” whilst wondering if boiled eggs equates to an evening meal!

I am too weak for a strong willed teenager today

I think we'll be looking at Leeds, Nottingham, Sheffield, and York. All of these would be 1-1.5 hours away from home. I'm not sure if he'll want to go further afield because he's hoping to be able to continue going to watch the football in Leeds with DH at weekends. He flatly refused to even consider Oxbridge and, to be honest, I don't think it would suit him anyway. Same with London; a city of that size is not his style.

We know that he will only be eligible for the minimum loans. As long as my job remains stable then we could afford to pay his rent and living costs, with him just needing to take the loan for the fees; it will still be cheaper than his private school fees. But, my sector isn't great right now so its not guaranteed. Our priority would have to be DD's school fees because she's just heading into exam years and he'd have to take all the loans. If he does an integrated MSc/year in industry then their time at uni will overlap which will stretch things a bit further.

DD refuses oxbridge as well and doesn’t want to do London as would end up at home - Imperial for Environmental Sciences would be good but does t want london

she wants south coast so looking at Brighton/Southampton and Royal Holloway

DD likes the idea of Durham, Bath, York or the London unis (we are local). She also fancies Edinburgh or St Andrew’s. She is entirely driven by feel & friends rather than course! She has been to Oxbridge for even song many times and does not fancy the work load there so refuses to apply. She may not have the grades, but there is massive resistance and I think they really need to want it.

My DD thinks everywhere that isn’t a big city is too small (she is a Londoner). I have told her that, in my opinion, London would be a rubbish place to be at uni because of the travel time, distance from friends and the cost. Hopefully once we have visited some she will be more open to not London/major metropolis. We have been to the Oxford open day, because if she is interested she needs to decide much sooner. She has currently totally rejected Cambridge because it fails so dismally on the size of the town. But based on her course interests at the moment, it would be more chance than Oxford (although still utterly minuscule). I keep suggesting Bath but she says it is tiny (town). She is currently entirely failing to understand that there is definitely not a linear correlation between size of town and quality of the University social life!! The challenge is she isn’t sure what she wants to study yet (although she is leaning towards economics).

Haven't been on here for a while.

Am I missing something - lots looking at unis already???

What am I missing? 😟

Also what are DC mock exam arrangements in Year 12?

That should have read university costs so much. No idea what that word was 🤦‍♀️

We only started by looking at Oxford because if applying to Oxbridge, prep is needed and the application is early. But we haven’t looked at any others (and won’t until Spring/summer). It IS early. Having said that, I think it can be hard to fit in all the open days and they sometimes clash. I know kids who put down universities they hadn’t visited. Although I don’t think visiting the Autumn y12 dates is needed, it is definitely worth doing the ones from the spring of y12 through summer - as long as it doesn’t make DC feel pressured. For some that might still feel too early.

Ds1 had his mate round earlier. He has a degree in Theology from Cambridge university. He told me it was a lot of work compared to his mates uni workload and the process to get in was gruelling too. He is now 25 and hasn’t worked since graduating, Ds says he hasn’t found a job he wants to do yet. Dh wouldn’t put up with our dc’s not working. We have another friend, their son never worked after he graduating, he’s in his early 30’s now. I said to dh that he’s probably got other issues hence not working, but dh can’t understand it.
DH moans enough at ds1 for not having a proper job as he’s travelled and just worked in between.

Y13 is busy enough with studying and ucas applications. I think it really helps if they go into y13 knowing which universities they are interested in. Also people who apply early generally get early offers so the equal consideration is a bit of a myth.

DD will be starting by going to an Open Day at a local university with her friends in a fortnight or so’s time, just to make it all more concrete. Annoyingly, they don’t do one of the subjects she’s interested in, so I’m hoping to get her to go to another Open Day, even if virtual, fairly soon.
I had only visited two of the five universities I applied for: I thought that was pretty normal. But then it was unheard of for your parents to go with you in those days.

I went to a University I’d not visited - I think it was quite normal back then . Not doing any visits just yet - I think it would push DS1 over the edge and feel pressured by me which is the last thing I want to do. I don’t detect any passion for any particular course so at this point it would be stabbing in the dark . Hoping it will become apparent in time what he in enjoying

I visited all of mine, and had so much fun doing it! Although as others have said, when I went it was with friends, or on my own. NEVER with parents. It has changed so much!

@ChannelLightVessel - my parents took me to precisely one Open Day. Spent the whole time moaning that you couldn't park so we didn't do any more - we lived rurally so going on my own was tricky. I had never seen my insurance choice - saw it for the first time when taking my foster daughter round (Warwick, would have loved it!)

The only reason we're doing DD2's so early is that she thinks she wants to go for TWO different early application options - conservatoire and oxbridge. That's two different forms, two different personal statements and (in the case of conservatoires) audition pieces to prepare, some of which come from a set list that might differ from institution to institution.

Oxbridge also requires essays and possibly a harmonisation test/choral scholarship day/keyboard skills test - depending on how far she gets in the process and which colleges etc she looks at.

Nightmare. It's also expensive as it emerges you pay for auditions. And we're only allowed to have her home every third weekend from school, which really eats into the time. So I'm trying to be organised.

Both DH and I visted the univeristies we applied to. My parents made a limit of five I think to visit.

DS in Jaunary Y12 felt about right for first open day - and DD1 in late March after career fair felt late but due to DH job and money we do have to spread them out. It did help both older two firm up what they wanted - though with DS it ruled out more than it ruled in and one he'd done Y11 summer school and DD1 uni went on list because he knew them and they grade ranges were about right to get a spread of offers.

DD2 looking earlier as she is perhaps looking at a small number of course - and what to get a feel how realistic that is - and because we are planning to go to Nov London career fair so want an idea who she should be talking to when there but it is very early.

That sounds very time-consuming - I can see why you want to get started early @achangeofnameisasgoodasarest
I just had tea with DM (I’m still on sick leave after operation) and she says she saw her university (Leicester) for the first time the day she arrived. Her DM did go with her, but her DF only visited for graduation. They wrote to each other once a week.

@ThisPerkySloth2 I'm with you - too early to be shortlisting unis in this house!

Re: Y12 mocks - at DS school they do them in term 6, after all the other years have done their exams. Think they get a chance to re-do them in the autumn if necessary?

On the open day theme, it’s worth remembering that institutions offer both pre-application open days and also offer holder days. I took ds to our local uni pre-application day recently, and now he’s much clearer about what he might be interested in. I think in the main we’ll probably make sure to visit the places he’s interested in applying to (not necessarily on the open days) and then he can go to some offer holder days when he’s clearer what’s really in play.

When I applied, I visited a few different places but then mainly ruled those out but it helped me to narrow down my thinking to a very specific course I did want to do. That only ran at a few places, so I applied for all six without having seen any of them! I did then have interviews and/or offer holder days which were more focused and useful. It does certainly seem to come round quickly - that and driving!

We’re taking dd to one this autumn. The uni is local so it’s easy to get to and will be a good introduction as well as helping manage expectations over things like student accommodation! I don’t know if it’s one dd might apply to. DH took ds to it too - he didn’t apply there in the end but it was a good starting point. We have a Post 18s Pathways evening at school in January which will cover UCAS stuff as well as apprenticeships and other options.
With regards to exams, in year 12 we have assessment weeks in Nov and Feb and then end of year exams in May.
Year 13 mocks are in January and we just do one set.