Year 13 -2025/26 - Support, discussion and looking after each other (new thread from y12)

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Hello
I have started a new thread following on from this one
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/5340007-year-12-202425-support-discussion-and-looking-after-each-other-thread-2?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

Which universities has your son applied to apart from Oxford @Muchtoomuchtodo?

DS ‘s application only went off Tuesday afternoon too and he’s had a couple of acknowledgments but no offers yet. He is applying to Oxford, Exeter, Warwick, UCL and Durham (no “safety net) university despite my pleading. A couple of these are known to be late for offers but he’s hoping for a reasonably quick response from Exeter and Warwick.

It probably also depends on facility and course as they may have different processes in giving offers.

@Ventress ds was out last night and I didn’t see him after school. It turns out that he’s had offers from Manchester and Warwick! We didn’t get to either of those open days but he’s very keen on the look of the courses. I’m amazed how quickly they’ve come through. Do you think it’s a person looking at them or just a computer algorithm? Secretly I like to think it’s a person who looks and decides - thinking that they can see how fab ds is the same way that I do!!!

‘Just’ Bath and LSE left now, apart from Oxford but we know that’ll be the end of November / early December if (a pretty big if!) he does well enough in his MAT to get an interview. Having 2 offers in already will hopefully help him to relax a bit in his MAT 🤞🏻

Yay, congratulations @temperedolive and @Muchtoomuchtodo, great news! Excellent universities too!

Everyone here is ill apart from me. DS is collapsed with fever and feeling dreadful. I am glad the TSA isn’t until the week after next, but he’s still got tons of prep to do as well as history NEA to finish. DH and DD seem to have a different lurgy that involves incessant coughing. I am just waiting to see which bug I get to experience first (or maybe a combination?). So it’s looking like a great weekend!

Fantastic @temperedoliveand @Muchtoomuchtodoon those offers. Lovely to have some in the bag!

DS was out last night and at his part time job today so he won’t have checked email. His friend who has applied for maths has had offers from Exeter and Warwick too, although his application went in a week before DS’. Interesting question about algorithms. I wonder if they do a PG filter first and then admissions look at those which have passed ?

I hope you are all feeling better soon @ComingInByAnsible

Fantastic news on offers coming through! So exciting.

DD has gone off to the Leeds open day today, and will stay there overnight with a friend who’s a fresher. I must say I am very ready for that UCAS form to be signed, sealed and delivered now. Her rather lukewarm half-term report suggests she’s forgotten there are exams still to do before these big adventures can unfold!

Congratulations on the offers @Muchtoomuchtodo, I was going to say we sent in very last minute and no offers yet either. She was out on yesterday night for a BDayParty and reached home at 11pm, left home 5:30 am for a CCF competition. So no idea whether she got any offers yesterday, I was told, she will let me know if anything! 🤨 I suppose I shouldn’t ask anything lol
Because she didn’t go to work Sat before Entrance, last week on uni visit and this week CCF competition, her work place decided that she is taking too many days off, these were all informed in Aug! It s a tuition centre, I really want to fight on her behalf, but then they pay just min wages, 4 weeks into month ending, so Sep salary not came in yet. I don’t know whether it’s worth her use of time now! Especially that she would need days off again for CCF. @temperedolivecongratulations on your offer too.
@Countrylife2002I think it’s just us waiting to hear at this point! We had couple of acknowledgements. DDs school didn’t let her leave the last option open, and I think of the PG doesn’t come through, then most of this will
be out of reach. I am really cross that their teachers doing all these, but happened at the very last minute and we were not even seeing each other in the evenings to talk it through, so just did what they said. We had plans to visit Manchester/Birmingham and some others from now until Jan and put one of those :(
DSs school news letter highlighted few PS from different subjects and that all sounds like kids are doing a lot more to get into top universities. Their school is amazing in that sort, asking to research and spent time doing one subject from year 9, so definitely would have amazing extras to put on in year13. DD just across the road and the school just is not interested in anything other than curriculum. She is well jealous!

Congratulations on the offers so far everyone, how exciting! Nice to have the pressure ease slightly with those in hand.

We are having a lull waiting for possible interview invites maybe end of Nov. I am trying to not discuss things too much as DD did get slightly stressed in the run up to sending application, then had tests in all her subjects which she was revising for. She then joined a zoom session on interviews for med and I think it almost was too much for her to think about 😁. She is on half term break from Thursday so I am not discussing uni for the time being with her to give her time to mentally steel herself for her for weeks of interview prep.

It is so hard not become overinvested in it all!

Well, DD is back from her weekend in Leeds, with a thumbs-up for the social life but a thumbs-down for the course following the open day. So I think Leeds is off the form now.

Is anyone else thinking about budgeting for their student-to-be? At this point likely destinations for DD are Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester. We are thinking we need to top up her minimum maintenance loan to cover accommodation, plus around £100 per week (in term-time) for living costs. She’d probably have her mobile phone contract covered too. For those who are comfortable with sharing (I do not mean to pry) does that sound reasonable? We expect her to work when she can (especially in the holidays) to cover leisure travel and luxuries, but would like to provide for her at a level where she is not financially stressed while studying. Her course will have high contact hours at any of these universities.

My son will live off his minimum maintenance loan and we will pay his rent (possibly with food credit included depending where he ends up and what accommodation he ends up in)

We are just about able to do this as we only have one child and I've been saving for this for about 4 years, and so has he (from birthday money etc - he has yet to manage to find a job)

I’m planning for the maintenance loan to cover accommodation , and then I will give her £100 pw for food and everything else. I’m taking this from our food budget (it’s just me and her so impacts only me). I am having a minor panic having just read on the bbc that accom in y2 onwards can cost £12k!! Her maintenance loan should be about £8k, I have absolutely no idea where I will find that extra &4k. I have just started setting a side business up anyway as I’m sick of penny pinching so am going to drive that forward a bit now! I will also look for an evening job I think.

Should also say she’s aware she will need to work at least in the holidays, I won’t be funding her at all then save obviously feeding her !

I thought I typed a long reply, but looks like I haven’t posted it. We will be paying the rent and using loan for all other expenses. I don’t think I will be able to afford single rooms or anything like that, but again we are looking at London and Bristol.On FB thread ppl ask this every other week, and it varies a lot between parents. Some of them have grandparents funding and each parents separately funding along with loans. I don’t think there is no way they will all be of same standard anyway, so each needs to learn to live with what they have.

@Countrylife2002 There won’t be many university towns and cities in which rental costs are that high. Here is some guidance from Manchester’s website (just as an example) ahowing that rental costs after the first year are typically lower than those incurred in university accommodation in the first year.

https://www.manchester.ac.uk/study/student-life/experience/cost-of-living/

Thank you! I think St Andrews is the only one on her list that would properly bankrupt me !! , I’ve explained she would have to work a fair whack during the term if she firms that. I also vetoed London so she’s not applied to any London unis. It’s only a few years so I’ll make it work ! She’s pretty good too with money.

Hi,

DD will get minimum maintenance loan as did our eldest DD quite a few years ago. We funded DD1 by paying her accommodation and she lived off maintenance, plus worked in the holidays. This worked well because accommodation was cheap at her uni. Her undergrad was 3 years then she did a 2 yr masters but lived at home for that (and fees were covered in those days for her course) so it felt relatively easy.

DD2 will be different as applying for medicine, so 5 years help needed, we will again fund the accommodation. Not sure her maintenance will cover living costs now but we will top up if necessary. Also have to find extra in her 5th year as funding changes and no student loans. Luckily we have paid a small amount into her CTF which will maybe cover the first 2 years accommodation costs. We are lucky our DDs are years apart so only one going at once, but if you have 2 or more to fund it really feels like it is becoming too expensive for a lot of parents.

I think it can come as a shock to first time uni parents how much they are expected to contribute.

BBC News - University tuition fees in England to rise with inflation every year from 2026 - BBC News
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cgkzj87n8rdo

Fees and loans to be linked to inflation

@gingercat02, I am so ambivalent about this. As an academic, this is nowhere near enough to make universities sustainable, and as a mother of two (hopefully) future university students this is way too much!

I know, it's mad. I'm the student training lead for our trust so I get both sides too. Thankfully I have an only.

I'm thinking of selling DH to cover costs! Although DD doesn't think I'd get enough!!!
Her UCAS form has now gone to her tutor for a reference....

A bit worried as oldest has had a report back and while his predictions based on Y12 exams are AAB, teacher's marks from this half term are ACD, which seems a bit concerning with 6 months to go. A 6th form teaching friend has said the important thing is the predicted mark and teacher's marks don't mean too much but it still seems like a big gap at this stage, and he'll need at least AAB for the unis just applied for.

I don't think DH has seen the email yet and I haven't brought it to his attention because he got some bad news yesterday about not getting a job and he tend to rush to the worst conclusions and I don't want him to panic when he was already in a negative mood.

Obviously the first thing to do after telling him is talking to DC to find out if he expected this, and knows why. Eg, was there a really difficult topic he needs some help with and so on.

I do suspect he needs to slow down on some extra-curricular activities that may be taking too much of his mental and physical energies. I think he was always planning on stepping back from it pre summer exams, but maybe he ought to stop the next half term so he can sit January mocks with full attention.

@Echobelly Similar feelings here. Coming down from the high of UCAS predictions, DD’s half-term report has been a bit of a reality check. I think the trouble with the predicted grades application system is that it can feel (in early Y13) like you’re there already, when in reality there is still a hill to climb to get those grades. We are a week into half term already and have had a chat with DD. She’s at her final open day today (Edinburgh) and will have a fun weekend there I am sure. But then she needs to finalise the UCAS form and send it off, while knuckling down to her studies. There is still loads of time, so I think it is good to have an unvarnished understanding of where things stand right now and what still needs to be done.

@Echobellyanother one with similar feelings. DS has said that he’s felt the step up this year has been harder than from GCSE to Y12. They seem to be covering the hardest topics (at least for him) at the moment. The only subject that he’s still feeling pretty secure in is Chemistry (fortunately). We’ve also all been struck with what is most likely Covid so think the time of year and this is always the longest term doesn’t help.

Hopefully half-term will give them a little bit of a break to re-set before getting back to it.

Half term here, DS put a bit of a shift in last week to get his Geography NEA finished and his history is well on the way, so he doesn't have a huge amount of work to do this week

@Echobelly very similar thing here. DS half term report says his assessments demonstrates that he is currently working at a level below his predictions.
Half term break has just started here and I am expecting him to do some work though he requires quite a bit of nagging and he just does not seem to have the fire or desire to do it for himself. Argh!

DC is generally very diligent and has been sometimes turning down activities to get work done, but I think may have been a bit distracted this term, possibly in part by his EPQ, which he has now handed in. I'm sort of hoping he will have a bit more time for other stuff now that's done.

Thanks everyone for your experience, I was able to tell DH and give a bit of context and he didn't hit the roof, but we will have a talk with DC over half term about how to get things back on track.