Support thread for anyone applying through UCAS this year

[Lorelai]

Following on from a thread in chat I thought I would start this so that we can hold each others' hands through the UCAS process with all its challenges.

Who's with me?

'huge'

Yes and I had been on benefits for his first 3 years as well.
But I was well educated and had a good mother and strong views about the value of education.
I had DS1 in NZ but moved here when he was 3, my mum bought my ticket saying if I did not like it, she would pay my fare home after 12 mths.

I was working within 5 months but when I landed we had gone to stay with family in East Hull, which was so deprived I could hardly explain. My cousins all were feckless youths, 2 fingers up to everything... Smoking dope all day, twocing cars at night, fights etc...

I moved away and found a decent enough job that would enable me to get a start I could build on... Had I not been to uni I would have found getting a job worth working for, very hard indeed.

It is a very complex equation, this social mobility thing but my mum was 1 of 10 kids (all born in Hull as was my Dad), 2 went overseas and both have been to uni, married "up" if you believe in that sort of thing. Success as most folks would rate it
Both have uni educated and professional kids etc

The 8 that did not go away :( we have had drug overdoses, prostitution, abuse, prison, social services, all sorts...

It makes you think - and I do think kids that have achieved highly in the most testing of circumstances should be given a priority into uni places, and have help with fees...

Being at a "good" school doesn't necessarily mean the children will get the grades they could in more favourable conditions and is only a part of the process of applying to university. These children are still disadvantaged, still need support and the flagging system is too crude to recognise that.

But the disadvantage is very relative. Their school will be familiar with the Oxford and Cambridge application processes in a way that poor achieving schools are not. Someone got those children into a top school, so there clearly is a level of parental interest there.

The truly disadvantaged are the ones at poor achieving schools; they need the summer schools and they need the flags.

We found out about one summer school (Oxford, I think) over the internet just after the deadline to apply. Would have been eligible to a least try and go turns out our school didn't know about it!!!!!

But from what you've said about your DD's school adamschic, surely yours isn't a 'top' school?

No it's not. I was just illustrating how pupils are at a disadvantage in the type of school that rarely sends pupils to Oxbridge.

But even a comp that does send pupils to Oxbridge each year appears to make a judgement about which pupils should be encouraged to apply and which should not. This seems to have a lot to do with the parents' perceived social status in my view and has less to do with pupils'actual ability.

During the time I was teaching a great deal of progress seemed to be made to overcome this attitude yet I feel things have gone backwards. Or maybe I now perceive things differently as a parent!

Aaah crisis ,ds1 has just discovered that he has put the wrong year for his dob on the UCAS form so he appears one year younger than he is.He spoke to UCAS who were great and said they would change it on track if he Emailed. I D so he scanned his drivers licence and Emailed.They were very reassuring but he is now paranoid that it will affect offers,luckily his birthday is early sept and he is oldest I the year this just makes it look as if he is the youngest,

All along I just kept thinking that I wasn't worried about the PS but the factual parts ,people kept laughing but I knew I was right

unitarian I also think things have gone backwards in schools in relation to helping children on merit rather than on background. It is a more materialistic society in every way. Though I say that on the basis of very limited anecdotal evidence. Also I have to say I think the race aspect does rear its head. I remember being very angry with a head of English once, who felt that the reason for the poor standards of Eng Lit (ie a high proportion of B at gcse) was the ethnicity of the pupils. These pupils had passed a very rigorous selection process and all highly intelligent- the reason for the poor standards was the laziness and lack of enthusiasm of the English dept, who unfortunately failed to appreciate that these children could actually read, and that their minds were as open to ideas and language as any other intelligent minds.

Put it another way, there is the very laudable type of person who likes to teach English to the poor in Africa, and the not so laudable type of person who, when in England, thinks that the standards should somehow be lowered when teaching English to the ethnic people, because that person somehow forgets that they are not still in Africa in the last century. It is important to keep the bar high for intelligent children whatever their background.

Rant over. Sorry.

oh dear Mrs Woodentop, I really don't think it will matter, but I hope he gets some offers soon for reassurance. Is he applying for something very competitive?

Pretty competitive but not medicine,it's politics.Not I just look at his grades and predictions and PS and think how could they not want him,but then am biased

The only one It might matter for is PPS at Leeds as it includes a year out and they might want maturity but apparently they don't interview until the new year so plenty of time to sort that if we need to.
UCAS said not to worry and no need to Email indiv admissions dept do you think that is right?

hehe, I know how you feel in being biased, I feel just the same re ds. I really don't know about emailing universities though - it just seems like such a minor thing I would probably leave it personally, but maybe one of the admissions people on here might be better placed to advise?

funnyperson I know exactly what you mean. I caused some raised eyebrows when I chose Pride and Prejudice as an exam text in a mining community as though Austen was somehow out of their reach. That class got the best exam marks and they loved the book.
Pupils tend to perform to expectation, I feel. If they get the impression that little is expected of them then they will not give their best.
There was an interesting thing on the car radio the other day about middle class parents who choose to send their children to state schools rather than go private. Their children tend to do better than their fellow pupils and the reason given was that they are more likely to be placed in higher streams regardless of ability.
Though they benefitted from the greater social diversity, the middle class children themselves had expressed dissatisfaction with the way they were advantaged over their peers in the same school.

When I entered the profession there was a 'brave new world' attitude which seems to have been lost. It saddens me.

The good thing about DS's grammar school is that as it is Lincs, there is no real stereotypical family, def within the Oxbridge applicants that I know there are firm middle class, upper middle and us (started off as poor working class but somehow have now fallen into what would be perceived as middle class I guess)
There is also 2 children who are from single parent non working families, who have been supported tremendously with the RC primary they went to and by this grammar who do not discern at all by social status...

It will tell a tale as one one has applied for the same engineering course with better grades than the upper middle applicant... And a nicer personality ;)
Hmmm

there ARE also

Can I come in please? I'm a mature student and sent my UCAS off last night. Applying for History degrees at the two Manchester Universities. So far have 2 distinctions from my access course.

DS1 got an offer from York via Track today :)
Still nada from Cambridge despite interviews being on 6 and 8 of December - still we are good to go on a seconds notice!

Does the d.o.b issue mean he will be classed as a minor on entry or will he still be 18? We download our UCAS forms once a week so some universities may have already downloaded the form with the wrong DOB on. Should be fine if he isn't flagged as being a minor on entry to the course.

I think it should be OK as without giving too much away his birthday is in the first few days of Sept,theoretically he could be the youngest in the year IYSWIM.UCAS have updated his DOB on track,he has had acknowledgements from all five now,should he contact them re the dob or will it be fine,after all independent schools have quite a few out of year and it doesn't seem to have been a problem

Congrats to your Dc piffle Good luck with Cambridge.

Good luck hermione better than being one of the 25% unemployed aged 18-25y

Well done to your ds piffle,I think Cambridge cut it very fine on the interviews.

There are I think 6 Cambridge applicants from his school
only one has interview for 12 Dec at Girton...

Trust me I'm well over 25 . This is a total career change following redundancy.

Good luck to all your DC!