First year at Uni just finished! How has everyone else's DC got on?

[MOSagain]

Gosh, seems such a long time since we were hand holding waiting for their results last August to see whether they'd got into their first choice Uni.

DS has just finished his first year at Exeter and is on his way home now. Thankfully he appears to have chosen the right course (law) and is really enjoying it. I was shocked at how many had dropped out so early on, both the course and the Uni. Some have reapplied for other Unis next year and will now be hit with the higher tuition fees

He managed to get himself a job in the campus shop which was really good so has managed to earn a little bit of money to help make a dent in his student debts! Contract all signed for his squat/flat for next year which appears to be in the middle of the fast food section of town

I have stocked up on bin bags and washing liquid and clothes line is out ready awaiting his arrival. Oh, and of course the fridge is fully stocked and I have promised there will not be a toasted cheese sandwich in sight!

Would love to hear how everyone else's DC have been getting on.

House my DS has rented from July is a palace! All newly refurbished, american fridge freezer and intergrated appliances in kitchen, plasma screen tv in lounge. They can choose a TV and internet package to suit, and they get free membership of fitness first for the year... and all for £65 a week.
:I'm tempted to sign up as a student again myself :0

Hi all
Just joined after returning to uk after living in Spain for 8 years. DS has just returned from his first year at Uni in Aberystwyth (we missed the floods luckily). He's doing European Languages and loves it. Had a mad year - he was rushed into hospital in freshers week with a collapsed lung but thankfully is now fully recovered and caught up with his studies. He's now looking for a summer job but not having much luck. Suffering all the usual - mass of washing, constantly empty fridge and a house full of STUFF! Would love to speak to anyone with kids at Aber or doing languages and anyone in my neck of the woods.

DD1 came back on Friday with her Stuff. I've already done two trips to a charity shop! Now the washing is a problem,as normal it's never dry enough to hang out but we are flooded. DD2 is back next weekend so I was hoping to get one lot out of the way.
fussychica DD1 doing Spanish and Portuguese. Where is your neck of the woods?

Totally respond to the posts capitalising STUFF! As said above, my two are not even home yet but have pencilled in two separate trips to collect DS as he has so much STUFF and thats before we even go to get DD! (DS has even managed to acquire two pairs of skis...)

DH has it on his list today to go and buy a top box....

yellowtip not sure exact numbers, will ask him when he surfaces. He just mentioned a few from his course and quite a few from his house although I think some of them just hated that particular house in halls and moved elsewhere. Some definitely left though around Christmas time and were re-applying which is a shame. Do you know which house your neice was in?

ggirl your DH cooks? and Mine can barely make a cup of tea.

We had a lot of 'stuff' too. Thank god we have a massive 7 seater car! I suspect there will be a few trips to tip/charity shop over the next few weeks. worrying thing is he still appears to have bags that have not been upacked from when he left his 6th form boarding school!

gettingalife we bought a roof box for our volvo a few years ago for a holiday in France and I suspect that will be used in September when taking him back to Uni!

DS not back yet. His lease runs out on the 23rd and he's determined to get maximum value from it, even though the house is a hovel. Am going to fetch him on the 21st.

My DS1 has just finished his first year at Manchester uni doing Law,hrs had a great year and really enjoyed it,his last exam was wednesday and results are out at the end of the month.

He stayed at home so hasnt had 'the living out freedom' but has been to nightclubs a couple of times- hes really enjoying his course and doing ok I think -spends hours and hours studying.

hope it lasts! hes got work experience over the summer with a local solicitor and is hoping to start driving lessons!!.

Glad all our dc seem to be enjoying it

MOS, I suggest you keep those unpacked bags as a 'time capsule' and get your DS to open them on, say, his 30th birthday!

Hi harbingerofdoom DS doing Spanish, French and starting German in September. Fluent in Spanish from our time there which hopefully means he has more time for the other two languages. How is your DD1 finding her course? I am in Warminster, Wiltshire.

Has just started looking at learning to drive too whilst he's home not that he can afford the car or the insurance!

He is the last one into a house for September after an issue with his first place this means he's got the smallest room which he hasn't even seen despite stumping up the deposit and half rent over summer. Is the boy mad?? Due to the floods we couldn't see it last week or move his stuff in so have to wait til we take him back to see it!

fussychica the official title for DD1's course is Spanish and Latin American Studies,however,she managed to adjust the timetable so that she could learn Portuguese. She had a gap year and after working,spent three months in Seville learning Spanish. Has got a crappy car that dates back to then!
I'm in Sussex.

DD2 is staying until the last minute Tuesday 19th June. Well,she's paid for the room and her friends are there.

She has just got her prelim results and is a very happy girl. Might need a few days to beat the hangover and pack ;)

harbingerofdoom where are DDs studying?

Well done to DD2 for doing so well and to DD1 for going to Seville and getting on with Spanish - expect she picked up alot. How did she find going abroad on her own or did she go with friends?

DS doesn't really want to go to Spain on his year abroad as thinks he'll get more out of going to France & Germany but a bit worried he won't be able to get his German to a level he would like as only has a year from scratch. Is DD1 thinking of going to Latin America on year abroad?

BestIsWest -see your DD is at Aber - my DS is there. What is your DD studying? Isn't the drive awful - how far do you have to go? It's 4 hours min for us, we're in Wiltshire. Very brave of DH to go in the floods, we were lucky to have missed them.

Hi fussychica DD1 Southampton,DD2 Oxford.
DD1 went by herself. Made her grow up.....a lot...

Fussy my ds is at Aber studying european languages with education. How are you finding the Uk after living abroad ?

Mine isnt coming home this year,last year couldnt get a summer job in home town so happy to stay in Oxford. She has managed to get 2 parttime jobs and is enjoying the rented house to herself until the others return in sept.
Know I should be pleased she is being independant but reading through others I really miss her.
Perhaps a few day trips to Oxford in the summer for an abandoned mum !!!

Jaffa, yes i would go and see her. My dd is on her way home from Kent and will be here in two hours ! The weather is awful and I am beginning to regret telling her to bring all her washing home :) I have a cunning plan to deploy the contents of the car into the spare room for now and then help her deal with it later, otherwise I have visions of chaos all over the house. Poor youngest ds has to get used to be the youngest of three again for the summer :)

DS finished first year medicine last Friday, 8th June. We had a very worrying time since the beginning of May when in the midst of his revision for end of first year exams he panicked and complained that he couldn?t absorb anything and worse still, couldn?t remember anything he had learnt because there?s ?so much to learn and remember?. I?ve never seen him like that in all his previous exams in school(s) - he usually sailed through them with flying colours. Now I?ve heard that medicine is difficult and DS had reminded me more than once that up to 25% of medical students don?t make it and was beginning to talk about failure!

I had to keep a cool head about this, in reality there?s nothing much I could do except to remind him he?s no failure. To begin with, I said medicine isn?t meant to be ?easy? as such and actually it?s a good sign that he?s feeling the pressure. This is another ?selection process? in action as is expected of a real doctor in a high pressured emergency ward and if he wants to be a doctor, he?s got to keep his cool and think clearly on his feet.

Well, he disappeared into the Far East last Wednesday for a month?s holiday and this morning I received an e-mail from him saying he?s passed the first year quite comfortably!

Wah! I?ve aged 7 years in the last 7 weeks!

DD and DS are home! For the weekend only before disappearing again but I am very happy to see them. No stuff to contend with- all left behind in student houses. Both have had a good year. Both off travelling next week.

DD has developed an unintelligible accent which I suppose is to do with her uni. Or possibly my growing deafness. DS has developed an unintelligible accent also. It must be age related deafness.

peteneras glad your DS is fine. At least he sat the papers and didn't panic to the extent of not sitting them (as has happened -not to me but to a personal acquaintance).

Hi fussychica, DD is studying History. We're in Swansea which is only 60 miles but still nearly 2 hours driving along twisty country lanes. Luckily DH missed the floods as he was coming from the south, though he still took 3.5 hours to get there due to traffic being diverted.

Just seen your post about your DS having a collapsed lung in Freshers week, that must have been so worrying! Glad to hear he is fully recovered.

DD has had to stump up half fees for the summer too, it seems to be the norm there. Accommodation is in such short supply that she just jumped at the first place she saw. Not seen it yet.

Good luck to those waiting for results. Dumping of stuff continues to happen. My oldest who has graduated and now in work it is rumoured today is going to bring even more stuff home (she doesn't even live here now). I was hoping to be moving her stuff which is here out not vice versa. Second one got job too although still here so it does all work out although it's a pretty difficult time for graduates getting work at present.

I woudl say to all of them and the sensible ones should know this do think well in advance of graduating about career plans, get loads of work experience in holidays. Do not just think about it before you graduate.

I hear that first years need to get internships for the summer which are usually sorted by the beginning of their second term at university. I also hear of first years who only join networks at uni which are going to help them with future careers.
My two have had unpaid work experience, have volunteered for various things and have done things like newspaper rounds but nothing very serious. I hear what you say, Xenia, but at the moment the family are thinking it is better to enjoy their subject, study it in depth and detail and aim to get a first class degree, go onto a masters and then think about careers. (other than part time to earn money for uni). Being a student is about learning life skills and research/organisational skills and at the moment they just arent ready to embark on their career- neither is really that sure what career they want to pursue. They both know broadly, but not in enough detail to even know what work experience to apply for.
Lawyers and medics have it easy in that respect: the final goal is obvious.

I do find quite a lot of people who do well at school and university, have little career advice from family/school and then when they don't have that production line of what you do when any more they are a bit at sea and can these days end up doing a masters just to fill the time and then find it hard to get a job at all, not that getting a job is necessarily part of education. My daughter mentioned a school friend who was alwyas the brightest and best in the class. She went to Oxford and I think since she has had somethinlg like 5 or 6 different 6 month internships and has even written about the difficulty of it (getting a job).

Someone else I know has a daughter graduating this summer (Oxford) and she is obviously concentrating on her finals now (or will they now be finished - probably are) but he says she hasn't given any thought to careers. They can then in a sense get lost as there is no agreed path. My neighbour's son runs a bar in Costa Rica which of course is fine except her grandchildren are miles away. My older daughter did some applications in her last year and I do think she should have considered it all earlier but they never take my advice. I am only their parent. She worked in a sailnig resort in the Carriibean although in some ways that gave her skills and help in dealing with people and more interesting summers than perhaps someone making coffee in a London office whilst getting under the feet of the staff and she has a job now so it's fine.

At university there is so much help, milkrounds etc so if you are good enough you might get on to one of the graduate programmes which still exist eg if you want to work at Unilever or Deloittes etc but not if you don't apply.

Now the fees alone will be £27,000 perhaps the universities should send monthly emails to students with questionnaires they should complete about careers. I am not suggesting their role is not just to teach the subject but I do think the extra fees justify more value for the child. They could reguarly have meetings or phone calls individually with students about careers.

My DS came back a coulple of weeks ago from Kingston Uni. He eventually loved his first year after a few problems settling, but loves his course and is looking forward to returning in september to the house a few of them are renting. He has grown up alot in this year and has come back able to cook which i thought he would never be able/want to!!

Dd ..thank god has managed to get her job back at waitrose. Has def made her think that she needs to plan here career...seeing people who have been there for yrs and yrs. It's a fine line between getting money to travel while she's young and getting decent experience to further whatever career she decides to pursue. She's planning on doing 3rd yr in France pissing about getting business experience.