UCAS forms sent - just the waiting game now !

[snowyowl70]

My super organised DD1 has had email today to say her forms/reference have been received and should be at her chosen Unis in the next 48 hrs !!!!! So the waiting begins - to those seasoned parents who have done this before can you remember how long they had to wait for their first responses ? At least 2 out of her 5 may call her for interview (MFL) so am guessing these might be fairly on the ball ?

Must have asked a billion questions about Warwick today (pity our poor guide), so if you need to know anything I may be able to help! Not too good on sport though...

Littleham, you may wish you had not offered . The Warwick course for dd is different from all the others, not least in that the website and brochures set out exactly and consistently what it is, so that is a good start......

Did you get a sense of what the campus is like to live in - we thought it was really great but smaller than some and perhaps less to do in the surrounding area? And did you get a sense of what the subsequent years are like? - when we went they made Leamington Spa for example sound like a second campus but I can just imagine my dd not noticing that everyone is sorting this out and ending up in some slightly dodgy place in Coventry or somewhere on her own (that happened to my dh who did a Master's at Warwick, but I suspect PG when you were an UG elsewhere is a bit different and more isolating anyway). Sorry to hijack thread.

No problem. We asked a lot of questions about the accommodation. If you FIRM Warwick then first years are guaranteed accommodation on campus. In his talk, the Head of Accommodation said that prices vary from £79 per week up to £153 per week. The former is for a smaller room in Rootes with no en suite (lots of people sharing a kitchen) and the latter is for a large room in somewhere like Bluebell which is very modern, with its own en suite (about 8 people per kitchen). You can state a preference when you apply, but if it is oversubscribed you might not get that particular block. You can state whether you are outgoing or quiet on your questionnaire to get placed with like minded people. The girl who showed us around had been in Rootes & she said it was great.

The residences were about a 7 minute walk to the humanities building and about 10 minutes to the science site - so very close, apart from one which is about 15 minutes away. In the second year, most people live out - normally in Kenilworth, Leamington Spa or Coventry. There are dedicated University buses (signed U1) going between these towns and the campus. Apparently you pay £250 for the year to travel on these buses and the longest journey from LS takes 20 minutes - half an hour in rush hour. This aspect was probably the biggest downside we could find (mainly because our dd1 is not the best morning person), but all the students seemed very happy & loved living in Leamington Spa.

Anyone doing languages gets two years on campus and one year abroad, with only one year off campus. We liked the campus as it had so many facilities - to list them..... massive library, a cinema, a theatre (plays by RSC etc.), music practice rooms, leisure centre with full swimming pool & normal sports facilities, a climbing wall, banks, health centre, launderette, supermarket on site, hairdressers, nightclub, Italian restaurant, Costa Coffee, numerous places to eat, bookshop, computer zones, study areas, a large language facility which is open to any student to learn new language (so not just language students).

Lots of part time jobs on campus, paid a minimum of £7 an hour. Most students do some sort of work - eg. a couple of 3 hour shifts a week - all arranged on site.

It is obviously very modern, so if you are looking for history it might not be up your street, but cannot be easily beaten on facilities.

Thank you so much - that is really really useful, much more detail than we got in the bunfight last June. So good your dd1 is so excited about it!

I know Durham does quite often offer for a different less popular course if it doesn't have space on the one applied for. When it does that for the less popular Psychology course it means shifting down to Stockton, so that becomes a very different offer indeed.

Offer from Exeter last night!!!! So pleased

Any views on Exeter for state grammar school DS? i.e. is it still very private school these days although I have absolutely no objection to privately schooled applicants who have got there on own merit but don't want everyone to have huge amounts of money and living lifestyles he has no interest in....

My friends DS went to Exeter and graduated about 2 years ago. He is state school comprehensive and his parents very down to earth cockney. He absolutely loved it there. He did change his degree in his second year. His parents didnt like the long trawl down to Cornwall though

thecalico Congratulations. It does attract a lot of a certain tribe of private school pupils, ones that are quite exclusive, and quite loud about it (just down the road from where they spent all those summers sailing in Chelsea on sea Salcombe). However amidst the thousands, they are I gather just a bit of an annoyance. There are plenty of down to earth students there too. I have known quite a few who have had a great time, academically and socially. One of DDs friends is doing a King's masters and compares it unfavourably. Which is why I am still trying to drag my little stereotyper down the M5......

www.studentbeans.com/student-money/a/the-posh-university-league2169.html

Exact numbers can be found easily on the internet.

Thanks shooting and bruffin. The course looks really up his street so it would be a shame to be put off by the private school tribes! My older DC went to universities with more than a fair sprinkling of them (obvs everywhere has them due to the stranglehold they have on the university places but that's for another thread.....), but they didn't seem to be too entrenched iyswim and could be largely ignored. Exeter has always had the reputation of hooray henries/green welly brigade (showing my age here)

We are hardly on the breadline ourselves so it's not really that we don't mix with People LIke That and there are quite a few at the super selective grammar school he attends, it's just that we and he are not really that type and so I don't want him to be the only one who isn't off sailing at the weekends.....

Anyway looking forward to the Open Day whenever it is....sent him on his own to Warwick but think I may accompany him to this one!! We had a drive round the campus on the way back from Cornwall in the summer and it looks lovely. We go to Cornwall a lot so don't mind the drag down, in fact would be very convenient if he went there .

I am not sure if the stats are that simple.

First some Universities will have very large proportions of non EU students. 70% at LSE, probably about 50% at Warwick. Other London colleges will have similar. Some courses, particularly the maths based ones which don't require the same level of language skills as essay based courses, will then have a fair proportion of non British EU students. Sounding a bit Daily Mail about it but forreners don't usually count as posh.

London University has a massive problem attracting those who are not from the South East. Fee increases mean that poorer students are more likely to look closer to home and avoid expensive London. Of their British students, increasing proportions are likely to be both Southern and privately educated, but this can be a proportion of a small proportion. (And why the Courtauld heads the posh list. Its not necessarily that posh kids want to go there but fewer non private school kids think of studying History of Art and those that do probably try Oxford or elsewhere...St Andrews)

Exeter does not have the same numbers doing science/maths based courses and so can expect to have a higher proportions of British students. Geography means many will come from Southern England. As a result the overall numbers of students who might be considered posh is presumably higher. But having said that, a lot will depend on your child's willingness to mix. Some of these kids will be fine. Mine, say, are only at private schools because our choice of inner-city non-religious catchment schools was grim. I hope and expect they don't have a problem mixing with a wider group.

Other groups can also be cliquey. The son of a London based French family chose his University carefully as he was worried about finding himself in a French ghetto with others who might stick together and complain about their English peers - who apparently drink too much. In my day the same happened with both American and Chinese students, though I met one of the Chinese students years later and it turned out that both we and they were frightened to make the first move.

We looked at Exeter. The course was wrong for DS but a lovely campus and fantastic scope for outdoor extra-curricular, and with some great sports facilities. (It is well known for hockey.) If the course is interesting and you have a chance to pursue other activities you enjoy, you will find your own friends, and the braying Sloanes just become a background noise.

Littleham thanks for all that info on Warwick. It feels as though you were on official MN research! Interesting that your DD felt different at her second viewing. What was your impression accommodation wise if you insurance Warwick?

Needmoresleep - you mean there are different grades of poshness ? Maybe we should ask for them to be included in next years league table .

slipshod You could try the sales at the local branch of whatever is the latest tribal uniform. I think they have moved on from the Salcombe based Jack Wills.

But yes there different subcultures within private schools, some of whom are not exclusive. My DD is actually at a private school but seems to have some sort of phobia / paranoia of anyone who shows any indication of being a "Sloane", hence the refusal to even go and see Exeter. My other DD says that UCL though having a high proportion of private school pupils is more "indie" and that people of different ethnicities and backgrounds mix more than at other unis and indeed her flatmates reflect that. And they both describe some pretty obnoxious laddish misogynistic behaviour, you must be familiar with the hazing controversies. The neknominate craze started in the same environment, the first one DD showed me was some stereotypical rah doing it in the Castle at Durham.

It is all stereotypes of course but there is some basis to them.

shooting Hasn't your DD got an offer from Exeter or have I imagined that?

yourlittlesecret - I was determined that we minimise trips, so we all had a long list of questions! Have done the same for Bristol & will be doing the same for Bath and RHolloway in next two weeks, as dd1 needs to decide insurance. We have all quite given up on Durham now (thankfully it no longer matters).

I asked the Accommodation Office and if you INSURE Warwick, then you can still apply for accommodation when it opens for booking (in April). However, you just don't sign the contract because obviously you don't know if your DC will actually end up at Warwick. If there are more first year students than rooms, then there is a possibility that some students might end up off campus. It very much depends on the number applying - so last year every first year (both FIRM and INSURANCE) got on campus, but this academic year a few ended up off campus. Apply early for room in April if you are INSURANCE to maximise chances.

Most students end up with their first or second choice & the least popular option is the residence furthest away from the centre.

thecalico Yes and I think the course sounds just right for her. You are right to wonder why she put it down when she isn't willing to go and look. Basically not many places do the joint honours she wants to study, she had two fallbacks, and two she should get into /aspirational based on her grades and wanted one she other she should get into / aspirational but apart from Exeter all the others were in Scotland.

I am like laisy being a bit coy because of the small numbers of places on joint honours course and don't want to out her.

This is on the Warwick website as well...

Highest priority for campus accommodation is given to first year undergraduates who have accepted an offer from Warwick as their first choice and apply for accommodation by 31 July of the year they’re due to start their course.

I think it may be the case that these days the brighter the Sloane, or rah, the less braying and offensive it's likely to be. On that basis Oxbridge, UCL and Durham Sloanes may well be somewhat more tolerable to those with a general aversion than those at say Exeter or St Andrews. This is of course a massive generalization :) but borne out by my niece's very, very silly (and druggy) rah friends at Exeter when compared to her cousins' peer group at the first universities mentioned. Her sister went to one of the London colleges and didn't have such obnoxious friends either.

Of course there are plenty of lovely private school kids everywhere - thousands upon thousands I'm sure: I reserve the term Sloanes for the arrogant, smug, entitled, insensitive crew of whom there do seem to be more than a fair few at Exeter.

venturabay alas that is what I fear.....but DS wouldn't do Oxbridge (and I doubt he would have got in anyway....) and he likes the look of the course at Exeter...but I can see it is going to attract the less than brilliant sloaney type applicants. Perhaps we will get an idea when we go to the open day. A few Oxbridge rejects from his GS go to Exeter every year but tbf most of the really clever ones get into Oxford or Cambridge in the first place!

Littleham thanks. I have looked at TSR as well as Warwick website about this. There is lots of detail about the pros and cons of the different halls on there. Clearly there is no guarantee of accomm if you insure but it seems the sooner you apply the better.
Durham do guarantee halls to all first years which seems to be another thing in it's favour for DS.
I don't know about everyone else but I'll be glad when he makes his decision and we can tick that off and find the next thing to worry about.

Yes - but the next thing to worry about is my DD2 in year 12.
She is already lining up open days!

Actually I think AS may be tricky this year with the abolition of the January modules. Our DC doing A2 have probably got more of a handle on what they need to do to get their grades.

I think it is going to be carnage for the ones doing AS. Lots of my dd's friends are not working and without that shock in January, their results in August won't be great. Such a shame because it will happen to some bright teenagers. Luckily my dd2 has been observing what has happened with older sister & she is very industrious.

Yes I remember lots of DS1's peers came a cropper in the 2013 January modules. DS2 doing GCSEs but I think he has, like your DD2, taken note of his brother's advice. He is revising for GCSEs far earlier than DS1 did.