University offers for 2017 start (Part 2)

[EnormousTiger]

Continuation of the original thread which is now on to 40 page maximum.
Original thread (part 1) here: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/2759621-Uni-offers-for-2017-start?

Most offers now received. My twins have had offers from their 4 and are currently deciding which will be firm and which insurance. One twin
( possibly two of them) is going to an offer holders' day coming up at Bristol next month with his friends from school.

Just been to visit Bath Spa. Completely different to Reading. Dd collared the psychology lecturer and asked him lots of questions.

I will await her decision with bated breath.

Some of the Exeter halls are £8000 per year. Cheapest seem to be around the £5000 mark.(for ensuite). Still, it could be worse....

Help I have 2 children in 6th form.
Diligent son Year 12 ploughing through Further Maths revision at the moment.
Lazy But lovely DD year 13 painting her nails, doing her hair and getting ready to go out to part time pub job. Has done bugger all revision as far as I can tell. Is at a top class Grammar School, has offers from Five RG Universities
Has not accepted any yet and has not started applying for funding of any sort.
Clock ticking. I tell her if she doesn't want to go to Uni that is fine but she needs to start looking for a job.....

travelled - presumably she has good predicted grades to have got the offers... how did her AS (if she did any) or yr 12 exams and mocks go, did she seem to be working harder for those? Is she doing subjects which need a lot of revision and/or past paper practice? (FM def needs the latter)

She's got until May 4th to accept her firm and insurance, so a couple of weeks yet, but obv not a good idea to leave till the last minute in case of tech fail. Is she having trouble deciding which to pick or is pressing the button just making it too real?

Travel - dd has apparently been working very hard. Her drama revision session with her friend today seems to be based in a shopping centre. She hasn't confirmed her offers yet either and wants us to stop pressuring her. We keep telling her we don't care what the decision is, but one has to be made soon.

I'm afraid I stepped in and did all the finance for her.

Erroll she has good predicted grades. She didn't do a stroke of work for GCSE, scraped into sixth form at her school and then pulled her finger out and worked really hard last year. Failed AS maths. She had no aptitude for it whatsoever. But got good AS for Politics(A) and Music (B) Her third subject is English which is new Linear A level so we have no idea how well she will do. She had aptitude for English but doesn't do any reading and certainly hasn't studied the texts in a way I would expect for A level.

At the moment she isn't doing any revision at all. Claims she does plenty at school, and doesn't need to do any. She has a boyfriend, a part time job and a car. I feel it is all going to end up badly.

Her lowest offer is ABB from Swansea which I suspect might be negotiable if student numbers generally drop. So we don't really have an insurance offer should things all go wrong...

I have tried to keep out of it really. She is fiercely independent. But trying to explain if she expects her parents to help her with living costs she needs to keep us informed about what she is doing.

I also suspect that despite all the bravado she is nervous about taking that step into the big wide world out there.

Another dd who doesn't seem to be doing much today. She also hasn't pressed the firm button. I put my foot down and made her apply for finance. Although she won't admit it, she's very fazed by the whole thing.

Ds made his decision and pressed the button a few weeks back and finance is showing as approved on the SFE website. Now he just has to get the grades but as he does alternative qualifications he will know his fate before August! With his brother now living close to Uni and him going away in October I am beginning to face up to the upcoming empty nest!

Can someone please give me a potted explanation about how finance works? No clue and no decision here either yet. Thanks.

Dc set up an account and apply for loans. Fees and maintenance. They'll need Ni number and passport number. You then get sent email link to your bit, where you supply your income etc to work out how much maintenance loan they will get. It takes about 20 mins.

DD and DH did her finance last weekend, he said it was quite straightforward, just needed numbers off our last years tax returns I think.

Completed finance application with DS a couple of weeks ago. Took about 20 mins and had written confirmation through within four days. It was all very straightforward thankfully. Good luck everybody.

Thank you all. I will have a chat with ds and dh about this later. I haven't really thought about this element of the process much, I'd better give ds a nudge on this. Thanks again.

Finance wrote to me asking for copies of self assessment return, pension statements, bank statements and a few other bits and bobs too.

Waiting to see if they've accepted what I sent.

Loan for fees and Maintenance loan. Does anyone know if there is an option to not tell them your earnings ? I.e. Can you decline to provide this information.
DH earns huge salary. DD will not be eligible for a maintenance loan anyway.

I think if you don't provide proof of earnings, they just get the basic maintenance grant. Not sure though.

There is an option to not tell them earnings travelled - it's one of the first questions.
I think if you didn't tell them your DD would still get the minimum amount, which I believe is 3k + (not too sure on exact amount though)
HTH ☺

Thanks Juggling. That's helpful to know.

On paperwork, does anyone know the process for applying for SEN support, whatever it is called. DD needs to do this as much so her very slow processing speeds are flagged and understood, as for any money that might come to her. (I understand the amounts are pretty low anyway.) The snow in her ski resort is melting so the last guests left today, and she has a weeks cleaning and then home for a month before heading off for Camp America. She may do some travelling in the States afterwards, so she needs to do her admin first.

Visa appointment, dentist, University accommodation request, University health and vaccination forms (medic), SEN request, sorting out what to take down, presumably more. The poor girl is likely to want to sleep for a month so like it or not, I may have to have to push her to do the basics. Can I expect her to cook her various five course chalet menus in return?

Sherlock, what did you DS decide in the end?

Travelled, I really recommend a ski season. DD was with a mid market family ski firm who kept prices down by employing 18 year olds (the more expensive ones want 21 year olds with cookery certs and driving licenses), so DD was in a resort with about 70 others her age, plus staff from other firms. The management was very good and an expectation they worked very hard, so DD had to learn quickly how to balance the work hard/play hard/ski hard. Plus pick up skills like working in a team, carrying the odd person who does not pull their weight (essential for group work at University), accepting things are not always fair, outward facing customer skills, sharing a room with three others, budgeting (pay is awful so even with tips you only have what you might have at University and ski resorts are expensive) and cooking/housework. She has grown up a lot and made some good friends. And once she got on top of the workload, had a great time. Far more productive than starting University not really knowing why you are there.

Need more sleep it sounds like she's learnt a lot and you are definitely owed some meals.

When I dd applied for finance there was a box to tick about being a disabled student. I think it was more about financial support, in case she needs any special equipment or whatever. I she will also be following it up by contacting the uni directly.

Needmoresleep, the DSA funding is initially triggered by ticking the box during the application for Student Finance. She then requires a Needs Assessment which is a face to face interview looking at her Post 16 assessment and specific difficulties and strategies highlighted. This can be done before starting if you can find a local uni or assessor or on starting by whichever uni she goes to. For ds it generated a variety of equipment and recording software plus extra time in exams, a flagging scheme for written submissions and one to one study support up to 20 hours a year.

My 2 have not firmed their choices yet (and aren't applying for any finance for fees or anything) so it should be fairly straightforward. I wish they'd just get on with firming their first choice.

One did some work yesterday - holiday homework although he thought it was fairly pointless. I trust them to do the work they feel they need to at this stage. They are back at school middle of next week. Last 3 weeks of lessons at school ever.

Ah LIZS, does this mean that if she does not apply to student finance she cannot access DSA funding? Or does she simply applies to student finance and tick the DSA box but ignore the rest?

And useful to know about the interview. DD had a lot of support at her school, and was allowed to borrow and try out all sorts of equipment. The most important thing was that teachers understood that she found copying down and note taking hard, and was very slow in timed tests. It would be really helpful to have further support and advice as she transitions to University level work.

Is she not applying for a loan for fees, even if not for living costs? I don't think there is an alternative route.

In terms of disability support, if she ticked the right box on her UCAS application that will have been flagged to the university automatically and they will let her know what needs doing - that's important because it's through the university that non financial support is organized (e.g. Extra time, consideration in classes). If she didn't, it's worth contacting the admissions office of her first choice institution to let them know.
I think that if you don't apply for student finance there is a separate form to complete.