Early days at uni 2017

[HSMMaCM]

How is everyone settling in?

DD starts on Wednesday.

Spoke To DS On Phone! Yay.
All good.
He is coming to terms with fact engineering is one of the hardest courses! 9-6 every day? WTF!

I've not heard from my DD what her timetable is, but she was under no illusions that it wouldn't be intense. Its still freshers for her though. Glad your DS is coping, rights

lost - Understandable that you'd feel sad about missing her 18th birthday. I've got the same scenario with DS's 18th falling on a weekday next month, so there's no way we'll see him in person. I hope your DD is feeling better soon and is not still sick on Wednesday, and that you can at least have a nice birthday FaceTime session with her. x

rights 9-6 every day! I'd best bear that in mind for the future as my DS wants to do engineering - not to put him off but just to be aware myself.

At least he is getting his money's worth with the tuition fees, my DD only has 10 hours contact time a week and is expected to do 30 hours of independent study.

Lost and lazy that's such a shame. I hadn't realised that 17 year olds could be at uni but, now I think about it, are you from Scotland where the school years are different?

fairy - Nope, we're both in Canada. They start school later here and can end up finishing before they turn 18.

Here (in BC, at least) the age cut-off for starting school is that they need to be turning 5 by the end of the calendar year when they start school in the September, so DS1 is quite young in his year, with a November b/day, whereas DS2 will already be 18 when he finishes school, as his b/day is beginning of March.

Also fairy - Engineering courses are long hours, but I much preferred having lots of lectures, labs and tutorials, but not having to do all the essays that my non-engineering friends were always writing. I'd heard of the advised 3hrs of independent study to every 1hr of contact time thing before, but it definitely didn't apply to my course (Elec Eng) which I guess was just as well, since we had >30hrs contact time per week!!

DS has his first lecture this morning. A 9am one. I don't think he is impressed :)

Hope it went well SoupDragon. DS's lectures start next week but he has a maths test at 9.30am Friday morning (Fresher's Week) - just to get them in the swing of things

Nothing says welcome like a maths test!

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Starting lectures at uni 2017
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I did smile when he told us

Mine has a maths test too. Poor things.

Nothing says welcome like a maths test!

Mine also had a maths test during freshers week. It was a diagnostic test to make sure they all had the necessary background. The ones who don't have to have extra catch-up lessons.

Thanks lazy and fairy. Dd seems very happy and not homesick at all! She is ‘trying to get some early nights’ but is easily distracted:) she must be doing some work though as she has her first essay back and got a great mark. She has a new appreciation for her High School teachers. Good news- her birthday parcels have arrived. Will your ds be home for Thanksgiving this weekend lazy?

Maths test in freshers week sounds a bit harsh!!

They were told not to revise so I suspect it's diagnostic too. I only hope DS can remember what working is like after the long summer

If maths is a subsidiary subject (as I had with chemistry back in the day) it may be to decide if they should do the easy or hard version.

He's doing physics and I suppose
they are all coming with different backgrounds-A levels, IB, some Highers maybe and overseas students too so I'm guessing it's to give them an idea of where they are at and who might need catch up etc.

Physics too. They might be doing the same test!

lost Yes, I'm going to pick him up (and two of his high school friends who go to the same uni) on Friday afternoon and he's staying until Monday afternoon.

I know what you mean about appreciating their high school teachers. DS was often wondering how he'd do, grades wise, in a different school. Worrying that the fact that it was a tiny rural school meant that the teaching wasn't great and his grades were artificially high, especially since the only grade 12 exam that was a provincial paper last year was English; the rest of the exams were ones set by their own teachers, so perhaps could have been too easy? He's extremely relieved that he's still getting good marks elsewhere!!

@lostheloveofmylife - How's your DD (and you, of course!) doing? Did she have an good birthday, despite being away from home? DS is coming home for the remembrance day long weekend, just before his birthday, but it'll still be weird to not see him on the day itself - especially as I can't shake the feeling of an 18th being a major birthday milestone, despite it not being such a big deal over here in BC, where the age of majority is 19. Come and join us all on the "new" (almost full already!) thread if you can

Lazy dog Join us here

Starting lectures at uni 2017
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Oops read your post properly now

No worries - an understandable confusion!