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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Uni knowledge

35 replies

tendril · 16/05/2018 21:04

Desperate looking for any advice about uni applications/choices/open days. To support my dd. What do we need to know and ask? I'm really concerned about the money side, how much will she realistically need if tuition fees are paid by student loan? I don't know where to start, grateful for any advice if you have been through this.

OP posts:
DuchyDuke · 19/05/2018 11:22

What are her grades like? It can sometimes be cheaper for high achieving UK students to study at Ivy Leagues in the USA as they can apply for scholarships or partial scholarships.

ragged · 19/05/2018 11:31

UCAS fairs, easy way to ask lots of questions & get info. Save some travel. Find next UCAS exhibition in your area.

Nettleskeins · 19/05/2018 12:40

I am going to go out on a limb and say, just talk to as many RL people whose children have gone to different unis and on different courses to get a bit of a feel for what happened next and outcomes over three/four years. And you will learn even more than you do during the Open Days which after all are about spin.

I've known people enjoy Winchester, Falmouth, Bournemouth, Hull, Edinburgh Napier, Manchester Met, LCC, and Ox Brookes, as well as Leeds, Manchester, Edinburgh, Oxford, Cambridge, Glasgow, Nottingham, Warwick Exeter. And some of the RG ones were NOT a success, my friends children did not actually like them and moved or endured a year before coping a bit better. The Open Day was but a tiny flavour of what being there was actually like..too druggy, too lively, too boring, too sedate, too small, too large, too difficult, too easy... But when you talk to individuals and you have a sense of what sort of character that individual was, then perhaps it is easier to make a good fit for your child on that course and at that location.

Xenia · 19/05/2018 12:55

May be Nettle but won't we end up if we do that with posh children going to good universities and getting good jobs self segregating and vice versa from people at their local ex poly because they are conned into thinking it has a good employment rate?

BubblesBuddy · 19/05/2018 13:49

This DD is year 12. Prep for Ivy League sounds very difficult for a family that hasn’t visited a UK university and a school that’s not suggested any visits either. We also do not even know how the DD is likely to do in exams. I’m not against Ivy League but no-one at this school would know a thing about applying. I am all for aiming high, but it’s surely asking too much of the op to go down this route?

thesandwich · 19/05/2018 14:03

Considering op is getting little support from college the suggestions about UCAS fairs and attending open days is a great idea and checking out the student finance calculator.
Asking people is fine if your connections have those experiences. And looking at predicted grades to see where is achievable. A bit late but Sutton trust courses are brilliant for the summer of yr 12 but are probably full. Or head start.

FreedaDonkey · 30/05/2018 19:02

If you're on Facebook there's a group of parents and students who are all really helpful.

It's called What I wish I knew about university

m.facebook.com/groups/488235648182391

Hope it helps.

scaryteacher · 30/05/2018 19:14

We started with looking at which universities did the mix of History that ds wanted, and then progressed from there. Some were ruled out by the course content.

None were ruled out by distance as we live abroad and he wanted to study in UK, so wherever he chose was going to be a trek anyway. Luckily, where he ended up was his first choice and is relatively easy to get to, depending on the time we hit the M25.

MarchingFrogs · 01/06/2018 07:04

tendril, does your DD actually have any idea of what she actually wants to study at university? No real point in worrying too much about the process of applyIng (although obviously being informed is much better than not being informed) if she has no idea what she wants to do, she might be better off planning to take a gap year. That would give her time to consider which universities best offer what she wants to do, once she has decided - I'm writing this in a guest house a couple of hundred miles from home, accompanying DD for an open day for a combination of subjects not offered everywhere - we certainly wouldn't have gone to all this trouble if this one didn't, iyswim! More choice of open days as well; many universities do run them in the automatic and then she would have next summer's cycle as well.

If she does decide on a post A level application (or as part of the decision making process), she should check that the college will still support her application, though. That is, allow her to submit her UCAS form through them, writing her a reference etc.

Loppy43 · 01/06/2018 11:00

This guide to the cost of university for parents might help you.

As a parent of two at university at the same time I found that the hidden costs, which nobody tells you about are quite high. If you can't afford to support them, they will need to get a part time job, which most students do these days.

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