2nd year uni (starting 2018)

[HSMMaCM]

The old thread seems to have filled up!

We are taking ds tomorrow afternoon/evening and his first lecture is Monday lunchtime. Talk about being laidback. He also didn't think about picking up his key from the letting agent. After much prompting by me he's discovered they are closed all weekend and has to rely on someone being in to let him in.

He finally got around to putting a wash in the machine last night. I reminded him about 48 times to put it in the tumble dryer before going to bed. It's currently still damp in the washing machine while he snoozes away in bed.

I keep trying to not get irritated and to say "as long as you learn from your mistakes ". I'm not holding my breath.?

Tobee we can only tell them. They don't always listen, or act, but we've told them.

Loose Hips will you be able to vacuum pack on the way home too?

That's was my thought too HSMM. I can only hope they have a vacuum in their house this year. (It may still be in the box, who knows!). He won't bring bulky stuff home until the end of year at least.

I have my house back. No more piles of boxes.

We've just been on a circular walk around the Malham area, I'm pleased to say a year living on the flat side of the country hasn't atrophied DDs hill climbing muscles; she seems to have been honing her ability to walk ridiculously fast despite being small, yet somehow appearing to be strolling.

Errol- we're visiting DD today and were accused of "walking at tourist pace" as she tried to share an umbrella with me.

DD has her first lecture at 9 am tomorrow. Since she is doing engineering, it helps that she is relaxed about the early starts.

She somehow managed to leave behind most of her underwear I will be visiting the post office tomorrow. Good to know she still needs me sometimes

Why did those emojis come out as gin? I meant them to be smileys

Glad everyone is settling back in. My two seem happy and it is certainly lovely and peaceful at home.
This term in second year is the term to apply for lots of internships and vacation schemes for quite a few careers (not 5 minutes before you graduate). A lot of the deadlines are December and I am not sure all students realise this. My advice you can be what you like - funeral director, farmer, bar owner in Costa Rica or whatever but don't miss your time deadlines.

That's a good tip. DD left applying till Xmas vac this year, and although it worked out fine (and she didn't absolutely need to do an internship this summer), she realised some of her pals who'd got on with it earlier had picked up some very nice positions. She'll be looking again this term to try to find something complementary to this summers job (they'd have had her back but agree that it's good to do something different). Hopefully a bit shorter and either so she can live at home or in her uni town.

It feels like ds has been at home forever (in a good way) and that 3 terms of first year barely happened.

We are due off at some point. Now I'm a very laid back person but ds makes me feel like a beginner. He has very mild Sen and one of these things is not really being able to keep more than one thing in his head at once. This is being beautifully illustrated today.

DS went back yesterday but the car was too full for me to accompany him. DH dropped him off but said the house was left in a tip by the previous occupants. DS has no chair and the 'bed' is basically just a mattress on the floor. I have bought him a cheap chair but told him to complain to the letting agent. He is proudly cooking a chicken today and planning to live off it for a few days but I can see it being decimated by the others.

Can I just say hi from one of the original A level thread members.
Dd started yesterday at Bristol doing vet. Medicine a year later than expected. Any advice from you pros? We realised we had forgotten pillows and due to only having one plug socket in the whole room she needs a very long extension cable. But she’s in a beautiful old building in Clifton with lovely flat mates so it’s all good ( so far!).

Both mine have gone. DS managed to take DD's towels & bath mats with him. Serves me right for not supervising his packing (have name changed since last year)

Teta congratulations to your DD! Bristol is a great place - I'm sure she'll have a great time. Not sure what tips...

teta, good luck to your daughter at Bristol. My twins are there (as was their older sister a good while back). I am fairly laid back about it as they are my 4th/5th at university but in general I would say leave them to it but take her lead on things - if she wants long chats fine, if she's too busy to talk, that's fine too.

I sometimes remind the twins about admin things like registration and things if you have never lived alone you might not know about.I think it was Clifton my older one lived in for the last 2 years and liked it there. I am sure your daughter will be fine and she's picked a good course.

One advice is they will find their 2nd year accommodation this term probably - most of them do and mine needed their passports to fix up that so I had to send them by special delivery to their halls as I had kept them safely at home. This year they have them with them.

I also think if they have an expensive phone it is worth paying for phone insurance and laptop too.

Hello Teta Well done to your dd. I'm sure she'll have a great time. My tip would be to fill your own time with plenty of nice things for the next few weeks so that the very sudden empty nest doesn't feel too quiet. After all the excitement and stress of packing and planning, life can feel a bit flat for those left at home.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit bereft this week? Both mine went back last weekend and we have received a grand total of two words communication from either All good - which I suppose is ... good .

That's an awful way to find the accommodation @ono40! But I'm very impressed by the chicken. Let's hope it's a mumsnet chicken!

Just on the way home from dropping off ds at his new house. It's very nice and newly done but quite far out. This year he has a communal living room and dining area and his housemates were chilling in there when I left. Last year in his uni house everyone seemed to sit in their rooms the whole time staring at phones and laptops in isolation. No scruffy jcr with cheap bar and communal tv watching for those guys!

Unfortunately, ds had messaged said housemates to say he had a toaster and kettle to add to the house. When he unpacked he realised he'd left them behind at home. I've got to take his tv down that he wasn't sure about taking so I can take them at some point; probably sooner than I'd imagined.

Ffs! Just been nosing around looking for ds kettle & toaster. I found them. Plus all his cutlery. His mugs. His pots and pans and basically all his kitchen stuff except wooden spoons and plates.

But.....

he sent a photo of his room to his sister to show her. It has all his clothes and boxes still all over the place but his computer set up. And his dvd box sets and games neatly on the shelves. 🙄🙄🙄

Of course I was extremely organised at his age

What Xenia said. My dd sorted out an internship last term and has just had it confirmed.

..not that any of mine listen to my advice (that September before going back would be the ideal time to do long winded applications when you are not back at university and have more time..... )

Xenia, as ever, is right. And those aiming for the big City/Accountancy firms will need to start early and devote a fair amount of time to it.

Start early. Many Universities will be hosting various events by employers. At LSE these were often in the form of breakfast talks by banks' economists etc. Wear a suit (or pink dress), bring along a CV and get a free croissant. Apparently at Oxbridgeit was dinner. Book a session with the careers office early. Then apply to as many as you have the time for, as lots and lots apply to each. Each will have a lengthy process, often involving application form, on-line test, Skype interview, further competency testing and an assessment centre.

I think it is worth taking a step back and considering where the weaknesses are. DS had no problem with the competency side, but really struggled with the Skype interviews. Not eveyone is a natural interviewee, and it is worth looking for tips and tricks, either from the careers office or the Internet. It is also worth making sure that any academic referees know who you are, which can be difficult on a big course.

Some employers will do up to 80% of recruitment from internships. And they can be a way of working out what you don't want to do. DS' peers tended to be very employment focussed, right from the outset. I don't think this is as true elsewhere. (In truth it was a bit scary.)

DS has returned today and it’s very quiet without him. He’s in halls again this year. I was amazed at how clean the kitchen was when I dropped him off even after three days of occupancy by some of the others. In last year’s flat he was the only person who ever took the rubbish out and the work surfaces were a bit grim.

He’s met three girls in this new flat, one of whom announced she was a clean freak (hooray!) and there was both dettox spray and bleach by the sink. There is also a rota up already for taking rubbish out, cleaning the sink etc. I’m very impressed!