Applying for Uni 2019 entry, parents support thread

[Decorhate]

Now that they are back at school, working on Personal Statements, doing the final Open Day visits, I thought we could do with a new thread...

2boys, can I ask what universities your DC's 5 offers were from? Seems a similar spread as for my DD

Can I say hi and join in please?

My youngest (DD) is just applying for 2019 entry, with one DS having just graduated (masters in maths, Notts) and the other DS just going into year 2 of a computer science masters.

DD had a year out on health grounds but has just submitted her UCAS form for medicine. She has strong predicted grades but not quite as strong GCSEs (the health issue contributed), a solid UKCAT score and is sitting the BMAT in October. She’s happy with her choices and PS, and healthwise in a very good place.

It was so much simpler for the boys :-/

Hello

Thank you OP for starting this thread.

May I join?

My son is a Scottish state school
applicant applying with Scottish Highers in which he achieved 5As and a B. He is currently in his last year at school studying for Advanced Highers in which he is predicted 3As.

He's hoping to read Law at Edinburgh, Glasgow, or Oxford as his long shot.

In Scotland they normally give unconditional offers based on a strong Higher performance. Edinburgh and Glasgow's typical offers are 5As at Higher so he's hopeful of achieving an unconditional offer. Oxford require 4/5As at Higher and AAB at Advanced Higher as the qualifications are regarded to be slightly harder than A levels.

Anyone else from Scotland here or applying for Law?

Good luck with all your DCs applications!

Welcome to you both! HostessTrolley I'm sure you have already seen that there is another thread for medicine applicants? Where is your dd applying to? My eldest has just finished 3rd year Medicine - I'm sure lots of things have changed since she applied but if I can help with any questions let me know.

@HostessTrolley, hello from medicine thread! Seeing Decorhate's comment reminded me - what did DD decide about Imperial? As you say she is sitting BMAT, I assume she decided to go for it?

Hi Aurea Another Scot here but DD doing A Levels. She's applying for International Relations. She's mostly looking at English unis but may put St A's down.

Good to read about the medicine applications, a foreign language to some extent for me but interesting to try and pick up on the process.

DN went through the process (probably 6/7 years ago now from the start, she went to Cardiff but is now in London working) and my friends DD has also taken the gap year and applying with known grades. From memory, I think she found the interview process pretty tough.

Thanks for the welcome 😎

She’s applied to Nottingham, kings, Sheffield and imperial. She did go back and forward deciding on her 4th choice, she loved imperial at the open day but was unsure on whether to apply to all UKCAT choices as she got a solid score which would give her a good chance of interview at unis that select for interview using just UKCAT, or sit the BMAT which is an unknown quantity.

How is your son getting on @decorhate ?

One of the difficulties with medicine applications is that there is no consistency in the application process regarding how different unis decide who to interview and who to offer places to. Considering they all have to provide a consistency in training to satisfy the NHS, this is quite annoying.

In my dd's case, she was offered a place at one of the highest ranking unis (didn't end up going there but that's another story!) and rejected by the one that was lowest ranked of those she applied to...

It's a dd Hostess!

In terms of studying, I think she still feels that doing A Levels was actually harder.

She's at Leeds & they have a lot of early clinical contact. It seems very different to when my house mate was doing Medicine in the 80s & she had loads of stuff to memorise for exams.

Aurea, I'd be interested to know what you think of Edinburgh. We did a talk and walk in the holidays but only saw a limited amount. It's still in the running as a back up option. DD would prefer campus, but loved the city so that helped.

DD definitely applying to Warwick and Edinburgh. Just about ruled out St Andrews as feels it's a step too far from family, friends and with transport. Still have to look at Birmingham and possibly Durham (another talk and walk), but she's considering a course at Nottingham. Warwick have 3 courses, single and two joint honours covering her chosen subject and apparently it doesn't go against them if they apply for two, so that could also be an option.

Anyone been to Durham or Nottingham? If so, what did you think about uni, accommodation, transport links etc. DD is schooled in another county and I work Sundays, so really hard to get open days in.

ifonly4 We went to Nottingham in June. I was quite surprised at how large the campus is, felt like we were walking across fields to get to the accommodation!

It is very popular amongst kids in my area. But as well as being physically large I think the number of students is also quite high. So perhaps not suitable for my ds - we had been at Bath the week before & I think he liked that it was so compact.

I didn't think the subject talk was very inspiring. And an aquaintance who went to a different subject talk said the same.

How much help/advice etc are your dc getting for writing personal statements? Dd was told hers was fine. Dh and I thought it needed work but ww3 could well have broken out if we'd got involved. Luckily, a friend's relative coaches 6th formers through the process at their private school and she generously offered to sit with dd and mock interview her as well as go through the PS. Dd took this very well and knows what she wants to write now.

Not much. And tbh ds would take it with a pinch of salt from his college, because they've obviously told him uni application stuff that he knows to be factually inaccurate. Just yesterday his tutor told him that he had to apply to all 5 courses at once, rather than some and add more later.

Ds would rather get support from his older sisters and us, he trusts it more.

Obviously s/b previously

no help so far but they might be concentrating on the early applicants tbh.

They had an admissions tutor from Bath at school on Thursday night - he said he reads thousands of personal statements and none of them are ever very good - so they (the university) are obviously not doing a great job of communicating what they actually do want to see (& if the think your PS isn't great don't worry because they never are) ... I don't think that's exactly reassuring!

He said treat it like an an audition or fantasy football (!) - they want to know why they should want to have you in their class. He advises 3/4/5 examples (academic, EPQ, lectures, Future Learn, courses like Headstart, TV programmes, books, volunteering, work experience etc) of things you've done that will provide evidence of the 'something special' you will bring to his lecture room. He's not interested in a list of academic or extra curricular achievements. And Bath do read personal statements carefully against a list of desirable points which the course leaders specify.

(this was Bath not Bath Spa btw)

if you think your PS isn't much good ....

Not much here either. I wish it were a level playing field. I know that's unrealistic and naive but I think some students have additional hurdles to jump to shine.

The school did have Oxbridge come in last week but there's been no help re writing PS's and some advice that isn't quite right.

DD did the UNIQ summer school and got most of her advice from the week that she spent there.

No criticism of any individual at all, just the system

Hello-thanks for the thread OP-hoping to join you all!!

DD was at loughborough Open Day today.

She is my third DC (and last-cue hysterical sobbing)

She is much savvier than her DBros-she watched them and is making decisions based on their experiences...

I am in absolute denial...

And the system is what it is to be fair! Good that we are all here to be supportive through the process, whatever.

@ifonly4

Funnily enough we are just returning on the train from the Edinburgh Uni Open Day. Please excuse the inevitable typos.

It's our third Open Day here. Partly due to the fact we started early as my DS was so unsure of what to study. He started with engineering and is now totally set on law.

I love Edinburgh and think it's a wonderful environment. He was impressed with the course lecturers which he spoke to at length. He really enjoyed having an academic conversation at the law stand. It was wonderful to witness.

I spoke to a current student about their student satisfaction ratings which are comparatively low. She believes it's due to the varying qualities of course tutors and the support they offer. The tutors can be changed though on request.

My son is toying between Edinburgh and Glasgow for Law. Glasgow is number 2 in the current rankings while Edinburgh is 10th for Law.

I hope he chooses Edinburgh for the wonderful environment. I'm hoping he will receive offers from both as he already exceeds their entry requirements for Scottish highers. Last year all pupils with his grades received an unconditional offer according to the admissions officer today.

Which course is your DC interested in?

I'm from Glasgow! Why is this not a wonderful environment?? mortally offended

So, in other news...Huddersfield Open Day was quite slick but it did nothing to inspire or motivate DS . Didn't help that DH has a rotten cold but insisted on coming!

I think journalism is now out of the picture.

We also went to criminology which was interesting for a while but I honestly think an hour is too long for all these talks. Plus , there was a very odd Course Leader who talked at one point . He actually looked like a psychopath!

Back to square one and I have been commanded to stop being helpful breathing down his neck.

@piggywaspushed

Whoops! No offence intended. I don't really know Glasgow as well but I agree the university and much of he city is beautiful. Not quite so easy to walk around though.

I walked 7 miles today in Edinburgh which is just as well as I have been a real pig after needing some energy after my 5.30am wake up to catch the train.

We were less impressed with Edinburgh when we visited for DS (Maths) last year. Loved the city, you couldn't fail to be impressed (although we did know if quite well anyway), and the open day was slick and well managed, the students impressive.

The course wasn't for DS. You have to choose, for 50% of your time in the first year, a minor subject, and given DS really only does maths this filled him with fear. No idea whether this is for all degrees. In addition, the department felt a touch like a machine and not at all personal.

DS got an offer, which was higher than most of the other offers he was given, which is strange, given the university was ranked much lower for the subject than his other offers.

That being said, the halls looked wonderful and the different parts of the university were walkable.

Mixed feelings I guess.