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...

I was talking to dd about the unconditional if you make it firm and she is very against it.
She says she's seen a number of people who have felt pressurised to take the unconditional when not wanting it, and then have got upset after they've done it in July/August. She thinks it's an unfair tactic. I thought that was an interesting take on it-I thought she'd like the idea.

Students (when I was there) were seen as an easy touch. Hence the "professional" beggars used to arrive in town for the term time. Plus students are often a bit naïve and gullible-but don't think they are so don't always listen to advice

My school in the 90s encouraged anyone who was interested to apply to Oxbridge. Some of whom were clearly not going to get in. They would predict anyone applying with top grades whatever the reality was. In my year you could apply to 8 places, so I suppose there was an attitude of might as well.
It backfired on one student. He knew he wouldn't get in, but was encouraged to try and didn't expect to get through the exam stage. He was delighted to get to the interview stage and it really boosted his confidence.
For some reason the school showed him the report they got from Oxford after the interview. I have absolutely no idea why, as they didn't show anyone else.
It said: "We only interviewed this person as the discrepancy between how well he'd done in the exam and his predicted grades/report from the school were so extreme we assumed there must be a good reason for the poor showing in the exam. After interviewing him we see that the exam was correct and you have vastly inflated his ability."
He was naturally devastated.

I share your unease Wichend. I don't know how DD feels about the u/c offer as she has been away this half term and though she messaged me about, she didn't express an opinion. She did AS levels so she has got actual grades of A*AAB. She has now dropped the B subject. As most schools don't take AS now so u/cs are being given on predicted grades, possibly optimistic, this is surely skewing the system.

I imagine the not discouraging aspiration thing is part of the current educational vogue for Mindset. it has its place but I literally sat through an assembly last week (by an interview candidate) which said' if you think you can do it, you will'. She didn't get the job. Make of that what you will.

I was thinking of on-campus crime really. These were all first year students in halls, not living in private rentals in dodgy areas. Obviously the crimes may have been committed elsewhere on a night out. It just got me wondering. Maybe because I felt on open day that this particular campus was not one I'd be comfortable walking around at night myself.

I thinkcrime in the student population compared to the general public is known to be very low so I wouldn't worry too much . What campus was it? I might be able to dig .

@WorriedMutha which AS levels have A*? I thought they only went to A.

Piggy, I don't want to worry anyone unnecessarily whose offspring might be there or applying for there. So will leave it now. Ds decided against applying to that one anyway.

Oh, yes, that's fair enough (although I guess you could say it is helpful to others!). I have a fairly extensive spy network (aka former students) so PM if you do want details as there are a few campuses where female students have been harrassed and a few which are rather porous so known for petty thefts. I also know which ones are allegedly 'dead' which are probably the ones my DS would like!

On a similar note, does anyone know if Essex accommodation is still right next to Colchester barracks?

We’re going through UCAS applications for the first time here and I’m trying going to lie, it’s been very stressful!

DD1 has already done her A levels and is on a gap year as she wasn’t sure what she wanted to do this time last year. She’s applied to Northumbria, Manchester Met, Nottingham, Newcastle, and Durham!

She submitted her application on Thursday and already has places at Northumbria and Manchester Met which is exciting! Durham is her favourite, followed by Newcastle, but they’re also probably the two most aspirational from her selection. Nottingham’s course she loves but it’s a bit too south for her liking and she wasn’t a fan of the campus.

So glad to have found this thread - I’ve been totally lost until now

Not sure where trying came from - I meant “not going to lie”!

Monkey, I should have explained better. They do only go up to A but she got a score of 100% so the school take the view that this would be an A*. I was trying to be brief.

Hi PancakeMum, fellow north easterner!

decorhate it’s going to be very difficult to predict who out if a random selection of school leavers who qualify for any particular university are going to be petty thieves/aggressive/racist or whatever. I’m sure it happens everywhere

piggywaspushed was at Essex open day recently- if any of the accommodation was next to Barracks it wasn’t obvious to me. Some was pretty awful though (tower blocks) and some really nice (further away from campus). Was generally impressed actually

Thanks for the suggestions Monkey and Mamie, we pressed submit on Friday and we're keeping Manchester Met on the list.
I'm exhausted from all the stress of this year, I have huge bags under my eyes...

I just hope I have done as much as possible to help DD and that she'll get some offers. We have to wait for school to put the references on.

Anyone else feeling the strain?

Yes it is a little stressful! Have any DC heard from Bristol or Warwick for Politics and/or Sociology?

vancleef the tower block even look awful on their website tbh! I think those were the ones that had the awful reputation in the 90s!

When you say further away fron campus do you mean it is not on campus?

One of the advantages of a campus uni is on site accommodation, I would have thought? DS would be much better at a campus uni imo.

framey, I've been feeling the strain scince 2001!

Made the mistake of texting DS who is with GPs looking at Swansea.

How was it ? I mildly enquire

Boring and uninformative, comes the reply.

Oh FFS.

Did you go the War Studies talk for the course you have expressed interest in? ask I.

No, replies the little sod.
Grrrr and sigh. Need

Oh, but it's OK because they took him to The Mumbles during the fucking war studies talk so he could stuff his face with pizza.

Are you sure he wants to go to uni? May be time to take a step back now and see what he decides.

He won't decide anything LIZ : guaranteed.

I think you may just have to allow for that. There is no point forcing the issue as he will be set up to fail or run up debt. Uni is not for everyone, certainly not at 18.

I hear you.

But he genuinely has no other talents , hobbies, aspirations or abilities. It's a bit of a worry all round.

piggywaspushed sorry I should have said further away from the centre of campus ie a 10 min walk. There’s also a very swish shiny new Hall under construction again on the edge of campus a bit away from the central “plaza” where library, bars, shops etc are