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...

[LIZS]

We will go to applicant/offer holder days later on if needs be. For now dd is finalising her UCAS and working hard.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

we are having to drive to all the open days instead of taking the train. Ǹot sure how we are going to do Manchester.

Don't know where you're coming from, but we went to Manchester in June. Drove up Friday night (traffic bizarrely light!), stayed at a Premier Inn at West Didsbury, and parked at one of the free allocated car parks - can't remember which letter it was, but (checking Google maps timeline!) it was on the corner of Cecil street and Dilworth street. Think the open day officially started at 9.30, our first talk was 10am, and we got to the car park at 9.13 (thanks again Google) and it was about half full. 5 minute walk to Oxford Road area. Just thought that might help!

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Ds has done two open days, plus a separate uni department talk. He says he'll go to offer holder days if necessary.

[Monkey2001]

We stayed in University accommodation when we went to Leeds - meant we started early and did not also have to do the accom tour, so were able to fit in Leeds and Sheffield in one day. Single rooms were only £44/night through University Rooms. May no longer be possible as students are going back.

[VanCleefArpels]

Glad to be having a couple of weekends off before the next one..2 to go 😴

[Mamaryllis]

I don’t post a lot on these as we are in a different application system (Canada) - ds is my middle kid and is looking at teaching (maths and drama, so probably only a few places that will work). Dd1 just started her second year of science (molecular bio) and is loving it.
We have one open day next month which offers the perfect program for ds but I’m slightly concerned he won’t have the grades (he’s wildly intelligent but doesn’t do any homework or revision, and is content to fly by the seat of his pants). He might take a gap year....

[Daisiesarenotflowers]

Just dropping in, partly to help me stop stressing about youngest DS setting off to uni next weekend. Also, I thought that as until very recently a pastoral lead in FE, I'd see if I can bring any useful thoughts or experience to a new year group.

[Justanothermile]

Thank you daisies, I have DS1 going on the 30th so similar circumstances.

We were very impressed with York. I've seen loads of universities in the last 18 months and so have experience enough to give an opinion!

Lots of students all over campus to help. Very well organised all round and most importantly the course presentation and way of selling the subject excellent, it covered the whole day and included a couple of mini lectures on top of the usual subject talk and tours etc.

They also offer soon after receiving an application they like, so that's a positive.

They are long days though sometimes, I'm having a cuppa and a sit down

[Daisiesarenotflowers]

Just good luck for the 30th. We visited York and also liked it very much, the uni and the city too.

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

Just back from York. DD really liked it and it is now her 2nd choice (after Cambridge).

She has AS levels (Wales) under her belt, but is hoping to raise one of her subjects up as she got a B but would like to get an A. Her tutor has told her it's doable, so she might well predict her the A for that subject. In which case Cambridge and York will be in reach with A*AA and AAA requirements for her wanted course.

I wondered if the B would scupper her chances, despite having a resit of the paper that dragged her other result in that subject down booked for next year, and time to hone her skills. But her 6th form college have just told them not to put their AS results down, only their predicted results as that's all English schools will have too. Plus, contextually, there are few schools in the area that send kids to Oxbridge and few from her sixth form have ever made it there, so that might help the tiniest bit too.

[Justanothermile]

daisies, you would struggle not to like York as a city, it's so lovely. Our problem is that it's pretty close to where we live therefore DD might not think she's far away enough from home. Fingers crossed for both our DCs!

We are going to have a stab at Oxford dr, with realism too that it's a tough ask. Least it gets the application in early!

[Wiifitmama]

My ds and dh just got back from York today too. They really liked it. I am not sure he has ranked the order of which he wants yet. He is also applying to Cambridge.

[LoniceraJaponica]

We are going to York tomorrow. It is only an hour away for us. DD liked Lancaster today, and really liked some of the accommodation.

[AtiaoftheJulii]

But her 6th form college have just told them not to put their AS results down, only their predicted results as that's all English schools will have too.

I'm really surprised at that! For a start, plenty of students at English schools have done AS exams this year. Secondly, I'm pretty sure you're supposed to list everything - UCAS says "You must enter all your qualifications from secondary education onwards".

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

3 and a half hours for us today as we live more in the Chester area, just over the border into Wales.

So far it's...
Cambridge
York
University of Liverpool
Nottingham
Bangor

for her 5 on the app form.

Name already taken for the Cambridge pre assessment tests by her sixth form (they are a testing centre) and she's been invited to a prep session as part of the SEREN network. She needs to put some time in looking at previous papers and the sample materials for the History papers (now she's decided the ANSAC course is too niche for her) and she NEEDS to get that PS finished!

[Wiifitmama]

So after posting a few minutes ago, I asked ds if he has a ranking yet. He is not sure. He thinks either Cambridge or Imperial as top. And he is 100% sure he wants to put Queen Mary's as his insurance (he is sure about getting an offer from them). He thinks Kings is bottom of the list. He liked York today but I don't think it is at the top of his list. This is all for Maths, by the way. His PS is done and with the college now for checking. He had a meeting with his tutor Friday about references. For Cambridge, he has to do STEP papers and for Imperial it is MAT (I think!) papers. He has been working on both for a while now - his college do an after school session for it. So all in hand I think! He has one more open day to do - Cambridge. He missed the more general ones last term so is going to a college specific one next week I think.

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

DD hasn't been to an open day for Cambridge, but she was lucky enough to score a free place on a 3 day residential in April as the college she visted does an outreach programme to our area of N Wales and the Wirral to encourage applications. She has attended a taster day at the dept she is interested in, which was extremely good value for money (£20!) for a couple of lectures from their people and a talk about application process in the afternoon. So we didn't feel the need to schlep 4 hours that way again for the general open day.

Interestingly, she started up thinking about ancient history when she first started attending open days, but is now thinking history, as long as the course offers a great deal of flexibility to be tailored to the students interests. Which Durham definately was not as it specified a lot of the units that were compulsory, which really put her off applying there.

[ElizabethBennetismybestfriend]

We are also an hour away from York but DD likes the sound of the course so off we go. She has decided that Kent is not for her so we will just be going to Liverpool, Manchester and Cardiff. Roll on 27 October when it will all be done.

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

We're done!

She's been to...
Aberystwyth (history research day with college)
Cambridge (residential)
Liverpool Hope (just to nose at what open days were like rather than wanting to apply),
Uni of Liverpool,
Durham
UCL (bit too far away and too expensive to live there but attended a week of summer school)
Bangor to look at a Welsh one which is only about 45 mins away. and now York.

We were very much limited to ones that put on their days on the weekend, but she knows that she can apply to other ones that she's interested in and then visit them on offer holder days if she doesn't get an offer from places higher up her 5 that we have visited.

[goodbyestranger]

Yes DrMadeline I'm extremely surprised too, since on the face of it that's a clear breach of the UCAS rules.

[goodbyestranger]

Also a B is fine for Cambridge. Deliberate breach of the rules, not so much.

[Witchend]

But her 6th form college have just told them not to put their AS results down, only their predicted results as that's all English schools will have too
I'm certain that they have to put them down. Otherwise no one would put disappointing results on. I really would check that as don't they have to do AS results in Wales so they would be clearly missing to the universities?

They have to put them down in England too, although they don't count towards the final exams so it would be more likely to get a totally different grade.

Dd1 has some decisions to make as she's visited around 6 or 7 and likes them all and really likes a few. She hates making decisions so I foresee stress over that. I'm sure wherever she goes she'll tell me was the best decision ever once she's there, but she's told me not to say that again as I've said it once too often

[goodbyestranger]

If you don't take ASs in England you don't put them down. If you do take ASs in England you do have to put them down. The only time you don't put exams down in any part of the UK is if you don't take them. What a seriously dodgy teacher.

[Monkey2001]

@wiifitmama we went to a college open day at Downing, Cambridge last week and it was really good. It was all structured - parents and hopeful students went their separate ways at 10:30 and were supposed to meet again at 2:30, but DS's last session, just 2 medicine hopefuls with an academic, lasted an hour longer than scheduled so he felt that she was really trying to encourage them. The students had talks, tours and a free lunch, we had a talk and were then sent away for a couple of hours before returning for the tour. It was very different from the Open Days we have attended elsewhere in a good way. DS was grateful not to be embarrassed by my questions!

Another good thing at Downing was that a lot of the students had their final session in very small groups (DS was with one other) with the Director of Studies for the subject they want to study, so if they apply to that college, they will see a familiar face who they have already met informally at their interview - really humanises the process.

[Monkey2001]

DrMadeline I think you should be very wary about not declaring results. Cambridge knows that Welsh students had the old system and should have AS results. They claim to look in a lot of detail at each application and would notice if somebody came from Wales, but did not have AS. If they do notice that your DD has omitted them it will look very bad.