Going to university (2019/20 academic year) - finance, flat shares, friends old and new and freshers' week to come...

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Following on from thread 8 which filled up in just 72 hours.

DD has given into facebook and joined a 'sober events' group at her until . She'll give the parties ago, but actually just enjoys a good chat over coffee or an activity, so hoping something will come of this.

Anyone else's DC not heard re: accommodation? DD going to Scottish uni in less than three weeks, so would be good to know.

@AtiaoftheJulii, thanks for the feedback. We certainly haven't heard anything to suggest he has to go into a branch to verify ID. However he did only apply on Saturday.

juicy has your dd definitely not had men acwy at school? I know it does vary by area - where we are i think it's done in yr 11 or 12. If not, hope they get some in soon for your dd (and the other dteens of course).

@SoonerthanIthought she seemed to think she'd only had HPV at school and the GP didn't say she didn't need it. I think I'll call tomorrow though and double check, thank you.

In our area, this year group didn't get a meningitis vaccine, only the year below onwards. Ds had his about a month ago.

Tapas, although your DD may have no intention of going into overdraft, sometimes things happen like cockups with loan coming through, etc. If she doesn't have an automatic overdraft facility, she would need to contact the bank to see if she could avoid charges. But I'm sure you know that!

We are paying for her accommodation, so her loan will cover everything else, but thank you for the advice anyway. We will ensure that she has enough for contingencies until her loan comes through.

I'm surprised that not all 18 year olds have had the meningitis vaccine. DD is a year ahead of most of the DC on here and it was done at school.

I did check this with her GP and they printed off her full vaccination record

I presume the GP is told if they had had it at school? DS is going in to ask tomorrow. I thought they'd had it, he doesn't remember & his girlfriend had it a couple of weeks ago. Same school, so I presume they haven't.

I don't know if the GP is always told - Tapas' dd's was, it sounds like, but my impression was that ours hadn't been.

GPs may know the borough/CCG (correct term?) policy, but of course they won't know if the individual student has had it or was away that day, declined it etc.

DD filled in the online forms on Sunday, received a text on Thursday and had an appointment today to complete the application. She said there was a constant stream of students coming in and out while she was there. It seems strange that some are having to go into branch but others are not. Perhaps it's because none of us have ever had an account or any product from HSBC?

Weird indeed. The only previous association we've had though is dd1 having an account, which I can't think would affect ds!

Couldn't remember at all whether ds had had the Men ACWY, but an email search tells me he had it two years ago in February of year 11 And dd3 had hers a month later although she was only in y9. One less thing to worry about!

I realised that DS should be getting the meningitis vaccine only today, when a friend posted on Facebook about it. He had phoned the surgery last week to check if he needed a mumps booster. Although he had both lots of the MMR vaccine at the correct times, I'd read that the mumps part was the least effective and the relatively high numbers of unvaccinated teenagers had led to outbreaks at universities this year.

The rather bland answer came back that, as he's had both lots of MMR, he didn't need a booster, but they said nothing about meningitis, despite knowing that he was off to university.

Also phoned the gp about MenACWY today and they were equally as clueless.

The cohort which has just finished year 13 would have been in year 10 when Men ACWY became part of the secondary school 'battery' of immunisations. So if your area's policy at the time was to give them in year 10, they should have had it then, if in year 11, the following year. The only ones who would have missed it and so may need to have it now are those where the boosters were already given in year 9 prior to the 2015 / 2016 academic year, because they would have had theirs the year before (and so would have had ?Men C not Men ACWY). (And those whose parents for some reason refused to give permission, but they presumably wouldn't be worrying now as to whether their DC needed it). Having said that, our experience is with state schools, but I assume that those at indies are included in the NHS programme?

DD had her boosters in year 10 and they were definitely entered automatically onto her immunisation record held at the GP surgery.

Off to Liverpool this morning as shes been given expensive uni accommodation to see about possibly living in private halls.

On the subject of hall fees, DS's accommodation contract stipulates that they have to be paid within 28 days, so presumably some flex not to have to pay them the second the invoice is issued.

I was under the impression that a notification to SFE to pay fees/maintenance loan is triggered once the students have arrived on campus and formally moved in?

Just a note for those Edinburgh bound, accomm fees were due early for the first term, cant give exact date but I am remembering it was before freshers week as I think I remember swallowing hard!
Of course they also begin early so it means the financial hit is not far away. Also sorry to be negative but my daughter did lose a small ( but not insignificant ) amount from her pollock deposit due to supposed damage to a wall ( she did not cause ) they are strict with this.

I knew nothing about the meningitis vaccine. No idea how I find out. My son had vaccines at school fairly sure in year 9 or 10 I remember for several things.
I'll try the gp surgery. But I expect they won't know.

It's not clear over finance is it. DD's original loan offer stated first payment would be made mid Oct. Her uni's website says Freshers week which is 7 Sept onwards as going to Scotland

Oh Lord !!! I'm
Panicking now ... I'm planning to send DS off to Nottingham with plates and stuff from home !! ... he is working full time until a few days before he goes to get some money together !! He's low maintenance though !!

Vaccinations: Here, the school nurse service has the information as they do the jabs, then that information is coordinated with the GP.

You could try e mailing the school icanbe (though the relevant person may not be there at the moment) - they may have records of who was vaccinated. Or search to see if you had any e mails about it if that's how school communicates? (though there would have been a hard copy permission slip to sign as well.)

To the pp who asked about a third dose - yes I too have read that the mumps vac in particular may reduce in effectiveness with time, but afaik the NHS policy isn't to give boosters at this age if you've already had the two. (I think a single mumps vaccine is unavailable in UK so it would presumably have to be a third mmr.)

I spent a good hour yesterday trawling through old emails from school searching including the words vaccinations or immunisations! Annoyingly there’s one which doesn’t mention which vaccination it is for but has an attachment link for a letter but the attachment is on the school portal which as she left over two years ago obviously doesn’t work anymore.

DD called the GP yesterday but their records don’t seem to include any of the ones she had at school. I wonder if I email the school if they might be able to access old records easily to check, or at least tell me if that cohort had the Men ACWY . . . .

I was under the impression that a notification to SFE to pay fees/maintenance loan is triggered once the students have arrived on campus and formally moved in?
That's correct, unfortunately. It makes sense - they know that the student has actually turned up & registered for the place. We paid a £350 deposit for the accommodation yesterday & I guess will have to stump up for some cash for the first couple of weeks. Annoying as we have been very determined not to give DS any money this summer as he was very slow to "try" & find a job. He does have some savings from a small inheritance.

My DS is also going to Nottingham (Trent) & I have no intention of buying new stuff (apart from the mattress protector for a 4ft bed which is such an odd size). I can't believe that he would properly look after new things and I am sure that they all get trashed in most student flats ... despite doing Food Tech GCSE he's never shown the slightest interest in cooking so two very basic saucepans will probably be more than enough. I've picked up a few plates and dishes at charity shops & he's got a collection of mugs from home.

I've known friends spend over £1k 'kitting out' their DC for Uni, surely that's massively OTT, there are shops in Uni towns & if he finds he needs something he's more than capable of going out and choosing it. I've also heard that loads of stuff gets abandoned at the end of each year, a bit like at Festivals .