Second year Oxbridge (2019)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I guess our dc would be known as Sophomores in the States Slightly scary eh?

This is a place to chat about the slightly strange and somewhat intense world our dc now inhabit during term time. It follows on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3381401-Oxbridge-Freshers-2018

If parents of prospective oxbridge dc have any questions, we are happy to try our best to answer from our limited experience and perspective :)

DS is getting on ok, missing his friends and has found it hard to get into a routine of work and downtime. The college support has been good, with regular messages to check everything is ok. I’ve just realised we are going to need a Third Year Oxbridge thread soon!

Bake, it’s not easy for our DC to get into the rhythm of work/play when the environment is just so different!
DD has had a pitch for a Covid-19 related opinion piece accepted for a student science publication which has given her a boost this week .
Hope your DC are finding their way through this unusual term.

That's lovely spin. What a boost! And so topical.

It's an up and down process for most people at moment bake I presume. Especially hard for youngens , and also for ours missing out on that special Oxbridge experience, looked forward to for so long!! They can't go back to these years!!

Just have to look for silver linings.

How is exam prep going?

My DD working very hard!!

It's going ok, thanks Sunndowne. It's not easy when they are used to being in total control of their own schedules and now have to work round family life. So sometimes we have clashes.

dd seems ok with the news that lectures will be online. At least they are planning for the potential for face to face group sessions and it shows optimism that they will be back in the autumn. While it is obviously a bit worrying, I think it's picking out the best way forward at this point.

It is all rather sad and rubbish for them, but that's how it goes.

Good to have an update Kitten. Good luck to all your DC doing online exams.
It is rubbish for them being at home. DD1 is a bit up and down (aren’t we all?!). She has secured some interesting (socially distanced) work experience for the summer which is something.
DS1 (Cam offer holder) is anxious about prospect of online lectures in October. His A Levels should have started this week and instead he has far too much time to think/worry about A Level results and starting at university.

I really feel for the freshers. An awful anxious time, with nothing uvh to distract them.

awww often. Sad for your DC! So many in same boat. Silver lining, My DD is getting so much from online lectures- pause, repeat, moment to take notes! Group zoom supervision made her anxious though. I also find my online work mtgs not relaxing!
Yep Kitten- they are well used by now to create completely quiet spaces for themselves and how ever hard we try- we intrude apparently on her Zen!

I wonder what uvh is!
Relief that dds summer placement looks to be going ahead, working online. I think she's incredibly fortunate.

Great news kitten. If my DD can get abroad, so is hers. Current intern has returned to UK and working for them online.
Must be dense but what is UVH?

How's it all going people? Good to hear about your DD's work too Ofteninaspin

It’s good to hear that things are sounding positive for DC’s with placements. We’ve fallen into a new routine, which will all change again when myself and DD are back at school! The colleges seem to have done a pretty good job of checking in with students regularly, DS has had lots of email/zoom contact which has been great.

Good luck to those of you and/or your DC returning to school next week. I am sure it won’t feel in any way normal but a small step in that direction.
Unfortunately, DD’s Oxford account was hacked last week and duly frozen by the vigilant IT team. DD’s tutor has been brilliant in sending the articles she needs and switching to Zoom for tutorials.
More positively, the Biology department confirmed that her course is being extended by a year. Her cohort will be the first to graduate with an MBiol. This is hugely beneficial both academically and cost-wise and has gone a long way to mitigate the disappointment of having her flights to Borneo in September (for a third year module in tropical ecology) cancelled this week.

That's brilliant news Spin! A good way to ensure that the disruption due to Covid is lessened hopefully.
Pain about her account being hacked and really sad about her Borneo excursion.

dd is continuing to study for her exams in a couple of weeks. She is getting very fed up.

That’s relief spin, shame about Borneo though. DS realised its fifth week already and said he’s feeling a it of fifth week blues even at home, I think the cookie fairy might have to pay him a visit!

We did a trip to clear his flat this week (we’re not too far away) and he liaised with his flat mates to make sure no one else would be there at the same time. It’s quite handy to have got it out of the way as DH and I are properly back to work next week. The college emailed the following day to say they could arrange to clear their belongings so things seem to be getting moving again slowly.

What a boost spin! Lovely to know she won't miss out on studies. Bad news about Borneo. Am eagerly waiting to hear about Europe based travel so DD can travel for YA.

We're still waiting bake to be allowed to fetch DD's things. We have to book a slot eventually.

Really get those blues kitten and bake. My DD felt them a few weeks ago but this year her exams finished first of friends rather than last as usual. Finished Thursday! Feels elated but exhausted.

Good luck all as we ease lockdown!

Good luck to your DD for her exams @OhYouBadBadKitten. So difficult for our DC to do this in the “wrong” environment.
Well done to @Sunndowne’s DD for finishing her exams. I do hope she can firm up her year abroad plans soon.
Your DS’s college does seem be particularly supportive and organised @Bakeandyarn. I hope the fifth week blues pass quickly. Your DS has done so well to keep up beat until now.
DD is going into college on Wednesday with DH to collect her box of stuff and bike. She has a timed slot so it should be very straightforward.
We continue to work from home. DH works for a US company and has an office 17 miles away but his company are very reluctant to allow employees back in the building! I work from home anyway so business almost as usual for me. We still have our house guest who now feels like another DS!

My DS wants his gf to come & stay for 2 weeks once their exams are finished on the 20th. Her family are ok with it apparently.

What would you do and say?

It’s illegal atm. But if your DC asked the same what would you say right now?

Difficult one. Hard to know. MH/well being of young is also issue.

I suppose I'd avoid if I could. But really hard to do.

Thanks Sunndowne.
We’ve just had discussion and said no. I feel really awful doing that. I’m worried about their well being & hope I haven’t mucked up their revision time and relationship.

Yes, tricky time to navigate extended family relationships and so on.

Hope all's well with all of your DC. DD submitted her exams last Friday. We are off to Cambridge tomorrow to pack her room and bring all the stuff home. It seems so long ago since I collected her for the Easter hols on 15th March and we stayed over at almost empty lovely spa before coming home. Still remember the supermarket shelves emptying but at least we are in the hotel restaurant.

Such strange times.

Ate in the hotel restaurant. There and back in a day tomorrow and sandwiches for lunch. Perhaps we'll have them on Jesus Green? Or next the Bridge of Sighs.

At least the shops will be open!

Good to hear from you Roses.
It's an odd time isn't it. Exams all finished and a virtual May week-in-a-day next week. I did offer to make some garden party food things with cocktails so that dd could hang around in the garden on zoom. That was deemed 'a bit weird'.

Say hi to Cambridge for us. dd misses it a great deal.

Well done to all your DC who have finished exams.
DD had confirmation today that the exams postponed from Easter will now be taken in Oxford but online at the start of Michelmas. DD would have preferred to have got them out of the way online at the start of Trinity.