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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Heading towards year 3 exams (uni 2017)

998 replies

Xenia · 05/12/2019 09:23

Continuation of www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3538808-heading-towards-year-2-exams-uni-2017 as we have reached page 40.

Hard to believe they are all in year 3 now and many will finish university in June 2020.

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Haffdonga · 01/02/2020 14:08

Thanks Carrie Smile

Yes, there is a slim chance for ds to find some charitable funding (from the likes of Cancer Research or whoever) as he'll be doing medical research. He's just a little boy!

Xenia · 06/02/2020 19:07

Apparently up to 7 not 4 are coming here tomorrow from Bristol - 21st party in London. I am sure they will fit in. Everything seems fine - both twins are busy and my older daughter exchanged contracts on her and her husband's house purchase today which is always a relief. She is the same age I was when we bought my current house I just worked out today.

Meanwhile one twin is sorting out a post graduation dinner in Bristol for parents and children on his course so trying to get numbers for that from whoever might get to that graduation. Luckily it is the night between one twins' graduation and the other so works out fine for me as we are in Bristol that night anyway.

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Eve · 07/02/2020 13:35

Haven't been here for a while, DS now more than 1/2 way through placement , hes changed departments and enjoying new team much more as he doing more practical, site based work. Hes also taking part in a lot of school programs and has been working with year 11s on interview skills.

Hes also applied to the Olympic volunteer team for a sport that he did for 15 years this week - they opened applications for this 1 sport for 5 days this week.

Unfortunately he was heading back to see uni mates this weekend as exams have finished and car died on the motorway. Thank goodness for RAC recover to home policy!! Not so impressed though with the garage we paid £600 at xmas to have it serviced!

Xenia · 07/02/2020 14:18

Eve. I am glad the placement is going better. Sorry about his car trouble. My son is driving 4 friends back from Bristol this afternoon to here and I always feel more worried when he is driving lots of other people's children rather than just himself although he is a very safe driver.

One girl must have had a clothes delivery sent here from Asos probably to wear tonight as it just arrived!

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ErrolTheDragon · 09/02/2020 15:05

DD has celebrated her 21st with friends. Her boyfriend made a cake which was so awesome that describing it would probably be outing!Grin

Horsemad · 09/02/2020 16:57

My MIL isn't happy because DS isn't coming home for his 21st and she's miffed because I said that's fine if he wants to celebrate with his friends!

We will pop up to see him on the day but he's having a night out on the town with his friends.

She did a cat's bum mouth when I told her... 🙄

Haffdonga · 09/02/2020 17:27

DS 'preferred not to have' parents or grandparents at his 21st. Friends and family don't mix in ds's world if he can help it. We were allowed to foot the bill though Hmm

Coincidentally I spent last night out on the town with my choir, carousing with a gang of lads on a 21st birthday party. You can probably picture us - a bunch of middle-class, middle-aged women drinking too many cocktails after a performance. The lads started with the 21 21 21 chants, the choir joined in with a happy birthday and it all ended with a eclectic mash up football chants and requests from the boys for us to do our numbers. It was excellent fun and ds would have been mortified to see me 'out' mixing with people his age! Wink

Horsemad · 09/02/2020 17:36

Aww, Haff, that sounds like great fun! 😃

DS can't be in two places at once, so I'm happy to see him during the day and then he can have his night out with friends.

It's our Silver Wedding anniversary later this year and MIL is already pushing for us to have a 'do' (my idea of hell!), so no doubt I'll be the baddie again for refusing to go along with her plans!

Malbecfan · 09/02/2020 21:11

Sounds great Haff. DD's 21st is during the summer break. I'm away with my school then on a choir tour - she had her 18th in a very special European city on a similar trip - but she's fine with that. She's away on her own choir trip for my birthday at the end of this term, so we're quits.

Apparently Storm Ciara dislodged some roof tiles from the main building at DD1's college but both DDs replied to texts and both seemed fine. Now hoping our electricity stays on at home as it is not very resilient to strong winds or thunderstorms. The longest we've been without power was 22 hours, which was not at all pleasant. Fingers crossed it stays on...

Xenia · 10/02/2020 08:45

The choir with the 21 years olds sounds a good combination. , My daughter had a 21st dinner in Bristol (not recently), people dressed up, I gave a speech - I even found some very elaborate country dancing she and some of her friends at the dinner did aged 11 at their school open day outside - they had a teacher who was very into it and tjheir moves were perfect etc so I got the hotel to display that on a projector on the wall when people arrived - it was really nice to see given those girls were now all grown up and at the party. However my twins didn't want that back in October so just had their own very small going out or staying in 21st gatherings.

The Bristol students who stayed here on Saturday were all nice - I know them as they are my son's friends/ housemates although I didn't hear much about the party they went to as they got back in the night and then watched something together until very late (well early hours really) and then slept in and left - thankfully my son who was driving 4 back in his car and they squeezed another in too who spent the night but no space in car, down to the tube station wasn't tired and got everyone back safely. I could never forgive myself if my twins' driving ever caused injury to someone else's student children.

Luckily they were back on Saturday before the storm. I hope Malbecfan is not wthout power - we have done okay. i have about 50 trees round my garden so it is fairly a regular around here or down the road trees come down but nothing yet and it seems over today so I think we have escaped storm damage.

That son (who was home) has said he has been very busy all term to talk to me much but he could talk at home but then he didn't really have a second. He did manage to leave his wallet in the garden so I've swent that on with the girl's high heeled sandals that were also left. If they would just give me 5 minutes' notice they are leaving I could go round the house checking for lost items. It was the same after his twins' NY party here - a few things left behind.

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Carriemac · 10/02/2020 11:39

celebrateing the 21st early with DS in sydney, then back to DD on the actual day in UK. Perils of having twins! hoping to have a party for them late august

SMaCM · 10/02/2020 16:32

I'm loving hearing about all the different 21st birthday celebrations. I somehow think we won't be involved when DD arranges hers (good for our bank account at least).

She has been talking to an old dance school friend about going to adult ballet classes together when she's finished at uni.

Good luck to anyone suffering with the storm. We had some fence panels which needed putting back up, but apart from that, all is fine here.

Malbecfan · 10/02/2020 17:56

Power stayed on until the early hours, but it only seems to have been off for a short time. My bedside radio loses its settings when it's been starved for 45 minutes+ and the settings were still there. It's still very windy down here in Devon, so I hope I can cook tonight's meal and do some school work before anything happens.

Horsemad · 10/02/2020 18:12

DS's graduation date has been released and it's a Friday, so we may make a weekend of it.
Not sure if we'll go for a meal with him afterwards, or if he'll just want to party with friends instead.

Are you all buying graduation gifts? Someone asked me what I was getting DS and I hadn't a clue!

Xenia · 11/02/2020 07:46

I have never bought anyone a graduation present! I did not even know people did that. Supporting them at university should be enough in my view although I will obviously very proud of them when they graduate.

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Horsemad · 11/02/2020 22:13

Yep @Xenia, I was a bit bemused when the question was asked of me! 😆 I don't know anyone who's done it for their DC.

I shall buy DS a new suit for the event though. 🙂

Xenia · 11/02/2020 23:54

I am always hearing from one of mine about what other parents do but I've been hearing that from my children since my daughter went to nursery school in 1987 - the "other parents" always give or allow more! These mythical other parents are not us. Even if tehy are real as they often are but have one not 5 chidlren that usually means they are dividing everything by nothing rather than 5 so no wonder their only one gets "more".

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Horsemad · 12/02/2020 08:56

Ah yes 'So and So's Mum & Dad let them do this, that and the other...' !
Mine both used to say that when they were younger. 🙂

I just used to reply 'Hmmm, well I'm not So and So's Mum, am I?' 😆

SMaCM · 12/02/2020 09:03

I remember when EVERYONE in Year 7 had a Blackberry phone 😂.

DD did get her car (early) for her graduation and 21st, but she is our only one, so no expectations for siblings.

Xenia · 12/02/2020 09:05

Also families just differ in what they choose to give children. My (teacher) mother gave me an O level and A level present before the results were out as she wanted to reward effort not results. That is quite a nice concept.

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bigTillyMint · 12/02/2020 15:18

Yep we don’t reward results - the reward has to be intrinsic for it to be worth anything. However we do give presents because we are proud of them/effort, etc. Occasionally WinkGrin

ErrolTheDragon · 12/02/2020 23:24

I'd never heard of graduation presents either. I suppose something which would be useful to them in the next phase of their life could be given at this point - a suit or other smart clothes might be handy for interviews /new job as well as for the graduation.

Horsemad · 13/02/2020 12:33

That's my thinking too Errol 🙂

SMaCM · 13/02/2020 17:25

Agreed with the something useful. DD's was a reliable car, but she was lucky to get it - I would have preferred one for myself, but she's a Daddy's girl.

Haffdonga · 13/02/2020 19:21

I don't think we'll do graduation presents but hopefully a celebration. Frankly both our 2's whole university degrees seem to be one endless set of presents from us (car, mobile phones, gym membership, plane tickets etc etc) so it would be a bit overkill. They have always insisted they didn't want rewards for grades since GCSEs which were offered by generous grandparents. I think it actually put more pressure and fear of failure on them.

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