Applying for uni in 2021...

[Parsley65]

Thought I'd start the ball rolling on this one...

Dd wants to study psychology and we've been checking out dates of open days.

Her school still does AS levels. She's doing psychology, physics & business.

Please come and join us on the long and bumpy ride past revision and exams and on towards the much anticipated start of uni life in Autumn 2021.

[Parsley65]

It's probably a good idea to work out how long it will take to get to each uni you plan to visit.

Both of my Dc ruled out Scottish uni's as too far (we're in the Midlands) and think 2 or 3 hours away from home is far enough.

Shame, as I fancied a visit to St Andrews!

[Yr10DD]

We are seriously south so I’m not keen on St Andrews! Sadly, she’s ruled out Bath, Bristol, Exeter, Warwick as all want A*AA.

[pourmeanotherglass]

I've told mine that if it's more than 3 hours drive each way they will need to take the train for some of the trips as DH and i both hate driving. Not a huge problem for DD1 who likes an excuse to read for a few hours, but probably excludes Scotland. She won't fly for climate change reasons.

[TabbyStar]

madamy snap! My DD is also thinking of those two different areas! Event management was originally her choice, but youth studies has interested her from the prospectuses. She may take a gap year though, so seems a bit disinterested at the moment.

I can't quite work out open days either, should we go in June or is it okay to wait until next academic year? DD has a job on Saturdays, so can't take lots of time off, though I don't know how it fits with missing college and mocks for the weekday ones. Also I feel like I'm more enthusiastic than her, and it's difficult to know whether to just back off and leave her to it, that's what I'm minded to do, but then I don't want it to end up with it being chaotic.

[Parsley65]

Hi Tabby.

If your Dd is thinking about uni in 2021, then they can apply from this coming Autumn, that's why we're looking at open days from this Summer.

My DD's school is quite ruthless. They have them working on their personal statements over the summer, then polish them at school for a few weeks from September, then there at the starting gate as soon as the application process goes live...

Might be worth having a chat to gauge her thoughts.

[Parsley65]

On the subject of travel my DS is at Bath.

We tend to take him and a car load of stuff down for the start of the year, then for holidays it's up to him to sort out getting there and back. Once he came back by National Express coaches because it was cheap. It also took a circuitous route/had multiple stops and what is about a 2 - 3 hour drive by car ended up over 7 hours!

He now has a student railcard and we collect/drop him off at our local station.

[Parsley65]

Finally, any ideas when we get predicted grades? Without them it's guess work as to which uni's we'll be visiting.

In recent exams Dd got A,B & C. I don't think she'll get A*s, so we're currently not looking at places in the top ten for psychology...

[TabbyStar]

2021 if straight from A levels, I was looking at June open days but as she doesn't seem that bothered I don't want to be too pushy! They don't seem to have covered it at college so far, which I'm a bit surprised about, not sure when it starts, I would have thought that they'd be encouraging them to get prospectuses, though the ones we've just received are a mix of 2020 and 2021, and lots of places don't seem to have finalised open day dates yet, so maybe we're just a bit early.

[Yr10DD]

TabbyStar There’s UCAS fairs you can go to scattered around the country where lots of universities have stalls plus apprenticeship info (I think). Have a look at the Ucas website as this maybe something she could do initially to spark an interest? See what is generally out there? Rather than traipsing all over the country when she’s still unsure.

[Yr10DD]

They’re apparently called ‘exhibitions’. Hoping this link will work.
www.ucas.com/ucas/events-exhibitions

[TabbyStar]

Thanks Yr10DD, one of those might be a possibility. TBH I think she'd be better taking a year out and working before going, but would rather do that from an informed position rather than by default!

[Yr10DD]

I agree tabby especially as there’s so many options and they are still incredibly young to know what’s out there. The careers people say that our teens will be doing jobs that currently don’t exist...

[Baaaahhhhh]

Hi - Checking in to this thread. There are a load of us on another thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/further_education/3683482-GCSES-2019-Done-Results-Received-Moving-on-to-6th-Form-and-College

I'll copy this one over to that one too, so we can all end up in the same one!

[Baaaahhhhh]

So, DD studying History, Classics and Eng Lit. Dropped Biology in January, which was her AS and decided not to continue. They also do an in-house EPQ type thing.

Looking at History - Current Uni's in running, Oxford, Exeter, Southampton, Warwick, Sussex and Kent.

Went to UCAS fair a couple of weeks ago, and thinks she will drop Sussex without even going to visit it.

Have only been to Oxford so far. Plan to go to Exeter in May half term, Warwick in June, and Southampton and Kent clash in July and October, so will see which one we fancy when.

[Baaaahhhhh]

Oh, and as you can see, we are very south centric, and live in the South, and don't want to travel too far. Exeter is the trickiest to get to, but then it pretty much is for anyone not in the South West!

[Johnathonripples]

Hi everyone.. just hopped over from other thread
Dc doing maths, chemistry and biology and epq
Wants to do chemistry at uni. Looking at open days all over the place, it’s going to cost a fortune! I’ve just managed to get a two together railcard using Tesco clubcard points so that’s will help ..thank goodness
Dc has alis grades? ( don’t really understand what these are for?) That’s all we’ve got .. plus current attainment grades (which are exactly the same grades as the Alis grades Dc seems to want to visit unis with very high entry requirements .. I’m making sure we also visit a few with lower requirements

[fayebebaby]

Hi my dd currently doing English lit biology and psychology at a level. Wants to do psychology at uni. Registered/ booked open days for Warwick Loughborough Sheffield and York all in June and Lancaster in September. Her db is currently in his 2nd year at Nottingham studying maths doesn’t seem 5 minutes since we did this

[bimkom]

DS is hoping to do medicine, so I have been keeping an eye on the medicine specific threads, but am placing marking here too. Will look into a two together railcard usingTesco points. Never occurred to me check Tesco clubcard to see if would help with this. I agree the costs of travel, not to mention staying over, seems rather daunting.

[ZandathePanda]

Tip: look at train routes. From us, certain cities are nearer but take forever to get to by train because of the connections or lack of.

[TabbyStar]

The 16/17 Railcard is good. I'm wondering whether open days will be postponed, we've got one in a couple of weeks.

[MarchingFrogs]

The 16/17 Railcard is good

I was going to suggest the 16 - 17 railcard, bit it is less useful than the 'Two together' if the young person never otherwise uses the train and / or the accompanying adult doesn't qualify for a railcard in their own right.

[Johnathonripples]

Dc has a 16-17 railcard but frogs Is right- it’s better for us both to get 1/3 off with a two together than just getting 1/2 off with a 16-17 railcard . There is no other railcard I qualify for.
Cambridge women in stem weekend has been cancelled and also regional oxbridge conference. I’m guessing the uni open day dc was going to attend over Easter will also be cancelled.

[WhatHaveIFound]

I haven't been on the last couple of threads as we've had too much going on. DD had her UCAS application in early and had five offers within a week. However she's now decided that she's going to reject all those offers and apply to a university on our home city.

Between A Levels and Coronavisus (and work stresses) I think the rest of my hair is going to turn white in the next few months!

[bimkom]

BTW the thread title isn't quite right for us, we are strongly thinking about a gap year, so although the plan at the moment is to submit the UCAS form in Autumn, the thought is to apply for Uni in 2022! I assume that is possible. One of the questions to be asked at the relevant Open Days (assuming they happen), is how will they treat an application that assumes a gap year? Hopefully it won't be his dream university (whichever one that is), that turns out not to be keen on gap years.