Heading towards 4th year or post grad/jobs

[Xenia]

Continuation of the previous thread for those of us with children who are just finishing their 3rd year at university (so either "graduating" in 2020 or going into year 4 in Autumn 2020)..........

My twins' degree results will be out in late July. Good luck to everyone else waiting for finals results.

Good news on the exams Xenia and thanks for the update on pick-ups. I'm still aiming for 5th.

Normally at this time of year, I have performances every weekend so everything has to be planned months in advance. I have played in one concert since early March and have no more in the diary. To be honest, I quite like having free weekends now and the normal pre-Christmas choir things in 2 schools has completely disappeared. It's also been a revelation to have lunch-breaks this term! Every cloud...

That's good news Xenia, and thanks re Xmas.
Malbec that is a fairly good silver lining. I am normally irritating optimistic but I'm struggling to see the silver lining this year. I suppose my carbon footprint is better than last year when we had to do a long haul flight for a family emergency but that's not much of a consolation!
In other news, my youngest got some of the GCSE mock results today, in old money he's got an A*, A, A and a B, we're still waiting for the others. The A** and A are in two of his A level choices, we're still waiting for the 3rd one.

We had a long chat with DD on Sunday - all well but very busy. It seems she'd only be able to come home for a short while (shes got loads to do in the vac and finds it easier to focus on work there) so we're pretty much agreed it's not really worth it. We know she can have a good long time home this summer before her job starts so we've got that to look forwards to.

Last year we went for a good walk on Xmas day and deferred lunch and pressies to the 26th... this year I'm inclined to do the walk (weather permitting) and ditch the latter. Except for doing a zoom of the dog opening his.

Well done to the Xenia sons! They must be relieved to get that 1st benchmark cleared.

Birmingham Uni have given their instructions to their students and DS2 has booked a C19 test for the 8th December. He has to be ready to travel within 24 hours of a negative result. He has an exam on the 7th, but is quite good at organising himself so it should be ok. DH is on standby to collect him as I can't just take a day off school.
1 of his housemates is staying at the house because he has clinically vulnerable relatives so doesn't think he should go home. I've said to DS2 that we'll put together a little pack of goodies to send him. If it were under different circumstances we would have invited him to spend at least some of the holiday with us, but we have to protect my MiL.

DS has mentioned anything about tests but he’s waiting until his friend has his last f2f and then drive back to London together.

That's a good idea, Parker. DS2 has offered to get the train but we would rather he avoided public transport if possible.

Son and his flatmate are being charged council tax for the summer holiday which seems a bit mean just because technically their tenancy started then and his studies only started on 6 September which is actually only when he came back to Bristol. Then they charge his flat mate for the month after - my son's course started a month earlier. Then they will charge him all year unless he can produce a letter from his institution which I bet takes 5 months to produce.

Anyway they are all happy so that's all fine and the advance materials for the December exams were out yesterday for one subject and the rest follow each day for 3 more days. I suppose it is like being a real lawyer - You are sent some paper in advance but not the questions, can ponder them and then everyone sits down at the same time (but on line) and is given the questions and answers them on the day in Dec. So by mid Dec they will have done half their exams for this academic year and half their course. Time is flying by.

@Xenia, the same happened to DD and her flat - also in Bristol and graduates/not students till Sep

Her wasn't even living there until he became a student but had to sign the lease for earlier in the summer (never mind that I am paying over £6k for rent when his course is 100% online) and then we get taxed and taxed and taxed as ever ..only death and taxes being our certainties in life as they say.

@Xenia

Son and his flatmate are being charged council tax for the summer holiday which seems a bit mean just because technically their tenancy started then and his studies only started on 6 September which is actually only when he came back to Bristol. Then they charge his flat mate for the month after - my son's course started a month earlier. Then they will charge him all year unless he can produce a letter from his institution which I bet takes 5 months to produce.

Anyway they are all happy so that's all fine and the advance materials for the December exams were out yesterday for one subject and the rest follow each day for 3 more days. I suppose it is like being a real lawyer - You are sent some paper in advance but not the questions, can ponder them and then everyone sits down at the same time (but on line) and is given the questions and answers them on the day in Dec. So by mid Dec they will have done half their exams for this academic year and half their course. Time is flying by.

Have they asked for the discount because the property was empty? Not all authorities do it if there are beds in the property but it's worth asking.

Same @xenia

They have paid it now as it the council seemed very clear that as the tenancy had started even if they were not living in it until the course started as they had finished their first degrees they were just like a normal household of 2 people. Let us hope he can drag a council tax letter out of his university (which in 2017 took me several months).

@Malbecfan hope your dd can secure funding for PhD, i always said to ours that if they couldn’t get a funded place then maybe it was a sign they weren’t good enough ( harsh I know but there has to be a limit for most parents on funding kids, though I do have one friend who funded her kid through 2 years of degree A, then 3 years of degree B before kid decided to do nursing so another 3 year degree!)
Certainly DS3 has his fees paid and gets a stipend of around £1200/ month, seems pretty similar ( allowing for inflation) to what I got when doing mine in the 80s.

@Zenia and @bigTillyMint, how avidly are Bristol chasing these? Just wondering if DS2 will get a bill as Bristol graduated the medics early so they get to work on the covid wards, so technically he wasn’t a student from mid March but his tenancy ran until end of June ( he wasn’t resident either, was out in the sticks in hospital accommodation)

@Loshad, DD got the first letter about paying council tax in August. They sorted the student paperwork and it was followed up with the demand in October IIRC.

Meant to add, maybe the council won’t know about them finishing early, so he might be ok?

Thanks @bigTillyMint, will just have to wait and see I guess.

No news is good news, given how fast they got onto DD and her housemates!

@Loshad, good point. I think DD was talking about applying for funding. She has been in receipt of a Cambridge bursary for the last 3+ years so they know we aren't exactly rolling in cash. The application deadline is 9th December, so I'll wait until I see her in person, hopefully next weekend, before I ask. Last night her floor had their Bridgemas meal - DD was in charge of mulled wine. I suppose I should check if they are still alive...

Not sure about council tax in Bristol as it is second hand from my son but it sounds as though he took the tenancy in July and now November they are asking for council tax (backdated of course). I paid is £112 share for the summer and obviously am hoping he get prize the council tax letter (student card does not count sadly) from his institution soon enough to ensure his exemption from September continues.

I can cope with £112 as having started supporting child 1 in 1984 (full time childcare costs) I can see the end in sight of supporting children probably by 2024 - 40 years. When I was telling the one at home why I don't put the oven on just for one baked potato (which he does every day at present) and how poor people were in the old days (and today of course) I said it was fine in the context of what it costs currently for fees etc - £50k a year for the twins, £25k each. Next year's fees alone are £17k each unless they get funding for that. Not that I have much I want to spend money on anyway.

Good luck to those seeking PhD funding.

Last night her floor had their Bridgemas meal - DD was in charge of mulled wine. I suppose I should check if they are still alive...

They didn't bother with a full meal, but mine was still alive after their Bridgemas "mince pies and mulled...." "... When I read the label properly it was grain spirit and grape juice, I thought it seemed cheap but it tasted nice".

apple.news/A-a37II_hT16lqoQhU00MGg

Am on serious countdown to DS coming home - can’t wait to see him although still no firm date from him as to when he’s driving home.

Looks like next term is starting late. It really has been a disaster of a year for Uni students.

Thanks, Parker. I saw that too. It won;'t affect my sons as their law course is 100% online or was this term and I expect it will be next term, but is very relevant to others. I wonder if the universities that have refunded rent from the going home date this term to original going home date will do the same for the January rent for arts students in their first year.

My two start their final exams for this year's course next week - Thursday Friday and the next Monday and Tuesday are the exam days and then they are free until next term whereas my son's girl friend who is doing the law conversion course with another institution has her first exams in January so more time but blights Christmas in her case in a sense.

I am also busy with work as is usually the case at this time of year and has been since I started in 1983. you might have thought a pandemic would give me a break but it never happens. It would be nice to have less work as you get ready for Christmas but always people want legal work done in a huge rush to be done by 25th. Never mind.....

@Xenia, I get it. I'm a music teacher so this term is normally insane. I work in 2 schools. 1 has an autumn concert then 2 Carol Services, the other has an all-singing all-dancing (including gym display) Christmas concert. This year, all is cancelled. I haven't yet lost my voice and Christmas music has been limited to the 12 Days of Christmas with Reception/Year 1, Silent Night chords on Boonwhackers with year 5 and year 8 setting a verse about Santa's reindeer to music.

I'm not a fan of Covid, but there are some upsides .

*boomwhackers. It's Friday