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.

[Malbecfan]

Good news about the contract @ErrolTheDragon.

Also, glad to read about people's parents getting the Covid vaccine. My dad had his first one last week - DD1 took him to it, waited then taxied him home again. She is now back at uni but her college have allowed her to bubble with a friend on the floor below and her bf (very convenient!)

[Loshad]

Whereabouts in the ne are your roots @Zenia, my grandfather was a GP in Horden, my other grandfather the pit manager there and my uncle the pit doctor.
I may have played this to my advantage at university in The 1980s at the peak of the miners strike
Candidate hustings for a SU position, do the candidates support the miners?
Me all my family work at the pit, crowd roars with approval ( they didn’t actually ask what they did)

[Haffdonga]

You obviously had the makings of a true politician in your student days @Loshad (a judicious spinning of the facts!)

Sorry about your ds's rejection, @Xenia . I hope he has other irons in the fire. It must be tough being a twin sometimes if your twin is following the same path as you, because of the inevitable comparison between each other all the time. I know my 2 ds (2 years apart) are incredibly competitive with each other and have compared every little achievement through their lives.

And congratulations @ErrolTheDragon's dd getting her contract signed.

[Eve]

Glad to hear of all the parents being vaccinated and interviews going on.

DS despite having a job secured is still applying as he wants to consider all options, but there is a
noticeable drop in numbers available this year. DS2 is looking for a summer placement and so far we have only found a handful of firms offering - when DS1 looked it was almost take your pick.

Both have exams at the moment , DS1 normally has a scribe & 25% extra time which obviously can’t happen now, so he’s been given a 24hr online submission deadline & told grammar & spelling will be overlooked. He will use his dictation software but sometimes it gets words wrong.

He finished an exam yesterday & commented 1st time that he felt he wasn’t at a disadvantage in an exam.

He’s also applying for various student volunteer roles in Italy , some via a EU sponsored program - thank goodness for dual citizenship.

[Xenia]

Eve I am glad he found it okay. My older son was allowed to type his exams in the sixth form and at university which really helped him but even with the twins who have no special problems like that, they have found typing exams last year due to CV19 is much better. I expect it is better for markers too.l used to mark some A level papers and professional exam papers and some scripts had such bad writing it was so hard to mark them - and obviously trying to be entirely fair between the scrawls and beautiful easy to read ones as it is only the content that counts. Typing removes all that problem.

I applied to 138 law firms so until he is up to that kind of number rather than just having one rejection I am not sure I will be too disappointed.... His twin has applied to none yet. This is for trainee lawyer jobs in 2023. Both twins start their next one year long law course in September and their current one ends just after Easter so they still have about 18 months more of studying.

Yes, twins are interesting. They are non identical in our case and were in different classes right from age 4 with different friends and even at the same university different halls and friends but seem closer than non siblings. They chose to share a bed room until age 18 something my other children would never have wanted once they were teenagers. I have always been pleased they have had almost identical exam results rather than one much brighter than the other.

On the roots - I have been boring the family to death particularly last year when I progressed our family tree further than my father did in the 1980s (I have the benefit of the internet) back to the 1700s on just about all sides. In the NE they were all poor as church mice really. One ancestor in the 1800s was down the mines aged 10. My grandfather died at Sir John Priestman's shipyard aged 30 - he fell from a great height when working on a ship. Lots were in or near Sunderland and bits of the Durham coal field. There is a grave of one at Jarrow and that one was a miner but then rose to be an overman and on the 1851 census bumped himself up to "proprietor of houses" so he probably bought a couple of houses and was doing better than others.

[SMaCM]

DD and her Masters course mates have been having trouble getting their course books from the library all year and have just discovered it's because all their books are on the other campus, where their lectures were supposed to be, and the library can't get access to them 😡.

[latedecember1963]

Congratulations to your DD, Errol, and it just goes to show it's as well to check the small print.
My DH had a similar experience to you, Xenia, when he was job hunting in the mid 80s. Tough times seem to go in cycles.

How frustrating for your DD and her coursemates, SMaCM. DS2 is getting really fed up about how difficult some aspects of university communication has become.
His tutors, on the whole, have been as helpful as they can and he feels sorry for them having to somehow juggle teaching through all this. He gets the impression the university tutors are kept in the dark by the higher echelons too!
It's a big contrast with his experience in Australia last year, where the communication and pastoral support was excellent.
My friend's DD is in her 2nd year and has hardly experienced university life as she imagined it was going to be.

[bigTillyMint]

@SMaCM how frustrating and unfair for your DD and course mates
My DD is so relieved to be able to get into the library to study now as she finds it very difficult to motivate herself and focus in her room.

@Eve - great to hear your DS is getting his reasonable adjustments - why is it so hard to get this arranged?

[SMaCM]

@latedecember1963 I think DD would agree that the tutors are doing their best under difficult circumstances. The library 'helpfully' gave them links to buy the books themselves. Not quite sure why they should do that when the uni have access to a van and could go and collect them all.

[latedecember1963]

That's atrocious, SMaCM. I absolutely agree that the books should be transported to the nearer site for your DD and her coursemates. To suggest they could buy them when they just need the books to be available is outrageous.

[Horsemad]

Poor show by the university library service there, @SMaCM. Not surprised your DD and course mates are frustrated.

[Xenia]

Access to books is a big issue for lots of students. My twins' law course provides material online only but they can print out stuff here as needed. One said he is not pleased this term's mock exams have been changed from last term's so that there is one a week rather than all 4 or 5 in one week. He says it not fair if 20 complain and thousands are happy they act on the complaints of the 20 without asking the other thousands. Before the mocks were a week of exams like the real thing later this academic year. Now it means at least 4 weeks which are exam weeks spreading out the pain. Anyway at least they know how it all works this term in terms of mocks and how the final exams are for this term's subjects as they have done last term's (results are out in February for those final exams of last term's work).

We worked out after the mid April final exams for this course they then have almost 5 moths off before early September start of their legal practice year course ( yet more law....). One might try to get a para legal job and he is doing some pro bono training/work at present.

The other might ( if allowed) return to Bristol as the rented flat is leased until mid July although if friends are all doing exams then I suspect he might delay going back until they have finished as it is probably nicer and easier to lockdown here at home. 4 months of exotic travel from April, which would have been my suggestion, is probably not going to be feasible in what may be their last 4 months off in one stretch in their lives. Anyway we are some of the least affected by covid people in the UK so no complaints here really. I have worked from home since 1994.

[Carriemac]

Oxford reimbursements all
Student test book purchases
During lockdown which was very fair of them.
I'm currently sitting here with DD in tears , assignment deadline is midday today , she has submitted 2 out of 3 but not finished the third so she is going to submit late . I know her dyspraxia makes her disorganised and bad with deadlines but she's had ages to finish them
I'm so cross and trying to hide it until she submits (late) but I'm going to have strong words about organisation after this - she's 21 so really needs to learn how to organise herself

[ErrolTheDragon]

DD's BF got the job he interviewed for, despite competition from people with relevant PhDs!

[Malbecfan]

Wow, @ErrolTheDragon that's brilliant!

DD has been given £50 from her dept for printing. She needs printed copies of her lecture notes. Some students already have tablets as well, so they have pocketed the dosh. DD doesn't, but her college only charges 4p per sheet for printing rather than 5p so she reckons she will have cash left over.

Her current college have accepted her PhD application so all she has to do is get the grades. I was hoping to scale back on the teaching, but seemingly both DDs have other ideas.

[Xenia]

Carrie 2 out of 3 is fine and people are often a bit late with deadlines.I am sure it will be okay.

I spent about £200 on printer inks to stock up for my sons and then their printer irrevocably broke, we could not buy the same make as so old and no one will buy the inks and then I had to spend about £290 on a new printer and £200 on new inks - although even without lockdown that might have been necessary. At least they have working printer h ere although the one in Bristol doesn't.

[Horsemad]

Annoying about the ink Xenia.

DS submitted 3 today as well @Carriemac, he pulled an all nighter - again. Think it's part of his ritual now. 🙄
The all nighters and submitting close to the cut off time make me 😲 I suppose I didn't know how he prepared for them when he was away at university, although to be fair, he has worked really hard on these, so I hope he gets decent marks.

Great news for your DD's BF Errol, what a nice feeling that must be. 🙂

[SMaCM]

@Carriemac I feel your pain. DD is a very last minute person.

[bigTillyMint]

@Carriemac, both of mine have had to get extensions for various essays (DD most recently as job interview process has clashed badly!), so she is far from the only one!

Congratulations to @ErrolTheDragon DDs bf and @Malbecfan DD.

[Carriemac]

@horsemad I suppose that's true, they probably did all nighters and close to the bone submissions that we knew nothing about but it's not fun to witness .

[Horsemad]

It isn't. As someone who likes to prepare well in advance for anything, I find it stressful!

[bigTillyMint]

Me too!
I’d rather do the work as soon as I get it so that I don’t have it hanging over me. But I’m not sure I was like that at uni

[ErrolTheDragon]

I'm a dreadful procrastinator. Fortunately DD doesn't seem to be one any more, not as far as her studies are concerned anyway.

We talked to her on Thursday, which was the first day of her term - she had time because she'd woken at 5am, for some reason always did on the first day of term, and had listened to the online lecture and done the related problem sheet before 8am. Fortunately I can remember her birth else I'd be doubting her parentage.

[Xenia]

I like to get things done too but not everyone is the same and some work up to deadlines and do their best then. Bristol son now safely there for this term and other one working hard here. I heard we have 1.7m unemployed now in the UK. We had 3m when I graduated in 1982 - the worst then for 50 years so I will not be heaping my sympathy on 2020 graduates quite yet..... (and in 1982 we had 10m people fewer in the UK too)

[latedecember1963]

Hope everyone and your DCs are all doing ok.
Did your DD manage to get the books she needed, SMaCM?
DS2 had 3 essay deadlines a couple of weeks ago and has started having lectures and seminars this week. I think it's dawning on him that he's on the final straight of university life. Talk about job hunting has gone very quiet. I don't know whether it's best to leave him to focus on getting the best degree result he can or to give occasional prompts re employment.
I want him to enjoy his last semester, but I'm conscious that one of his close friends got a 1st last summer and still hasn't got a job.