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.

Thanks @Xenia - that made me smile. Sadly I did hire my gown but dd was not impressed with my suggestion of a home made fake gown but was cheered by the offer to go to a restaurant of her choice to celebrate. Fortunately the hotel I had booked is free cancellation but we may get some use from it anyway

Having a early night. With the budget tomorrow we work throughout the night to get material out to clients and with the furlough scheme being extended until the end of September, there will be more queries. DH and DS are planning on a take away from a local restaurant whilst I’ll be surviving on black coffee!

That was a nice idea @Xenia. I will def do the grad photo with cap & gown if DS doesn't get a graduation ceremony this year.

In the 1980s I used to hide a battery operated radio (it was quite large) and ear phones in a plastic bag and take it to work on budget day so keen was I to hear it but was supposed to be doing other work at the same time so I had to listen in secret. Seems a different world today. I am watching The Americans on prime (set not too long before that) which is also reminding me of older technologies.

@Xenia. Just popping in to say how that post reminded me of the 80’s. Used to work for a law publisher and was in charge of the tax law list. Budget day was so exciting. At work until late that night, printers coming to collect hard copy for the hot metal presses to run overnight. Once the copy was packed into the van we took all the lawyer authors out to a splendid dinner and got cabs home in the early hours. And we got a day off next day. Happy times!!

@readsalotgirl63

Dd's graduation just been cancelled so she is very despondent - not sure how to cheer her up as it is all pretty grim still !

My DD is also gutted that she has now missed out on 2 graduations. She is planning to get together with friends, hire gowns and we will take pictures with them and and each other's parents, then go for a slap up meal all together.

DS doesn’t think there will be a graduation ceremony for his Masters and he and DD didn’t have one last summer. It was their 21st birthday last July and if restrictions are lifted we will rehire the marquee and have a joint 21st birthday and degree graduation for the DT’s in the garden at home with their friends and hopefully our families from Belgium, US and Canada can come over.

That sounds lovely @Parker231. DD seems to think she can't hire a gown unless there is a graduation ceremony - I will do a bit of investigating. We will do the slap up meal at a restaurant of her choice which we would have done anyway - but her university does lovely champagne afternoon teas and I was looking forward to that as I do like an afternoon tea ! Perhaps we'll do both

Ds is working towards completing his dissertation by Easter, has only 1 essay left to complete and then he's only got 1 subject exam ( open book) and that's him finished his 4yr degree
Sadly found out today graduation has been cancelled 😞 , although there have been discussions regarding putting it back till conditions improve
He's deferring any thoughts of post grad as subject is a practical and he sees no point in starting if he can't get full experience - can't say I blame him

Not much to report here on either the home front or from DS2.
I'm liking the ingenious ideas for graduation photos. DS2 hasn't said if Birmingham have cancelled their ceremonies for this summer.
Have you been able to get a mother of the bride outfit, Xenia, with all the shops being closed?

I am going to wear what I wore for my other daughter's wedding in terms of dress and fascinator. I am not really interested in clothes but I must try them on in case nothing fits I suppose. I do need to sort out the 3 boys' suits as one has broken trousers and if they do not start on this soon it will be the wedding day and I was joking the one with long hair won't have cut it (I doubt he will anyway and why should he but he looks better without long blonde locks), the one joking that he has a pure white suit for fancy dress might come in that, the vegan might arrive in hemp shorts I suggests and then I am probably a stone heavier than when my last daughter married so that may not be a good look too but if the whole thing is really about prayer, church, God, love and committing to each other the more of the pointless commercialism we can pare away the better in my book. They are going for lounge suits for the men rather than morning dress which is probably right for a 15 person wedding. I think they may be allowed some kind of small meal after.

On the church service the law apparently allows only the religiously essential bits from 29 March so eg you could not have a mass and communion which I had at my wedding as you can be married by the church and state without that bit -so everything is reduced to the bare minimum presumably so you breath over each other for less time (even in a massive church). I suspect you can have the organ but sadly no singing but we shall see what the rules say when fully out. I think they may be allowed readings as the church as sent a few over. reading probably means less spit comes out of your mouth than singing.

On the graduation photos they are fake sadly though as in my gown for a degree I did not that they did. May be someone could sell software where you can upload your photo in your suit and the software puts on the correct down and hood for that degree. Should be fairly easy to photoshop.

chit on the budget I remember those days too, although why I was so keen to hear it live to know about the tax changes when I was not doing tax I don't know. I won the university tax law prize and did 6 months in tax as a trainee solicitor so I suppose I just had kept up an interest in it or perhaps it was just personal - tax changes certainly affect most people in some way.

I think your dd's wedding plans sound very special Xenia, pared right down to the parts of a wedding that actually matter without all the expensive trappings that mean nothing. Your dd and her dh will remember theirs for the right reasons and not because of seating plan politics, hen party arguments, gift list resentment or whatever else takes over some people's weddings.

DS is shocked to realise that his lectures for his masters are now almost over and all he has left of his course is his research project and a couple of assessments (including one mysteriously based on 'artwork' which seems a strange metric to assess a 100% science subject!)

I don't know if he'll get a graduation ceremony for his masters. I hope so because his older brother refused to attend his, so I've missed out on one so far. Even if they have one I guess it will feel a bit 'fake' because he's only ever met most of his course mates and lecturers online. There isn't any course camaraderie.

Ikwym @Haffdonga - DS1 left (before he was asked to by the uni) so we didn't get a graduation ceremony and I had kind of looked forward to going to DS2's...

Likewise, DS2 hasn't met any of his course mates this year. It's a weird old time, isn't it?! 🤨

I think that sounds like a lovely wedding. In years to come people might talk about lockdown weddings a bit like our grandparents reminisced about wartime weddings.Outfits and haircuts are topics for discussion here too, but at least we have until August.
I've kept reminding my son and DiL- to -be that the wedding day is 1 day, it's their marriage that's important. We had a very modest wedding but here we are over 32 years later and we still like as well as love each other.
I spoke to DS2 last night. He still doesn't know what's happening re Graduation but seems ok with the work he has left and his assessment timetable. He's a stoical soul who just gets on with things, I think I feel the disappointment for him more than he does for himself.
We're going to need a new thread for our fledgling graduates.

Good to see this pop up in active, it had dropped off my radar.I'll come back and read properly after my Pilates class.

(including one mysteriously based on 'artwork' which seems a strange metric to assess a 100% science subject!)

I suppose it depends what they mean - visual representations can be quite important in communicating science. I'm in a field where this is particularly the case - a picture (or 3d image) can be worth thousands of words.

DD is almost certain to need to come home to do her exams to be sure of reliable Internet. She'll enforce strict bedtimes on me!

I'm not sure they've heard anything either way re graduations - she is assuming they'll probably not happen but that a lot of people will turn up for the 'fake MA' graduation in a couple of years instead.

My twins are the same - not met in real life any class mates at all other than where on a workshop online. Anyway may be next year (they have a one year law course September 2022 - the LPC) will be more face to face.

I suspect there will be more detail on rules for weddings from 29 March out soon with the 13 guests. I think they can have readings by no singing (a bit of a pity given how many singers there are in the family and I met their father in a Cathedral - he was the organist and conductor of the choir I was in). My daughter says wedding receptions for 15 are allowed by mid April and those secular places that put on weddings are opening but most hotels and clubs are not so although her wedding will be in church hopefully they can find a wedding venue for a meal after. I think you have to distance at normal church services but not for weddings in church and at receptions (between the 15 allowed to be present). it is very complicated.

I agree with the nice comments above - it will be remembered as a covid 19 wedding just as my parents' 1953 wedding photos show a fairly small wedding which was clearly just after WWII.

Errol daughter doing exams at home sounds wise. My son in Bristol will be coming home for his April exams ie come for Easter and stay on until the exams and the wedding are over.

I've started us a new thread as I didn't want us to run out of space.
"2017 seems so long ago, now they're fledgling graduates."

Thanks!

2017 seems so long ago, now they're fledgling graduates. www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4184806-2017-seems-so-long-ago-now-theyre-fledgling-graduates

End of an era, moving on to being 'proper grown ups'! 😁