Parents guide on what to - first child going to Uni in Sep 2021

[portico]

Hi all
I am clueless, and need someone to please advise if a good website.

DS1 is going to Uni in London in Sep 2021. I need to find a noddy parents guide on what we need to under the following themes, and anything else you may think I have missed:

1. Admin,
   A) getting tuition fees physically paid, when does this happen. Can I pay myself or does it need to be a loan. Can feed be paid monthly.
   B) how do we get accommodation in halls booked, and when. How do we pay, can we pay monthly.
   C) Who gets the correspondence with the Uni, my son or me as the parent

2. Onboarding
   A) Is there any other part of the onboarding process I don’t know about?
   B)

"how often bedding and clothing needs washing,"

I suspect bedding will get washed when he brings it home after his 3rd year

Never saw the UCAS webite from either of my children, but I did google the nearest Lidl/Aldi/Costa...

how often bedding and clothing needs washing,"

I suspect bedding will get washed when he brings it home after his 3rd year

In terms of accommodation - that will vary from uni to uni. Generally though you can only apply once you have confirmed your first choice uni. Occasionally you can also apply to your insurance, but gain check with the uni website.

Once you firm your choice, the uni will send you details about how to apply for accommodation - you normally have to submit a list of a certain number of choices, and hopefully you will be given one of those. Again some allocate as they receive the applications, others allocate after results day.

If you don't get your first choice, then you will have to apply for accommodation at either your insurance (if offered a place) or another uni found through clearing. As this will be after results day, choices will be limited, and you may not be successful. If this is the case the uni should be able to put you in touch with either private companies with Halls type accommodation, or recommended landlords for private renting.

I didn't see the UCAS website either as they did all that at school although I was asked that question about student finance. (I wrongly said above for Bristol apply on 21 June - that is when the accommodation requests are considered - so you apply before then)

In our case I reached an agreement with the children in advance about how much I would be paying them. With the oldest child we had it in writing but that wasn't really necessary so did not bother with the others.

No one will want to do it my way but I do try to print out their student number on my paper universities file and over the years children who have lost the email references and documents or have no lap top power etc have found that quite useful. If they send me a tenancy agreement for years 2 and 3 I try to print a copy of that too as is quite useful.

My twin sons took not too much stuff and their older sisters took loads and loads although that was also not just a gender difference (the girls had loads of clothes) but the girls were earlier in the days of boxes of CDs rather than music all online etc. The oldest girl is 13 years older than the twins.

As I am in my 50s and was brought up with parents who suffered WW2 rationing I think I am meaner with buying new stuff. Eg mine took their bedding off their beds at home rather than new stuff although most people do get bought new sheets and I have mellowed over that more recently and bought the odd new sheet - although one still at Easter had to bring home his under sheet as we don't have a spare double one (I sleep in a single bed).

Hi all
I was on a course until 1pm, abs so sorry I could not respond today.
Thanks for all the comments, as I’ve a better idea on way forward since 1930 last night - based on your responses any thanks 🙏🙏🙏

It seems the deadline is not 21 May 2021

See below, have I got it wrong

www.gov.uk/apply-for-student-finance/when?step-by-step-nav=18045f76-ac04-41b7-b147-5687d8fbb64a

Technically they can apply for finance until May of their first year of uni. But their uni will have booted them off the course before then if they haven't paid....

In order for maintenance to come through on the first day of term they need to apply by the initial May deadline (it might be a different date this year due to covid). In reality if they're late - and plenty only decide to apply in August - SFE won't guarantee to pay on time. Often they manage it, but no guarantee.

Hi titchy
Thanks for this. What is the equivalent of the initial May deadline you refer to?

OP when it came to apply for student finance, my son did it, but i sat next to him in case he had questions and because there's usually always some paperwork needed that only becomes clear during the application and I might know where it is.

To be fair I think when I went to uni it was parents who had to fill in forms so that I could get a grant, not me.

sometimes I really hate the attitude of well your child is 18 (not yet in my case) and so they must do everything by themselves agreed

looptheloopinahulahoop

That’s ok. Lol. Tbh, a lot of it is fault for not getting up to speed with the basics - abs I should have done it months ago

My fault

The deadline to submit your funding application to ensure that your student finance is in place for the start of the academic year 2021/22 is 21st May 2021.

If you apply after 21st May 2021, there is no guarantee that your application will have been processed by September 2021. If it is not processed in time, you will need to cover all your expenses while you wait for the application to be processed.

In theory, you can apply as late as 31st May 2022, but you will have had to pay everything with no loan, etc. up to that point.

DS2 has submitted the online part for finance this evening, but he has to send off a copy of his birth certificate (which I acquired a few weeks ago, in case we couldn't find the original), as his passport expired last year and there seemed little point in renewing it just so that he had it as proof of identity for SFE. He might as well apply for one soon, though, just in case he gets the mad urge to jet off to the Falklands or wherever it is we are currently allowed to go to on holiday.

I am grateful for the SFE reminder. DS still has not done his, so I will give him a nudge.

@Oldowl, DS2 said that when he went to start the process, he was initially held in a queue to access the site, so they are obviously not alone.

DD was asked to send additional proof of NI number as apparently HMRC had no record. We sent the letter that HMRC had sent us when she was 16! A case of "the computer says no" I assume .

I know it’s too late to say this now, for the first year, but SFE always gets clogged up near the deadline for everyone who is applying for their first time.

We did our DS2’s renewal a lot earlier this year than previously and his application was updated overnight. If you’re a first year applicant (or parent!) student finance has to be redone every year.

@Xenia hope you have all sheets - great post

To others , Ds had to do SF forms ( not just for fees / accommodation ) for e.g. dyslexia etc - college people really helpful.

Are they supposed to have applied for finance already? DS doesn't even know which uni he will be going to yet as it depends on his grades.

You apply based on firm choice. It won't get paid until September.

Thanks LIZS he hasn't accepted any offers yet.

@StuntNun

Yes he needs to apply for finance. My DS hadn't decided so put down who he THOUGHT he would choose. In the end he firmed elsewhere and we went in and amended it. It updated within a couple of days.

Thanks NotSorry I'll help him get it sorted tomorrow. I've had no communication from the school about any of the application process so it's difficult to know what to do. DS has special needs and isn't very good at organising things and meeting deadlines. He was completely unaware he had to apply by last month.

@StuntNun he will also need to decide his firm and insurance offer by 30th June otherwise he will automatically end up in clearing.

there is a link here for the UCAS deadlines www.ucas.com/advisers/managing-applications/application-deadlines