University 2019/20 intake: Gearing up to graduation (for some but not all)

[NewModelArmyMayhem18]

Previous thread

Thank you @NewModelArmyMayhem18

This may be the last thread. Sad

Indeed, @minesawine

www.highfliers.co.uk/download/2022/graduate_market/GM22-report.pdf

Some interesting info here about graduate recruitment and work experience

Thanks @blametheparents - must have a look at that! Both my DCs experience is that it is a hugely gruelling process

Hello all - in for the final push!!

DD had just messaged me with her graduation date. Day 1 graduation, day 2 her birthday, day 3 lease ends and leave flat. It's going to be a busy week.

Thanks for new thread. Can’t believe we’re still going! @RampantIvy wow that does sound busy!

That sounds incredibly busy @RampantIvy but at least all three things can be done in one go/visit which is a positive.

PS It doesn't have to be the last thread if we don't want it to be. I believe there's another thread still running in 'Higher Eduction' for the 'class of 2017'!

I hope the thread continues as my DS is on a four year course .

Mine have you had news about the graduation ceremonies at NTU, obviously won't apply to my DS this year but I hope your DS has sorted something?

Hi @Ragwort. I hope you are well.

No news yet, there are some broad dates of 11 to 25 July I think, but I have been nagging my DS to find out actual dates as I will need to book the day off work.

If it's any consolation @minesawine, DS has his graduation in a very similar time-frame but he's not heard anything yet either.

They seem to hardly have started and now they're nearly finished.

@MargaretThursday I agree, time has just flown. It seems only yesterday that we were all discussing UCAS choices, grades and what to pack (3 years later and the rice cooker has not left its box!) and now it nearly over for some. Its scary how fast it has gone.

@minesawine ha ha I’ve lost count of the times I’ve said to DD, “ Is there some in the first aid bag I sent with you?” and she has replied. “I don’t know what that is.”

Great to start a new thread. One of the reasons that it seems like no time since they started is that they have (in many cases) been home more than they would have done if it weren't for the pandemic. DS was her for half of his 1st year and most of the 2nd. Now we don't see him!

I also think three year degrees do go by in the blink of an eye.

DD was home from March to July in her first year. She and her friends had already signed up for a second year house so she spent her entire second year in her house share, and has been in her third year flat share since last August.

I think she will feel raher flat when her degree has finished.

@RampantIvy my DD the same. Feels she has had a pretty good student experience all in, her extra curricular activity managed just about to limp on, good times in her house (had same house for 2nd and 3rd years)

My DC have had nothing like the positive experience that I enjoyed as a student, and that saddens me. But it is what it is, and DS is certainly making the best of things.

My DS hasn’t had the experience he would have wanted - home March to October 2020 then back at Christmas 2020 for nearly the whole of that year. He found the effects of lockdowns on stopping all his sport and socials very difficult

I think my DS has been very lucky, he has a good group of friends and I am sure they broke some rules about socialising but he was able to do quite a bit of his sport (cricket). Being on a four year degree has certainly helped as he will have another year back in his Uni city after his work experience - which he is loving.

@bigTillyMint and Durham (like Oxbridge) would normally offer some very unique memories (in a way that a lot of other universities might not). DS had a very good second year (house share and young love blossoming with a flat mate) but I think his final year has been very bitty. He's been shuttling between his house share and where his g/f is doing her postgrad studies a lot. Not sure he's really entered back into student life properly at UEA.

It’s difficult when they have a gf elsewhere @NewModelArmyMayhem18 - the upside of DS being at home a lot was that he got to spend more time with his gf here. He’s back to shuttling this year!

@simbobs, well done to your DS - he is clearly someone who has blossomed in a RL proper job. My DD is also in her element in her grad job and I think my DS will be the same. If he can get into what he wants to do - so many rejections even though he’s got through the first stages

While DD has given me concerns about her health - physical and mental, I feel that she has been incredibly lucky friendship-wise. There were 8 of them sharing in year 2, most of which was in some form of lockdown or another.

They were so inventive in creating their own entertainment - house Halloween party, decorating each rooms in the house as a different nightclub and doing a club crawl for people's birthdays, playing hide and seek, musical evenings as a few of them had brough musical instruments, sleepovers in the living room, themed film nights, fire pit with sparklers for bonfire night, Christmas dinner etc.

She has also found that none of them are possessive about their friends and don't get jealous if you make friends with their friends. So everyone has managed to increase their friendship circle without any nasty jealousy.