Hello all, been lurking a while although was an early adopter on this thread started by @Duchessofmuchness ! Thought it time to check in with an update, it's been crazy busy over here!
Daughter is in the thick of it right now with 2 down, 6 to go of her applications to both degree courses and foundations, all to begin this year, all in London, which is the only place (other than New York! If we'd stayed in the US she'd be applying to Parsons and FIT!) she wants to be. Which at least made it "easier" (?) when it came to narrowing down choices: no Farnham or Brighton or Manchester for us!
She's applied through UCAS to 5 BA courses, 4 in Fashion Design (Kingston, her top choice, LCF/ UAL, Ravensbourne & London Met) and one Design (Goldsmiths). She's also applying to 3 Foundations: Kingston (again top choice), CSM/ UAL and Ravensbourne.
She was advised it was going to be super stressy to try to do all of the above at the same time as completing A level coursework (Spoiler: IT IS, arggghhh, not just for her!!), but she wanted to throw her hat in all the rings as is undecided about FAD (everyone always advises it, but she is pretty certain she'd rather just get stuck right into a degree and due to the school she is at and the A levels she's doing she is covering a lot of ground already). Also although she'd get free FAD tuition as she's under 19, we can't get a maintenance loan and as we don't live in London we just don't think we can afford that option without some sort of scholarship or bursary.
It's been a bear of a month, only a couple of her year group are doing two coursework based creative A levels and their 60% project deadline was last Tues, day before the KSA FAD deadline (WHY did they want only 300 word PS when everyone else is 500 and requires practically entirely re writing!), and 2 days before LCF wanted her portfolio. She has had to get an extension on the A level c/w to Monday and is at school right now (Sat, it's a boarding school) finishing up her art project which will be 60% of her final grade. They then get 8 weeks to work on the timed exam condition part of the A level worth 40% of both fashion and art (she has to do them in the same week), so it should get easier for her as the months go by. She's been ill in between all this and super stressed, but at least focused and described it as "productive stress"! I do think she's forgotten about the geography mind you, and hasn't finished her independent study worth 20% yet....argh.
Right now, she's going to try and get the portfolios in for Kingston BA (her top choice, if she gets this she'll do it) and London Met BA (they already made her a low conditional offer so I think portfolio is a formality, not sure the fact the offer came the day after she submitted her UCAS form instills much confidence in them, but still nice to get a quick offer!) done this week before half term, and possibly CSM and Raves FADs too as the deadlines for those come right after half term.
She has an online interview booked with Raves BA Fashion for early March and she's still waiting to hear from Goldsmiths as to whether they want a portfolio. She didn't put the UCAS in until Jan 21st on advice of her teachers to give them time to gather all their materials, which was smart.
I wasn't even allowed to look at her UCAS form, but glad I insisted as there were a couple of minor issues (she was born and raised in the USA but been here just long enough to qualify for home fees and had input dates wrong so I caught that!) and haven;t asked to see anything to do with her portfolios at all so have been intrigued reading how much all of you seem to know about what your kids are putting into theirs! The other night she did show me briefly her London College of Fashion portfolio at least!
My big worry is London accom costs and availability at the moment -- her top choice of Kingston at least has halls, which is what she (and I) really want for her, but pretty much all the others with the exception of Goldsmiths (as a Univ of London/ UCL grad myself I am secretly gunning for this one!) don't have their own halls, and as we live down near the south coast she won't be commuting. Also trying to wrap my head around student loans as we're gonna need aaaaaall of those!
Anyway apols for the mega long post, but just saying hello and good luck to all your offspring - it's not for the faint of heart this creative application biz is it? I mean, she looks across at her peers applying to standard Unis to do biology or english with their one UCAS form, no portfolios, offers coming in already and nothing super important to do until May exams...but hey, no denying her passion!
Any thoughts on the above most welcome. I seem to remember @mondaytosunday saying something cautionary about London Met? Anyone have insight into Ravensbourne BA Fashion or Goldsmiths Design BA?