Oxford/Cambridge - current students support/chat thread 2022 - cont

[Panicmode1]

@petitebleu - so sorry to hear about your DS. I hope that some time out over Christmas may help to give him some space and time to think about his next steps.

Lovely news @ofteninaspin , congratulations!
DS has his exam timetable now, he seems pleased with it. Last year he had one every day for nearly 2 weeks. This time around, 7 papers over 2 weeks.

Very well done mini @ofteninaspin

I have a houseful for the Varsity weekend. DS1 and his friends are in London to watch the rugby at Twickenham on Saturday and the Boat Race on Sunday. DD is off to Italy (from Gatwick) with her new Oxford friends and they're using our house as the 'hotel' airport on Saturday night (and me as their Uber).

We have tickets for a drinks reception to watch the Boat Race as Cambridge are using the Boat House where DS2 rows. We've been before and it's such a fun occasion.

@ofteninaspin What brilliant news about your very clever DD! Well done her! Hope your DS recovers fully from shingles soon and you can enjoy getting together over Easter.

@SchrodingersKitty well done to your DS also for finishing his dissertation and it must be lovely to have him home again for now.

@DadDadDad your poor DS leaving his bag on the train - but excellent news he managed to get it back straightaway from lost property.

@goodbyestranger any further details about what happened to your DDs bag in those missing 9 weeks? Was everything still in it or only clothing?

@Ironoaks I sometimes think that part of these internship applications is to see who has the stamina to get through all the admin! Good luck to him with this internship which he's done very well to secure.

@HewasH20 hope your DDs write is recovering but at least the timing wasn't as bad as it might have been!

@beeswain your DS's exam timetable for last year sounds brutal and far more taxing than most! At least it's not so bad this time around and very good luck to him.

@HoneyMobster that sounds like a lovely weekend for all of you, even if you're doing all the hard work in the background.

DS1 sadly didn't get through to the next round after his recent online assessment day for his career path but is making further applications and for once - and almost uniquely I think - the firm has agreed to give him a short telephone call with feedback next week, which should be very useful for him with continuing other applications.

DS2 meanwhile has reached yet another second round assessment for another firm - although the end goal is not yet secured for any so far. He's not heard back from a key one, which is probably the most competitive so far and he begins a week long vac scheme this coming week in a different firm. Thankfully, the train strikes appear to have been suspended, so I'm not going to have to fork out for his accommodation and he can get up pre-dawn and commute. He'd have paid himself, from the small wage he'll earn that week but I didn't want him to have to do that.

@PermanentTemporary ooh - I hope the visit goes well. I would be equally excited if it were my DS.

@HoneyMobster good luck with the hospitality/taxiing duties and have a fab day at the boat race. DD is meeting up with a mix of O and C friends to watch too.

@mutterphore I hope DS1 gets some helpful feedback and isn't too discouraged. He will find the right opportunity soon, I am sure. Good luck to DS2 with his vac scheme job.

Thanks DadDadDad very glad to hear your DS's bag was found.

I don't want to be ungracious and we were amazed that St Anthony had responded to me at all. He certainly found the suitcase but unfortunately the thieves has trashed the contents and clearly just chucked a lot of them including random items of clothing, three large files of notes out of four, four annotated text books out of five and of course they took the bag of earnings. They also unwrapped a Christmas present for DS4 which DD4 was taking to Oxford for him (it arrived late in the post but had a long personal message clearly written on the paper), snaffled that but left the crumpled paper - so quite a graphic demonstration of how little they think about people in general. Still, one file and one text is a lot better than none, and many many people were kind and solicitous so decent human nature in this instance has definitely outweighed the not decent. Thanks for all your thoughts on this thread and I hope we have at least served as a cautionary tale.

Apologies mutterphore I hadn't read your post before I responded to DadDadDad. Very sorry to hear about DS1.

In fact I should say in St A's defence that I did only ask him to find the suitcase, so strictly speaking he complied with and even exceeded the brief :) I shall be more explicit next time.

@goodbyestranger - so sorry to hear that her belongings were treated with such disregard.

@goodbyestranger thanks for updating us about your DDs bag. What horrible thieves! They could have at least left the academic notes and textbooks and clothes, as none of these would be of value to them surely. It makes you wonder what sort of people they were and what on earth they did with the other text books and notes. I'm glad she at least got back some of her stuff however. Hope it didn't ruin her whole term.

I was surprised to find out that DS has a supervision this morning! So much for bank holidays.
Luckily he doesn't seem to mind.

Yeah, about bank holiday work - my DS had to submit his final dissertation today - no idea what would have happened if portal went wrong.

A junior admin person in examination office emailed him and others with extensions, plus the proctors, at 5.00 pm on Wednesday to raise issue of if their submission should be changed to Tuesday because of bank holidays. Of course all admin people in faculty, proctors, etc were away from Thursday - Tuesday. So email went unanswered and he went ahead and got the work in for the deadline (just!) but could very much have done without the uncertainty.

It must be a relief for your DS @SchrodingersKitty to have submitted his final dissertation.

DS arrived home yesterday and it is so lovely to see him. He is over the worst of the shingles but looks rather pale, especially since he hasn't been able to play tennis for six weeks. He too has a supervision over the Easter weekend. Meanwhile he is final dissertation writing mode.

I've been quietly following and am delighted to hear that the suitcase turned up. Less delighted about the missing items. Shame it wasn't all there, particularly the money!

It's been a strange few weeks. My dad died 5 weeks ago after being ill in hospital for the same length of time, so it's been a stressful time. Collecting DS from Cambridge was a bit of a blur as it was a few days before the funeral. We paid to stay a night at a room in college, at the conference centre place. It was nice to be near to DS, and convenient, but I did think it was quite basic for the price, even with the "parent discount" so not sure we'd do it again as the nearest Premier inn is cheaper and felt more comfy, and there is also a hotel nearby which does good value rooms, which again feels more luxurious.

We've been enjoying having DS with us again, he's good company, and has been advising Year 12 DS about uni applications. DS did a telephone interview for a summer internship. He has no work experience at all, no interview experience so I have no idea how that went. This was just the initial stage. He's applied for a few, mostly space industry. I'm not sure how easy it is to get a first year internship. They have only been a student for 6 months at this stage so not sure how much they'd have to offer compared with what employers are looking for. It feels like getting into Cambridge was just the first step for DS's career aspirations, they certainly need to continue with that drive and determination. I just hope DS doesn't get too disheartened by this next stage, I've told him that it's really hard to get your first break in any job when you have minimal real world work experience on your CV so it may take him a while.

If anyone has any adivce for finding a summer internship I'd love to hear about it. I told him that even if he doesn't get an internship this summer then he should think about getting a temp job even if it's not related to his course, because he will pick up soft skills which are so useful. Not sure he agrees with this, he is holding out for the internship but not sure he realises how competitive they are.

@CurlyhairedAssassin so sorry to hear about your dad 💐.
I hope your DS’s internship application goes well.

@CurlyhairedAssassin - you're right most internships are for second and third years, it can be harder for first years. My dd was lucky that she'd got an IET scholarship and her sponsor (a big company) gave some precedence to its scholars. A possible alternative would have been a project in a uni near us which probably wouldn't have been paid as far as I can remember. I don't think all her friends did one in the first year.

@CurlyhairedAssassin so sorry to hear about your Dad.
Regarding internships -I think first year internships are very scarce. Neither ds or any of his (STEM) friends had a first year internship. He had a summer job in his first year (was summer 2022 so slightly strange but he picked up pub kitchen work in the chain he had worked for at 6th form).
He did secure an internship in 2nd year and has one for this summer (4 year integrated Masters). The application cycle seems to start early (October).
DS benefitted hugely from having his pub job so I would encourage that alongside looking for perhaps voluntary work or a summer project.

@CurlyhairedAssassin sorry to hear about your father.

For physics internships, DS's experience so far is as follows...
1st year: He didn't apply for an internship as they all seem to be aimed at 2nd or 3rd years. Did a summer lecture programme instead.
2nd year: He applied to 25, was interviewed for 4, but wasn't offered any. Feedback was that the competition was of a high calibre: international prizewinners and in some cases already published (how?!).Volunteered with a science outreach roadshow instead.
3rd year: He was offered one of the first internships he applied to, and is on the reserve list for another.

Volunteered with a science outreach roadshow instead.

Dd had thought she might do this for part of one summer, she'd done a bit in local schools with the group... can't remember the name but it's a Cambridge uni thing iirc.

She did some online tutoring/mentoring of A level students too - not sure if that was just a lockdown initiative or if it's ongoing. Again I can't remember the organization. Just another thought for something positive to do if they can't find an internship.

I'm so sorry @CurlyhairedAssassin about your dad.

We took D1 back to O last week so she's not at home for Easter which feels really weird. She finished and submitted her diss (with ONE minute to spare, haha) while she was at home and had a week away with friends. She's revising for collections and then finals. All her papers finished, so Trinity is all about revision, including essays and tutorials.

She's staying in O and has got a houseshare with friends sorted out from September with the idea of getting a job for a year and taking a break from academia while she works out her next steps.

@CurlyhairedAssassin what a sad time for you all.

Ds has said from the first ComSci careers fair he went to (in term 1! Youth of today eh) that the internships are very firmly aimed at 2nd and 3rd years. It might be good experience to apply for a few but tbh I would see that first summer vacation as an opportunity to be a bit less pressured and cerebral. For most I think a summer pub or hospitality job would be the goal, maybe with a bit of travel if the money works out. But obviously everyone is different!

I'm really thrown by the level of pressure ds seems to be under, though as far as I can tell he's handling it, ish. No doubt helped by the lovely girlfriend who is extremely good news. I pretty much forced him to travel this Easter and I hope that he doesn't feel it has made life difficult going for exams.

DD is in Oxford for Easter, living in the library. Her broken wrist is still broken and back in a cast for another 3 weeks. They have changed the position on her hand to make it easier to type for her mocks and collections in less than a fortnight. Luckily it's still 6 weeks until her finals.

Soemrry to hear your news @CurlyhairedAssassin . DD never applied for any internships. Last year she worked for a college based summer school for 6 weeks which brought 9ver American university students.

I'm so sorry to hear about your father @CurlyhairedAssassin - condolences to you and your family.

I think that your DS even getting a telephone interview for an internship is impressive - DS applied for "several" internships (have no idea if that was 2 or 10!), but didn't hear anything. I did say that the advice from this thread had been that it's very, very hard in the first year and that he should apply early for next summer. @HewasH20 - interesting, I think that DS is tihnking about doing the summer school thing - but he wasn't sure whether he'd have to find accommodation - I rather assumed they would provide accommdation in college as presumably, not all of the students who apply are locals?!

@PermanentTemporary DS has worked solidly every day of his holiday so far - I don't think I'd appreciated quite how intense it was going to be and how much pressure they put on themselves to do well, leaving aside the pressure from the uni!

Anyway, I hope everyone is having a lovely Easter Sunday - we are about to head off for a family bike ride - have managed to winkle DS out of his room and away from his books, and DD away from her A level revision for a brief couple of hours.

@HewasH20 sorry to hear the broken wrist is still causing problems - sounds as though your DC is being very half glass full - let's hope it improves before finals.

@CurlyhairedAssassin sorry about your father - must be tough - I had something similar some time back with my father, short illness and then dying, gives one a little time to adjust but still leaves a big hole. Impressive your DS is getting so organised in 1st Year.

DS is back for ten days for Easter which is lovely. He's busy writing grant applications for funding for his diss field work this summer. Good to see him so much more together this year. His lovely GF came for three days at the beginning. DD been having challenges with her au pair family in France for some months. She served an ultimatum on them last week and they fired her so now she's moving into a flat share and hoping to get a cafe job. Will be interesting to see if it is possible with an au pair visa but without a EU passport. She has a trial shift on Tuesday so fingers crossed.