I’ve done the research, drafted the PS - is this normal?

[Weddedtomywashingmachine]

DS in year 12 asked me to help him research universities to apply to as his school was nagging at him to get the ball rolling. He knows what he wants to study and as it is quite niche, that narrowed it down.

I got obsessed with rather into it and have now spent many, many, many hours sifting through unis and drilling down into modules. I’ve given him a VERY detailed paper setting out the pros and cons of each course, of each uni that offers it, accommodation options and costs, travel time, graduate prospects, student satisfaction ratings and the like. I’ve also done a first draft of his personal statement and booked open days for us to go to. DS is very grateful and is looking over the paper over the course of the next few weeks.

When I mentioned this to a friend, she was horrified and said she just left her DS to it. Another friend thinks it’s wonderful and has asked me to help her DD.

Did I do the right thing? Uni is expensive and I want my DS to have the info he needs to make the right choice for him. I emphasise that where he applies to will be up to him but at least he has all the info he needs now without having to ferret around in the interstices of uni websites.

No, not my experience. As @TizerorFizz says, you could find some native speakers, but as others have also said, lots of universities discourage studying your L1 as a L2.

I can't think of any of my students who have come across more than one or two on their courses, though obviously I can't speak for all universities. As I said though, I have seen the statistics for MFL A levels and the highest figure there was a out 17% of native German speakers doing German A level. Percentages of German L1 students taking German at undergraduate level, therefore, are unlikely to be any higher than that. Universities (unless ab initio courses for generally less common languages) aren't going to take someone with no paper qualification, but just because their Dad speaks German to them at home.

Thanks all, much appreciated

I think universities really don’t know who’s been speaking the MFL from birth and who hasn’t. Mum might be German with an English DH. Child is English with an English surname. I’ve seen this scenario quite a lot. We are a cosmopolitan country and people marry foreign nationals. This was what DD noticed too. DC spending all holidays immersed in a language abroad with grandparents. It really is a huge advantage. Even more if family members are MFL teachers too. They do, of course, get the A levels!

DD was determined though. You just have to work hard and not give up. People will judge you on this. Also she did medieval French and they wanted her to do a Masters in it. She declined. She can ask for a sandwich though, and quite a bit more! It’s a bit demeaning to say just because people study something you don’t rate, but didn’t study yourself, they are somehow other worldly. Whether most students can be bothered or have the intelligence to do it is another matter! Most on MN just want to speak a language and have very one dimensional views about what a MFL degree actually is. They don’t like reading and are not curious. University should expend horizons, not just rubber stamp the limited ones a student has from lack of knowledge.

MFL offers are usually quite low. This is a bonus. A PS doesn’t have to be stellar!

Agree with all of that. But then I'm someone with an MFL degree who teaches English and is currently doing 6 other languages on Duolingo 🤣

Agree with your comments on MFL, @TizerorFizz

Young people change their mind all the time but sone can become a bit blinkered. I think it is up to parents to keep prompting exploration of wider possibilities. Even if that just serves to affirm the orignal choice.

Yes, I would be much happier with a parent saying ‘DC has shown an interest in x historically, I’ve bern looking into and talking to them about lots of other directions their chosen A levels could lead into / taking then to careers’ / university fairs etc’ than someone neatly packaging their child’s initial idea into ‘now choose between these 8 choices that I have researched for you’