Applying for Uni.

[noctiscaelum]

When do we start doing this? How?
I'm a foreigner and have no clue. Asked the school and sent an email but no reply.
DC is in year 12. When do I need to start finding school/ applying. whatever I/my dc need to do to do? Panicking since the school will close soon.

Start with the UCAS website to see where your DC might apply to - what is her interest?

Thank you. Dc wants to study music, most likely.

@noctiscaelum Has your school not had a parents evening about this? Is DC not aware other dc have visited universities? Are you sure DC knows nothing? This seems very odd. Have they no info on the school web site.
Very briefly:

Decide on subject.
Look at where dc might go based on educational attainment. Some courses are competitive, others less so,
Look at whether dc likes campus or city university
Decide on a range of aspirational down to banker for 5 choices.
Try and visit all next term on open days. Check web sites for dates and book into subject talks at each university.
Ask school for their deadline regarding applications as they need to write a reference etc.

If you want help, MN will do this. Start by saying his possible A level grades and in what subjects and where his interests lie. You will get some recommendations. Plus where is suitable for travel purposes. So London, South, Scotland etc

In the meantime, speak to 6th form tutor! Ask where you can find info! Do you not attend parents evenings? You should have had full info on this by now. Definitely speak to dc. Friends will have this in hand.

doesn’t your dc know - surely they’ll have had sessions at school? Regardless, you pick 5 courses and apply through UCAS, deadline Jan 2026 unless they’re applying for some sort of medicine or Oxbridge. School will have internal deadlines though as they’ll need to add the reference and predicted grades.

So your dc needs to familiarise themselves with the UCAS website, and uni websites to find 5 courses/unis they want that meet their likely grades.

UCAS opens in September with a deadline in January, although some subjects/institutions like arts and drama schools and conservatoires may have a different deadline. Open days take place between now and late autumn.

Music - a Music degree at a university, or a conservatoire where they specialise in one or two instruments? Do they know what they’re looking for location wise, and what their likely grades will be?

Don't panic OP. She doesn't need to have her applications in until year 13 (exactly when does depend on what she wants to study and where but you can find all that on the UCAS website.
This Summer is a good time to be investigating possibilities though and maybe doing some visits. Obviously the first thing she needs to decide is what she would like to study, and then where. In terms of where, she needs to look carefully at the course - what are the entry requirements, how is the course delivered, is there anything that particularly appeals about particular courses such as placements in industry, the opportunity to study abroad for parts of the course etc- but also the location. Does she want to live in a big city or somewhere smaller? Would she prefer a self contained campus University or one that is in a city centre? Is she looking for somewhere that offers accomodation where food is provided or is she happy to cook for herself? Does she have any hobbies such as sports that she wants to continue at University and are they provided in the Universities she's interested in? Of course getting the course right is the most important thing but different Universities have very different characteristics so some will suit some people much better than others.
She needs to pick 5 to apply to and generally it's a good idea to pick a range of Universities. When she submits her application hopefully she'll get a number of offers and then she needs to reduce her options to 2 - a "firm" option that she would definitely go to assuming she gets the grades on A level results day and an "insurance" - usually somewhere that has made a lower offer, just in case she doesn't get the grades she needs for her first option.
I would expect her school to give her and you lots of information early in year 13, but it's a good idea to do some reading about different places now so she has an idea where she'd like to apply when she goes back to school in September. There's lots of information on each University's website so that's where I'd start.
Good luck to your daughter in her choices - it's an exciting time!

Thank you everyone, I realised I was just panicking because of unknown.

Dc won't really talk much. kind of clam up to us. That's the big problem too, and I just started panicking.
Great to know we still have time until January.
Thank you. A panic over, for a time being. And need to have proper talk with my dc what they want t do after college.

Just to add - a gap year after A levels, then applying once final results are known, is a good option for many.

Ok so if music she needs to decide if she wants to apply to conservatoires as well as uni - there is a separate track on UCAS for this. If she does then it would be worth looking at what the conservatoires will be asking her to perform at audition (entry is pretty much on audition and interview with a sucessful outcome being an EE offer). Each will have clear guidance on their websites.

If she doesn't want to apply to conservatoire then she needs to think about the sort of music she wants to study and look at which universities are good for that genre - eg York is good for early music and Goldsmiths for less traditional genres. Have a look at the course specs - how much performance vs academics does she want to do/ what provision is there for individual lessons etc. Then look at what each uni offering music says are their grade requirements and see which are likely to be a good fit. PPs have mentioned other issues like campus or non campus - so York is a campus uni Oxford is not etc.

One further word of warning. Music is not a big course at most unis and it is not that cheap to teach - needs practice rooms/performance spaces/instruments/individual tuition etc. Many unis are looking at how to cut back costs and a number are doing it by cutting departments eg Oxford Brookes closed its music department and Cardiff initially said it would but then didn't. So have a look at the size of the department and google about the university's finances as well.

I have DD who went through this (ending up at conservatoire) so do ask away. There's also a helpful music thread with a number of experienced music parents around for extra support - MN won't let me post the link for some reason but its called spring summer 2025 music thread or similar.

Sorry - just want to add that if she does want to apply to a conservatoire then the UCAS deadline is quite a bit earlier - early next term from memory. Its all on UCAS conservatoires if you lookthere

Thank you!

There will be uni open days coming up - some typically near the end of this term, others in about September. See if your dc is interested in going to any (either alone or with you) - they can be helpful in deciding where they’d like to go, grades permitting.

UCAS is open, it opened in May. You just cannot send off the application til Sept. You can work on all aspects of it from this point on.

If she wants to do Conservatoire, it’s an early deadline for applicants- 15th Oct.

Hi @noctiscaelum

https://www.ucas.com/applying/applying-university

Good overview for you.

https://www.ucas.com/explore/subjects/music#study-options-

Music info.

It would be very strange if school/college is not offering any input into this. They do a reference

A lot of schools are totally unaware of the conservatoire process

Well it’s a guess that she’s wants a conservatoire and not a standard degree. If it’s a standard degree music A level teacher will know something!

Id also check what school has on its web site. Who’s head of 6th or has responsibility for university applications? There must be some info coming from the school! Music degrees aren’t that competitive so no advantage in a gap year really. For what purpose?

OP feel free to join us on the busy Y12 thread:

www.mumsnet.com/talk/further_education/5340007-year-12-202425-support-discussion-and-looking-after-each-other-thread-2?page=10&reply=145164365

Perhaps also check that the school or college has your contact details correctly. I’m very surprised you haven’t been invited in for a “next steps” parent & student session of any sort.