Thread 50 - Covid GCSE Cohort - New Year of Adulting

[OrangeSpicedBun]

2024 here we are... our young people are still getting used to adulting and we're still doing that adulting thing ...it's tough !

This is a support thread for our young adults post GCSEs 2020, regardless of their educational setting, and their results ( or life updates for those who went into work or have had results earlier). It is respectfully requested that all are supportive and helpful to each other. If you want to start a debate, e.g state vs private, uni vs employment please don't within this thread.

Some of us have been here since first thread back in yr10, some will be new. Everyone has been friendly and helpful in the past. Everyone is welcome. It is hoped this will continue. We were previously on the secondary board and then further education, now we shall be here in 'Parents of Adult Children' gulp

Our DS/DD may continue down various pathways ( employment, apprenticeships, higher ed). Experience is that everyone is welcomed wherever, whatever their child is doing we have some in work, gap years , apprenticeships etc too. Lots of contributors with different experiences and always sympathy and advice to be had.
Previous thread
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/parents_of_adult_children/4922401-thread-49-covid-gcse-cohort-the-nights-are-drawing-in?page=10

Sorry to hear about the rejections @Cantonet I hope he handles it well and knows that he still has done very well in spite of poor health and missing school. He's got to be a real go getter to have even applied to such competitive places in those circumstances.

@Cantonet rejection is hard. Hope he's ok.
I think we need to prepare ds for this. DD got five offers so think he'll expect that, but he's looking at engineering and they want higher grades than for medicine!
We've been looking at summer work experiences to try and get the edge but we don't qualify for any funding. I found some that seem good but they were £3000+ for two weeks !!

Oh no @Cantonet, I feel for him and you. I know when DS got rejected from Durham it was the first thing he had really been rejected from. Again he easily met the grade requirements but others were even higher I guess. It was a big shock for him.

Evening all, lots to catch up on.

@Cantonet DH went to Loughborough and loved it, he stayed and did a PhD there. It was a long time ago though. We aren't going through the offers and rejections thing yet as DD is taking a gap year and hasn't applied (she's only doing two A levels this year and one next so couldn't apply even if she knew what she wanted to do.

@crazycrofter so pleased to hear DS has knuckled down. DD seems to be working away quite steadily, who knows if it will be enough. She is very cheerful and friendly at the moment, asking me to go out to places with her etc which wasn't happening much in the last couple of years. She has had her referral for ADHD/autism assessment accepted.

@blinkbonny a belated Happy Birthday!. There was a thread on physician associates on here a few weeks ago saying much the same as @Monkey2001 is saying.

@2024Newnames so pleased to hear DS has found work, well done to him.

I have been going through all the responses for DS's PIP assessment today. I was putting it off and putting it off but actually it wasn't too hard once I started, a couple of months without thinking about it too much has really helped me take a more dispassionate view. He's coming home for the weekend tomorrow, then back on Sunday, home again for a few days the following Sunday then generally back and forth till the end of May. His assignments will all be finished by about the 14th. I proofread them all and am really enjoying them (luckily I have quite a lot of background in his subject).

@Cantonet my DS2 only got one Medicine offer. We were really quite shocked as he had AAA, with another A* predicted (which he achieved), a super high UCAT score and a gap year job in a hands on clinical role in local hospital. But it worked out for the best in the end, the UEA course suits him better than the Sheffield or Leicester ones would have, and he would have chosen one of them because they were closer to friends, but he was forced into the right choice.

Could be the same for your DS and Loughborough, which is a very good university.

Gosh @Monkey2001 I would have been really shocked too. It's so strange how these things work. I do think that the way that Med/Vet/Dent students are picked is totally wrong. Dd1 struggled with the Mmi's but now is an excellent vet. Some were brilliant at these & received lots of offers but then struggled at vet school. I think the interviews/Mmi's are a test of something - being facile or acting ability, but nothing to do with how good you would be as a doctor.

I do think you're right that things work out for a reason. I've told ds that too.
I'm glad your ds is happy with his choice of med. school but I really can't believe he didn't receive all 5 offers.

We always thought ds would do medicine. My dad - retired doc. always predicted he will do psychiatry, from ds being very young. I still think he will do, after doing psychology first. At this stage though because of the gaps due to ill health he wouldn't have any chance of receiving offers.

Thank you @EffortlessDistraction for that lovely feedback on Loughborough.
It's a total unknown for us, as we haven't visited yet. So we're going to do a self-guided tour around the campus. It's a thing there apparently. The official open days are the end of June so a bit late for us and there doesn't seem to have been any offer days advertised.

DS is also maybe considering applying to Loughborough... we might do a self-guided thing! And also possibly visit Bristol over the summer. The problem is that he has a lot of commitments which can make it hard to go to official open days, but I've always maintained that the "vibe" of a city is an important factor.

DD has now handed in one of her two coursework portfolios, and is on track for the other (deadline next Friday). Then she plans to find a summer job and maybe arrange some travelling. Not sure when we'll see her next!

(I finally saw the GP, had a chest X-ray, and am now on antibiotics due to some inflammation. Fingers crossed it finally shifts my endless cough.)

@PhotoDad I've had this cough since January. I think part of it is to do with being a teacher.
Our open days include Bristol and Loughborough. Dd obv not impressed with the idea of ds being in the same city as her though!

If your DC have any interest in NHS/medicine/ethics/psychology, I've just seen Dopesick is starting on BBC1 tomorrow evening. It's incredible and incredibly well done.

Back to Neil Diamond night on BBC2!

My DC don't but I do @EwwSprouts I would like to see that, I used to work in the pharma industry. I also want to watch The Dropout, about the Theranos diagnostics scandal.

@EffortlessDistraction Oh you've just reminded me of The Dropout. I think I'll wait and hopefully persuade DS (biology) to watch it in the summer holidays.

Be interested to hear your review as the series progresses.

I'll report back if I do watch it but I am not very good at making time to watch TV, I seem to have the attention span of a gnat these days and am often busy with other stuff in the evenings at the moment.

Dh and I like to watch a tv series, but there a lack of decent things these days.

I'm watching 'Fallout' on Prime & enjoying it. I'm another with the attention span of a gnat & get easily bored ( & worked in the pharmaceutical industry too for 12 years! ). I loved 'the last of us' & this is also based on a video game but it's been really well fleshed out. Blue lights is also excellent.

Another who’s watched The Dropout (when it first aired on stream). I also used to work in pharma but on consumer health care side many moons ago.

We really enjoyed Slowhorses on Apple. Not everyone’s cup of tea but I thought Gary Oldman and cast are excellent. Another good watch if anyone enjoyed Homeland is Tehran, also on Apple. 2 series so far, if you can get past first episode it gets much better, and very topical right now.

DS is finally dropped back in Nottingham, greeted by a rat outside his house which was nice 😨. He seems to have been home for ages compared to DD who went back two weeks ago.
Exams start far too soon (he's still catching up on all the lectures he's missed and has an essay to write). He has to be in Nottingham for his three French exams but I'm going to bring him home for his three 24 hour law marathons. I'll be up and down the M1 like a Yo-yo but there's no way he'd cope doing those exams in his uni house.
I'm planning a holiday for me and DH for when exams are over (I'll need a break🤣) Greek Island hopping - without the kids in tow - should be like simple times 20+ years ago.
Good luck to those of you with GCSE and A Levels to cope with as well as uni exams.

@ealingwestmum
We are watching Slow Horses and enjoying Oldman a lot.

Slow Horses is brilliant, I switched Apple TV back on at Christmas especially for S3. I am listening to the audio books too and they are superb, I'm on about the 7th one now.

Just dropped DS back after a weekend at home (he had an end of season night out with his hockey team here). He has got yet another assignment to submit this week and is finding this one really tough, hope he can scrape through the module. I have been proofreading again. He's coming home again next weekend for the week as there will be one more assignment to do that week then he's pretty well finished for the year. But will be going back and forth through May because of his job (he works alternate weeks in a jobshare).

Reading the thread about unis and financial difficulties with a sense of gloom as DD plans to apply this year.

Dd called this morning to say she’s lost her car key (only has one!) and had to get cover for her care call this morning 😩 Her car is parked outside her house (locked) so I can’t believe the key is far away but she can’t find it anywhere… Her car has caused so much stress! She’d already FaceTimed me on Friday to show me that her gearstick kept popping back into neutral position so it obviously needs to go back to the garage. Ds is planning to buy a car this week too 😱

We loved Slow Horses and The Dropout.

Currently on balcony in Playa Blanca Lanzarote. Arrived today for a fortnight. We have amazing room as travel agents told them about breast cancer. We came here two years ago with DS post A levels

Fabulous @ Craggyrat!
Have a wonderful holiday.

Lovely Craggy. Enjoy.

I'm so sorry to hear about the keys drama crazy. Your body must be on a heightened crisis alert every time your phone rings :( I hope she managed to find them eventually.

@EffortlessDistraction supposed to be proofreading DS dissertation for him this weekend. He put us on standby the middle of last week. Just arrived - well one chapter🙄 It's supposed to be submitted tomorrow but he reckons he's got a 2 day extension so I hope that's so! I get so stressed with DSs approach to work - I was a permanent wreck whilst he was at school. And I have felt my anxiety rising all weekend.
@craggyrat have a wonderful holiday!