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

I'm a keen keyboard shortcut user @Seeline , I have a few that I have set up myself for various symbols (science based). My current challenge is to get good at using the touchpad instead of the mouse - at my desk I use a conventional keyboard and mouse but increasingly we all walk round the building to see people with our laptops when we want to discuss something, use them in meetings instead of paper and pen, use them to operate equipment etc so no mouse to hand. @handmademitlove I loved Lotus 123.

I did my post grad as a day release course. I was allowed to borrow the work laptop to do my essays. It was the size of a brief case, weighed a ton and ran WordPerfect.
I was trying to remember how I managed to print the work (no uploading on line). I think I must have saved it to a floppy disk and then printed from the desktop in the office.

Word Perfect! There’s a blast from the past.

I've still got some floppy discs in my desk at work

I bloody loved WordPerfect. Colleague and I periodically reminisce about the wonder that was Reveal Codes.

I thought WordPerfect was the bee's knees. Used it to generate a contents page for my dissertation as well and taught DH how to use it for his Master dissertation. I hated Lotus 123, it was poorly taught and i just struggled with it. I then started my first job upon graduation and they didnt use Wordperfect at all! instead they used something called Windows 3.0 and inside was an app called Word. Oh my word! (pardon the pun) i had to go and learn Word by myself and get my around not having a command line prompt and all these squares all over the place tsk..tsk.. !(DM was a Sec. & went on a course to learn WordStar and raved about it). Does anyone remember MacWrite? that infact was the first wordprocessing package i ever used.

@blinkbonny I thought of you and your friend when I read this on Twitter. Looks like job opportunities for PAs are closing up, it may be very difficult for PAs qualifying in 2 years. https://twitter.com/medicalmodelbri/status/1785611972823650618

Quick question - I know lots of you here have children at Nottingham but can't remember the courses. Is anyone doing engineering? Would you recommend the university? DS is looking so after any insight for the places he's interested in. I think I remember something about the food not being great but that's it.

I would recommend the uni @NCTDN but do have your child look at the actual course and see if it lines up with their expectations practical v theory. DS didnt do that and has been caught out a bit. Plus they have to be very proactive with asking for help but I imagine this is the case everywhere.
Self catering is best. DS loves the city itself.

@NCTDN not Engineering but Nottingham campus is great. Fantastic facilities and support but you have to seek it out. The size of the uni makes it a bit overwhelming (in comparison to Aber where DD is) DS loves it, despite his struggles. I have to disagree with @omnishambles though - Rutland is the best 😁

Is it a campus uni? I'm confused because Leeds says it's a campus but to me I thought it wasn't!

@omnishambles do you mean there were less practicals then he expected?

Yes but he really did no research into the course. Hopefully your mileage will vary. It isnt a campus like Warwick is a campus but for the first year you can be pretty much all on site if you are doing particular courses.

I would definitely call Nottingham a campus uni. Well, three campuses. University Park has teaching buildings, sports centre, Libraries, Student Union and accommodation all on one enormous gated site. Jubilee campus has the same on a smaller scale. University Park is a few miles out of the city centre.

Nottingham totally a campus uni. Leeds isn't - I agree some people seem to call it that but in a much looser sense of the word. They do the same with Lincoln.

We're trying to do a mix of campus vs city universities. I know Bath is a campus and so is Nottingham then. I don't think Sheffield is. Bristol and Liverpool aren't (though Liverpool I think might be like Leeds).

Sheffield isn't but its accommodation is all together on a nice green site.

@NCTDN I have a step nephew at Lincoln doing Engineering and he loves it. He got all A*/A, but preferred it to some of the more generally prestigious ones. He managed to get an exciting placement in USA.

@NCTDN Dd is at Nottingham and also didn't do any research on the course before choosing it! It was all about the vibe! To be fair she still likes the vibe, it's a very sociable/party uni with lots going on and good nightlife in the city. Most second and third years seem to live in Lenton, which is nice as they're really close to their friends in other houses and they then make more friends - their friends' housemates etc.

She would also say the support is completely lacking (from the Psych department anyway) but she has finally made contact with student support and got extra time for her exams.

She was in Rutland (catered) and loved the location - at the centre of everything and on a green part of campus - but not the food! Rutland has the benefit of being 30 weeks only, so much cheaper (compared to 42), but you do have to clear out your room at Easter and Christmas. The self-catering accomm is either just off the main campus (depending on which end of campus your lectures are, this could be a good thing or mean a long walk) at Broadgate Park, or near the Jubilee campus (St Peter's, Raleigh Park etc). If your lectures are on Jubilee campus, those halls would be the obvious choice. Either way though, there's a free bus between the campuses.

From our research, Bristol and Bath are much more expensive in terms of accommodation, and Liverpool is surprisingly expensive for the first year as all the accommodation seems to be new - but it's cheaper after that.

@Monkey2001 thank you for all this information, I will certainly pass on to my friend so she can make sure her daughter is informed before committing to a path that may give way beneath her feet! Very interesting to read, I hadn't even known more than the vaguest info about PAs as a role until my friend mentioned her daughter's plans. I'm glad it was brought up on here - I always learn so much on this thread, even when not expecting it!

@NCTDN another Notts parent here, not Engineering so can't comment on the course. Echo others' responses that for s

Sorry, accidentally tapped Send on that post before finishing. Here’s what I meant to say

@NCTDN another Notts parent here, not Engineering so can't comment on the course. Echo others' responses that for sure your DS should check course content - I believe Engineering can vary widely in focus (others will have more info!). Anyway, DS has loved Notts so far. Definitely a campus uni, it’s a large site with lots of green space. Student Union building is decent and sports hall is excellent. My DS did catered for the first year - food was ok, school-dinner type but usually edible! He was in Willoughby which I believe is now closed for a much-needed refurbishment. He was really happy to do the catered route - he met a group of lads on his first night and they have become very good friends, living together in second year and some of them continuing into third. He always found there was someone to eat with so got to know a good variety of people. He could barely fry an egg when he went so doing catered meant at least I knew he was fed. The included breakfast was a bit of a waste for him as he preferred to sleep in than get up for it (). My daughters considered Notts but didn't select it due to concerns about the catered menus (they are vegetarian) - it probably wouldn't be a good choice for anyone with specific dietary needs or preferences, but DS eats anything so that wasn't an issue.

A school friend of DS also went to Notts and did s/c - as others have said, it’s slightly off campus whereas catered are all on campus, but so close as to make little difference in terms of “commute” - the main s/c place is literally across the street from a campus entrance. So it really depends what your DS prefers for accommodation - I’ve heard good things about both. For his course, tutors have been accessible and all seems to be going well. Would recommend the uni overall - no concerns but we have not stress-tested much.

NCT nothing to add about Notts I'm afraid because the others have explained it well, but ds1 has enjoyed it very much. I actually think the food situation is very important, choosing to go catered can open up meeting loads of people. Being happy is the essential core, let's be honest.
Ds1 chooses to spend all his time studying in the library so that he comes home and differentiate that as his home / relaxing space. I only mention that because he thinks the library's are good. That kind of thing, getting the balance of where you study is also important.

Proud mum alert! DD won an award at the UEA Student Ambassador Awards last night! She is a student ambassador and a disability student ambassador - she has done things like help prepare material to go in open day packs, and helping to develop campus tours for students with disabilities as well as open day stuff. She gets paid as well. It was for her work on tour development. So proud of her - she was so shy when she first gave uni a try, I would never have dreamt of her going to an awards ceremony on her own, let alone actually winning something. Her accidental gap year really did her good.