Thoughts on Uni options for a mid performer

[WaxOnFeckOff]

DS2 has gradually got his act together over the last 7/8 months and now does want to apply to Uni, he's interested in History/Modern Studies/Politics/English, has no idea what he wants to do for a job but I've mentioned maybe research type roles in politics and he seemed interested. I think he wants to study something that has some kind of path to a job but he doesn't have the interest or mind for those type of subjects/roles (usually computing/engineering type).

Anyway, now the dilemma. He doesn't have and isn't likely to achieve quite enough for the "top layer" of Uni. He only sat 3 highers and resat his Nat 5 maths in S5 and has ABC at higher A Mods/B English/C Music). He is doing 2 more Highers (History and politics) and AH English this year. He is capable of 2 further As in his highers and who knows in his AH English. He is putting in more effort and enthusiasm than I've ever seen from him. So, best case scenario he has 3 As, a B and C at higher and a pass of some sort in his AH. I think it would be unlikely that he would fail his highers, I think he got an A at Nat 5 in history and obvs he did well in Modern Studies so that would give a good idea of his likely achievement in politics.

Anyway, Edinburgh/Glasgow/Strathclyde etc are likely to be just out of his reach for some type of social science degree as they seem to be looking at AAAA or more. Stirling looks just about in his reach i.e AABBB as does Glasgow Caledonian and then there seems to be a drop to Uni of H&I for example that only looks for BBC.

He is far cleverer than his results would suggest but has suffered with mental health and probably has undiagnosed dyspraxia.

Can anyone suggest any further places that might cater to the level he is likely to get or any thoughts on the quality of the likes of Caledonian? My mind is drawing a blank and UCAS search didn't help. To me he should be going for Stirling but I think he wants the option to move away after 1st year. I've said that currently living within walking distance doesn't mean that he can't still move out... :)

Oh and I did say Thank you before too! :)

Selling herself short is why I'm sure Dd is making a good choice.
She may not want to go to one of the better Unis but at least they'll maybe an option if she wants.
(I went to an old poly, UWE, in Bristol so definitely not a Uni snob!).
Her bf has just started at Glasgow so she'll get a taste of Uni life through him.

Well, so far he has resisted any open days, Strathclyde are very clear that they wont consider an application from anyone with any less than ABB at the end of 5th year regardless of what he may or may not get in 6th year but he's said he doesn't want to go there anyway. i think that is mainly fueled by his brother being there and he wants to do his own thing.

He says he wants to go to the Aberdeen open day on Saturday and he would have gone to Dundee but he's missed that one. Stirling is still to come so I'm hoping to talk him into that. Aberdeen say their minimum at end of S5 is BBB, he has ABC with the A being in Mod Studs and he's looking to do Politics so I think it's worth applying? He is currently doing AH English, H Politics and H History, so all relevant/words based subjects.

I think Aberdeen really does look at the PS (at least I'm convinced it did for PIR), so as long as your ds writes a good one, I think he's in with a chance.

Ds had better exam results than your ds (2 As and 3 Bs) but wasn't doing "obvious" subjects in his 6th year (AHs in Physics and Maths, with only the Modern Studies crash Higher being relevant, to add to his Higher English B and his Higher Geography A ) - and still got an unconditional for PIR (Politics and International Relations are the same course in 1st year).

So fingers crossed that a) your ds enjoys the Open Day up in Aberdeen and b) your ds at least gets a Conditional.

Thanks pb. He knows he won't get any unconditionals and that's fine. He needs to keep working! I haven't seen anything of his PS yet, he had to do a very broad draft in June and he's not really had any time with his school mentor. His mentor is a maths teacher and DS doesn't really know him well so its not an ideal match. He was also away on a school trip before the holidays so DS hasn't really been able to sit down and actually go through anything..

He still hasn't completely decided if he wants to go or not but the appeal of being away is appealing so far and he doesn't really know what else he wants to do. he quite fancies working for the Civil service/Foreign office and I've also seen that Holyrood do apprenticeships but applications aren't open at the moment. So I'm thinking if he gets a decent application in for uni and gets a conditional offer or two or sees anything in clearing if he does well enough then that gives him that option but I think he should continue to look about at what other opportunities there are. However, he has been a bit moody over the last week or so and he's not been like that for a while. He was better today though and that's when he said he would like to go to Aberdeen after all. DH wasn't thrilled at first but I pointed out how unfair he was being and he's now on-board.

DS also got to go on the motorway on his driving lesson today which also seems to have cheered him up. He's discovered some cars (not mine) have a 6th gear! :o

We just need to work out a plan for Saturday now.

I really need him to try to find out what his predicted grades are. He was completely unchuffed that his Politics teacher only gave him a 5 out of 6 for effort (he got 6s for his other 2 subjects) given that the general consensus is that the teacher is a lazy shite. He's not been turning up for classes and of the 6 allocated periods he's meant to take 4 but has set 2 as self study and turns up roughly half the time for the others. before the summer he never showed at all. If it was an AH then i'd think fair enough as they need to be learning to self direct but i think he thinks he can do anything because it's a 6th year not a 5th year class. I've been encouraging DS to challenge it (as he wont let me) as he needs to do well in this class. Interestingly you've met the teacher pb...

Wax - but in a strange way reassuring she says cryptically How annoying for your ds - and how unprofessional of the teacher

Hope your trip up to Aberdeen goes well. It was well organised last year (ds says one of the best of the 5 he went to, although it was the only one I went to as opposed to just being "the lift" ).

When we drove up for the Offer Holders Day, we couldn't find parking in the Uni and parked in Tillydrone Terrace - about 10 minutes walk from the Uni (turn left from St Machar Drive into Tillydrone Road, turning away from the distinctive Uni library, and then second left and into the minor road that runs parallel with Tillydrone Road.

Indeed!

Thanks for the parking tips, that was my next job! We don't mind a walk. Thinking I'll maybe try to convince DS1 to come for a family road trip and we can get an early tea before heading home. Some of DS1's friends are at Aberdeen but the chances of me persuading him to contact them to meet up are very very slim. On a brighter note, he had a class test today and got 5/5. He only heard a few other results but no other 5s.

Hope your trip up to Aberdeen goes well tomorrow Wax

Thanks Pb. He wants to go to the talks on Politics and Int Rel, History and English and whatever else we can fit in. Not really looking forward to 5-6 hours in the car tomorrow though. I just that A, he likes it and B, if he applies that he gets some kind of offer and C: he manages to meet the conditions.

He's not feeling very well though so has gone to bed dosed up on paracetamol and although we'll have a fairly early start, i'll get him to take a pillow and blanket and have a sleep on the way if required.

The PIR talk was very good - we went to it at the Open Day. I'd recommend getting there in good time as it was very full - like a mini lecture (if it's like it was last year).

Hope your DS is still settled pb. The PIR talk is not until the afternoon so we will be there after our sandwiches! I sat through about 20 talks about computing and engineering last year, I'm hoping this is a bit more accessible to my brain! In other news DS1 has set himself a target of getting over 70% in all his class tests as this, along with a particular elective choice next semester, gives him the chance of converting to the Masters course if he wants. It also has the added advantage of meaning he has no first year exams to sit. I'm not saying that is necessarily a good thing but it's giving him a bit of motivation as I think he's finding first year a bit on the easy side. We thought that would be the case as he has AH computing and theoretically, some of his classmates may not have any CS at all. It was meant to allow him a bit of time to settle and socialise - that's not happening but in some ways the chances of his class mates being similar to himself are fairly high! Most official subject tests are next week but from the few he's done and unofficial stuff he doesn't think he's dropped any marks yet.

I'm thinking we will need to lok at accommodation since if he goes, he will need to live in. If this whets his appetite then I'm going to see if we can get a wee visit fitted in to Dundee and see if i can talk him into at least popping up to Stirling.

They run buses up to Hillhead Halls. We didn't go up to the Halls on the Open Day as we didn't want to be late for the PIR talk which was after all the reason we were up there We'd used the time in the morning to go and look at the Aberdeen Sports Village high priority for ds and to do the tour around the campus.

...and ds seems to be pretty settled now. Says he's getting used to the fact that he has two "homes" now - and looks forward to "going back" to both. He seems to be enjoying his courses. He's just bought the Communist Manifesto out of interest, after having to produce an essay plan on its influence on the Bolshevik Revolution as part of the "History of 20th century Europe" option.

DS will not be interested in the Sports facilities so that's an easy miss for us!

That essay sounds right up DSs street and I think he already has the Communist manifesto and various other stuff. I hope we are not setting him up for a fall by encouraging him with this. I just wish we had an idea what his predicted grades are.

Sounds like he has got right into the Uni life :)

I think part of the attraction of Aberdeen is that DS already knows a few people in DS1s year that are at Aberdeen (both because they are DS1s friends and also through Scouts) so I think he would feel less alone. Given the high proportion of DC that go to Uni from their school and the amount that will stay in Scotland and the small amount of Unis, I think there will be several from his year at each institution too.

Hope it went well today Wax. Please don't place too much hope or faith in estimate grades. There's much discourse in education at present as to the point of these. I could (for example) estimate a pupil an A as that's what they will need for a typical offer. I might sense that the grade is "aspirational" but if I estimate a B and they get rejected...

But then conditional comes in at the A I estimated and pupil realises the gap between aspiration and reality.

Thanks Lidl.

I think it went well, he was quite engaged earlier in the day and then went quieter as the day went on and he wouldn't speak to the admissions people at all. I think he got scared by liking it and then he gets down on himself and I guess is now thinking that he won't get accepted so trying to work that through in his head. I'll leave him alone tonight and then work on his confidence tomorrow. We went to talks from English, History and PIR as well as a Student Life and accommodation one. DH and I liked it. It felt quite a long day though and he still isn't feeling 100%, he slept in the car both ways. (DH and I slept through the History talk... )

Sounds on the whole positive. I try not to read too much into my DCs' reluctance to converse with "in the flesh" people as they are the email generation.

Shame he wasn't 100% . How did you and DH feel about the potential for him being there?

I knew that for living away (in first year anyway) Glasgow and Edinburgh were too big for my DDs - totally got there as they matured. But smaller cities were a better fit

Ds wouldn't didn't speak to the Admissions people either.

Maybe it'll motivate him to work harder - both at school and on his PS. Exemplar ones should help

I think it would suit him well. I'm not concerned about him being away. He'd live on microwave dinners and cheese sandwiches right enough! He would make friends okay. He's not a social beer hound and he doesn't have DS1s social anxiety issues. He spotted a friend (more DS1s friend than his but someone he likes) who is already at Aberdeen but wouldn't go say hello but was definitely happy he'd seen him. Dh was asking about trains and buses etc so I think that means he could see him there too. It had a nice atmosphere. I really really liked the accommodation guy. He was like everyone's dad. The type who would come and pick you up of the floor if you were drunk and give you a lecture but still check in to see if you were okay :)

Thanks pb it's a thin line between him just thinking he's never going to do it so doesn't bother and being motivating. When slightly pressed he says he feels reasonably comfortable about a potential A in Politics but didn't comment on History or English as the talk we were waiting on then started. I think it would help to get an application in and see what, if any, conditional offers he gets and what conditions are requested. If he knew what he was aiming for and it was achievable then it would be easier to get/keep him on track.

He was definitely interested and engaged in all the talks which was good as he sometimes assumes the sulky slouch.

The accommodation guy is very nice - and that's a good fed option of him presuming it was the same guy that gave us the talk at the Offer Holders Day

Ds didn't expect to get an Unconditional - so hopefully as a minimum your ds would get a Conditional

What did you think of the PIR talk?

Accommodation guy was a big gentle giant type. PIR talk was good but he suffered for coming after the English guy who was very funny. they PIR guy came across well and it seems a huge amount of students (about 350?) but was over 500 a couple of years ago. History guy was very soft spoken and his talk was more interesting than me falling asleep would suggest - got the impression it was a very cosy department and students would be very individually supported.

Other than U of H&I and maybe one or two others, DS is only likely to get conditional offers at best, he understands that, I think his best bet is putting effort into his PS in the hope that it is read. I've said he should mention that he has always been interested in the concept of fairness and the difference between that and equality which we talk about a lot and also that this fairness issue led him to demand to know (before he was 3 years old!) who made the laws and then wanting to be a judge since that's what DH told him as he was unwilling (and too exasperated) to go into a big discussion about parliament and law with a 2 year old who was angry about being asked to do something that DH just wanted him to do without arguing for a change.