S6 school v college help!

[Twix42]

Hi all, what's the thoughts on going to college for S6 rather than staying at school? Does it make much difference in applying for Scottish uni's?

My DD is in a state school in S5, its a fairly average central scotland HS, they don't offer much in the way of S6 choices, highers or advanced Highers, the options that they have mostly include travelling to another HS, and DD says she doesn't see the point in that, feels its waste of time etc.
She says she quite fancies doing HNC social science at local college.
She's got good N5s and should do well at Higher Anyone got a kid who had done this?
I did A levels in England and followed the traditional route, as did DH, so I feel unable to advise her.

Mine did college route for different reasons more results related. A similar course to the one your DD is looking at at and loved it. Now doing a great degree at a Russell Group uni and thriving there too.

In my UCAS mentoring role I occasionally get pupils who are interested in this route and always point out that it will count as one of your years of free tuition (but in reality most still qualify for 4 years after that) and that you need to be a good self starter as college lecturers treat you like an adult and are much hands off - in a good way. Remote learning has likely helped her develop a more independent approach to her learning, certainly has for my DD4 (not the one who went college route).

Be cautious of the claims that HNC gets you into 2nd year or HND 3rd as there are only a tiny amount of spaces for this in some subjects . I felt like this progression was almost sold as clear cut when it is far from. But if she's happy to do HNC to first year of a degree she'll be fine and likely to find first year quite easy. That said AHs can do the same.

It might be a bit socially isolating as many of the students will have completed S6 or be adult returners but then so will trailing across town to the school that offers the options she's interested in be.

Good luck to her , all the rites of passage that make S6 appealing are so precarious at present, I feel so sorry for pupils who stay on for these in recent years.

My DD thought of doing similar a few years back but in the end stayed at school and did AHs/Hs and an OU YASS (main reason was she wanted to continue with maths and college didn't offer maths beyond higher). School cautioned against college route saying that she would find pace slower as majority of students would only have a few highers. Her school was high performing (lots of 5As at higher) and most doing AHs. Reasonable choice of courses. My DSes went to a low performing school and in their case I think college would have been better.

Friend of DD did the college route (not social science) and was slightly surprised not to get an unconditional offer fron uni (she had to get A in the graded unit of her HNC). Her highers met the criteria for an unconditional offer. However in the event she got the A and said college was great preparation for uni.

What unis is she thinking about. I think that some unis (Glasgow) may have conditions on AHs this year for offers so would be worth checking how they would consider college courses in offers.

DD loved her OU course and said if she had been allowed would gave done 2 OU courses and a couple of AHs at school.

This is quite a well trodden route to university and I know a number of people who've done it for various courses.
As PP has mentioned it is mostly done by school leavers who didn't get the grades for uni or by mature returners.

One word of caution at the moment is that a lot of these courses are 100% online this year. I know 2 students, different colleges, who's HNC is totally online and neither are enjoying this.
One had completed S6 and didn't have grades for uni so didn't really have an option. But the other one chose to leave after S5 and is doing a Business HNC. He's very unhappy that his friends still at school all see each other every day and he is stuck in his bedroom, all online and hasn't met a single person on his course. He wishes he'd gone back for S6 now.
So I would check very carefully with any course she's interested in at how they are currently delivering the course and what plans they have for next year.

This is all great info... She's a smart kid, but can't decide what she wants to do at uni or where she wants to go. Almost too many choices..But she is set on going to uni.

They have had no careers advice, or work experience and I just don't want her to limit herself!
Thank you all

Twix, assuming it's a state school in Scotland, there will be a career adviser allocated to the school who should be able to advise further. See Skills Development Scotland website for more information.