Starting Y13 (y12 support thread contd)

[AtiaoftheJulii]

Well, I filled up the other one, so here's a nice new one to get us through dropping subjects, Uni open days, personal statement writing, and UCAS applications

Plenty of and and (nicely-intentioned) s available!

No idea about Lancashire - sorry.

My dd1 did an EPQ last year and it seemed to be marked in three ways. Marks for the actual written EPQ, marks for the level of organisation and marks for the final presentation (done in front of an audience of teachers, parents and students).

I think one has to be a bit careful about getting into a course in clearing with lower grades. Southampton along with many other RG universities is taking extra students in clearing - in many cases the courses going into clearing are fairly full but can accommodate more students. More students = more income = expansion into new areas, investment opportunities so departments are forced to go and get more students even if they feel they have enough.

However, from the student perspective being accepted with BBB into a course where 90-95% of students have AAA or higher is not necessarily a good thing. A student who was predicted As and dropped grades through special circumstances might find it OK but a student who is really a B student may well find it hard to keep up. The success rate of students who enter with low grades in clearing, particularly in science and technology subjects, is rather poor.

Also just because Southampton was advertising places in clearing at particular grades does not mean they were automatically taking students with those grades. Maths was advertised at ABB, for example, but most of the students who were taken during clearing/adjustment actually had AAA+. A number had AAA/AAA and had missed STEP grades for their firm/insurance. The overall average over the best three A levels for maths entrance was above AAA (despite the handful taking in clearing at lower grades), and anybody coming in with ABB equivalent will likely find it quite hard to keep up.

I think this guy has it about right.

Great video Littleham, and the other one of his about applying to uni. Will show DS later.

Very interesting video - thanks, Littleham

munslife thought resit deadline application was January.

We have scrips back, DD can't make head nor tail of them so will need to take into school next week. THink we still have another week for remark deadline after that.

Cardiff was lovely, small City with very campussy feel, as everything close together. Really friendly. Accommodation cheap. DD wasnt over keen though, but think that was more the course for her specialities. Plus there are too many others she prefers, just a shame they all want higher grades

We have put some open days in the diary (trying to do them all on Saturdays to avoid any time off school):

Sheffield (tomorrow!)
Strathclyde
Hull
Swansea.

Trying to be realistic about DD's likely grades (not sure when we will have predictions), but it feels like we're shopping at Hobbs with a Primark budget.

How many open days are people doing? We will probably try to fit one more in - wanted to do Kent but we are away that weekend. I have filled up every Saturday in October.

If it's far away, do you drive there on the day or travel up the night before? We will be doing some early starts and driving to save taking up the whole of Friday evening with travel and then having the expense of somewhere to stay. (Strathclyde will be an overnighter, though.) And do you aim to arrive bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at 9am (why so early!?) or just drift in nonchalantly at midday?

DD drafted her PS and showed it to her tutor (a horrible man) yesterday and he was mildly positive about it, which was unexpected. I think he regards her as a complete nonentity and was surprised that she has done anything, ever. It's still very short though - I think a few more attempts will be needed.

We've been a bit rubbish about open days DS has been to Cambridge and Bristol but for the others we have relied on websites for course info and then had an informal look around. We had a very nice day out at Warwick in the holidays and it did look lovely in the sunshine! This is third time through for us so DS has a bit of experience of visiting the DD's at university so has an idea what he is looking for.

For anyone that can't get to all the universities - one tip....

...if you have a fair idea about the universities you like, you can apply and if you get an offer, then go to the Offer Holders Day. The Offer Holders Days are much nicer than the ordinary Open Days.

Circular - what was wrong with the Cardiff course? (possibly about to start panicking)

mumslife we were told that being close to grade boundary could be mentioned in school reference, especially if needed to explain higher prediction.

Rabbit With DD her reasons are usually 1) Lack of ensemble opportunities 2) Compulsory composition and 3) Lack of interest/knowledge/enthusiasm on her instrument 4) No early music/baroque modules.
IIRC correctly, 1) and 3) applied to Cardiff, will need to look back at course details to see if others do to.

mumslife Should have added, DD intends to resit 2 modules. not because they are close to boundary (although 1 is but considering remark there), but because she thinks she should have done much better in them, so can gain more marks overall.

But mathematical subjects are a bit different as the knowledge is accumulative, so does not increase the workload in the same way something like RS would.

muffin so far we have travelled by train, same morning when just DD and me. All have been 10am starts, but aimed to get there earlier as accommodation tours seem to start before the official time. But not done any more than 2 hours on train, possibly 3 hours door to door.

Drove to one that was further away, but that was just because there were no trains early enough.

Cardiff is a good one to travel by train to, as there is a little station (get tickets that go through to Cathays Station) right by the university. They have a lovely red dragon that greets you!!!

Thankfully, we had a mad rush last term and did our Open Days then (regretted it last term, but happy we did it now!)

En route to Southampton now, this is the sixth open day he's done. He hasn't actually seen any that he loves. Got a few more on the list to do this month.