2015 Yr 12 support thread

[Needmoresleep]

Mocks this week, and the reality of AS exams in a few months is starting to hit home. I don't think it will be an easy journey, so would welcome some company.

Leeds, she is doing well both academically and with work experience. The latter suggests she can genuinely hack the grottier side of a caring career. Indeed last summer volunteering in a care home, she ended up being extra shifts and being paid. And academically she is a lot more confident now she is only taking subjects she enjoys, wtih teachers suggesting she should have a crack at Oxbridge. I think she would agree with Brenda's DS. Lots of school stuff on UKCAT, BMAT, UCAS etc which she seems to have decided to put to one side, presumably till she has her UKCAT and AS results. However because of the early deadlines the school want to see drafts at the start of term. 2015 needs to be a couple of months longer.

The danger is that by not thinking about where she might want to live for five years, she ends up with the default, which is London. Coursewise this is fine as London boasts some excellent teaching hospitals, which is why so many London children end up at London Universities, but I would like her to at least try to imagine life outside the capital and what she might get from a wider University experience, and going to Open Days would be a good way of doing this.

However she, and the rest of our DCs have a lot on, and next year will be tough. If this is the way she handles it, so be it.

That sounds iike a busy summer, Need!

I read that the numbers applying to medical schools fell last year. I wonder if the volunteering and other hurdles have started to put potential students off. If so it might be an irony that a process designed to help identify those with a genuine commitment and interest, might be acting in reverse. Students with clued up parents, contacts and money (the vaccinations alone have cost more than many can afford) tick the boxes. To others especially those who are expected to do it all on their own, it might seem daunting especially in a year that is full on academically.

She still needs the results, but otherwise I think its all OK, bar the fact she has given no thought at all to Universities/Open Days. Its a pity it is such a long course because the obvious thing, as Narvin suggests with a similar (greater) logjam of requirements, would be to take a gap year.

Narvin - DD is planning to use her EPQ as a written piece for Cambridge - perhaps it's course specific? I'm sure Psychology say you can.

I would ask her but she's currently off on a DofE expedition - thankfully the weather this week isn't the same as last week . Then we have a week of work experience (which she's negotiated not to do to work on her PS and EPQ and extra reading) then we break up the week after thank goodness.

Have I understood correctly? The budget says the maintenance loan will go up to £8200 from 2016/17 and the maintenance grant will be lost. I'm sorry for those who would have been eligible for a grant but our household is definitely a squeezed middle and we were worrying how to top up a £5000ish maintenance loan for ds so this will definitely take the pressure off us, and remove the need for a termtime job for ds.

Any thoughts? Have I got the wrong end of the stick here? Is the higher loan figure only for those who would have had the grant?

Just had a look at BBC News and this is what he said:

"And to ensure universities are affordable to all students from all backgrounds we will increase the maintenance loan available to £8,200, the highest amount of support ever provided."

So I would assume this loan would be available to everyone.

That will be the maximum though. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't peg the minimum where it currently is. :(

The current loan is reduced according to parental income so I imagine that will still be the case. I suppose this might help those who's parents are on a life income and can't help out.

needmoresleep that's interesting what you said people were saying about Cambridge.

DS loved the city and the colleges and loves the idea of being there. He is quite ambitious and tends to aim for the top. However, the engineering course, though impressive and with some lovely people, seemed somewhat old-fashioned. You can't specialise til the third year, their point being that many people change their minds, but it's a long time to be doing other disciplines you may not be particularly interested in. The department seemed rather shabby and there seems to be much more emphasis on theory and much less on practical.

Contrast this with Southampton, which obviously can't compete in terms of beauty, history, tradition and kudos, but which has brand spanking new labs with more on the way, you can specialise from the word go and the course is very up to date and relevant and extremely practical. It's in the top three for this discipline, the other two being Cambridge and Imperial.

So a bit of a dilemma as I don't really think it's worth him applying to Cambridge if the course at Southampton is so much better for him. But he wants to give it a shot, and if his very long shot came off, it would be, for him, a difficult decision.

Oh well, chances are that it will be a decision he doesn't need to make!

The relevant page about the budget changes for the maintenance loan now says the new figure will apply specifically to lower income students which is bad news as ds was happily chatting last night about being able to afford a better room than the lowest priced ones. But it seems unclear still. Has anyone any more info?

This seems like a 3 card trick.So it seems the only change is that for poor students a grant is replaced by loan? How on earth did they put a positive spin on that?

They didn't. They just said that's what is happening.

Where does it say the loan is for lower income students?

Links please.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-33444557

The line above the subheading "Deterred by debt"

Thanks - damn

I think the figure of 8200 will be for those studying in London - if it turns out to be the case then thats not much of an increase on the current grants/loans total available :(

My DC has ruled out London because of the high living costs which is a real shame

Hello all - I hope everyone is enjoying the summer.
DD2 won't be looking at London partly because of costs but also because she wants to live near the university and probably will choose a campus one.
I am not going to encourage a gap year as universities will be allowed to increase fees from 2017 to include inflation.

hellsbells here are the moneysavingexpert current figures for loans - you will see that London is getting an increased maintenance loan as well if that is the issue. I don't know what the calculations are for the proportion that a parent contributes but the fact that the proportion you can borrow is now of 8200 outside London, and £10,700 for London rather than the previous £4000-£5000 and £8000ish has to be good news.
www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/loans/2015/07/summer-budget-2015-student-grant-and-loan-system-faces-overhaul

I just wanted to wish everyone well before AS results day.

Today is proving hellish. Tube strick so before 8.30 I had dropped DS off at Paddington for the Heathrow Express, and DD off for her UKCAT exam. The traffic was awful, but all done. Now fingers crossed for UKCAT. The timing is tough and she has been getting wildly different results on test papers. The mantra is that a medical school application is probably a two year process. However it would be so much nicer if she goes into the autumn term with strong AS and UKCAT rersults.

Good luck to your DD in UKCAT Needmoresleep.

Starting to get nervous for results day now. DD is away at a summer school so is hopefully too busy to be thinking about it much. It wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have bloody UMS to worry about...(or maybe it would)

Thanks Marni, UKCAT was not great, but is over. Apparently the airconditoning was not working and the room was very hot. Next hurdle is AS results. Plus getting her to work on the PS. I am so glad she does not want to try Oxbridge, so will not need to write essays, practice BMAT etc on top.

I am so looking forward for this all to be over. And very glad only to have to only have to go through GCSE/AS/UCAS/A2 twice.

We are in the depths of despair here (I say we. I mean DD1). She is now utterly convinced that not only will she not have good enough UMS her grades will fall far short too. In theory since she has a plan B which would require much lower grades, you'd think she would be all out focussing on that. But no. Just mooching around in the doldrums. She had a great time on the two residentials she has done in the hols but I think mixing with super confident super accomplished posh school types has further dented her confidence. I'd like to be able to think she's wrong but I'm not an optimist at the best of times. And this isn't the best of times.

DD isn't looking forward to this day next week much.

I'm expecting tears and resits but at least she knows they went wrong so has very low expectations which has to be a good thing.