Starting Year 13 - September 2015

[hellsbells99]

Welcome to Year 13!
Their final year of school;
Applying for university/college/work/apprenticeships;
A year of 18th birthday parties;
Going to their first nightclub (unless they already have fake ID!);
The year they turn into adults!

DD2 has been back at school for 3 days and has lots of work already.

Feedback on Birmingham would be great for me too. Dh has taken ds today as I've broken my foot and I know I shall have to prize every nugget of information out of the two of them.

Need - I used to live in Fulham! And I have friends who still do (although in the poshest bit, as opposed to the grottiest bit where I lived). Nevertheless if your DC are used to having a range of entertainment and cultural opportunities that extend beyond necking beer they might find Exeter a tad dull. However if they like doing lots of sport they will love it (sports university of the year).

The party people seemed to have plenty of opportunity in Bath, both on campus and in town according to DD1 (who isn't a party person at all). Drinking in town is expensive though, so there was a lot of pre-drinking before heading out. The buses have apparently improved this year which was always DD1s big gripe, waiting for ages at the bus stop then three come along at once and none of them are the bus co her season ticket was with.

Brioche I hope both your DC get right diagnosis and treatment and are soon feeling better.

Hope open days go ok for everyone. We did all ours last year. Definitely recommend finding exactly where you're going on map in advance. When we went to Bristol cos I'm disabled we were allowed to park on site & told to drive to accommodation office building called The Hawthorns. Typed 'The Hawthorns Bristol University' into satnav. Ended up in village by the sea 13 miles from uni, outside 'The Hawthorns Residential Home For The Elderly'.

Bethan, I like it. I hope no one was trying to send you a message.

I assume part of the problem can be freshers week. Its like starting secondary when the big characters stand out and it takes a while to locate the quieter ones. DD is lucky as she knows (and knows how to avoid) the very confident London party girls. They are fine, its just she does not have much in common. Though Exeter and other places may attract them in greater numbers they will still be a minority.

The slightly different problem might be different levels of independence different DC are used to. So yes, DD is happy rattling round town, and accessing different forms of culture. I'm not sure if she realises how much there is. Yet she does not drive and in other ways city children may be more protected. She ended up dismissing Keele and St Andrews in a similar way that others might dismiss London Universities. Too small.

I hope Birmingham is going well and that lots of animal print scarves are spotted.

Well as to how Birmingham is going, I have even less chance of finding out now. Dh has texted me from John Lewis to say he's bought himself a new laptop, leaving ds to go round the uni on his own. Still, so long as they've both had a good day

DS is determined not to apply this year. Says there's no point.

I've just seen his predicted grades: A* A D.

Hmm. He'd want to do a degree in the A or the A + A subjects combined, but that D is going to limit his chances a bit.

Needmoresleep, I think you're right about the different kinds of independence. DS hates cities, hates nightlife, but is happy to drive hundreds of miles to places he's never been.

Dunlurking this is IMPORTANT info though (re existence of John Lewis is Brum). I can also confirm Brum has the loveliest waterstones I've ever seen. DD was at the conservatoire for a thing last year and we spent a huge amount of time (and money) in the waterstones. The fact that Brum was one of her conservatoire choices is mainly down to the waterstones (it even wiped out the hideousness of the station though apparently that is now lovely).

DD1 doesn't like cities (though has applied to 3 London places) and can't drive (dyspraxic). There is no hope for her!

Ooh I love waterstones Uhtred, thanks for the tip. It's a few years since I've braved New Street Station so was looking forward to the trip . Last time we were there ds spent a weekend on a boys ballet course with Principals from Bimingham Royal Ballet. I think the existence of ballet classes of high standard for adults is at the back of his mind. (He got Distinction for Adv 1 ballet in the summer).

Interesting about rural DC. We live in the back of beyond with no public transport and nowhere to go. Idyllic when children are small but not so for teenagers. Driving is an essential ticket to freedom. I fully expected them to rebel in a way by choosing a big city for uni. I was surprised when both hated all the cities and went for leafy campus (not that DS2 is there yet). DS1's halls last year overlooked lakes and fields, you would have thought you were in the country. This year he is off campus and hating all the travel, buses, traffic and the road noise from the street outside. He would have hated Leeds for sure.
The thing about York campus is that instead of all the public buildings being in the centre with halls around the perimeter like a clock,as Nottingham and Lancaster are, it all runs in a long line. We were there on a lovely sunny day though and it does have the regulation lake and ducks .

Gloria, he's going to try a resit. Unfortunately it's music that's the D, I had a long angsty thread about it when he decided to drop another subject in which he had a decent chance of an A.

Hence double the coursework, just when he's going to be finding it an uphill struggle to get this year's done. His choice, hey ho.

The half-formed Plan C would probably be to try an online maths course in a year out, and go back with two A-levels in the hand and one in the ether.

I do realise that those are only predictions and not real grades by the way...

Squirrels my also very rural ds has not fallen in love with any city universities so far either: He hated Birmingham city centre apparently and as the course wasn't what he hoped he's ruled it out. Leeds also out. Bristol only tolerable because of a fab course and fab halls. Newcastle a remote possibility because lots of his friends plan to go there. He has yet to consider Lancaster, but Warwick and Exeter were his perfect places. I suspect St Andrews would suit him as a place but they don't have any Drama modules/options he could combine with History. So 3 unis to apply for and one left to look at to add later.

Like others he's waiting for the school tutors to get round to looking at the non Oxbridge/Medic PSs and doing references. It does make them feel second class citizens doesn't it when they are effectively told "Don't bother us yet", when our (also control freak here) dcs are raring to go/press that button

I'm home.

Birmingham : we were going just to check it out with no real expectations and I have to admit it absolutely wowed both of us.
The people were friendly, the campus mixes old and new really well. The department were friendly, the extra food trucks served AMAZING veggie falafels, the park and ride worked really well (and they were paying all of the students who worked the day)

disability support : there was a specific stall for it and I picked up the leaflet
dyslexia email [email protected] and they will send you the whole process
they seemed very professional

Bath Oh dear. Just all rather a bit meh
The central parade is like a 70's shopping centre and there is no overall feel to the place - round the back of buildings was pretty shabby.
OK it was a Saturday afternoon but they did not even have a 2015 map to let us have and would not let us look at the library or the union.
Sports were friendly, but of course the amazing Village is not theirs
and the Halls were so close to the Campus and the shopping / eating facilities very limited.
Bath Town is lovely but it would be expensive to go there the whole time.

Exeter Just Wow.
I'm a gardening fanatic so was quite happy plant spotting around the campus. The halls were just far enough away from the academic buildings to make the break. Buildings - even the tired ones - were looked after.
drinking culture yup, lots of evidence of empty bottles and cans all over the place - but it is still October.
Lots of people going to gym classes, friendly staff, friendly students
and jaw dropping views and much better use of space.

She'd better get that form finished now I guess

Exeter sounds promising, then. Just a pity they ask for A* to the power 50 for humanities courses.

Good heavens, just realised you did B'ham, Bath and Exeter in one weekend . My back would have given out doing all that driving.

Rhoda
Same for Biosciences
and those three are very much my personal comments .... but gut feelings are important

Yikes : just paid the £23 and hit the send button

Rhoda
My car is a magic carpet : I drive for work - it eats motorways and is v v v comfortable

My exhaust is falling off, only one of the speakers works, and the once black seats are now mud and dog hair encrusted - I could enter a car and owner lookalike competition...