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.

Better coming from the school I would have thought as distances it from her as an individual.

Good news about offer Leeds. Hope all goes well with interviews uhtred & ultra.

DS has applied to Imperial as well but doesn't really want to go to London (which makes me wonder why he's appied to Imperial & UCL).

I'm surprised how few of you are considering Scottish universities - I'm taking DS to Aberdeen next week, then driving to Dundee, St Andrews Stirling, Glasgow and Edinburgh (over 2 days) to get his eye in. To be frank I'm putting this (ludicrous) degree of effort in because he's losing confidence by the minute and I fear may pull out of applying this year all together, and I think he might think twice and pull his finger out workwise and apply if he's seen somewhere that he can actually imagine living in.

DD (twins) and I have scheduled an application form-filling in day next week too; she's applying to drama schools which are not all UCAS.

This is easily the most stressful parenting time since forever, imo.

You folks all seem so calm and organised!

You folks all seem so calm and organised!

Be assured not all of us are calm or anything remotely resembling calm, just want the whole thing done with. Don't remember it being nearly so complicated with ds1

MrsJackAubrey how few of you are considering Scottish universities
In a word fees.
It would stick in my craw to have DS pay £9K fees alongside Scottish students going free at taxpayers expense.

Having said that we did look round Edinburgh while there on a holiday. He loved it and the fact that they take four years to do undergrad degree.Twas cold though and that put him off .
It's certainly easier to love a place on a warm sunny day.

I don't know about anyone else but DD1 isn't considering Scottish places because 1. It's too cold 2. It's too far. 3. The system in Scotland is different 4. It's not the greatest place to be a veggie. But even if none of those things were true, it would still be the case that nowhere there does the course she wants.

You can apply to enter the second year of a 4 year Scottish degree with A levels.

I find it a bit strange that you're happy to pay fees in England because everyone pays fees, but not in Scotland just because there will be other (Scottish and EU) students not paying fees?

The student who showed us round Edinburgh was Norwegian and even he complained about the cold .

Squirrelled - damn right I wouldn't be happy knowing that my taxes were subsidising someone else in the exact same course as my DC at the exact same institution while my DC were being forced to take on a lot of debt.

But aside from that - none of the Scottish institutions do what she wants at the level she wants to do it.

Exactly the same here.

Went for weekend break to Edinburgh last Easter. Loved it. Absolutely loved it. I don't mind the cold!

But to pay £9K when others weren't... GGGRRRRRRRRRRR. Also, a bit far to go and fetch ds's washing (semi-joking).

MrsJack
One of my siblings went to a Scottish Uni and loved it
but with the fees it would be cheaper to send my kids to the US

that and dawn at 9:45 and sunset at 2:45 is a bit tough for us southern softies

Myvision
I'm glad they are getting their comeuppance from the college actually as word will spread like wildfire among the admin staff over half term and that college will be digging themselves out of that hole for a while

Ds reckons you can park onsite at Warwick?

I live very, very close to the Scottish border and I feel exactly the same about the fees. The cold and the sunrise/sunset not so much. That said DS 5th choice is Glasgow, but has applied for advanced entry. But was really just filling up his form.

Scotland did not introduce fees
to do that it has cut non Uni education funding by 50%
and has cut University funding by 30%
resulting in 30% cuts to Scottish University research
and crippling cuts to vocational courses

there is no free lunch

Scotland has kicked the can down the road

a tad cynical after 6 weeks of CPD on long term financial planning this week

Second offer in for DD2, but as Track is down till 5pm Sunday, she doesn't know what it is! Lancaster, so presumably their standard offer. One very excited teen here

We didn't consider Scotland simply because it's too far.

Gloriahotcakes when we went to Warwick open day it was park and ride unless you were disabled & had got a permit in advance. Google 'Warwick open day parking' & it tells you where the park and ride is.

My DS considered Scotland but dismissed it because of the 4 year course. He felt going in to the second year would be more difficult socially and didn't fancy additional expense of fees and accommodation and effectively delaying by a year his chance to start earning. It seems nuts to me that Scottush kids go to Uni a year younger than our not as mature as they think they are school leavers.

Most Scottish students go to uni after doing Advanced Highers in S6, so will be the same age as English students. Some may go after doing Highers in S5 although I think this is less common than it used to be - the vast majority will do Highers first and then apply as they are likely to get unconditional offers with a good set of results. However, because of the age that children can start school (children can start P1 at 4 and a half) students can complete S6 and be 17 and a half when they start uni.

My Dd will be 17 in January and finishes Scottish 6th year in June and hopes to start Uni in September. She could have started this year at 16.5 but very few pupils do go to Uni after 5th year. The majority of Scottish pupils are 18 when they start Uni, with only the Sept-Feb birthdays still waiting to turn 18.

My neice is a full 15 months younger than my DS and they will go to Uni at the same time even after Advanced highers!

That explains why Pat in 44 Scotland St takes two gap years...

Anyway, I also read that Edinburgh has an extremely high ratio of foreign students. I suppose they are having to get money from somewhere now that many English students are refusing to cross Hadrian's Wall.

Many of those overseas students will not be paying fees though, if they are from the EU. We are treated differently from other EU countries in having to pay those fees. Hence the resentment.

Exactly Seekret. That's what finally tipped me over the edge!