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.

Oh, yes, I forgot that EU students don't pay either. Gosh, an English accent must stand out in Scottish universities now!

www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/11246750/Half-of-places-at-top-university-to-go-to-foreign-students.html

Dn is at a top RG university, and said recently that students on her course made a formal complaint about the non-EU students because seminars were awful because so many speak such poor English that they can't participate.

We are treated differently from other EU countries in having to pay those fees. Hence the resentment
Yes - it would really stick in my craw if DS had opted for Scottish unis for that reason.

And, similarly, the reason that Scottish students tend not to apply for English Universities! My Dd has the grades to apply for Oxbridge but she won't as I don't believe the difference between an Oxbridge degree and an Edinburgh/St Andrews degrees is worth 27k of debt.

Or £36k of debt for a Masters course. As DH says, there has to be some benefit to living in Scotland (apologies to all Scots, DH is actually half Scots, or half Scotch if he's been out playing golf).

Also, many students seem to do 2 Advanced Highers and 1 or 2 more Highers in S6, you'd need 3 Advanced Highers to apply to English Unis.

DS has an offer from UCL! Sorry to brag, but can't in RL, and so proud of him. He is playing it cool, but I can tell he is delighted - he even let me hug him And on the back of it he has got DH to give him a lift to a party tonight
btw - was in his Spam folder - so do keep reminding them to check!

MrsUltra
Give him a firm grasp on the shoulder from all of us

BTW
One of DDs friends has a fully funded sports scholarship degree to a Uni in the US : and I mean fully funded, including flights home each term

firm grasp on the shoulder
Thanks TIP - need to remember that!

Well done to everyone who has got offers!

We've finally pressed the button on the UCAS form. What a relief. I don't recall telling DS I was so fed up with the whole thing that when we sent it off I would do the cancan round the kitchen, but apparently I did, and immediately following the button pressing the cancan music came on . . . . . . . . . it was quite a good workout.

TalkinPeace is your dd at PSC? Back in the 80s when I was there, a friend managed to get a fully funded sports scholarship to the US with termly flights home too - I can't remember where it was for but am wondering if the college have a link over there or a PSC alumnus has set something up as an endowment.

eatyourveg
Tis indeed a PSC student, but more to do with being world class in their sport and the college wanting some of that action

One of DS's team mates got an offer of a fully paid scholarship to Vanderbilt. She turned it down in favour of a lesser college because she preferred their team. Strangely enough, it was specifically for an event that she had been junior champion but hadn't competed at for a good couple of years.

Gloria maybe the tequila & sports gang were up and out a their sports, or sleeping off Friday's excesses...
He could look on TSR - sure to be like-minded folks everywhere.

[GloriaHotcakes] you are right. I have a DC at Warwick and he is very studious but there are also plenty who like to party, not least the sports clubs. He is a second year and so lives off campus. He would not have got out of bed to go onto campus for an open day .

Gloria
pleased to hear that you liked Warwick in the grey
as actually a grey weekend morning is THE test

we'v not seen any hall rooms in real life, but DD has lots of friends from college now at Uni who instagram theirs

my gut feeling is that older rooms, ideally non en suite will be bigger

and shock horror I'm not a fan on en suite rooms at all
wash basin yes
bog : no
you want the beer tummy as far from your bed as possible
also, the discipline of having to make it to the bogs is good for overall control

Another poster on these threads was in the same hall as me in the 80s and had one of the rooms I coveted, but I was silly and applied for modern
DD has seen that "old fashioned" = student not summer conference

I think it's the en suite ones that are 30 week let as they use them for conferences etc during Christmas and Easter. DS1 had a room with a bathroom between two which was cheaper than en suite and was a 39 week let.
When DS2 looked around Nottingham they all seemed to be 30 week ones. A pain to have to move in and out 6 times a year, especially if it's a long way from home.
DS2 didn't bother to look at many halls on open day visits, judging after the first couple that they were all similar and not a big factor in his choice.

I am enjoying hearing about the interviews and offers. DD is unlikely to hear for ages, but was delighted to receive acknowledgements, evidence that the blood, sweat and tears PS would be read.

Scotland is an interesting one. Neither DC showed any interest even though Edinburgh has a strong economics department and slightly lower entry requirements for English students than comparable courses further south. I really encouraged DD to consider St Andrews for medicine with clinical in London, but she was not interested.

Part of the problem I suspect is that in recent years the dominent image of Scotland on our TV has been of ScotNats not appearing to like Londoners much. So no great problem with the likes of Mhairi Black, but a sense that she and other like-minded students would not fall over themselves to welcome English private school kids. Their peers who have chosen Edinburgh etc mainly have passports from other European countries, so would presumably avoid any anti-English prejudice.

In contrast Dublin really appeals to DD and if she does not get a place in an English medical school this year will apply to Irish Universities next. Fees are lower than in Scotland and the medicine course is a year shorter.

Anyone else's DCs not applying to Oxbridge or for Medicine, and still working on their personal statement?

Yes peace , Ds is still reviewing his.

Oh, phew! School is putting on pressure to get it in. DD is trying to take time over it to get it right!