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.

I seem to remember a letter from Cambridge. Single sheet rejection, two sheets pool. No idea what the offer envelope was like!

So glad it's not us this year. Science lessons were quiet yesterday as so many were doing BMAT or other tests. The classics test was apparently hard.

not sure, I'm going by what DD2 told me, it's perfectly possible she's got the wrong end of the stick. It makes more sense for it to be feedback to the referee when I actually stop and think about it.

Discovered last night that ds's college is on the list for contextual offers - does that mean if he gets an offer it will be lower than the published standard one? Morvah ds sent his form in before half term too and he is still waiting for ucas to confirm its gone.

estyourveg an oxford admissions tutor at the open day said the contextual would means you were more likely to get an interview, even if your GCSEs were below the normal standard, but if you then got an offer it would be the standard.

leeds2 ooh thanks- might not be the drawn out wait we thought, then! Maybe academic anyway as I said but it would be nice to get a clean sweep!

Can't believe I only just found this thread. It would have been a comfort during PS Hell that I went through with DS. Posted on another quieter thread, DS has offers from Leeds and Birmingham for Ancient History and is waiting Oxford, plus Exeter and Durham, the latter 2 of which I gather are very late to offer - is that correct?

Obviously we are now on tenterhooks for Oxford interview.

I have a ?. What do boys generally wear now for Oxford interviews? DS is not fashion conscious at all, but he will need to look at least half decent but not too formal I think. Any experience/thoughts?

mateysmum
welcome!
re Durham, was grateful for advice on here from ?? Squirrels??? and so warned DS they were likely to be slow.
Have tentatively raised the clobber issue - ie 'is there anything you want to buy clothes-wise before December ?' - (not helped by DS2 who IS fashion conscious, offering his unsolicited advice to DS1 who is the (potential) interviewee...)

Mateys , As I recall - DS wore chinos , a shirt and a sweater. He isn't fashion conscious either .

Thanks Ladies, was thinking along the lines of smartish trousers/shirt. It is likely to be chilly in December.

We don't have a great selection of shops locally and DS has a minute attention span when it comes to shopping so that's another delight I have to look forward to!

Any new offers? Given Dd would be delighted to get even an interview before Christmas, I need to live vicariously.

Mateys, I said up thread that DD has had an offer from Exeter, which I was surprised about given their reputation! DD has had three out of five so far. Lots at her school have had offers from Bristol and Warwick.

Leeds Can I ask what subject was that for?

Offer number 2 came through tonight - York. Same as Warwick. I guess that means we'll have to go visit them some time

I guess that means we'll have to go visit them some time

well done baby Peas!!!

bit of a boast (sorry, but I hadn't realised till DD went back to school after half term and spoke to staff that this was quite as big a deal as it seems) - she had an offer from Durham before half term . So that's three out of five within a fortnight of applying, no 4 have emailed to say they're waiting till January to look at all applications (it's a bit more of a specialised course), and no 5 is Cambridge, so all dependent on interview.

School put out a plea to Y13s to please please please get a move on with their applications as they don't want to be sorting references out over Christmas as everything has gone v quiet post medicine/Oxbridge deadlines, and no-one is coming to their after school UCAS clinics. But people are still going to Open Days, or have been till recently, so it's not really surprising.

well done her .... time to sit back and work on hitting the grades

Well gel of an early Durham offer! Well Done to your DD MyVisions.

Mateys, I am not entirely sure! I didn't see her final UCAS form (or indeed any draft of it!). It would be something like Social Anthropology, but really not sure of the exact course.

eatyourveg - I can't believe there's one college that does contextual offers. Can you imagine how many applicants they'd get if it got out that there was a college stuck in the 1980s that still offered 2EEs?!

I had the question about clothes, too. I saw a bit in the Times where an interviewer said that state school pupils let themselves down with their clothes and they like to see a suit. I told ds this was rubbish. There can't be a secret dress code... can there?

All this is pie in the sky for ds as near-on 50% eliminated after tests.

Well done to all the DCs with offers. Offers here for Bath and Bristol for Maths and joint honours with Maths.

Rhoda I'm referring to his FE college being on the list to be considered for receiving a contextual offer rather than an oxbridge college being on a list for routinely handing them out. That really would as you say make them popular. The numbers moving to HE in ds's college are very small. Less than 5 have gone from his faculty over the last 3 years. I was trying to ascertain just what being on the list meant for a student going through ucas ie could ds get offers lower than any published one. (He's not applying anywhere that interviews)

Oh, sorry, eatyourveg! I thought ds had missed a trick and everyone was busy applying somewhere that had secret low offers!

Veg...one example. Bristol are clear about their contextual offers for economics

www.bristol.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/2015/economics/bsc-econ/ essentially AAB rather than A*AA.

Our local indie school is on that list, alongside the failing academy. Not sure why, they have lots go on to HE and pride themselves on their a level results.