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'd not heard about early halls booking - but then DD is my first run through !
Where is molio when we need her experience of this

I thought Molio's experience was limited to Oxford!

More seriously I think it depends on University. Some, like the one DS goes to, only guarantee accommodation to those who Firm, and it does not seem to be first come first served.

Thanks homebythesea - I'll make sure to check what's allowed, assuming this is what DS wants to do. I've told him (though I've no idea it's true) that there won't be any offers on weekend days, so he can relax and get back to his computer games instead of obsessively checking email.

In the bumph that arrived from Birmingham post offer begging for an acceptance it said that as an offer holder you can access the accommodation system on whichever date it opens. Obvs if you don't later firm them then you will fall outside the "guarantee" but you still apply

Not first come first served I appreciate but as with the UCAS form I think it's worth getting the admin done sooner rather than later so they can concentrate on the important task of actually getting the required grades!

First offer! Not that she knows what it is, as track is down this weekend, but she had an email from the university saying congrats on your offer Probably her 4th choice, but lovely to have the first one!

Lovely news Atia.

DS is waiting to see what his York offer is, he was told at interview last Monday he would be getting one, they did say it should take a week!

Good news Atia.
DD2 had an email and letter from Sheffield several days ago making her an offer - but we don't know what the offer is! The email says it will be put on Track within the next 10 days. We assume it will be the standard offer for there.

Just saw a thread on TSR about fastest/slowest to offer, and interesting to see that Durham, which previously had a reputation for being slow has been making offers already - definitely a case of Your Mileage May Vary - wonder which one will win the prize for slowest this year?

Well according to that my postcode is in the least deprived decile despite us being as poor as chur h mice

name change. We're in England and I took my DS to Scotland last weekend, toured Aberdeen, St Andrews, Dundee, Edinburgh, Sterling and Glasgow (my feet ache) and it was lovely to have three days with just him and me! He is such an interesting young man when away from the games console.

Anyway, he's got his UCAS in with Aberdeen and Edinburgh his favourites, hated Dundee and Glasgow, and added Newcastle instead. He has really got more enthusiastic about matters now, which was my main intention.

I just don't get why some of you object to paying the fees in Scotland, as they are exactly the same fees English students pay in England. The fact is, if you're an English student, you're going to pay £9K a year for your higher education, wherever you go (unless abroad). It's immoral in my view that they have to pay at all - i'm not going to quibble about anything being 'unfair' regarding scottish students, when the entire enterprise is bollocks.

And as living expenses in scotland are considerably cheaper than, say, Bristol, he'll be quids in.

DD has her Drama applications still to do for non UCAS courses, but has done the UCAS-related drama applications. The worst thing for her is that the application process doesn't 'stop' after UCAS submission (i.e. then work like hell to get the grades) but goes on until June with constant auditions. And if her auditions don't go on until June, that's bad news as it means she hasn't been offered a place!

Because it's utterly outrageous that my taxes pay for Scottish people to attend university and their taxes don't pay for us

yep- we should have a referendum in the rest of the uk about getting rid of Scotland!!

crickey Hotcakes! I really don't see it that way. The cold and dark hold no terrors for my DS thank god - he's part Viking (he thinks). I don't think I'm 'sending' my DS anywhere tbh, he's making his own choices. Its his debt, not mine, after all

I'm pro scotland staying in the UK, so I tend to think of Scotland as a viable part of the UK.

Exactly how I feel too. Probably rubbed in even more here as we live very close to the border.

DS did put Glasgow down as fifth option, and has pointed out that as Glasgow work the fees so a 4 year course costs the same as an English 3 year course, as has applied for 2nd year entry, the remaining four years of the MPhys would be cheaper than in England. Which I suppose is a consideration.

To be clear I was agreeing with Brioche and Gloria.

Although the cold and dark hold no terrors here either.

I'm not actually influencing my DS choice though

I think in part the problem is that our children have grown up hearing Scottish politicians on the TV essentially saying how much they dislike the English. Hence for DD Ireland (north or south) is a much more attractive prospect, and real options should she need to take a gap year.

The other irritant is that they know plenty who are applying to or going to Edinburgh. However all are likely to be European passport holders. It may be 'dog in a manger' but it would rankle to be paying when the boy next door is not. Plus the degrees DC would do are an extra year.

FWIW I did try to get DD to apply for medicine at St Andrews with clinical in London, but she was not interested, even though I understand this option is relatively unpopular with Scottish/EU students because of the need to pay fees.

We did visit Edinburgh uni while on a short break there. Even the Norwegian student who gave us a tour complained about the cold. However I freely admit I would have resented him paying fees alongside other students who were studying free at my expense.

as DS wants to study international relations and politics, it's good (for him) to go somewhere with a lot of international students - each to their own, I guess

I did not consider Scottish Unis because all of the finance press I read is saying that to manage the no fees, the cutting and slicing is happening elsewhere, particularly in support for research.
So York is as far North as we looked

DD2 didn't consider Scotland as her medical condition simultaneously doesn't exist (it does) AND there are specialists in Scotland to treat it (there aren't), so she wouldn't get funding to continue under her London consultant.

Cold wouldn't have bothered her (I'm from NE Scotland, so our house tends towards the cooler ), but the additional darkness would have had an affect I reckon.

Currently having a meltdown about essays for Cambridge as apparently what she has "isn't good enough" but as the message has been passed on via two different people, she doesn't know what isn't good enough about them. So obviously the entirety is completely rubbish, and she should just give up now [sigh]. And I'm stuck at a client's office an hour away from home, and can't drop everything to calm her down [bigger sigh]. Just wish the whole process was over and done with, and then she could concentrate on A levels.

MyVisions DD submitted her written work (for English) to Oxford yesterday. It was an essay she'd done for homework at the end of Y12 and which had a mark and teacher comments (they're not supposed to produce something specifically for the Oxbridge application).

I think as long as your DD is happy with the essays she has chosen and would be happy discuss them further in an interview they'll be fine. There are probably crossed wires somewhere if she's received the message 3rd hand.