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.

Dotdotdotmustdash that is great news for your daughter to get an unconditional offer! A great start! My DD has an offer from York and a lower (and doable!) offer from Liverpool which is her first choice so far, waiting
to see what happens with the rest. Still haven't successfully "encouraged" DS to write his personal statement or choose more than two places yet ( sigh!) #polaroppositetwins!

Three cheers for Atia, dotdotdotmustdash and Jaxxyj's DDs! It's all getting quite exciting.

A friend was telling me yesterday about a boy she knew who was applying last year, real high flyer from a top school, perfect CV - and didn't get a single offer. How depressing must that have been, poor lad.

Having had almost instantaneous offer from Bath, DS now stressing that he hasn't heard from Southampton only a few days after the form went in . . . . sigh. Keeping them on an even keel at the moment is a tricky job!

great to hear all the offers .

Much stress amongst DD2 friendship group - one girl has her "aspirational" choice for a similar course at the same uni as another one has her "bottom of the heap safe" choice. Safe choice friend is being a bit too vocal about "ending up" there, which is not especially nice for aspirational friend . DD2 (who has always wanted her friends to "play nicely" with each other) feels stuck in the middle as safe choice friend won't be told that she should pipe down a bit, while aspirational friend keeps letting off steam to DD2, who doesn't know what to say (it's not even any subjects she can help with, she wouldn't know where to start with a humanities essay).

Well done to MyVision's DD for Camb interview & Morvah, Atia, dotdotdot & jaxxyj's DC for offers. Great to read so much good news.

Still waiting to hear from Camb, think quite a lot of people haven't heard yet.

DS at UCL open day today, not a good day to go as trains bit messed up due to weather.

MyVisions that's a bit of a tricky situation for your DD with her friends. Hope she doesn't get too stressed by it. Hope your DD feels calmer about Camb/Durham situation Brioche & ends up making right decision. My DN really agonised for months over Bristol vs York then at the very last minute chose UEA where she's really happy.

mateysmum the three of mine doing history have had to submit written work and I can vouch for the fact that they simply handed in an entirely unedited essay - they had a choice of one at that stage, because the requirement is that it's part of the normal A2 course. The subject in question was as dull as ditch water in each case, or duller (as the tutors for the last two agreed!). The school complied to the letter with Oxford's requirements. It would be very irritating indeed if kids/ teachers cheated on that front, although to be honest there's going to be a mismatch between the quality of the essays in the HAT and any doctored essay, so hopefully that would trip any cheater up. Also, most colleges grill the interviewees on the essay, so that's a second obvious area for someone lame enough to get help to trip up. Serve them right :)

Very well done to all offerees, and it's still early days!

DD1 in a slightly different position since she was required to submit two essays of a set word length - which is somewhat more than the typical bit of writing you do for A2 on the subject she has applied for! But, they did say could be from any subject. So she wrote a bespoke piece on music, and also sent a history essay which she'd already done and had marked as was 'ok' in a history sense. But allegedly v well written (that's never her problem!). The music piece was marked and sent off without her even seeing it (all a bit lastminute.com) but apparently it was 'fine'. The other thing she had to send was harmony exercises which are well within her comfort zone and were full mark jobs. So.

She also has a slightly tricky situation in that her (effectively) unconditional offer is at a uni which is a friend's aspirational choice (same subject). The friend hasn't heard back yet as far as I'm aware. But they have gone for different courses (one with year abroad, one not) so it's not an identical situation.

I'm not actually holding out much hope about her getting a cambridge interview. It was always a long shot, to be honest.

Ds's essay was definitely all his own work, and his teacher was adamant that there should be no input. Well, at least it will perfectly match the writing done in the test!

What happens if a uni doesn't want to make a student an offer? Do they ever turn you down now, or do they wait until March? Do they formally notify you, or just update the tracker? Thanks!

Which subject Rhoda? Sorry, haven't read the whole thread.

Thanks for all your kind replies.I will make her do the Cambs interview whatever so she doesn't look back with regrets.The chances are then that the decision will be taken out of her hands.
We are about half an hour from the station and then 40 minutes by train to Durham, So it would be much easier and cheaper than Cambs for us.
bucking graet news !
York Offerees well done and how exciting! DD at York today with DH
PS just noticed my typo above where I said DDs PD had clearly been written by a professional.I, of course meant CLEARLY NOT written by a professional.

DD1 has an offer from the Guildhall. Pretty quick moving on their part, it's not 24 hours yet since her audition.

wow, they're keen then! Congrats to mini-Uhtred

Amazing!

Brilliant news, Uhtred.

Wow Uhtred very well done to her. And also to everyone else-lovely to hear of so many offers coming through.

Excellent news :) Well done her! A friend's dd is at the Guildhall (from down your way, actually), and chose it because they made her the most financially-attractive offer. From what I see on FB she is very happy :)

Great news Uhtred!

Dotdotdotmustdash that is great news for your daughter to get an unconditional offer!

Thank you. We're in Scotland and our school systems allows for unconditional offers to be made if the DC make the grades in the Higher exams after 5th year (or lower 6th). My daughter did very well and exceeded the typical offers so her offers will either be unconditional or a straight no. It's a less stressful system.

Well done mini Uhtred!!
DD really enjoyed York interview talking lots and lots of maths with a lovely interviewer, but doesn't think it is the right place for her

Guildhall in the bag : sorted

Dotdotdot it. Must be a lot less stressful knowing that your DD already has her grades in the bag!
Well done for those with offers and for those with Cambridge interviews.
Great news Uhtred!

Gloria - me too. I know lots of musicians who went there, including one of my very best friends from school (obviously that was 30 years ago, mind). DD1 is delighted.

Leeds2 I've been wondering that too! After a certain period of time, is it obvious that an offer isn't going to be made? We need a useful little spreadsheet detailing the average length of time between submitting and getting an offer for each university . . . . . I'm so tempted to plan one instead of getting on with work . . . . . .

Well done to Uhtred's DD!