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.

DS heard today he has an interview at Oxford. He was low key, but I know he was secretly delighted
The Scottish system sounds so much more sensible...)

Wow MrsUltra that is amazing news!! Well done him!

Great news MrsUltra!

Well done to junior Ultra!

Excellent news mrsultra.

Had a weird dream last night where dh and I had taken Oxbridge entrance and both failed. We were actually arguing in the dream about whether we would have had an argument if one of us had passed. Competitive, us?!

Congrats to MiniUltra. No news yet for ds, but not especially confident.

Great news MrsUltra!

Interview decisions for DD's subject come out next week but not holding my breath...

Brilliant news MrsUltra!

Great news MrsUltra.

I feel I ought to know this but I don't! DS is going to days for applicants at Bristol and Surrey. I presume that everyone who applies gets asked to one of these? And will it include an interview?

For those still waiting on offers, DD has joined the FB groups for applicants to each of her chosen Unis : she's finding it very reassuring to hear that certain departments at certain Unis are clearly holding back
and others trickle the offers out
and others seem to have done the lot in one block
etc

TiP, DCs experience was that such groups, or certainly The Student Room, is populated by the more confident. DC also claim that many TSR posters exagerate their qualifications. Whether they do or not, both mine found TSR profoundly depressing, instead leaving it to me to monitor the apparent flow of offers and rejections. (Actually DD has now banned me. Lots of medical school interviews seem to be being given out for the courses she has applied to but only one has gone to her.....)

TSR is indeed very weird
the thing about FB is that its real names and real schools and real faces
so in the long run some of those people will become real friends

she's already found somebody else getting the same train to York next month so they will be able to arrive together which is rather cool

That is cool TiP.

DS1 has today received an offer from his joint favourite with Oxford Uni. It's possibly even his favourite so he is very happy.

He is considering withdrawing from an interview in December, as he likes the Unis already offered better, and this Uni's offer is unlikely to be significantly different. It is several hours travel on at least 2 trains. Do people do this?

Well Done to your DS, raspberry. I don't see a problem with withdrawing from an interview if he already has two offers from places he prefers, and any offer from this place is likely to be similar. I imagine the interviewer would be grateful not to have his/her time wasted, not to mention the waste of your son's time in getting there.

How do you find these FB groups? Just search something like, York Uni, History, September 2016 ?

leeds
in the search bar, start typing the name of the Uni and then Freshers ... they pop up
all closed groups so the kids need to join in their own right
from there they can find people in groups even more closely linked

Thanks. I will let DD know.

Great to see all the good news still rolling in.
DD has an interview at Oxford!

Congrats Cherrybaby!!

Ds has an interview too. As mentioned on another thread, he is acting a bit depressed about it, and didn't even say he had an interview for a few hours. He says that it's just prolonging the whole business before he's rejected.

Sorry I have not been around. Nothing new to report here other than we are sick of waiting. Its great though to hear all the good news. Good luck to all the DC who have interviews coming up.

Rhoda, can your DS depersonalise it. He does not care if he gets a place, so it is an exercise in seeing how far he gets. And that he might as well enjoy it. If he gets the place he does not have to take it. It is entirely up to him, and you will help him resist any pressure from school, grandparents etc.

Well done to those of your dcs with interviews being offered.

Sorry to hear about your ds's feelings on the interviewRhoda . Has he had a practice interview with anyone that could boost his confidence? Sorry haven't read the other thread but good luck to him. I did a mock interview for an Oxbridge candidate last year and asked a pertinent question based on her PS and she dissolved into tears. I felt so bad but it was a really obvious point to ask about that she wasn't prepared for so well worth combing that PS for prospective questions - and getting others to do it as well - if only his teachers.

Needmoresleep we haven't heard anything either, even from Warwick, who we thought gave lots of offers and quickly. So frustrating for our dcs.

Re the interview practice.
At DC school they 'swap' candidate with another nearby school so the DC have an unfamiliar location and person, and the interviewer read the PS for points of obvious questioning. If the school doesn't do this, maybe ask a work colleague or someone else the DC does not know?