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.

DD's PS is finally done and the form has been sent to school for them to add her reference so hopefully will be submitted by the end of the week.

There seems to be quite a few of us on this thread with DC applying to Oxbridge. Do you think an Oxbridge hopefuls thread in Higher Education would be a good idea? Last year's was very supportive not that I stalked it or anything and it would avoid too much chat about it on this thread. We might also benefit from the experience of MN members whose DC have recently been through the process.

Oxbridge not on my list - hence the relaxed attitude to getting the form done and visiting Unis over the next few weeks

Collecting her car tomorrow is enough stress for me!

An Oxbridge thread might be supportive but it might also be stressy...ISTR last year's got s bit fraught when people started not getting interviews or not getting in. :(

I guess I'm the only one here with a DC applying to conservatoires this year...DD1 has already had an acknowledgement of application from one of the places to which she has applied - she emailed me it this morning (she's in Belgium on a school trip). I don't know what she expects me to do with it (I suspect she expects me to file it for her in my evernote but actually, she has her own evernote! Which she needs to start using). It's all feeling very real now (although it did feel quite real paying over 100s of £ for the applications last week, too...) I think they plan to press the button on the UCAS universities forms next week (she was the only UCAS conservatoires one at her school - the other person considering conservatoires left after AS).

I haunted that thread too! I can only imagine how posters must have felt come January when the fateful day arrived and some people's dcs did not get good news. Some people were gracious enough to congratulate others' dcs, but some I noticed slunk off to throw darts at pictures of Stephen Hawking/burn a boxed set of "Lewis".

Of course the worst case scenario is getting an offer and then missing that offer in the summer (for any course, not just Oxbridge). :( I think it's going to be a long year...

I was on the Oxbridge thread 2 years ago with DS1. It was very valuable and there were two of us with DC who got Maths offers for Cambridge and both missed the STEP grade in the summer and ended up at their insurance. So it can still be worthwhile in case of failure.

SecretSquirrels I must have read that thread, because it stuck in my mind about the STEP trap - and so I was able to explain that to DS which I think contributed to his decision not to apply there for Maths.
So your experience shared on here has had a wider positive benefit - very grateful!
Very happy to participate in an Oxbridge thread to try to pay forward...

I looked at last year's Oxbridge thread and found it helpful in trying to get my head round application process. Would be happy to be part of one this year.

Relieved that DS has got interview with Head of 6th form organised for Thursday. Hopefully can get application off this week.

I've found them helpful too. Very few people in RL know DS is applying for Oxford. To be honest he still isn't sure if its where he wants to go, but will decide if he gets an offer.

He registered for the PAT this morning.

His other choices (theoretical physics) are Lancaster, Leeds, York and Glasgow.

Some of DD's friends have had offers already!!

Where from, Brioche? And to do what?!

My DD will apply to UK unis, but not where she wants to go but I am still interested! I don't think any of her friends have had offers yet.

At Yr13 information evening this year, the careers advisor said that some students have submitted their application on a Tuesday and had offers by Thurs of the same week! However, she was reassuring people that it's not a race and you don't have to get your application in on day one. So it must be a fairly common thing.

Same here, raspberryripple. I don't know quite why I feel it's right to keep it quiet - I suppose I'm afraid of schadenfreude/pride comes before a fall etc etc.

Ds says he's not too bothered and anyway has to pass the pre-entry test first. Several of ds's friends who had gone on summer schools/open days/attended masterclasses etc were eliminated when they got their ASs so you always have to be aware that there's another hurdle to jump.

There are a lot of people applying to Oxbridge from DD1's school. So there a certain amount of anonymity in the crowd - sadly she is the only one apply also to conservatoires. However, music isn't really valued at her school (she's been in a national ensemble since Y8 and it's never been mentioned at school, where if you throw a ball it gets in the newsletter) so she has a huge pool of uninterest to 'protect' her there too. All the focus is on people who might want to be doctors - and at times that has been annoying but right now DD1 is really pleased she is so totally under the radar. Despite having more pressure on her - with impending auditions etc - than anyone else in her year just in terms of the sheer amount of hurdles she has to attempt, she feels a lot less stressed than some of her would be medic peers appear to be. She will have up to 6 auditions, 6 interviews and 5 written exams (with only a small amount of overlap between the audition programmes and potentially not much overlap between the written tests) in the next couple of months but she's just going to get on with it and give it her best shot - because she's fairly confident there won't be any schnadenfreude or ignominy at school if she crashes and burns. So that's good.

Still ds's head of 6th form told us of one person who had an offer within 4 hours of submitting I'd like to know what the fastest response anyone has had from Durham is (not that ds is applying there).

Think ds will submit after half term as we still have Birmingham and Leeds open days to visit in October and possibly St Andrews. Oh and will do a self guided tour of Lancaster in half term as well. Has anyone done that at Lancaster? What do we do and how useful is it?

so she has a huge pool of uninterest to 'protect' her
that made me laugh
at least the school is not taking credit for her ability - which is a common irritant

She feels very insulated from stress or scrutiny right now. Which is as it turns out JUST the way she likes it She is now advising DD2 that under the radar is a much more comfortable place to be, in Y13 at any rate. DD1 firmly believes that the vast majority of the people in her 6th form don't actually even know or care what she is doing and that's a win for her. Staff at the school have been incredibly lovely and supportive of her applications which is great but so far as general attention goes she is not so much under the radar as on a different continent from the radar.

When I was her age I was very clearly walking around with a metaphorical neon arrow over my head and it wasn't comfortable at all so I can quite see where she is coming from preferring to be in stealth mode.

we did a lot of self guided tours earlier in the year (not Lancaster though) - they were pretty good at getting a feel for what the place is like, how far form each other different buildings/departments are, what does the accommodation look like from the outside, that kind of thing. A few places DD said she felt like she could be happy there, a few she just said "no, not for me".

We liked Lancaster at the open day, the place was full of bouncy enthusiastic students showing everyone round, handing out sweets and freebies . It's quite a compact campus, and I think has had a lot of building work done over the past few years (certainly it didn't look like DD1s description of visiting there five years ago).

Yes we have heard of offers given within the week of submitting UCAS - History at Warwick. Thought it might put a rocket up encourage my DD to get on with her PS but apparently 'too much homework to have time for that at the moment'. All well and good but she is at the master at procrastination and seems to also show a reluctance to accept that she might actual leave home next year!

Dunlurking - Lancaster is a brilliant university (we live relatively close - 20 miles away) and I have done a year course with their Business Department and found the quality of lectures and facilities excellent - plus you have the Lake District on the doorstep!

I can understand the feeling of not wanting to tell people about applying to Camb, DH will happily tell anyone though. Don't think anyone in living memory has got into Camb at DS's school (though a few have gone to Oxford). Don't know if that's more or less pressure really.

Ok he's got interview tomorrow with Deputy Head of 6th form with view to finalising application so they can send it off. Saw Maths teacher today who suggested some last minute changes to PS. Sooo ... did he spend evening putting finishing touches to create the perfect PS? No he went to cinema to see The Martian. Says he's going to finish it in the morning.

DD asked for the school to return her UCAS as she has at the 11th hour seen sense and heeding the advice everyone has been giving her about her PS
Last night re-sent it to school and today got a meeting with the head of sixth form to check it through.Then to HTs office for the pushing the button to send to UCAS ritual!!
She is applying for maths and I don't think stands much of a chance !

Much of a chance at Cambridge, that is.I hope she gets offers from her other choices!!