Starting year 13 2016

[HSMMaCM]

Continuing from the year 12 - 13 thread.

Good luck with continuing studies, uni open days, driving tests, etc.

That's what I told her Errol, not to panic. Easy for me to say though, I can see where she's coming from. Stressful times.

DD wants to visit Bath Spa on 12th or 26th November, but she has to 'prepare for' a party on the 12th and a driving lesson on the 26th.

I have told her it's her life and she has to prioritise it. I have suggested that whatever the party preparation is (not her own party) she could perhaps do it another day or not at all.

Dingit, sympathies, my finger is hovering over that button too!

DS still not applied here either. I asked if school have asked where he is in his application preparation and he said not.

He 'thinks' he's decided to do History...

well, that's some progress Horsemad!

UCAS form gone off at last

Errol

Dingit - good, hopefully won't be too long till she gets some responses.

Mine got an interview date for Nottingham, early Dec. Manchester next week, Sheffield the week after I think so quite nicely spaced out.

Did your DD like Soton Errol?

Good news about the form going off dingit, the replies can come in quite quickly, we found when DS1 was applying.

She loved it.

Aah, it's lovely seeing them enthused about a place isn't it?

My DS is very happy there.

Glad your ds has picked his subject Horsemad.

dd now has an interview at Southampton too.

That's brilliant news LittleHoHum.

Glad to hear that, Horsemad - what's he studying?

Chemistry

Oh yes, I remember now, glad that worked out.

I thought DD's UCAS form had gone off. It hasn't

UCAS form not sent here yet.

Went to a finance meeting last night and they told us to register for a student loan now, then we'll be notified in January when it's time to apply and to get the application in ASAP.

Apparently some of the people who applied last summer term didn't get their money until Christmas

It sounds like progress is being made on nearly all fronts.Hopefully the applications will all go off in the next few days and the teachers will pull their fingers out!I would definitely be one of those annoying mums firing off cross emails.
I think dd's interview went ok.The practical and team work parts were fine but she was asked some very difficult questions in the interview.But hey ho it's all good experience. They're apparently interviewing a 1000 for 155 places .No further interviews yet but Bristol have sent a message to say they're still considering her application.

teta - glad the interview wasn't too bad. I've read that in the cases where they really do need to rate the candidates in the interviews, the questioning will ramp up and get tougher according to what they can handle - if she got to difficult questions that might be a good thing iyswim.

They're apparently interviewing a 1000 for 155 places.

But each applicant has 5 UCAS choices and may also be applying abroad. It depends on the course how many offers they have to make to fill their 155 places. Unless they are a really top course it would be usual to make at least 5 times as many offers as places. Outside Oxbridge, even top universities like Imperial, UCL would expect lots of their offers to be turned down.

Yes...DD was a bit alarmed early in the process looking at some of the ratios until she'd figured that out!

Yes,i think in the past they only interviewed arround 450 for 120 places.I don't know why they've decided to do it differently this year.Maybe because they didn't have enough offers last year and had to do some extra interview days in June.
It's fiercely competitive to get in anywhere.Dd has quoted only 40% applying get an offer in any year.These are the ones who pass all the educational requirements at the first stage.Many places like mature students and gap year students and ones who are reapplying with months of work experience .

Ah it's vet, right? That will indeed be more competitive, like medicine, but you only need one offer.....

Maybe they also aren't filtering so tightly on who they interview in the first place because of the new A-levels and no AS to assess on?