Corona Cohort - Year 12 - 2021 - NO 'Self isolating' please.

[Oblomov20]

We just want our kids in school. Please. If at all possible.

And driving lessons. And good Mental Health. And happiness.

In-and-amongst all this Covid nightmare and lockdown debacle.

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@Heifer ds1 is doing biology at university. He only actually needed one science. His offer was ABB he got ABB but the A* wasn't in biology. That was in business. So I don't think it matters what the grades are in.

That should say A*BB

DD was saying today how exhausting the online lessons are. She is barely keeping up. She is particularly annoyed by her geog teachers who seem to set homework every lesson, often to be done for the next day's lesson. Is this usual? Her other teachers normally gives couple of days at least.

I'd say if there is one thong sixth formers need to learn to do it is to (politely!) feed back to teachers if they are moving too fast. The online lessons are very intense and difficult to pace. I'd want to know if it would be helpful to slow down the pace. I feel like I barely scratch the surface in an hour but I am sure form their end it feels a bit manic!

That might also be why the homework : fear of falling behind the programme of study perhaps.

Thanks Piggy - I think she is feeding stuff to her form tutor, but agree she really needs to speak to her teachers.

I agree @Piggywaspushed

.DD also mentioned that as she has 2 teachers for each subject (even core maths) it feels like she is doing 8 subjects as they all give homework. Hopefully DD will be ok next week and feels better about it all or speak up..

Thanks to those that answered my question re Grades for uni. DD is set on doing Biology and I was worried that every course i looked at where I know DD would consider going was AAA or AAB and I thought that she had to get an A in Biology, and therefore no back up plan if she got a B.

I managed to delete my first line there- I was agreeing with @piggy that DD should speak to the teachers, but it's unlikely to happen whilst they aren't face to face.

Hi all. Haven’t been posting for a while. For those of you with dc who are planning to apply for uni next year, this may be of interest. Who knows if there will be open days this year!
russellgroup.vfairs.com/

Nice to see you back Decor. DD is creating a monster spreadsheet of all the different benefits of (I think) 10 courses. Whether or not it will help or just make it even more confusing remains to be seen...

I’m trying to gently encourage Ds to start researching but not sure he is ready yet. My older two knew what subject they wanted to study at this stage so it was mainly researching unis rather than courses.

DS said this week he thinks it wouldn’t do any harm to do virtual events but that he doesn’t know what he wants to do as feels he doesn’t know what his options are.

I did say there are apprenticeships but I thought he might be happier going to university full time and he shrugged. But that is progress.

Just catching up with news on the thread (obviously not all 16 pages). Noted quite a few have had open evenings AND predicted grades!
Nothing here, nada! But I’m confident it’s all in hand. Congratulations to those with great predicted grades, hope everything carries on smoothly with that trajectory and hope those dc who didn’t get as high as they wanted start to pick up steam.

DS has decided to drop EPQ as he is already finding the school’s own research project (compulsory) time consuming. He is self studying for Core Maths instead.

How much do people consider Universities targeted by employers when choosing a university? I know it’s discussed a lot when it comes to fields like ‘Law’ but beyond that do people pay more than a cursory/cautionary glance? I can’t help notice the discrepancy between most targeted universities and their ranking.

E.g Most targeted in 2019-2020 were: Manchester, Birmingham, Warwick and University College London. Good universities, but I’m a bit surprised this doesn’t correlate with their overall rankings.
In another source Leeds becket topped as the most targeted uni.

I believe these findings are a lot more nuanced than they seem at a glance. Does anyone know why or how these Unis seem to be most targeted overall? And would you ditch a university that is higher in the rankings (all other things being equal) for a lower one that is targeted more by employers?

Haven't looked at that at all shimy, I would think much would depend on the individual subject area or employment involved so may differ from overall ranking considerably. I do look at the employability stats for the individual course, but only after the specific details if the course. Surely the standard of degree achieved is p important, and that will increase if the student really enjoys what they are studying.

@Shimy are you looking specifically at certain courses? Or just generally ?
How are you finding out how the universities are targeted by employers?
University rankings are so variable and depend on different things according to the different table parameters it's hard to pick up accurate information.

I agree it depends on the course. Older 2 are doing vocational degrees so it’s not too important. But if you are doing an arts subject and want to get onto an oversubscribed graduate scheme in the city, it possibly does.

@FoolsAssassin It might be worth checking with the school if they have a Unifrog subscription or similar - I think students can put in their A Level/BTEC subjects & it gives them suggestions.

Problem with employability rates for each course for me is:

• Most times I see that the data gathered covers more than just one -course, so many will say ‘we don’t have data for this particular subject but have included for all similar subjects’ (Poor paraphrasing but something to that effect)
• If the data sample used by NSS is anything to go by, some are sampled on less than twenty students.
• I’ve read on TSR and here that sometimes students are coerced/bribed into giving glowing reports???

Therefore, I think research by an independent body such as Highfliers May be a bit more credible. Unfortunately, Highfliers focus is different and not by subject so not quite an exact comparison.

@teta I just posted and then saw there were more replies. Both really, looking generally but also with an eye on what my DS wants to study (Business course).

I’ve already put a link in my previous post to my source. I’m really interested to know how much people factor in ‘Most Targeted universities by employers’ into their university selections of 5 choices.

Thanks Decorhate. I’m going to have to be a little bit patient as College will be launching into what comes next next month or March so I know he’ll be clearer then.

I think a lot depends on what employment your child is looking at going into. Year's ago Dd was talking about History then Law. Most likely I would be taking notice of the Uni rep, employment destinations, work experience opportunities, employers who target them etc.

She wants to do Music now so I won't necessarily be looking with her at employers who target the Uni but resources and facilities/ general vibrancy of the department/then the uni, poss work experience opps etc. If she doesn't go into secondary teaching, she has made it known she intends to be self-employed doing something related to Music. She started a little online jewellery business in July and has had over 100 orders..she really wants to be her own boss!

I think it totally depends on what you want to study, and what you wat to do.

For example, I know about marketing and film and know that certain unis are definitely preferred and targeted by agencies. English and history I would say go more for the content and if you like the uni : but aim as high as you can because there is a glut of grads. Some English degrees appear practical with units in publishing , for example, but unless they have links to publishing houses, it doesn't mean much. MN will tell you law is still a bastion of privilege and magic circle blah blah, of course...

DS wants to do social policy. There is definitely a big difference between doing it at, say Birmingham , Sheffield, Bath or Glasgow than ,say,Lincoln for someone who wants to enter policy at a high level. However two unis with top top reputations in Social Policy are Strathclyde and Swansea and many might cock a snook if they didn't know this, I guess... and Bournemouth is THE place for social work. What that quite means for those graduates, I am not sure!

This is the 3rd time I'm attempting to post a reply and each time the keys did something stupid and deleted it. So fourth time lucky:
@orangecinnamon @Piggywaspushed I agree it totally depends on the subject and all those points for considerations that Orange mentioned.
I think what I'm finding confusing is when you have a bunch of universities with a similar profile -e.g Birmingham, Nottingham, York, and the data for 'most targeted universities' throws something that doesn't correlate at all with their overall ranking, should just be ignored?

Do people normally factor in employer preference e.g Birmingham (2nd highest targeted of all universities for employment) or ignore that and just concentrate on all the other items that Orange mentioned. I mention Birmingham because it's one that DS has been looking at for his proposed business course, but it doesn't actually rank that highly in the subject rankings.

Piggy's example with 'Social Policy' for instance, I'm assuming you meant from an employer point of view? how does one determine that as all those universities are good pedigrees. It's almost as if you have to have some 'inside' knowledge. I've often read posts advising the OP that Hull is best for Politics and employers will prefer a Hull graduate than say Politics at Leeds. Coventry has been advised over Imperial for a niche engineering degree (which i can't remember right now) to do with car racing. How does this work for Business Management? or management?

I think with Social Policy it is the modules available and the emphasis of the degrees: so for example, the Glasgow degree has quantitative methods and an emphasis on public policy making. The degree at another uni might tend to focus on health and social care or be more theoretical. So they types of students that select Glasgow, Strathclyde, Sheffield et al have their eyes on public policy, think tanks, policy making and so tend to be higher calibre and maybe just a bit more ambitious (not quite the right word).

Employers there tend to be public sector/ civil service etc

Employers might target Birmingham because it is such a big city? Just easier for them?

It's definitely true about Hull ! even though certain posters on MN will not have it! Still cross with DS for not taking up their offer.

DS1 that is.

@Shimy

This is the 3rd time I'm attempting to post a reply and each time the keys did something stupid and deleted it. So fourth time lucky: *@orangecinnamon* *@Piggywaspushed* I agree it totally depends on the subject and all those points for considerations that Orange mentioned. I think what I'm finding confusing is when you have a bunch of universities with a similar profile -e.g Birmingham, Nottingham, York, and the data for 'most targeted universities' throws something that doesn't correlate at all with their overall ranking, should just be ignored?

Do people normally factor in employer preference e.g Birmingham (2nd highest targeted of all universities for employment) or ignore that and just concentrate on all the other items that Orange mentioned. I mention Birmingham because it's one that DS has been looking at for his proposed business course, but it doesn't actually rank that highly in the subject rankings.

Piggy's example with 'Social Policy' for instance, I'm assuming you meant from an employer point of view? how does one determine that as all those universities are good pedigrees. It's almost as if you have to have some 'inside' knowledge. I've often read posts advising the OP that Hull is best for Politics and employers will prefer a Hull graduate than say Politics at Leeds. Coventry has been advised over Imperial for a niche engineering degree (which i can't remember right now) to do with car racing. How does this work for Business Management? or management?

You are so right @shimy it does feel as if you need insider knowledge. You can get clues from the following for that info you need for the course you are looking at specifically I might suggest; LinkedIn where do the graduates from the courses go and work? I THINK you can get that info. Placement opportunities..are these arranged by the Universities? If so who do they links with? Milkrounds..can you find out what employers visit the Unis for these? Accreditation - do they have any that are relevant to the profession. Generally if a University has links, or is targetted by a future employer you'd know about it. It would be on their websites or social media channels for the dept.

I'm a bit about league tables, they can be really useful..if you know and understand what compiles the criteria for ranking. I
say that as someone who works in a Uni though not to imply that they use magical methods to determine the rankings that no-one else understands. It just means having to look a bit further into the claims made.