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.

Old thread:

previous

I looked at architecture on Unifrog. Oddly, it seems very Northern!!

In terms of the south, I really only got UCL and UAL, both of which would be very international and then UWE, Bristol , Brighton and Falmouth, which might not be quite so cosmopolitan in the international sense.

Lots of very vibrant northern and Scottish cities though : eg Leeds, Glasgow, Manchester, Sheffield.

LOL at Heifer list :-)

I used this website to start off my list - you can enter the subject and it will give you a league table for that subject.

I know there are other factors than just a league table - but I had to start somewhere and I knew that DD would want to go to one of the best she could get into (best for that course).

www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/league-tables/rankings

You can also add other filter factors - region etc

I've just been reading an article online suggesting schools won't be going back until May. Apparently Gavin will be making an announcement in the next few days but won't be giving an exact date, but will say definitely not after feb half term and possibly after Easter at the earliest. They may send back years 11 and 13 earlier.

It must be so hard for people working from home with youngsters as well as the older ones like ours who are missing out on face to face learning.

@Piggywaspushed social policy is in the mix for dd, may I ask where you got the info about Swansea and Strathclyde from?

@icanbewhatiwant there’s another thread about this on MN.

I worry that being faced with another couple of months sequestration the teens may stop complying.

Hi whats. They are both very high in league tables. But , also, my DF is a Strathclyde lecturer , so there is inside knowledge there!

Lots of Scottish unis are big on Social Policy : maybe just because it is a traditionally socialist country!

Thanks Piggy

So I also managed to snap dd a Heifer-style list last night after a short conversation about unis. Well, I say it was like Heifer's, but it was really just a list of the top unis for Psychology, with Scottish and London unis excluded, due to distance/cost. She screenshot my snap, so that's positive!

We also talked about Oxbridge. She didn't think she'd be able to apply as she wasn't in the Oxbridge group at school. This was news to me! I assumed she hadn't been chosen, but she said it was voluntary. I did say that failure to join a prep group in January shouldn't exclude her from applying!

I've done some research on how far the top unis are by train. Slightly annoyingly, we're currently planning to move about 40 mins away to a more rural area for work reasons after her A Levels. This seems to mean everything is just a bit less direct by train. Places I think of as relatively easy to get to from Birmingham have suddenly become a bit of a hassle, with 2 changes etc.

@orangecinnamon I remember the UCAS book! My university choice consisted of flicking through the nearest universities and seeing if they did chemistry putting them on the form and posting it off. That was the entire effort put into the researching. Next was interviews from having received letters in the post. I knew almost as soon as I got there whether it was for me. Ended up with Warwick as first choice and UEA as second and even though I didn’t get my grades Warwick still took me. I loved every minute of it and now seems a long time ago.

I have also got a big spreadsheet on the go for DD. I’m actually finding it quite interesting researching about a subject I know nothing about. Added some extra columns of info from reading everyone’s posts and been looking more into the detail of the course contents. DD is happy for me to help.

@crazycrofter - I also have Scotland and London missing - as they all want Chemistry as 2nd science. Tbh I am relieved she can't go to London, we had already said it would be costly so unless it was the best uni for her then not to apply.... She really fancied Scotland though which is a shame.

Some uni website are a breeze to move around and find what you want - others are a nightmare. Even trying to print out the summary of the course is proving a right pain on some.

Did laugh at the person who said my spreadsheet was a good idea and would teach DD about planning etc - it would if she ever decided to do it herself but she won't (especially whilst I do it for her) :-)

I've done something I've never done before - I suggested to DD it was ok to skip a lesson or two if it snows enough to go sledging! I am so not that parent normally but it rarely snows here on the Wirral, there hasn't been enough here so far - but if it comes next week I told her to go for it.... I think she would ask the teacher at the time if it was ok for her to go, I very much doubt she would just skip without saying why even if I think it's ok....

Totally get you Heifer, it’s been around 3 years since we had snow in London. DH sent me a clip of DD with friend in park with sledge and dog. What struck me more, other than my mad pup going mad for snow again, was the sound in background of kids laughing and screaming in delight. Seriously, I nearly cried and I am the least emotional person ever!

Did laugh at the person who said my spreadsheet was a good idea and would teach DD about planning etc - it would if she ever decided to do it herself but she won't (especially whilst I do it for her) :-)

That was me! It’s amazing what they remember when you are not there and have to do something similar. Trust me, she’ll remember her mother’s spreadsheet.

Ah, the UCCA book (as we old-time folk knew it). I remember many an hour spent in the library flicking through its tissue-thin pages and trying to find meaning in them . I was just reminiscing about this to dd - none of your websites, I said, none of your Student Rooms, no people in the family to pump for information (I was the first to stay at school beyond 15). She retorted that I was lucky - she feels overwhelmed by the amount of information available. An interesting perspective!

I’m generation ‘UCCA’ and ‘PCAS’. Not long returned to the U.K and was completely overwhelmed by all the information squashed into the compact booklet. Couldn’t figure out the geographical location of the different places or how far they were from London and all the names sounded strange. Ended up going to what is now an ex poly on recommendation from a friend of friend who was already there and said it was ‘reeeally, really, .

I was the UCCA era too and you had to apply to all the polytechnics separately. The one I ended up at I didn't even go to an open day for, literally chose it for the location and course (chemistry for me too and I wanted a sandwich year) by looking at the prospectus. I did already know the city though. It turned out to be a good choice.

‘Reeeally, reeally goood’ .

I only remember three open days - Royal Holloway with its very imposing, quite scary buildings, Aberystwyth on an incredibly windy day and Leicester in the sunshine! Guess where I went?! I must have given some weighting to the course content too but I don’t remember that!

I didn't even stay on to 6th form. Unfortunately I was horse mad, all I wanted to do was work with horses. So I left school at soon as I could. I really regret it now. I feel uneducated.

My oldest got a prospectus for Harper Adams as he thought of doing biology there DH was still farming then and a there would be like minded people, the degree was more along the crop, food production and animal line. There were so many animal based degrees in the prospectus, it made me think had I known I could do something like that then I would. I had no idea at the time. Further education had never been discussed through school. Though I know my dad was disappointed with me. So when ds1 wanting to go to university it was all new to me. I really enjoyed looking round. But ds only looked round the nearest 2. So we didn't go far.

I remember the UCCA book and sitting going through a load of prospectuses somewhere, can’t remember where that was. Not school as I had left as unwell then went to college to do an A level a few years later.

I didn't go to any Open Days either. I only discovered they were even a thing when a load of 17 tears olds turned up at our college bar on a school organised visit and all obediently queued in a straight line for a drink.

I did go to two open days but all I really remember about them was the train journeys and feeling very grown up and independent - both were several hundred miles away. One I stayed with relatives, the other I've no recollection of staying anywhere, getting from station to campus (its an out of town campus) or any other details. It was all very random really.

The UCCA book was actually genuinely useful;! All the info in one place!

I did loads of open days - 5 unis and 4 polys - all on my own by coach and train. I chose mine by drawing a circle on a map of the UK about 200 mile radius from London where I lived. I wanted to do geography with an emphasis on physical. I wanted Swansea but bombed my A levels so ended up in Plymouth. That was the open day where the sea had flooded the railway line at Dawlish again, so the journey took hours, so only managed the last 1/2 hour of the day!! Loved my time there though.

@crazycrofter My DD is also wanting to do Psychology. HAs started looking at some places - vague interest in Cambridge, but I don't think she is really aware of the implications yet, but also Cardiff, Bath, Swansea and late arrival UEA. Not had any predicted grades yet so not really sure what might actually be possible!!

I couldn’t bear to leave home so ended up not going anywhere and getting a job! Did my degree with the OU in the end. I did have the UCCA book - mid80s - and still confuse DS by calling it that in the same way my gran never grasped decimal currency... my friend went to Birmingham. As her parents didn’t drive she went by train on her first day and had her trunk forwarded in advance. Dear God we are old....!