It's lovely to hear how your non Y12 DC are doing, older and younger, keep posting Piggy, and welcome (back?) Delphi.
Birmingham is such a beautiful, top rate uni. I had many challenges growing up there (more culturally, most people were lovely) and life as a teenager in the City was as a result, hard. I think it has inadvertently put DD off from applying in the Midlands as a result.
It's lovely to hear of your DD's passion for music Orange; good luck with G8 singing this summer. DD has missed music playing with her different ensembles so much. It made me a little sad to read on other threads the constant negativity towards extra curricula activities, and as if achieving G8 level is just for PS/bragging rights. I am sure there are plenty of parents that are behind pushing DC for CV value and I do get the privileged argument, but it's also just a competency metric that is understood, demonstrating a level of learning, or longevity that's been achieved, exams or not, that the instrument's fundamentals have been mastered over a period of time. DD took up sax at 16 for fun, because she had learned the basics across 3 other instruments including voice, enabling her to progress much quicker, even on a totally different type of instrument, extending her playing beyond classical, such as out of school bands.
She believes music will help her find different friendship groups beyond her academic studies at uni if she goes. It has definitely helped her to stay sane through this last year, where some of her friends have struggled to be interested in anything beyond the phone.