Corona Cohort Y12 into Y13, braving the storm of the third wave

[Monkey2001]

Supportive thread for parents of Y12 students going into Y13.

Previous thread - www.mumsnet.com/Talk/secondary/4240252-Thread-16-Corona-Cohort-Year-12-2021-Zooming-through-Summer-Term

Yes, I think the number of applicants has increased, partially due to the pandemic. Also the grade inflation of last summer has meant many more achieved the grades than in a standard year. So unis have had to accept much bigger years or defer some students. I wonder what the failure rate will be for the first years?
Interestingly many European Unis. accept large numbers onto their medical courses but have a very high attrition rate along the way.
I know one of the Scottish Unis. are not accepting anyone into their first year for dentistry this year as their current crowd haven't been able to complete all their practical work. My nephew is a fourth year medic and had very little obstetrics experience this year. He didn't see one baby being born. He will be treating members of the public in a years time ...

Thank you for the thoughts re. DS. everyone.
@Fools we had a similar thing with DS too. Now he's decided he loves boarding and the independence it gives him. He's pretty self-contained these days.

@Piggywaspushed - You are an absolute superstar!!! Bath is on our shortlist and we have booked to go and visit the city in the summer anyway to show DS (I went to Bath and loved it so know it well!)

There was availability for the tour, dinner and stay option while we are already in that area which I have managed to book onto! (We live 3-4 hrs away so that was super handy) I am really excited now! (Will just have to break it to DH that he may have a night in our hotel on his own

Aw, you're welcome!

Virtually ‘doing’ York tomorrow

Yes, we had planned to virtually 'do' York tomorrow but DS is now going on a tour at University of Nottingham tomorrow morning. DH is taking him as only allowed one guest sadly. They plan to get the bus into the city later and have an explore. I am quite jealous that they are going together.

York is another one of our 'to visit' list for the summer, but plan to catch up on the virtual open day as best we can.

Some results back here, DS got one mark off an A in chemistry, A in physics and double maths looks likely to be an A overall although he doesn't have all parts back yet. He's happy and hoping for the A/A predictions, his school do predictions as what they could get on a good day so fingers crossed (for UCAS purposes).

He got put into a Cambridge chemistry challenge today which he found really difficult! (He only saw the email last night saying he had been entered into it!!, perhaps would have helped if he had actually read it last week when it was sent...)

Virtual York here, too. DS really just does the subject talks.

Can I ask a not intended to be bitchy question about the Oxbridge threads (or one in particular). Why don't they say what college their DCs are at? Would the sky fall in, or something? It seems very odd to me when others on other threads gaily say 'my DS is at Leeds' or ' they want to apply to Bangor' whatever.

It's because it's very identifying @Piggywaspushed . DS1 does Chemistry at Oxford but the number at his college is tiny.

OK, thanks. Perhaps I'm naive as to why that's an issue. I only ask because if we had a thread for this year, I'd really want to chat about colleges.

@Piggywaspushed there are also some other factors.

Grade inflation of 50% on A/A* grades last year meant that many more people than usual were able to make a competitive gap year application. It also meant that more offer holders than usual met their offer conditions, so it appears that a significant number of 2020 offer holders were deferred to 2021. Also, most medical schools held over offers which students did not meet with the algorithms/CAGs, and if they got the grades in the autumn exams they got a 2021 place. Final problem is that this year the medical schools are assuming that nearly all offer holders will be given the grades they need, so there was not as much over-offering as usual.

There were 20% more applicants than usual and I think there were at least 20% fewer offers than usual, both pushing the competition ratio the wrong way.

Another bloodbath expected for 2022, we are seeing it as a 2 year process.

That's so tough monkey.

Dd1 is doing a very niche university course at Newcastle. Happy to talk about Newcastle Uni to anyone (accommodation, city, Uni) but not her specific course as less than a handful do it. I could probably find out information on most courses as Dd has friends from a range of them.

@Zandathepanda I would be interested to hear any general feedback on Newcastle as it is DS's first choice. If he is lucky enough to get an offer we might ask for accommodation advice, but that feels a long way away!

Is your Ds applying for Medicine @Monkey? ( Sorry I've lost track of who's doing what on here!)
I didn't know about the Autumn retakes being offered a place the following year.
My other nephew has just finished his first year and is doing well. He didn't get in on the day of the results due to his moderated grades, then that was overturned and the Uni subsequently had to give him a place. I think they didn't have enough accommodation for all of them and it's a very large year. O line learning must have been a blessing for them 😄

This thread moves so fast at times, it’s difficult to keep up.

DD has done 2 subjects exams this week, one more next week. She found both really hard but said she did the best she could do that’s all that matters.
@crazycrofter sorry to hear your DD cried in hers. Hope she’s bounced back ok.

Well done to all on the amazing results so far.

Sorry to hear of those having to self isolate and miss out on stuff.

Still no driving licence yet.

This thread has gathered up speed for obvious reasons. Anyway, DS is back home doing online lessons. @Fferny1 thanks. After a night in isolation I think he’s accepted it now and cracking on with other things. His guitar teacher has now said he will enter him for grade 8 as he would have passed grade 7 so there’s no point resuming that in the new term. I think DS is really pleased with that and it’s perked him up a bit.

It’s very odd on this thread that so many of are shortlisting the same universities. Birmingham..check! Bath...check! anyone looking at Warwick?

@PaddingtonPaddington. Complete cross post. My opening line sounds like it’s in response to yours . It’s not, just incase. Great minds!

DD has her exam grades - A, A and A, and UCAS predictions of 3As! She is really chuffed, although still quite unsure of what to do next. Really hope we can get to see some unis over the summer and then concentrate on a reduced number of full open days in September.

That’s amazing @Seeline, well done to her! Good news about the guitar exam @shimy!

Still no driving licence here either @PaddingtonPaddington!

Great results Seeline.

Thanks for the heads up about York. DS originally said it was too close to home then announced yesterday it was in his top five! Don't think he'll have got as far as checking for an open day though.

Well done @Seeline - fantastic results. @shimy - DS looking at Warwick for ancient history

@Shimy I’m trying to encourage Ds to look at Warwick as it’s got a good reputation for the type of courses he is interested in. I think he is a bit put off by the location so am hoping a trip to visit the campus will be possible this summer so he can see for himself.

Yep very happy to answer Monkey2001. Accommodation was looked at in great detail by Dd and we looked round most of it. Park View was where she was for the first year, Jesmond for the second. The thing to remember with accommodation is that there’s loads of movement within the first few months. This is particularly good if you are in Newcastle University owned accommodation (rather than the private ones they can direct you to) as they have thousands of rooms so you can fairly easily change to different accommodation if you can’t stand your flatmates in the first few months when most people who drop out, drop out. So basically not a disaster if you hate the accommodation they have given you. Not sure how easy this is at other universities.

Seeline wow!