University - class of 2021

[Vikkicat]

Thank you for starting the thread.

My son wants to do marine zoology, so his options are really by the sea! he is thinking Exeter, Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cumbria or Southampton - so all very far from us ;(

I sat with him a few months ago and went through the UCAS site, so we could see what he needed to do to find courses le fancied, and therefore the Uni's offering them. he has created his UCAS profile as the school told him it needed to be done. and logged on to the individual University web sites looking for open days.

School (in my opinion) have been very slow to begin explaining UCAS/ Uni with them. Only last week have we scheduled a call / meeting with his form tutor for them to start with personal statements & references. BUT i have already started this with him, i have a couple of friends kids statements we are using for templates so have a decent idea on what was seen as a good statement (both of the other kids got unconditional offers).

the problem is my son will do ok, but he is a bit of a 'i'll do just enough to get by' kinda person. If he would just apply himself i am sure he would be amazing, but the good thing about him is he doesn't seem to get stressed. so there is a silver lining i suppose!

[evergreen]

My DD is wanting nursing and for that reason we want her to really consider staying home because she’ll be doing shifts and we don’t want her to getting buses etc... in a City we don’t know at night, but she’s also considering Geography! the balls in her court where here when she needs us and when she’s made her virtual appointments to sit with her.

[Floridatilly]

Originally Posted by evergreen

My DD is wanting nursing and for that reason we want her to really consider staying home because she’ll be doing shifts and we don’t want her to getting buses etc... in a City we don’t know at night, but she’s also considering Geography! the balls in her court where here when she needs us and when she’s made her virtual appointments to sit with her.

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Obviously no idea where you live but our niece commuted to Edge hill (not far from Wigan) she did have lots of shifts with her placements so it was ideal. She specialised in paediatrics. She finished in June 2019 and now working at the Manchester Royal Childrens hospital. She absolutely LOVES it!

[Floridatilly]

Originally Posted by kathrynmc

My daughter is at the same college as yours and has received links to personal statement videos and one recently on how to complete the UCAS form

Do you receive the PA Connect messages, they have held a few personal statement sessions, I think one recently was Bradford University.

The Cambridge online open day is 3rd/4th July, she just needs to register. The thing with applying for Cambridge it isn’t just about grades

My daughter was looking at Cambridge but I think is going off it due to the distance from home.

She is looking at Lancaster, York, Sheffield, Nottingham Trent.

She wants to do Law

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My daughter, like my husband buries her head in the sand when stressed about something. So much so that she wont discuss it.
We need to be more proactive and contact college to receive those messages you mentioned (we are really hopeless)
Her A levels are, English, Media & history. She is doing really well, predicted A’s but she is not passionate about them. So it is putting her off doing a degree in any of them.

She has only just turned 17 and it’s difficult to know what you want to do next week never mind for the rest of your life lol unless you are passionate about something 🙈

[orlandosgr8]

Thanks for starting this thread, it will be really helpful to know what we should be doing etc. My son is hoping to do town planning and so far has narrowed it down to Cardiff, Bristol and Plymouth.

[evergreen]

Originally Posted by Floridatilly

Obviously no idea where you live but our niece commuted to Edge hill (not far from Wigan) she did have lots of shifts with her placements so it was ideal. She specialised in paediatrics. She finished in June 2019 and now working at the Manchester Royal Childrens hospital. She absolutely LOVES it!

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She likes Edgehill and it has fabulous sports facilities it’s about an hour from us ( our DS went there ) we are hoping she likes Chester

[kathrynmc]

Originally Posted by Floridatilly

My daughter, like my husband buries her head in the sand when stressed about something. So much so that she wont discuss it.
We need to be more proactive and contact college to receive those messages you mentioned (we are really hopeless)
Her A levels are, English, Media & history. She is doing really well, predicted A’s but she is not passionate about them. So it is putting her off doing a degree in any of them.

She has only just turned 17 and it’s difficult to know what you want to do next week never mind for the rest of your life lol unless you are passionate about something 🙈

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My daughter is doing History. She had an idea she she wanted to Law before finishing high school, so when she chose her A levels Law was going to be one to see if she liked it. Turns out she loves it.

Your daughter should have the emails. How’s she finding the virtual lessons.

If you look at the websites for Lancaster and York they have the virtual open dates on there, Lancaster has one this weekend and York the weekend after. She will need to register

[Mommacrab]

You can start the UCAS application now but the earliest it can be submitted is the 8th September.
UCAS applications will close around the 15th January.
You can submit after that deadline but your application is not prioritised and you may miss out of offers from Universities.

UCAS website has a very useful section on the whole process -

ucas/undergraduate/a...-to-university

Applications for medical degrees follow a different process.

Lots of universities are now offering virtual open days.

When my eldest was looking at universities she entered the course she wanted to study in the UCAS website and was provided with a list of universities. The list included university name, university code, course name, course code and points tariff needed to attend. She then looked at the course details on the university websites and made a list of the ones she was interested in. We then attended a few open days, pre covid times. She applied for 5, was invited to attend event\audition for 5 and was offered places by 4 universities. It felt like it was a long process but realistically it's such a short time frame to make such a big decision.

Good luck everyone

[Floridatilly]

Originally Posted by kathrynmc

My daughter is doing History. She had an idea she she wanted to Law before finishing high school, so when she chose her A levels Law was going to be one to see if she liked it. Turns out she loves it.

Your daughter should have the emails. How’s she finding the virtual lessons.

If you look at the websites for Lancaster and York they have the virtual open dates on there, Lancaster has one this weekend and York the weekend after. She will need to register

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Thank you ! I am so glad you mentioned this as those are two she is definitely interested in.

She is doing fine with her work, everything is up to date and on target. Its just this university situation.
We had a chat earlier with her, apparently she needs to do a draft personal statement but really struggling with it because she needs to choose a subject and write why this course is for her etc
She just does not know what she wants to do so cant get started in the personal statement.

We have asked her if she really wants to go to universality, maybe do a apprenticeship instead. But no, she really, really wants to go to uni

[rayraygreen]

I did English at York St John and went on to study my Masters at the University of York. I loved studying in York. It's a really friendly city with good nightlife and atmosphere without it being as scary as other places if that makes sense. When I was doing my UCAS, I applied for my hometown, York, Leeds, Newcastle and Lincoln because I didn't want to move too far away but I wanted my independence still. I applied for Hull (my hometown) in case I chickened out of moving out but I'm so glad I went. I also did the Cultural Exchange Program at summer when I was at uni!