University things, and snow!
3 Mar 2006 10:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
curiouswombatWe've had snow! This is a fairly rare occurrence - it doesn't happen every year at all. There was even enough for it to stick, and for the children ( and teenagers!) to make snowballs, although not enough for snowmen. I was going to take a picture of the palm trees in the square near my office covered in snow, but by the time I had a coffee break and went outside the snow had all slid off them.
The saga of the daughter and the universities continues.
For those of you outside the UK system - all applications are made centrally, and students may only apply to six universities. So the first bit was of course deciding on the six. Did that a while ago, and the application form went in. Then you wait to see who offers you a place. You have to wait (these days) until you hear from all your six universities, then let the central system (UCAS) know which one you will go to if you get the required grades at A level (end of secondary Education State Exams), and which one you want to hold as your reserve - obviously one which will take you with lower grades, in case you don't do quite so well. The others get told you don't love them!
So by mid-December Kat had offers of places from five of her six universities, and no rejections - which is pretty good! Especially as she knows she is good at her subject - History, and did not underestimate herself - all 6 of her choices are in the top 30 of UK universities, most in the top 20.
Most exciting for her was getting her offer from York - where she most wants to go. To take up the place she has to get an A in History, an A in Classical Civilisation, and a B in German - they don't accept General Studies as one of your three graded subjects.
We waited and waited for her sixth university to contact us. In the meantime we had visited not only York, but also Sheffield and last weekend Lancaster - she was trying to decide between them for her second 'insurance' choice. She is having real trouble with this, as both have equal numbers of pros and cons - I think it was a bit 'the head says Lancaster, the heart says Sheffield', but her feelings altered by the hour, and she really wasn't sure. Sheffield also want an A in History, plus another A and a B - but they will accept General Studies, Lancaster want an A in History, and Bs in 2 other subjects, including General Studies. Edinburgh and Glasgow have also offered her places, but Edinburgh sent lots of rather confusing forms which she had to return 'NOW', confirming that they were her first choice, or something dire would happen - so she decided that they could get stuffed! Glasgow is nice, but she kind of preferred Lancaster or York - probably!
Then there was that sixth university - St. Andrews. She applied almost on a whim, because the course looked good. St Andrews is Scotland's equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge. It is where Prince William did his degree. She thought before Christmas that if they offered her a place, or asked her for interview, she had better go and have a look, and if they offer you a place could you turn them down, or are they a bit like royalty?
By a couple of weeks ago, she had decided that she probably wouldn't bother to go visit if asked - the longer she waited and the more she learnt about the place the more she decided it wasn't what she wanted - as a town it looks a bit like Peel but with a bigger Golf Club House! (When we came home to the Island S2C said he didn't mind where we lived, as long as it wasn't Peel - it gives the impression that it shuts down from September to May, and people on the island tell 'Peel' jokes - you get the idea!).
But as long as she didn't hear from them she didn't have to make any decision.
So a couple of days ago St Andrews also offered her a place. She is fairly sure that she is going to turn them down - even if they aren't used to such cheek!
Today she got a letter from Lancaster. If she chooses them as her first choice, and gets 3As in her A levels, they will give her one of their 300 £1,000 scholarships. They really, really want our daughter! So now she has a 'bribe' to take into consideration as well - because if she decides to accept this, then she has to accept them as her first choice - so no chance of going to York if she doesn't get the 3 As she needs for the Lancaster scholarship, because UCAS will allocate her to Lancaster. As their actual place offer is on lower grades than York she can't keep York at all really - she would have to keep Glasgow as her insurance. But if she goes to Lancaster she is £1,000 better off, if she gets 3 A grades.
I think that I hope she sticks with her heart, and keeps York as her main choice - but for the first time in well over a year she is now unsure about this, because Lancaster want her so much they will pay her to come. Meep! The good thing is that she has still got time to decide - her final written choice doesn't have to be in for another 8 - 10 weeks, but it is all so confusing now!
And a big Thank You to LJ for this new auto-save - for some reason this didn't post, and I had forgotten to save it myself before posting it - but LJ has saved it for me - the first really useful new feature!
The saga of the daughter and the universities continues.
For those of you outside the UK system - all applications are made centrally, and students may only apply to six universities. So the first bit was of course deciding on the six. Did that a while ago, and the application form went in. Then you wait to see who offers you a place. You have to wait (these days) until you hear from all your six universities, then let the central system (UCAS) know which one you will go to if you get the required grades at A level (end of secondary Education State Exams), and which one you want to hold as your reserve - obviously one which will take you with lower grades, in case you don't do quite so well. The others get told you don't love them!
So by mid-December Kat had offers of places from five of her six universities, and no rejections - which is pretty good! Especially as she knows she is good at her subject - History, and did not underestimate herself - all 6 of her choices are in the top 30 of UK universities, most in the top 20.
Most exciting for her was getting her offer from York - where she most wants to go. To take up the place she has to get an A in History, an A in Classical Civilisation, and a B in German - they don't accept General Studies as one of your three graded subjects.
We waited and waited for her sixth university to contact us. In the meantime we had visited not only York, but also Sheffield and last weekend Lancaster - she was trying to decide between them for her second 'insurance' choice. She is having real trouble with this, as both have equal numbers of pros and cons - I think it was a bit 'the head says Lancaster, the heart says Sheffield', but her feelings altered by the hour, and she really wasn't sure. Sheffield also want an A in History, plus another A and a B - but they will accept General Studies, Lancaster want an A in History, and Bs in 2 other subjects, including General Studies. Edinburgh and Glasgow have also offered her places, but Edinburgh sent lots of rather confusing forms which she had to return 'NOW', confirming that they were her first choice, or something dire would happen - so she decided that they could get stuffed! Glasgow is nice, but she kind of preferred Lancaster or York - probably!
Then there was that sixth university - St. Andrews. She applied almost on a whim, because the course looked good. St Andrews is Scotland's equivalent of Oxford or Cambridge. It is where Prince William did his degree. She thought before Christmas that if they offered her a place, or asked her for interview, she had better go and have a look, and if they offer you a place could you turn them down, or are they a bit like royalty?
By a couple of weeks ago, she had decided that she probably wouldn't bother to go visit if asked - the longer she waited and the more she learnt about the place the more she decided it wasn't what she wanted - as a town it looks a bit like Peel but with a bigger Golf Club House! (When we came home to the Island S2C said he didn't mind where we lived, as long as it wasn't Peel - it gives the impression that it shuts down from September to May, and people on the island tell 'Peel' jokes - you get the idea!).
But as long as she didn't hear from them she didn't have to make any decision.
So a couple of days ago St Andrews also offered her a place. She is fairly sure that she is going to turn them down - even if they aren't used to such cheek!
Today she got a letter from Lancaster. If she chooses them as her first choice, and gets 3As in her A levels, they will give her one of their 300 £1,000 scholarships. They really, really want our daughter! So now she has a 'bribe' to take into consideration as well - because if she decides to accept this, then she has to accept them as her first choice - so no chance of going to York if she doesn't get the 3 As she needs for the Lancaster scholarship, because UCAS will allocate her to Lancaster. As their actual place offer is on lower grades than York she can't keep York at all really - she would have to keep Glasgow as her insurance. But if she goes to Lancaster she is £1,000 better off, if she gets 3 A grades.
I think that I hope she sticks with her heart, and keeps York as her main choice - but for the first time in well over a year she is now unsure about this, because Lancaster want her so much they will pay her to come. Meep! The good thing is that she has still got time to decide - her final written choice doesn't have to be in for another 8 - 10 weeks, but it is all so confusing now!
And a big Thank You to LJ for this new auto-save - for some reason this didn't post, and I had forgotten to save it myself before posting it - but LJ has saved it for me - the first really useful new feature!
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no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:48 pm (UTC)Yikes, what a tricky choice. It was all so much easier in my day when we weren't saddled with the awful student debts, and the system was a bit simpler too. Can she revisit York and Lancaster to see if a second visit would make things clearer about which she really prefers?
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:00 pm (UTC)He wonders whether they have a copy of The Daughter of Time in the library at Lancaster University.
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:51 pm (UTC)I feel she should go with her heart. York will have various little pots of money to make awards with once she's there, anyway.
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 10:56 pm (UTC)I think York is still her preference, but I can see the attaction.
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:14 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:32 pm (UTC)Actually the close to home is a down - she says there will be too many other Manx students there - and I think she is right about it, so I'm hoping she will stick to York. But it has to be her decision.
Although I am privately very glad that she has decided against St Andrews - bit of a track to drive there, and I'm not sure how well someone from a tiny three-bedroomed terrace would fit in.
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:49 pm (UTC)being offered money
Date: 03/03/2006 11:31 pm (UTC)Re: being offered money
Date: 03/03/2006 11:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:43 pm (UTC)Oh, to have had a choice that wasn't between Middlesex and Luton!
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:56 pm (UTC)That's what I said - it is less than £10 a week over the whole course - but when you are 17 £1,000 is a lot of money.
York is a nicer place I quite agree - even if Lancaster is closer. I think Lancaster is a bit like a poor-man's version of York - smaller, with a very uninspiring railway station! And an out of town campus university, but with worse architechture - and York university isn't exactly all 'dreaming spires'!
Oh, to have had a choice that wasn't between Middlesex and Luton!
Move north! Housing is cheaper!
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 11:32 am (UTC)If it was enough to make a real difference to her experience at Uni, then it would be worth it, but to remove a first preference for what isn't even going to cover fees, I think it's a cheek.
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 11:37 am (UTC)(btw I meant a choice between the Uni's of Luton and Middlesex. No one else wanted me. They certainly weren't offering me cash!)
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 12:02 pm (UTC)That is excellent advice - I am not going to mention the subject for a few days, unless she does, but I think that is the perfect question.
Actually - Praise Be! - the Isle of Man government pay her fees! Aren't they wonderful? Only they don't do student loans, because they still have a grant system - how wonderfully old-fashioned are we?
She will get her fees but very little living money from them, as we are both in reasonable jobs, not high-fliers, just workers, but earning enough that we will have to keep her!
She will be able to get loans from the banks, but not a UK Government loan, being an 'off-shore' student. I think she sees the £1,000 as a way of not needing any sort of loan for at least the first year - I don't think, like you, that it is worth giving up a first choice for a possible £1,000 which she will have to work very hard for!
I have a feeling that the fact that York is nearer Sheffield - for the music scene - may be a suitable counter-balance!
Which did you choose? I have to admit I hadn't realised that Luton had a university!
I remember that apart from my first choice of biochemistry at Newcastle (chosen mainly because I had relatives near-by!) I had a place at Heriot-Watt to do brewing as my insurance offer!
How different would things have been if, when I didn't quite make my grades, Newcastle had turned me down, and I'd ended up in Edinburgh doing brewing. As it was, I dropped out of the biochemistry, took a year out, and went to what was then Newcastle Poly, to do my nursing degree, and stayed in the north-east for about 15 years - collecting a husband and daughter along the way!
no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 03/03/2006 11:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 09:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 09:58 am (UTC)Thank goodness for the UCAS system - I don't think we could stand the strain if she had more than 6 wanting her!
no subject
Date: 06/03/2006 09:37 pm (UTC)What will be worse is when she has all the acceptances, and we have to look at all the choices and scholarships and decide if she can afford her first choice. The cost is incredible for some of these schools. (Over $40k per year before scholarship funds are applied.)
no subject
Date: 06/03/2006 10:24 pm (UTC)The cost to us is pretty much the same - the governmemt will pay her fees for her, and hall fees are fairly similar at all the universities. I have been saving a bit regularly and have enough in the 'university account' to pay almost all her hall fees for three years - although actually they are usually expected to live out in their second year and sometimes their third - but it will pay her rent anyway!
Actually I really, really love my daughter - she is beginning to think that it is unfair that Lancaster would give her money, even though she will have enought to live on just about, when there maybe someone who needs it more than her, but aren't offered it because they don't feel the need to 'bribe' them as they are only ABB level, rather than possible AAA. I was greatly impressed when she voiced that opinion last night.
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 02:07 am (UTC)I'm glad your daughter has many good choices, although sometimes it makes decision time very hard!
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 10:24 am (UTC)We don't have a boyfriend to worry about - probably a good thing, and there is no university here on the island, so no option of staying close to home. Lancaster is less than a 30 minute drive from where our main car-ferry docks in the UK, which makes it about 5 hours door to door! Liverpool is closer time-wise as long as the weather is good, as there is a fastcraft to Liverpool, so door to door is more like 4 hours - but (a) Liverpool is not a terribly nice city, and (b) the fastcraft are not reliable in the winter. Of course cities with airports that we have flights to are fairly accessible - but not for the parent who will have to bring the car full of stuff!
So parents here quite like Lancaster - which whilst technically a city, is practically a small town.
But York is only about 3 hours further away than Lancaster - and is a lovely city, and has one of the UK's yop 5 universities, who have offered D-d a place- aaargh!!
She does not really have the option of changing universities during her degree, it is extremely uncommon to do so in the UK.
Won't we all be terrible come September when all our babies actually leave home?
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 04:48 am (UTC)I too am a history buff. I have to confess that I'm a Lancastrian at heart. Oh, well.
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 10:34 am (UTC)Even a Lancastrian would have to admit that these days York is a nicer city than Lancaster!
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 04:11 pm (UTC)I can only plead complete ignorance here, never having been to either of these places. I'm purely an armchair Lancastrian. I did go see the ruins of Kenilworth Castle many years ago.
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 06:16 pm (UTC)Lancaster has a small castle, and a small maritime museum. York still has its city walls, the Minster, at least five or six museums, and part of the history department is in the building that the Council of the North met in over 500 years ago.
On the other hand neither are exactly wild metropolitan conurbations! Which is of the good, from a parental point of view!
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 06:55 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 10:35 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 12:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 06:12 pm (UTC)That was my reaction as well!
We are very, very proud of her!
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 02:08 pm (UTC)It's good to hear you'll support her. My mum wasn't very keen on the idea of me going. I did get free accomodation from my parents, but the rest was up to me. I worked all the way through and I came out with no debts. But by living at home, I think I missed out on all the social aspects of it.
>>I think she sees the £1,000 as a way of not needing any sort of loan for at least the first year
I somehow doubt it. :)
>>Which did you choose? I have to admit I hadn't realised that Luton had a university!
It was an old Higher Education College. I never seriously considered going there.
I did lousy at A level. I only had one offer from Middlesex Poly (for English and History) the first year I applied. I didn't get the grades (that's a long story in itself) and I wasn't around for clearing, so I applied again the next year. I got two unconditional offers (for Media and Politics) from Middlesex Poly and Luton HEC(Luton only offered a HND). So Middlesex was a no brainer.
I don't know what I was thinking with Media and Politics. Politics didn't last very long, I can tell you, I swapped it for Communications. I'm disappointed that none of the other Uni's had such little faith in me, seeing as I got a 2:1, but I liked Middlesex. It became a Uni the year I started and it's now in the top 20. Not bad.
Still would have liked to have gone to London Goldsmiths though.
Brewing??? We do make funny choices when we're 17!
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 06:11 pm (UTC)Actually brewing is closely related to bacteriology, which I was also interested in - and then there was the possibility of almost all the rest of the students being male...
Although it would probably have been like car maintenance at night school when it came to males...
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 07:22 pm (UTC)>>Although it would probably have been like car maintenance at night school when it came to males...
Sounds like that could have been quite a few beard scratchers.
no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 04/03/2006 11:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 05/03/2006 01:32 pm (UTC)I didn't realise York no longer accepted General Studies - they accepted it when I applied, one of the main reasons I got in I think!
no subject
Date: 05/03/2006 01:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 05/03/2006 03:55 pm (UTC)York history department do say in the small print of their offer that the AAB should not include General Studies, but I have a feeling that they'd probably find AAC&A(General Studies) acceptable - especially as a couple of people have said that they are pretty good about taking their 'first choice' students even if they just miss their grades.
I have passed on the info about the Languages for All to Kat - she knew it existed, but was really pleased to hear from someone who had actually done it - it is in her personal York plan now.