Wimbledon College of Art interview - help

Callie22 wrote: »

Would it help at all to sit down and realistically go through the costs and practicalities that there would be should she be offered a place? So for example, work out accommodation and travel costs, look online at where she might be living, think about the overall costs of food and day-to-day expenses, look at how much she'd need to travel on a daily basis and how many hours she'd need to work to cover all this on top of student loans. Also really think about the reality of being a very long way from home and family and coping with this alongside the pressures of a university course- coping with an unfamiliar GP practice, for example. Get her to plan out her first term in detail - what she'll have to do, what it'll cost. I don't say this with the intention of putting her off, but to try to get her to think more realistically about the reality of moving to London before she goes for the interview. Otherwise I can forsee a huge issue if she does get offered a place and she just relies on the magical thinking (or mum ...) to sort it all out - moving to London will be a massive adjustment anyway even without the stress of university and it might be worse if she puts herself in the position of being offered a place that she can't take up.

Grumpelstiltskin wrote: »

I think you need to make an appointment to see someone as high up as possible at her current college.

You need to put your cards on the table about your daughter's mental health issues and your financial position ie. you are in no position to help her out financially and would she survive in Wimbledon with no parental financial help?

If she isn't financially savvy then the !!!! will hit the fan very fast when she has spent her student loan and has no money to eat or return home.

rach_k wrote: »

If her current school encouraged her to apply, have you/she asked them whether they have former students currently in Wimbledon? I think most schools keep tabs on where people end up so they may be able to put her in touch with somebody who is there already, from your area or near enough. They might be in a good position to talk to her about how much it will cost, things like accommodation and travel, the chances of finding a job she can do etc.

As for the money side of things, I would sit down and work out exactly how much you can put towards the trip. Even if it's £10, tell her you will help her plan the trip and you're happy she wants to go but that's the maximum you can afford. Then, if she can't find the rest of the money, it's her choices that have put her in that position. All parents want to provide things like this for their kids but it has to stop at some point, and I'd say at 20 she's had quite a good run if you've paid for everything up till now!

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

The connections between King's Cross and Paddington are very easy ones, they're more like hopping on a bus for a couple of stops than wandering miles.


Train from Reading - Paddington.
District Line from Paddington to Wimbledon.
15 Minute walk from the station. If she can't handle the walking bit, hop onto a tram to Dundonald Road and it's about 4 minutes away.

Easy.

Download the Rail app, download the bus times app, make sure she's got enough data to use both, plus the TFL journey planner (website, not app) and Google maps, make sure she has a payment card with contactless for the transport, print the travel instructions out and she's sorted. If she is really suffering by the time she gets to Wimbledon Station, there's a black cab rank out the front and it won't take long to get there (so won't be too expensive). Should take just over a hour and a quarter from getting on the train at Reading.

It's also not that expensive for a second person to go along with her from Reading - cheaper than a hotel.


Wimbledon isn't central London. A lot of it is very quiet, posh and leafy outside two weeks in the summer, where it's busy, posh and leafy but filled with weird people who want to watch tennis.


PS - both mine are at Art School - the most floaty one did so well, she decided she wasn't coming back to her home town and is very happy where she is.

This was the one who couldn't catch a bus on her own until the day she went to Uni.