Retaking First Year at Uni

Oldernotwiser

nad1611 wrote: »

The trouble is her firends would then be a year ahead and she would miss out on making friends in her first year, not living in halls. It's complicated.

But she'll make friends in her classes.

msmyth18

Ive just completed a referred year! I didnt have to tell student finance my Uni (Aston) did this for me. I also didnt pay for the modules i didnt resit, so if she has managed to pass the ones in January then she shouldnt have to pay for them.

In terms of friends i made a few in the year i am in now, but lived with the ones i met when i first came to uni.

I hope she gets back on track!

ViolaLass

nad1611 wrote: »

The trouble is her firends would then be a year ahead and she would miss out on making friends in her first year, not living in halls. It's complicated.

I don't see how it's complicated. I made friends in halls, in class, through sports groups, music groups, friends of friends etc etc.

There's no reason why she can't move in with her friends, continue to socialise with them AND make friends with the people in her year. I didn't stop speaking to my now-husband when he repeated a year at university.

InaPickle

I think your daughter might lack a bit of confidence about making friends again cos of her depression, but I honestly don't think it's too much of an issue: I spent two years living abroad cos I was studying languages and I had to make four new sets of friends, then more on my Masters, but after an small initial period of getting myself out there, it was all fine.

Also, as other people have mentioned, it's possible to live with her friends who will now be in second year, then make friends from her course.

Once her depression is on the way to being sorted out, I'm sure she'll be fine. Who knows, she might enjoy it more than this year!

nad1611

ViolaLass wrote: »

I don't see how it's complicated. I made friends in halls, in class, through sports groups, music groups, friends of friends etc etc.

There's no reason why she can't move in with her friends, continue to socialise with them AND make friends with the people in her year. I didn't stop speaking to my now-husband when he repeated a year at university.

Just my point you said your husband repeated a year which is exactly what my daughter's hoping to do so you seem to be agreeing. If she was deferred she wouldn't be living with her firends because she wouldn't be at Uni. If she retook she would be able to live with her friends giving her support for when she starts back. Of course you're unable to see how it's complicated because you don't know the whole story. Also as you're not ( I presume) suffering from depression, I think it's hard for people to imagine how difficult it is for her socially, so joining clubs and things the way most people would in order to make friends, isn't the same for her.

nad1611

InaPickle wrote: »

I think your daughter might lack a bit of confidence about making friends again cos of her depression, but I honestly don't think it's too much of an issue: I spent two years living abroad cos I was studying languages and I had to make four new sets of friends, then more on my Masters, but after an small initial period of getting myself out there, it was all fine.

Also, as other people have mentioned, it's possible to live with her friends who will now be in second year, then make friends from her course.

Once her depression is on the way to being sorted out, I'm sure she'll be fine. Who knows, she might enjoy it more than this year!

Thankyou for your encouragement, the social problem was there before the depression so is going to take longer to sort out, yes she is having treatment and she's doing a degree in Psychology.
As regards living with her friends, I think you're agreeing that to retake is possibly better because as you say she'll be able to live with her friends whilst retaking the First Year and can make some new friends at the same time. Having said that the numbers of students in classes are huge so not always that easy to make friends. Anyway we're still waiting to hear from her Tutor, thanks for now.

ViolaLass

nad1611 wrote: »

Just my point you said your husband repeated a year which is exactly what my daughter's hoping to do so you seem to be agreeing. If she was deferred she wouldn't be living with her firends because she wouldn't be at Uni. If she retook she would be able to live with her friends giving her support for when she starts back. Of course you're unable to see how it's complicated because you don't know the whole story. Also as you're not ( I presume) suffering from depression, I think it's hard for people to imagine how difficult it is for her socially, so joining clubs and things the way most people would in order to make friends, isn't the same for her.

I think we have some confusion here over the options - I thought the options were

1. Repeat first year
2. Retake first year exams at some unspecified point and do second year as planned.

Neither of these two options would require her to live apart from her friends.

You seem to have another option in mind, deferring, by which you appear to mean that she doesn't go to university for a year. Have I got that right? Why would she need to do that?

Also, you say her depression complicates matters and makes it difficult to make friends. I appreciate this point but I don't see how the situation is made any more or less complicated by her repeating her first year, provided the university agree. She can then live with whoever she likes and will find herself in the same position as before, socially.

Of course, the university might suggest that she take a year out to deal with other issues in her life and then come back to university when she is ready to cope with studying. I'm not saying this is what she should do but it might be an option to consider.

MrsManda

[QUOTE=ViolaLass;35724801
You seem to have another option in mind, deferring, by which you appear to mean that she doesn't go to university for a year. Have I got that right? Why would she need to do that?
[/QUOTE]

From the OP I believe that it is unlikely that her daughter would be able to progress into second year without having already taken the exams she missed this year. Therefore she either resits the whole year or takes time out and just takes the exams in June. Either way, she wouldn't attend second year until 2011/12

ViolaLass

That's not deferring, though, that's retaking. And provided the university agree, I don't see the difficulty.

nad1611

Thanks mrsmanda, you're right she would not be attending University at all in the Second Year because she won't have taken the exams and successfully passed then to enter the Second Year and would as you say simply resit them in June 2011 and start her second year in 2011. Meaning that she will most likely have lost touch with her old friends and won't know the others in the second year (2011) because she won't have been with them in their first year. Since writing we found out that she wouldn't be able to retake her first year because she did too well in her other modules to warrant it.

Anyway thanks everyone for your help and advise, amazingly against all odds she has decided to sit the exams and she has one left tomorrow, if she passes she'll be able to carry on with the second year with all the supportive network which has been set up for her. She won't know until after 7th of Sept so it's going to be a very anxiuos time, so fingers crossed!!