Should I discourage my kids from going to Uni?

patchwork_cat

Gloomendoom wrote: »

That is true, but 25 years ago everybody and his dog didn't have 2 A's and a B.

Stricter entry requirements or even supplementary entrance exams are almost inevitable if good A level grades can't be used to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Every man and his dog don't these days either.

I used to be surprised at how many students seemed to get straight A's (although I do think harder in some subjects than others) and I will say I think it is easier to get A's nowadays than 25 years ago, but in order to get the high grades believe me they do have to work and it is much more consistent than 25 years ago. My DH got A and 2 B's 25 years ago after getting 12% in his Physics mock, that was his kick up the bum, nowadays he would not get a B in Physics by waking up and smelling the coffee in the last 4 months.

My DS is taking Chemistry, Biology and Maths A2 with Physics AS and it is much more relentless than 25 years ago.

ViolaLass

shop-to-drop wrote: »

It was reported that OU has significantly had funding reduced and so fees will need to go up considerably.

But you can work at the same time and study when and where it suits you i.e. you can choose where to be based.

wendz86

If they want to go to uni you should let them. I am really glad I went. In my opinion the courses that are useful are ones that have a work placement or element of work experience in them. I did my work placement on my course and was offered a job through this as were a lot of other people on my course. My sister did fashion and was again offered a job from one of her placements.

mintymoneysaver

patchwork_cat wrote: »

Every man and his dog don't these days either.

I used to be surprised at how many students seemed to get straight A's (although I do think harder in some subjects than others) and I will say I think it is easier to get A's nowadays than 25 years ago, but in order to get the high grades believe me they do have to work and it is much more consistent than 25 years ago. My DH got A and 2 B's 25 years ago after getting 12% in his Physics mock, that was his kick up the bum, nowadays he would not get a B in Physics by waking up and smelling the coffee in the last 4 months.

My DS is taking Chemistry, Biology and Maths A2 with Physics AS and it is much more relentless than 25 years ago.

I totally agree. 25 years ago I spent the whole of Lower sixth missing lessons, handing in rushed essays, and getting a record low of 13% on my mocks. After a few crammed weeks of study just before the actual exams I got a B-C-D, which was above the grades I needed for my teaching degree. I'll freely admit I was fortunate, and that I have always been able to scrape by ( got 9 O levels but only got Cs in them as I did NO revision whatsoever...) but my daughter now works so much harder than I ever did! She had an AS paper in physics in January, did plenty of revision and only managed to get an E. It really made her realise how she's got to work even harder, but she already does so much more than I ever did) I think the difference now is that they can retake things, we only had one chance.
Anyway, back to the question. I am encouraging her to go to University. She will probably do Religion and Theology as she absolutely loves the subject and seems to have a natural flair for it. She'll have to have at least an A and 2 B's though to do it. I'm not sure what she'll do with it, and it may well end up being useless, but she will have had the benefit of student life, learnt much more and will 'hopefully' earn a slightly higher wage than her contemporaries. And if she doesn't earn any more, but is in a job that she loves, then that will have been worthwhile too.
We are fortunate in that we have been saving for them to go. We always assumed they would. She will have to get a tuition fees loan, no doubt about it, but hopefully we will be able to cover her living expenses, and also hopefully she will have a part time job. We've done without other things to be able to do it, so I hope one day she appreciates it!

WolfSong2000

It was always "expected" that I would go to university before I went, then once I made it my parents continually hinted that it would be okay if I dropped out and got a job. Lord knows why...

Anyhow, I disagree that university should only be for the "brightest and the best", but on the other hand, I do worry about how many people go to uni and then just end up wasting 3/4 years. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and my A-Level grades weren't great (BCD), but I still managed to get into a very well respected university to study philosophy. Half way through I changed my mind and switched to history. I can honestly say that despite the debt, I really, really enjoyed my time. I learned a great deal and not just academically. It gave me some breathing space to figure out what I wanted to do, and since I graduated last year, I have been accepted into St. Andrews university to do an International Relations related masters degree.

I'm now half way through the masters and still have to pinch myself. With my A-level grades I would never have stood a chance in hell of getting where I am now, and I carefully picked my degree here because it's an expanding area (Peace and Conflict studies), so I have a better chance of finding work. Some of my classmates are going on to do a second masters at places like Cambridge and LSE. At 24 I'm too old for this now, but it's good to know for the future that I'd be in with a chance!

The skills I've learned from both degrees are also incredibly useful and can be applied to a wide range of situations. I've also been given opportunities to travel (just got back from Bosnia, which was *amazing*).

Having said all of this, I'm naturally relatively "academic", so although I'm not planning on becoming a lecturer I've managed to get so much out of my university experience. I wouldn't change it for the world, and I think even if the fees went up I'd probably do it again given the chance

patchwork_cat

mintymoneysaver wrote: »

I totally agree. 25 years ago I spent the whole of Lower sixth missing lessons, handing in rushed essays, and getting a record low of 13% on my mocks. After a few crammed weeks of study just before the actual exams I got a B-C-D, which was above the grades I needed for my teaching degree. I'll freely admit I was fortunate, and that I have always been able to scrape by ( got 9 O levels but only got Cs in them as I did NO revision whatsoever...) but my daughter now works so much harder than I ever did! She had an AS paper in physics in January, did plenty of revision and only managed to get an E. It really made her realise how she's got to work even harder, but she already does so much more than I ever did) I think the difference now is that they can retake things, we only had one chance.
Anyway, back to the question. I am encouraging her to go to University. She will probably do Religion and Theology as she absolutely loves the subject and seems to have a natural flair for it. She'll have to have at least an A and 2 B's though to do it. I'm not sure what she'll do with it, and it may well end up being useless, but she will have had the benefit of student life, learnt much more and will 'hopefully' earn a slightly higher wage than her contemporaries. And if she doesn't earn any more, but is in a job that she loves, then that will have been worthwhile too.
We are fortunate in that we have been saving for them to go. We always assumed they would. She will have to get a tuition fees loan, no doubt about it, but hopefully we will be able to cover her living expenses, and also hopefully she will have a part time job. We've done without other things to be able to do it, so I hope one day she appreciates it!

There are pros and cons to both systems - now, if they have a bad day they can just resit, in our day, tough , resit the whole thing! now, you need to be more au fait with the whole syllabus, in our day, if you were lucky the things you didn't know didn't come up, unlucky only the things you didn't know came up! My DS says he would just love to have a Christmas holiday, as for the last 2 he has barely had a day off during them.

esmerelda98

patchwork_cat wrote: »

There are pros and cons to both systems - now, if they have a bad day they can just resit, in our day, tough , resit the whole thing! now, you need to be more au fait with the whole syllabus, in our day, if you were lucky the things you didn't know didn't come up, unlucky only the things you didn't know came up! My DS says he would just love to have a Christmas holiday, as for the last 2 he has barely had a day off during them.

I did modular A Levels quite a while ago now. I saw some exam papers from the Eighties and thought they were more challenging than what was being expected of me, though I was probably not very far along in the course. I must say that the idea that it is easy to repeat exams to get a better grade is probably not true, well not for everyone. It was my aim to never repeat a modular exam, though when I got a B when I really thought I should have been able to get an A I did repeat one. It was as I expected. I couldn't revise as much for the second exam as I did for the first and I had less time than I usually did to revise for the three other exams I was sitting for the first time. I found it to be quite an unsatisfactory experience

Mupette

You can't rule your children's lives forever,

if they want to go to uni let them, it's their choice not yours,

it's not 9k it is up to each uni is different, there are ways and means.

wintersunshine

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

It was always "expected" that I would go to university before I went, then once I made it my parents continually hinted that it would be okay if I dropped out and got a job. Lord knows why...

Anyhow, I disagree that university should only be for the "brightest and the best", but on the other hand, I do worry about how many people go to uni and then just end up wasting 3/4 years. I didn't know what I wanted to do, and my A-Level grades weren't great (BCD), but I still managed to get into a very well respected university to study philosophy. Half way through I changed my mind and switched to history. I can honestly say that despite the debt, I really, really enjoyed my time. I learned a great deal and not just academically. It gave me some breathing space to figure out what I wanted to do, and since I graduated last year, I have been accepted into St. Andrews university to do an International Relations related masters degree.

I'm now half way through the masters and still have to pinch myself. With my A-level grades I would never have stood a chance in hell of getting where I am now, and I carefully picked my degree here because it's an expanding area (Peace and Conflict studies), so I have a better chance of finding work. Some of my classmates are going on to do a second masters at places like Cambridge and LSE. At 24 I'm too old for this now, but it's good to know for the future that I'd be in with a chance!

The skills I've learned from both degrees are also incredibly useful and can be applied to a wide range of situations. I've also been given opportunities to travel (just got back from Bosnia, which was *amazing*).

Having said all of this, I'm naturally relatively "academic", so although I'm not planning on becoming a lecturer I've managed to get so much out of my university experience. I wouldn't change it for the world, and I think even if the fees went up I'd probably do it again given the chance

Please how did you fund all that?

wintersunshine

Mupette wrote: »

You can't rule your children's lives forever,

if they want to go to uni let them, it's their choice not yours,

it's not 9k it is up to each uni is different, there are ways and means.

I don't want to rule my children's life. But in their 30s, when the loan repayments really kick AND they are trying to buy a house AND find money to spend time with their kids I don't want them to think I just stood by and let them get into tons of debt either.....

If they wanted to take drugs would you expect me to just sit around and tell them it was there life and they can just do what they want?