Wimbledon College of Art interview - help

Spendless

meer53 wrote: »

My daughter has been to interviews at 5 different Uni's, for every one, she had previously been to all their respective open days, one uni (her first choice) she went to two open days there, (i went to one with her) before her interview, to make sure that she was choosing the right one. I don't understand why the OP's daughter is going to an interview at a Uni which she has not even visited ? What is the point ? My daughter went to two open days and immediately said "i would never apply to go there, it was awful" It seems that her college are just trying to get her to apply for a Uni where she would be more likely to be offered a place rather than one that suits her circumstances ? Surely if they're aware of her mental health issues, they wouldn't recommend a Uni so far from home ? As her parent, i would be advising her to look closer to home too, IMO the interview will be a waste of time and money.

My son is in the same boat, applied to Unis he'd not looked round. Why? We are 'older' parents and didn't go to Uni ourselves, only a small % of our peer group did. A such, we had no idea what the process was. We thought the (FE) college he was at would give some guidance, lessons, information etc, so we'd know what we were doing. They didn't. Combine that with a child who said 'Dunno' each time we asked what needed doing. It's quite possible that the OP and her daughter has had a similar situation

Our DS last week both attended an interview at a Uni he'd applied for but hadn't visited and at the weekend attended another ones open day, the 2nd he disliked straight away. On the same day I opened a letter addressed to 'The parents of DS' from the college inviting us to a parents evening and the information that they'd be including a presentation of 'going to Uni, is it the right thing for me?' That info would have been a lot more helpful last year if they'd sent it, not the month after the Ucas deadline!

ETA - My son is under 18, so not legally an adult (yet) and we still haven't been kept informed and he started his course the September after GCSEs, when he was only 16.

Voyager2002

Clearly the day in Wimbledon is a combined interview and open day... more sensible than expecting an interested candidate to visit twice. It is unfortunate that so little notice was given, making travel more expensive than necessary, but this will be something of an adventure and good practice for the interviews in Scotland.

The first, obvious, suggestion: contact the College and ask whether there is any possibility of postponing this: perhaps they are holding their open/interview days on several occasions? Otherwise, attending this will be a worthwhile exercise: the discussion about whether studying in London rather than Scotland can be deferred until she has a number of offers and needs to make a decision.

A flight to Heathrow would be very convenient for access to Heathrow. Otherwise, National Express to Victoria coach station would at least mean that she could get a coach from there to Reading with no need to travel across London. And of course there are plenty of cheap youth-hostel type places to say in the London area, as well as Air BnB.

silvercar

lincroft1710 wrote: »

If the offspring is over 18 then in law they are an adult. The only time a parent could be involved is if they were a guarantor.

This isn't correct. Anyone over 18 can give third party authority to another adult to be able to act with the bank on their account. My offspring did when they went abroad as a safety measure. It meant I could check for unauthorised activity on the account if (or should I say when ) bank cards were mislaid.

meer53

Clearly the day in Wimbledon is a combined interview and open day... more sensible than expecting an interested candidate to visit twice.

Where does it say this ? All the interviews my daughter has had have been just that, interviews. The open days were nearly all towards the end of 2017. My daughter has visited her chosen Uni 3 times now, 2 open days and her interview. One open day wasnt really enough time for her to look round the Uni and the accomodation and speak to the tutors on her chosen course. Choosing a Uni is quite a big decision, to choose one just based on an interview visit is, in my opinion, a mistake.

lincroft1710

silvercar wrote: »

This isn't correct. Anyone over 18 can give third party authority to another adult to be able to act with the bank on their account. My offspring did when they went abroad as a safety measure. It meant I could check for unauthorised activity on the account if (or should I say when ) bank cards were mislaid.

Well clearly if the account holder gives 3rd party authority to another adult then they would have access. Your original post "Don't all parents have third party authority on their offspring's bank accounts?" implied it was an automatic right rather an authority actually given by the offspring

silvercar

lincroft1710 wrote: »

Well clearly if the account holder gives 3rd party authority to another adult then they would have access. Your original post "Don't all parents have third party authority on their offspring's bank accounts?" implied it was an automatic right rather an authority actually given by the offspring

Apologies. The wink emoji was suggesting I was joking.

Spendless

meer53 wrote: »

Clearly the day in Wimbledon is a combined interview and open day... more sensible than expecting an interested candidate to visit twice.

Where does it say this ? All the interviews my daughter has had have been just that, interviews. The open days were nearly all towards the end of 2017. My daughter has visited her chosen Uni 3 times now, 2 open days and her interview. One open day wasnt really enough time for her to look round the Uni and the accomodation and speak to the tutors on her chosen course. Choosing a Uni is quite a big decision, to choose one just based on an interview visit is, in my opinion, a mistake.

The interview that my son went to last Wednesday with my husband followed a very similar format to the open day we did before Christmas at a different Uni. Have a presentation, look at the campus, look at the labs, learn about the course. The only differences were, last Wednesday's Uni hadn't advertised it as an open day and saw DS individually for the interview and they couldn't look inside the rooms of the campus accommodation.

BrassicWoman

online virtual tour for a kick off

http://www.arts.ac.uk/study-at-ual/facilities/virtual-tours-ual/?_ga=2.113148865.45287656.1517864847-1314632326.1517864847

Savvy_Sue

silvercar wrote: »

Given the support ( financial and emotional) that students need from their parents, I would have thought that a parent would be very involved with their offspring's applications.

Most students would be 17 or 18 and living at home, so I would have thought the school would be holding parent information evenings and discussing choices with parent and pupil. At the very least emailing parents that pupils were making choices, so the parent could choose to discuss with their offspring.

The school must be very aware that pupils will struggle without some measure of financial support, so it seems sensible that they warn the parents at least.

As pointed out later, sometimes the college's input comes a bit late!

I think it varies from family to family and child to child. We went to information evenings at school for all three boys, but what happened with applications / open days etc was quite different.

DS1 probably got the most support: I took him and a car load of his mates to Southampton, and I took him to Warwick and Birmingham because they were all reasonably straightforward journeys on days when I was free. He took himself to a couple of other open days, and didn't visit his last choice. I also talked him through the different kinds of university and accommodation - civic, collegiate, campus etc - because having attended a collegiate and worked at a 'new' campus, I knew how different they felt.

DS2 took himself to Cambridge, went with a friend to Warwick, and didn't visit anywhere else because he decided he didn't, after all, want to be in London or Durham, plus he was insulted by their offers.

DS3 sorted himself out, apart from a trip to Brighton which was the first time DH had attended any open days. And he was shocked at the hard sell being given to us, the parents. I was used to it by that time.

But while I was happy to talk to mine about their potential choices, I knew the reality was that if we'd even attempted to influence them, they'd have made diametrically opposite decisions!!!

Now, not all offspring are like that, but some ARE!

Gloomendoom wrote: »

I went to art school and I was 18 the day I started my foundation course and the youngest there. There was no contact with my parents at all.

I now work for a university and have been asked by parents at open days how they will be kept informed of their offspring's progress, or lack of it. The simple answer is that they won't. We don't contact parents on any matter without the student's permission or a dire emergency.

They are adults, not children.

Yes, that's been my experience too. And I can see it's a shame it's not worked out for deanna's son - I found one Uni's support services talked to me about DS1's needs when he went to an open day, and I don't know if a dialogue would have been maintained if he'd gone there, had it been necessary. But if that line isn't drawn, where / when will it be drawn?

Tabbytabitha

meer53 wrote: »

Clearly the day in Wimbledon is a combined interview and open day... more sensible than expecting an interested candidate to visit twice.

Where does it say this ? All the interviews my daughter has had have been just that, interviews. The open days were nearly all towards the end of 2017. My daughter has visited her chosen Uni 3 times now, 2 open days and her interview. One open day wasnt really enough time for her to look round the Uni and the accomodation and speak to the tutors on her chosen course. Choosing a Uni is quite a big decision, to choose one just based on an interview visit is, in my opinion, a mistake.

Open days are a comparatively recent phenomenon - we used to make our choices based on the prospectus alone and we knew that it was about whether the university chose us! I don't think that consumerism and HE sit well together.