Wimbledon College of Art interview - help

I became more involved with each subsequent child. Eldest applied to the ones he wanted and only attended one open day and one interview (at the same university), I went with him but more as the parent who pays than anything else. The uni he eventually went to he had never set foot in before the day he arrived to start there.

Middle son, choices were discussed as there were certain criteria that needed to be met first. All required an interview/audition and were combination tours plus interview/audition days. He loved his eventual university from the first visit (we visited twice in the end).

Youngest son, we started open days early, lots of planning went into it and his eventual choice/city was visited 7 times before he started, always with me in tow.

However, I am not the over protective parent that this implies, both middle and youngest have disabilities and needed the extra parental support and in fact, it was essential to the process and a successful outcome. Eldest son has always been very independent and done his own thing.

It almost went wrong with middle son last year, he had moved out of halls (as is common in 2nd year) and the loss of the supportive environment and the lack of rules meant that he couldn't cope and his mental health declined whilst his ASD increased. He stopped accessing his support, wouldn't talk to anyone (me included) and ended up in a very bad place. In the end, he was on the verge of being kicked out, things were so bad that he received the termination of studies email and we had to go through their appeals process.

Lots of work went on over the summer to rebuild his mental health, his coping strategies, his stress relievers alongside working with the university to see if there was a way back for him. Thankfully, they could see the improvements made and after meeting their requirements for fitness to study, he was allowed back to redo second year, albeit starting slightly later than his peers.

He is back in halls accommodation as a disabled student and will remain so for his duration at the uni and working with his support and I am glad to say, doing very well indeed.

With youngest son, I make frequent visits to the uni city he is in and stay for a day or two to keep him 'balanced'. He, unlike his brother, realises when he is on a downward slope and will use certain keywords to let me know it is time to come up as he is struggling (so he can ask without actually saying the proper words, he does like his code words). He also has to ring me every time he leaves his accommodation to cope with his over sensitivity to noise and his surroundings as it forces his brain to think about other things rather than the scary outside world...it's quite weird going shopping via the end of a telephone. He has found these ways of coping rather than me and although it can be a bit of a bind for me, if it works for him, then I will continue to do it (and obviously it is working for him, he is on a high first at the moment, managing his money well and is in a good place mentally).

I can't comment on other courses but all the interviews my daughter has attended were more or less the same format. Take part in a group exercise, prepare a presentation to be delivered to the course tutors, (the subject was given in the invitation letter) take maths and english tests and then have a face to face interview with the course tutor and another Uni official. Luckily she received conditional offers from all the ones she had applied to, she still has to pass the Dept Of Education Skills Tests in Maths and English to be guaranteed a place. She received an unconditional offer for a different course at one Uni.

She only received 2 days notice for one of these interviews, it was quite stressful really. I'm pleased it's all done now !

silvercar wrote: »

The format must be subject related. My kids received their offers without interviews and then were invited to a post-offer open day. So all the students on that day had been given offers and the aim of the day was to show students the department/ uni/ accommodation/ town but also to sell the uni to them.

I don't if they were lucky not to have interviews first or whether that is standard for their subject, but it happened for both of them for all their applications, mainly Russell group universities.

Many universities only interview the border line applicants - those they definitely want get immediate offers.

Tabbytabitha wrote: »

Many universities only interview the border line applicants - those they definitely want get immediate offers.

My daughter was applying for a Teaching degree, after interviews, the successful applicants are given conditional offers if they haven't already passed the DFE Skills Tests in Maths and English. If they haven't passed the skills tests after 3 attempts, they aren't allowed to take them again for 2 years. I don't think any Uni would offer a place on a Teaching Course without interviewing first.

silvercar wrote: »

The format must be subject related. My kids received their offers without interviews and then were invited to a post-offer open day. So all the students on that day had been given offers and the aim of the day was to show students the department/ uni/ accommodation/ town but also to sell the uni to them.

I don't if they were lucky not to have interviews first or whether that is standard for their subject, but it happened for both of them for all their applications, mainly Russell group universities.

For mine, it was subject related. For all of eldest's offers, there were no interviews, for the one course that he was declined for, there was an interview but it was more Arts than the other courses applied for. All offers were conditional.

For middle son, an interview/audition was essential to make sure there was a talent/knowledge first (music). He received conditional offers to all but his firm became unconditional a couple of months before results day, a huge surprise to us.

For youngest, there was a possibility of a couple of interviews (one at an RG uni) but one(RG) decided in the end not to do one and gave him an unconditional and the other he withdrew before interview date. One other he withdrew before any decision was made as everything was unsettling him and they were taking too long and the remaining two were unconditionals. He went with one of the non RG offers as the setting and the course content were more suited to him and his career aspirations. The unconditionals made a huge difference to the process, we had none of the stress in the lead up to to the exams as he knew that despite what happened, they wanted him (he still worked at them though and surpassed expectations)