Thinking about 2016 already...

[Pups_mum]

I've been thrown into a slight panic this week by an email from DD's academic school outlining the events planned for the weeks after the AS level exams are over, including a multitude of trips to various universities and "off timetable" days when the students will be assisted with their university applications. What!? How did that come around so soon? I am certain that when I was in 6th form (admittedly many years ago) none of that happened until the first term of upper sixth.

DD hasn't even decided whether she wants to apply for any university courses yet. She has decided to apply for post 18 dance courses and is still debating whether to apply for any "ordinary" university courses as a back up plan, or to wait and see what happens and take a gap year if she doesn't get accepted onto any of the courses she really wants, and apply for university the year after. Though she is fully aware that she needs a Plan B, in all honesty she is still trying to get her head around all the Plan A options. I thought we had ages to think about it all yet, but apparently not! Have to confess I am feeling a tad pressured by the school's email actually. Obviously the vast majority of their students do go onto do academic degrees at regular universities, but there just seems to be an assumption that they will all take that route. I know DD is a bit anxious about telling her teachers that she has other ideas.

Anyway, taking a leaf out of katymac's book, i have spent the weekend developing a spreadsheet of potential options, ranging from "absolute ideal"(Rambert or London Studio Centre are current dream destinations) to "might be worth looking at" and my brain is absolutely fried. I know that maybe I should just leave it to DD, but it is all so much more complicated than it was in "my day" - so many options, different application methods, the financial considerations and so on, so I feel I need to provide some guidance. Our initial shortlist is rather long and I've included some university dance degrees, figuring that it won't do her any harm to go through the process of UCAS applications alongside her classmates even if she ultimately doesn't follow it through.

i just wondered if anyone else has been through a similar decision making process and what people think about the pros and cons of a gap year? Also, any knowledge of university dance degrees would be much appreciated. Looking at info on-line I think Roehampton and De Montfort look most appealing, but I have no idea really!

[Nutcracker-x]

What about explaining to your DD's school about her plans to apply for post 18 vocational dance schools and then they may be able to offer advice on what to do?

[sarahw]

Hi Pups_mum

 

I have no recent experience but do know UCAS forms aren't due til Autumn.

 

I guess it's good school are encouraging you to plan early but you really have the whole summer to decide.

 

Take your time to try and reduce the stress.... I think your dd will need your help to get on top of it all.

 

Good luck

[Jaylou62]

My older dd found writing the personal statement the hardest so might be worth doing that over the summer.

[Fiz]

I agree, Jaylou. My youngest dd was in agonies over it.

[orchidblue]

My DD felt very pressured by her school even after receiving a funded offer at vocational school. They seemed to think that the only route worth following was University. Fortunately my DD has always known her own mind and was fully supported by just one teacher. My non DS is currently in Year 12 about to take AS exams. He has never felt so pressured by his teachers and I seem to have momentarily lost my smiling boy.

[amum/Cathy]

I'm with you on this. My ds will probably apply this year but he really doesn't know what he wants to do or where. The school is sending them all to Newcastle University for an open day on 26th June and they were told they would have to have a very good excuse if they didn't want to go. Well ds has his Advanced 1 exam next day, plus a tap, and a jazz exam and didn't want to miss his friday evening classes. It certainly showed us where his priorities were! Anyway he's settled on missing half his jazz class but then doing his Adv 1 class but like you we really don't know what to do about all the open days around the country that he should apparently be checking out....

[2dancersmum]

Try not to panic - you still have plenty of time. Our school also starts the preparation in the summer term of year 12. It takes the pressure off year 13 a little so that they can go visit some universities and start exploring their options to see what they might like to study and where. My non DS did his first visit in the April and had done all his various open days be the end of September. The UCAS deadline for most courses is usually in January. Subjects like medicine are October. Our school advised students to try and apply by November - so you do have time to think about plan A and B and visit places to see how DD feels about them. Good luck - I am sure it will all work out.

[LinMM]

Well it's so long ago now for me .....but I do remember all the university applying happening early in the Autumn term of second year sixth. But I think I read up about all the places I fancied applying to from stuff in the School Library(I was always skiving off there as I wasn't very well known in my sixth form school!) so perhaps some summer holiday reading?!!

 

I wouldn't bank on the school being able to help necessarily with Dance applications in particular though ......Unless they have a dedicated and designated Dance teacher on the staff there!

 

I think it would be a good idea to apply for at least a couple of Uni dance course places though.

There's the two you have suggested plus check out if the Guildford Uni degree course is still on offer......though Roehampton would be hard to beat.

There's also the Trinity Laban in London .......I'm pretty sure there's is a degree course as well .....though probably not a traditional University.

[LinMM]

This is new then .....sending pupils off en masse to see places they may have no intention of applying to at all!! Unless it's your local Uni? can't quite get my head around this!

[Lilac]

Friends with youngsters the age of your DD went to Surrey Uni a while back to help decide what to apply for , but does seem early. My older daughter had to sort everything early as applying for medicine, but most of the rest do have longer. Have heard of people going to Chichester for dance, or one case where mixed Dance and Maths and went to Derby. DD's dance teacher recommends LSC and Millenium, not sure what Millenium do. Will be interested to hear how you get on, may well be us in a year!

[Fiz]

Orchidblue, as far as I can see, all the schools care about is their standing in the league tables and all this horrible pressure is because of that. It certainly isn't because they care about the attainment of the individual students. I witnessed it when our eldest dd was in danger of dropping a grade at A level. She was withdrawn from the exam rather than possibly damage the school's league table level.

[taximom]

I work in an FE college and am the Personal Tutor for music technology, Performing Arts and It. I started to do tutorials about UCAS and student finance when we came back after Easter. It's Personal Statements this coming week. In addition I have talked the P A students through dad as, all have started searching on UCAS to understand how to research decisions. I have recommended they do uni visits to see a course of their choice so they have the start of the knowledge. in addition next week I have a research task for the P A students. I have noted 26 non traditional uni courses and they will research at least one and put the information where others can see it. This covers Ada's as well as student finance, private schools such as Laines and conservatories such as LCDS and royal Conservatoire of Scotland.This means they are helping each other with their choices and it is part of their PA business assignment! Although UCAS closes 15th January 2016 pur internal deadline is 2nd November to enable us to check the forms, allow for changes and for us to write references. Someone will always leave it very late though!!

 

Heather

Aka Taximom

[Its her Life]

I work in a sixth form college and I know that the UCAS deadline is mid Jan, but the college's own internal deadline is much earlier than that, in November I believe. This is to give the college time to check through all the applications, meet & discuss with students, write references etc. This process is extremely time consuming. Hence why the students need to have some idea where they want to apply early in the autumn term. For Oxbridge, medical & veterinary applications, the deadline is much earlier still.

[Karen]

Perhaps it would help to seek support from whoever in school provides career guidance. School should either have a qualified member of staff or buy in an independent provider. It's not necessarily making the application that's difficult, it's deciding where to apply. Good luck!

[BankruptMum]

On one uni open day last year cnot dance based) they were very insistant that lots of sixth forms pushed students into university to make themselves appear a top achievement school - however they suggested if these schools monitored how many past students actually completed their degree, the numbers wouldnt be as encouraging.

 

There advise was to get some life experience, a part time job related to the field of interest to gain practical knowledge and financial security then go and study for a degree so many drop out as it's hard financially rather than struggling with the degree itself.

 

My daughter is at uni and very few went at 28 the age ranges from 19 - 27 in her particular friend group. It takes a strong parent to stand alone and do what is right for their child - these schools have a lot to answer for.

[Guest dancer2027]

Hi, I had this problem during sixth form and I an now in my first year at full time ballet vocational training (I went at 18 instead of the normal 16). I think most schools will want students to apply for university, especially if you DD is academic. With my school I told them from the start of yr12 I wanted to apply for full time ballet training but did also receive a lot of pressure to apply for uni.

 

It does come around so soon and you think you have a year of AS but suddenly in the second term you have to start thinking about higher education and it is very daunting; I considered the ballet audition process less stressful tbh because seeing all my friends trying to perfect their personal statement, getting rejections or difficult conditional offers and then having to wait till results day when some of them were inevitably a grade off what they needed made me thankful I wasn't doing it as well. At least once I had my place confirmed at ballet school I could concerntrate on getting good a level grades and actually did better than some of my friends because in my opinion I didn't have all the stress of having to meet my uni offer but instead just did the best I could for myself.

 

I would recommend talking to your school about how you feel and get some ideas down for possible uni courses (I did this and went to look round unis), then write down all the dance related courses you are interested in. As a backup when I decided against uni, I looked into an RAD dance course as well so maybe that could be an option?

 

Good luck in this stressful time!

[SBallerina]

I'm starting RADs BA (hons) ballet education in September. I'll be happy to keep you updated on how it is !

[anondancer_15]

I'm having a similar dilemma. I'm currently in Year 12 and did AS Dance and Drama and I'm doing a Level 3 BTEC in Fashion and Clothing which is a 2 year course - meaning if I dropped it after this year I wouldn't get anything for it. I'm dropping Drama and just doing Dance and Fashion next year. 

 

My ultimate aim is to go to a vocational dance school but I'm struggling with which ones to apply to and do feel pressured by school to look at uni courses as well which I'm not overly keen on the idea of; but also all of the courses seem to have such different names and there's so many it's stressful looking through and attempting to compare them all! 

 

My school is also offering a number of trips to uni open days and we have multiple assemblies/lectures on applying for uni but there doesn't seem to be any kind of focus on any other options that are available!