Helping my Child Choose the Right Uni

 

Parent Stuart shares his experience of supporting his daughter Maddie in researching and visiting her uni choices and in making her application to UCAS.

 

Which course and which uni to choose? 

Our daughter Maddie was initially interested in studying Criminology at university, which was one of the subjects she took at Level 3. As her time at college progressed, she realised she was better suited to Business (her other course at college) and was attracted by the idea of Fashion Business and Marketing specifically. My wife and I felt this was a better fit and helped her look at the way both these courses were taught and assessed. Seeing the more practical, vocational style of the Fashion Business and Marketing courses cemented Maddie’s decision.  

Once she had decided on the course, we then looked at universities locally and slightly further afield. Maddie’s college organised a trip to a UCAS exhibition at a conference venue but we chose to go to UCAS Hampshire held at the University of Winchester so she could also get a feel for the campus. Attending this event was really helpful as she could collect prospectuses and chat to staff from many different universities. We had helped her prepare beforehand by looking at what her likely grades would be so that she only spent time speaking to universities that were a good match in terms of their typical offer. This meant she could have more meaningful and longer conversations with these universities.  

Once she had narrowed down the course and a few potential universities, we helped Maddie to further narrow down her options by looking at the course content. As her course was quite niche, we wanted to make sure it was created as a bespoke course as opposed to mainly being general business modules Winchester fit the bill so went to the top of her list! 

 

Open days and the UCAS application  

Open days were really useful: they really helped Maddie to get a feel for what it would be like to live and study there. Most prospective students took their parents and supporters with them too, so we didn’t feel out of place and these days were a useful but also enjoyable day out for us as parents! 

We encouraged Maddie to make a start on her application as soon as the system opened, and she was surprised by how much information she had to include. The personal statement section was tricky for her and she didn’t find it easy to write about her skills, so we helped her with ideas of what skills she had been developing at college and in her part-time job. We encouraged her to use the information and tips on UCAS.com, to speak to her college tutor and to look at university websites to see what skills the course required. 

 

Commuting 

Maddie wasn’t sure whether she wanted to live in uni accommodation or commute from home. We said we would support whichever decision she made, and we helped her work out her budget for both scenarios. If she lived away, she would need to work three days per week and she wasn’t sure that would give her enough time to study and to relax. We also looked at transport between the university and likely places of employment (she works at a high street store so was hoping for a term-time transfer to the local branch).   

We explained that we would not be able to give her money towards accommodation or living costs as we were still paying our mortgage. Looking inside student housing at open days was eye opening as it made our daughter face the reality of living with other people and sharing a kitchen and bathroom. We also talked about shopping, cooking and laundry. She is doing more of these tasks for herself now but at the time she found the prospect of doing all of this on top of studying a bit overwhelming. 

My wife and I both commuted to university in the 1990s so felt confident Maddie would be able to make the most of her university experience even if she wasn’t in student accommodation. I would always challenge people that say you don’t get the ‘full experience’ of university unless you live in student housing. We felt that Maddie would have time to focus on her studies and enjoy herself while we would be in the background keeping up with the time-consuming household tasks.   

 

Living at home and the subject of rent 

The most difficult topic of conversation we had was about how much rent to charge. Rather optimistically, Maddie believed she should be able to live at home rent free! We felt her student finance funding meant she could afford a nominal rent and that it would be good to prepare her for the real world. We considered a variety of factors and came up with a low monthly amount which we are saving with the hope of being able to give it back to her for a rental or mortgage deposit in the future, although it is also useful to have a buffer due to recent increases in the cost of living. It was a difficult conversation to have but we backed up our decision with what her remaining budget would be, even after paying rent.  

Regarding results day, we had Maddie getting her Level 3 results and our son getting his GCSE results at about the same time which was quite a stressful summer! We didn’t tell them this, but we researched back up options for them both in case they didn’t get the results they needed for their first choices. This meant we could immediately help them make calls and look at other options on results day if needed. We also took a holiday before this, meaning they could relax and enjoy themselves as a distraction. 

On results day Maddie had a last-minute wobble about her first choice. This was a little frustrating, but we made it clear we would support her whatever her decision and offered to take her on another visit. Thankfully she decided to stick to her firm choice university and has been very happy at Winchester. 

 

Summer preparations and Maddie’s first day 

We encouraged our daughter to look out for reading lists so she could buy books with money she had earned over the summer, and she also did research on which laptop to get and bought one and set it up in time for the start of term. At the start of term, we encouraged her to attend Freshers Fayre, social events and orientation activities during Welcome Week so she would feel more settled and ready to go. 

As parents we felt happy and proud and were confident that Maddie had made the right decision for her, regarding course, her university choice and commuting. We were all relieved that the waiting for results and decision-making was over, and we also now feel well-prepared to advise our son when he starts looking at his university options. 

 

This blog was kindly written by Stuart, parent of Fashion Business and Marketing student Maddie. 

 

 

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