I saw that thread Trix....

I decided it wasn't worth it!  

Evening Z I'm all good thanks you?
I am however being used as a taxi by both my brother and mother since I have returned, don't think I've ever driven round this city so much before.

hahaha!

ok... I think I am gonna assume Suzy went to Oxford... & Z went to Cambridge!


*looks at Z... then at Suzy*

well.. that doesn't help me much!

Can you two arm wrestle or sommat?

Wow, that's a stringent scholarship condition! She should look in to it, she may be able to argue a case for either a scholarship or exhibition prize. I got an exhibition, and I didn't even try for one. My mum had to compete with about 400 other students in Ghana to get a scholarship to that Cambridge place in the 1960s. She got it, just!

go for your decent pubs and no hills to cycle up but go for them slooowwwwww !!!


Z.

That is one condition and a half ditty...what happens if she doesn't?

whats an exhibition prize?

Another scholarship would be handy...  

Her current scholarship is funded by The Ogden Trust (physics) and Toshiba.

the term science includes engineering, materials science, and all the other science ones. She is still keen on biochemistry - chemistry comes easy to her... and Trix gave her the inside story on the course which helped (ta Trix)...

I daredn't even ask! 

I assume they'd want the money back... BUT I am not sure who they would want it off... her or us!  

We did make her think hard about it when she signed up for the scholarship.... she went into it with her eyes open... and in fairness she has always intended to do a science based degree.

I can't say I am too gutted she won't be able to go overseas (bad mother, bad mother, bad mother)

Exhibition is a partial scholarship. When I went for my interview I was offered it on the spot! Biggest shock of my life, as I was sat there with a dry mouth from talking total twaddle for 20 minutes. Part of me thinks the talking Don on the panel wanted me out of the room as soon as possible.
That's a brilliant scholarship for 6th form your daughter got.

and I can now say having got my degree (well nearly it'll be in my hands next week) that I bloody love biochemistry and genetics even if I can't get a job haha

even if she does one of these fancy degrees with the year in industry abroad? I well wanted to do that,

You'll get a job Trixie, you should go to Japan for a few years. Loads of my boffin friends went there for a year or 2 and then walked in to mid level corporate type things or got offered funding for post-grad.

Thanks Suzy I am thinking of definitely learning Japanese this summer actually, was going to do it before uni with my dad but it never happened. I think I've just had a depressing week of rejection letter after rejection letter with even McDonalds ignoring me. Plus I was told that as a scientist if you speak Japanese you can basically be offered 3 jobs before you step foot off the plane.

Smallpeice contacted us about her current place... Ogden had asked them if there were any promising candidates for their scholarship places.

We got lucky.   These scholarships are open to all kids who are good at maths & science... but if she hadn't gone on the initial motorsport engineering course with Smallpeice (as part of her AS Engineering that she took a year early in High School) then we wouldn't have even known about it.  

There is a bursar at the school who concentrates on the Wandsworth Trust kids & the external Scholarship kids...   I wonder if he'd be the person to ask about future funding opps.

Its another bloody case of knowing who to ask & where innit?

Have to say I am dead glad I am not having to do this all over again ...phew




Z.

Ickle taught herself basic Japanese last year...   her dream is to go work on automotive R&D over in Japan.

SHe is currently learning a bit of Mandarin  (to my hubbies dismay...  his family is Cantonese!  oops!)

That's great, very difficult language though. And a very difficult culture to get to grips with. If you ever thought this country had a complex etiquette and behaviour system, one year in Japan will make you see things differently.

none of this sniffs remotely of the barrier reef or bondi beach you know



Z.

well...... Toshiba has paid 50% of her fees... 

If Toyota offered her a full corporate sponsorship...  of course I wouldn't hold her back...



I suppose its good she's been a boarder for sixth form....  at least she isn't going straight from home to wherever... school has been a halfway house in some respects.

So what college where you at Z? I reckon G&C.

I know!

I should drag Suzy up to the Ship bar really....  

or perhaps later on in the hols I should start a thread... and gather as much info & personal experience & knowledge of all the FM's as I can!

I have learnt more from you lot than the schools, sponsors or uni's put together.

(thank you)

My uncle taught me some basic a few years ago because he had to learn it as part of his job. Hopefully he'll be fit and healthy enough to come to my party next weekend so that we can have a chat about everything, he spent a lot of time over there.

Ickle taught herself the basics from websites... and then went onto courses on CD from waterstones.

The what?

God. She's precocious!

I'd love to go to Japan Trix... its the one place I have always wanted to go...

it fascinates me...   but I know I don't really know what its like to live there day to day

I'm sure JJ would love our chat of uni Z

My housemate just arrived back from Oz actually, where she spent 6 months pretending to learn how to be a doctor whilst actually just getting really really drunk and playing on the beach. They turned her from hardcore veggie to meat eating freak.

they were the good old days....  now she's boarding at a boys school she is less driven by acheivement... and more interested in "hot boys"

I'm very anti that place

Good on ickle though!!!

The Sinking Ship Bar   -----> link

its where Ducky, me, Z, Trix and lots of others usually live... the shack is just a holiday home!

Its a channel James set up... its open to all  

we talk mainly bollox up there!

Oh dear


http://taverns.livecloud.com/d...y/173123733262185262


Z.

Best advice I could give you if you do go down the Oxbridge route is to be as carefree as you possibly can. My Engish teacher told me that they can sniff out the coached to hell over-practiced candidates a mile off. He told me to focus on one idea or theory and talk about a journey or progression that I had experienced for myself. It was my first encounter with reflexive reasoning....bringing the theory back to me, how it affected me, what feelings it solicited in me. I don't know about science too much, but I'm sure the theory still holds.
I focused in on one poem 'Futility' by Wilfred Owen. Linked it in with political thought (I was applying for PPE), gave my version of a critical analysis, mentioned some other scholarly tomes it reminded me off, and when I looked up the 3 scary people in front of me were all smiling

hahaha... well thats handy .....

I wouldn't know where to start coaching her!

There are companies that do it for you. For a fat fee. They will even fill in the application form.

.. it's always handy when you are holding an AK47


Z.

G'day Sheilas and Bruce! Well, it is day in Oz now! 

Well, I can sort this out for OZX!

So, I was brought up in Cambridge (Dad was a don at the uni)  to Suze! lol! ... one of my bruvs is a lecturer in biochemistry at Imperial Ditty... he is very gloomy about the department at the moment and is expecting to lose his job imminently with the Uni funding cuts. However, I reckon the Imperial Engineering Dept is probably better funded due to it's longer lasting connections with business and industry.

And to bring it back full circle, another of my bruvs did his degree in chemical engineering, also at Imperial, emigrated, and lives in Melbourne in Oz, home of our lurve JJ!  

And I did English.

is that what you did?

which rules it out for us!

ooooh Xochi!!!!

I'll be coming back to you for more info!!!

HIXOZ

It wasn't as though it was loaded, suzy!!


OZ.