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University Applications With Your Child

A route from the first honest talk about university to a confirmed place: course research, open days, the statement, offers, student finance and halls, with your child in charge.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Then open the Marketplace in the app, search for University Applications With Your Child, and click Install. It goes into your own files, and works offline from then on.

What it installs.

1

Pillar

1

Area

50

Projects

201

Starter tasks

👨‍👩‍👧 Family & Parenting

University Applications With Your Child

Helping a young person research courses, visit universities, write applications and plan finances and accommodation.

  1. Agreeing who does what on the application
  2. Application timeline from first research to results day
  3. Application documents and logins folder
  4. Weighing university against apprenticeships and work
  5. Family contribution and university budget conversation
  6. Predicted grades and entry requirements check
  7. Interests and strengths inventory for course choice
  8. Meeting with the school university adviser
  9. Fee status and student finance eligibility check
  10. Weekly application check-in
  11. Monthly university deadline sweep
  12. Open day and taster event tracker
  13. University savings pot
  14. Course shortlist scoring sheet
  15. Portal and university email watch
  16. Scholarship and bursary watchlist
  17. Household income evidence file
  18. Balancing application work with exam preparation
  19. How the admissions system works
  20. Reading course pages and module lists critically
  21. Using rankings and course outcome data sensibly
  22. Student loans and repayment explained
  23. Contextual offers and access schemes
  24. How admissions tutors read personal statements
  25. Questions to ask at university open days
  26. Choosing the subject to apply for
  27. Final shortlist of university choices
  28. Balancing ambitious and safer choices
  29. Campus, city or collegiate university decision
  30. Living at home or moving away to study
  31. Choosing firm and insurance offers
  32. Deferred entry and gap year decision
  33. Open day visit trips
  34. Personal statement drafts and feedback rounds
  35. School reference and predicted grades handover
  36. Application submission day
  37. Results day and clearing plan
  38. Student finance application
  39. Halls application and contract check
  40. First in the family to go to university
  41. Applying with a disability or learning difference
  42. University applications across two households
  43. Applying after results in a gap year
  44. Applying to universities in another country
  45. Support for care-experienced, estranged and young carer applicants
  46. Medicine, dentistry and veterinary applications
  47. Highly selective early-deadline applications
  48. Creative portfolio and audition courses
  49. Degree apprenticeship applications in parallel
  50. Admissions interview practice

Where it starts.

Each project arrives with its purpose, milestones and first tasks written out. Here is how the first three read.

Agreeing who does what on the application

Applications go wrong in two opposite ways: a parent who quietly writes half of it, or a parent who only hears about a missed deadline afterwards. Agreeing at the start which parts your child owns, where you help and how you will check in avoids both, and keeps the application recognisably theirs, which is what admissions tutors want to read.

First tasks

  • Ask your child which parts of applying they want help with
  • List every application task and mark who owns it
  • Agree one regular time to talk about progress
  • Revisit the agreement together after the first month

Application timeline from first research to results day

Most university application cycles run for around eighteen months, from first research in the penultimate school year to results day the following summer. Laying the whole timeline out on one page, with your own country's deadlines, shows which months are busy and stops the personal statement colliding with mock exams.

First tasks

  • Find this year's deadlines on the national admissions service website
  • Ask the school for its internal deadlines for statements and references
  • Mark student finance and accommodation windows on the timeline
  • Put the finished timeline where you will both see it

Application documents and logins folder

Over the next year you will need exam certificates, passport details, predicted grades, household income figures and a dozen account logins, often at short notice. One folder, paper and digital, with everything in it saves the frantic search on the night a form is due.

First tasks

  • Create a shared folder with school, admissions, finance and accommodation sections
  • Scan the passport and existing exam certificates into it
  • List every application account and which email address it uses
  • Check the folder is complete and backed up @recurring(quarterly)

Make it yours.

Install University Applications With Your Child, then tell Aurum the date you're aiming for. It checks whether the plan fits the weeks you actually have.

Free · Mac (Apple silicon) and Windows · v1.0.0 · Other platforms

Blueprints are general information to help you organise your own work. They are not medical, financial, legal or other professional advice. See the Terms.