Top Unis - am I missing something?

Politics and History? Or as part of a PPE course?

I think paying attention to distance is perfectly reasonable from either party, ds mentioned St Andrews early on and I ended up looming at him saying doomily '9 HOUR DRIVE' until he lost interest in it.

Lots of people get straight as and they don't all go to Oxford. Lots of other great unis around. There's a high chance she wouldn't get into Oxford based purely on her grades as straight as isn't as rare as you might assume. Plenty of good options for her I'd say 😁

She is the kind of child who takes a while to settle and make friends. Which is one of the reasons she wants to live on the campus in a closer student community.
This is really important to consider then, I agree no point sending her to a Uni too far to get home from if she would struggle with that. Uni is a lot more than just the course you do, and if you are miserable you won't thrive or succeed regardless of your academic ability

Nottingham?

If she's applied to Cambridge, she must have sent her UCAS form off already, surely?

I assume that she’s already applied as the Oxbridge deadline has passed and she has an offer from Warwick.

the best advice to give her is to wait and see where she gets offers from them attend the offer holders days (if they have them) to get a feel of the different places and see which ones sparks her interest. I know she may have already visited but the offer holder days are specific to the subject and my daughter found them
useful at Durham and York.

Decisions on firm/insurance choices don’t have to be made for many months, she has plenty of time.

I was in this position when I went to uni in the early 2000s. I was applying for MFL and my second language choice was fairly niche so apart from at Oxbridge the entry requirements were relatively low (BBC or BCC I think for where I ended up going and it was similar across the board) and I got 4 As. If your DD is anything like me she will still want to achieve as well as she can at A Level for her own sense of self pride, even if she doesn’t need the grades for her chosen uni. To show she can get those grades. And the lower entry requirements took the pressure off when it came to my exams which probably meant I performed better! Politics at any of the unis you have listed will be very well respected and academically rigorous.

You apply for the universities and courses she wants and hope she gets her top choice. Or am I missing something? I certainly wouldn't pout all my eggs in the one basket and I would also not suggest that certain courses/ unis may be beneath her, I don't think that will serve her well.

Well, it’s a little odd to care about going to a top university and then ruling out the vast majority due to pretty spurious reasons. I think you need to encourage her to be a little less rigid in her thinking!

A lot of the entry grade is about competition for the course and not what you need to carry on the studies. Higher grades are better prep hopefully for when you get there.

So the universities you mention as not good enough are asking for 1 A star and 2 As, 2 A stars and an A or 3 A stars in the subject my son is interested in. It's a very popular course and they can.

I don't think they universally ask for these grades. There are other similar courses he could pick with lower entry at the same uni.

Why did she not go for HSPS at Cambridge, or Politics and History at Oxford? It’s a bit late to still be choosing unis in year 13 (and already well past the Oxbridge deadline), has her school not tried to hurry her along?

Agree with PPs saying they don’t quite understand why you’ve ruled out the great unis like Edinburgh, Warwick, Durham. Even if you were going to go for Oxbridge, they should still be on your list. Not crazy about the London unis… but that’s my personal perspective.

I don’t really get this post at all. Learning is its own reward?

Seems like a weird humble brag but then followed up with “my DC is so academic and committed, but couldn’t possibly sacrifice some extra travel time or live in a city to pursue their chosen subject.” Also politics is hardly a super directional subject, it’s not like she wants to do some niche subset of marine biology that only 3 unis in the country offer.

Hope DC gets into Oxbridge I guess (been there, did PPE, 1 on 1 or 2 on 1 tutorials are great but otherwise not as special as the world thinks).

I don't understand your logic OP. University isn't school. It's an opportunity for you to read, learn and specialise. You don't get 'taught', lectures are an introduction to a topic and you are expected to put the work in. You get out what you put in. If she is less inclined to study at a university because 'she doesn't have to' that is, in the nicest way possible, a reflection of her rather the university. Why would you go to university of you want to do the minimum possible to obtain the degree. In some ways, attending a university where there is less pressure to churn out an essay a week (as in Oxford) gives you more opportunities to specialise in something that interests you. The attitude you describe won't get your DD far in life. (Btw I'm not saying she has this attitude, she is clearly bright, it's just the way you are coming across in your OP).

Is she actually applying for Oxbridge or dismissing them too because they are not campus universities? If she doesn’t get in there then that is a reality check that she is only good enough for the second rate institutions for dimwits as you seem to see them

Well she's going to have to decide what is really important to her then.

I had a place at Durham many years ago. Turned it down and went to non-red brick uni further away and over 8 hours from my home. Best decision I could have made. I had a wonderful time at university, met and made amazing friends, enjoyed myself a lot!

I find your post a bit confusing. Surely she knew what universities existed before she made the decision to study so hard to get there? Did she only work hard to get herself to a good uni like Oxford and Cambridge? or does she generally like studying? Why does she want to go to a 'top university'? Is it for the facilities? The teaching? Status? Is academics her thing? Will she be happy continuing to work very hard for the university years and beyond.

I know top unis are harder than they used to be to get into, but I got pooled for Cambridge and accepted for Durham for a similar subject and my A levels were terrible!!! They also used to consider non academic things. Does your daughter also have other things on her CV to show she's well rounded? Like sports team? Drama? DofE? Etc...

Great that she has been so motivated to work hard and excel. Less great if she has been motivated purely by the prospect of going to one of a very small clutch of universities.

If her motivation is entirely extrinsic, she may find it hard to motivate herself to study hard at university - particularly if she's outside Oxbridge and will have a very large degree of autonomy about how much effort she puts in.

I rather suspect though that the child you describe will work hard and thrive wherever she is. Think she needs to know that there is a huge range of abilities in most courses in most RG universities, and, as PPs have said, vastly more kids get Oxbridge grades than there are Oxbridge places - they are all somewhere! And she will get out what she puts in. Some undergrads coast along doing the minimum and others work hard and fly high. Sounds like she will be one of the high flyers, wherever she goes, and she will find her people.

You're sounding quite ridiculous, OP.

Also this. My daughter hasn't been home yet and doesn't intend to come back before the end of the semester. She's joined a group which meets on a Sunday afternoon and is working hard and enjoying student life.

She's 2.5 hours away which, whilst isn't 5 hours, it's not just down the road.

If you're bothered about the rank of the university she goes to, it doesn't make sense that you'd also limit her choices by distance/location.

Male the decision on proximity to home or make it in the status of the university.

It is an odd post because you're asking people to solve a problem that doesn't actually exist.

So there you go. Without her excellent predicted grades she may not have got that. So the work has been worth it. I don't see the issue. They're getting their offers out quickly this year!

Is the worry that she will be too clever for the other places and will feel slowed down by the mass of thickos who only got 3 As? Because you may be in for a shock…. Also A level performance isn’t directly linked to eventual degree result. I work at one of the places you listed. Some of our top performers came in on contextual offers or missed the grades slightly. Conversely I had to have an hour long meeting with a distraught student who had 4 A*s and couldn’t understand why she was getting mediocre grades at university.