GCSE '18s (20) - half term beckons!

Also, your postcode, FSM status and whether you will be the first generation to go to university will have an impact on the offers you receive. The top universities are going to be seriously in the poop if they don't broaden out their demographics over the next couple of years. They already do make lower offers to some students and that is bound to continue. I sincerely hope Sost doesn't mind me saying this as it is meant very kindly, but someone like her DGD, who has drive, brains and ticks boxes will hopefully have lower offers made to her from whichever universities she sets her heart on, than someone from a top public school who naturally ticks a lot of other boxes and has experienced support to help put the right thing on a form.

Good point sticker. And fair point whistl too but most schools will want their students to get the best offers - so it’s actually a bigger problem of schools predicting too high and students not meeting offers

But "aspirational" universities are only "aspirational" if you want to go to them. I had no intention of applying to Exeter (too close to home) Bristol, Oxford or Cambridge. I picked a degree course based on where I thought I would fit in, having experienced state & public schools, with people I liked. I also had to go somewhere where I could afford to live and get to from Cornwall. There are so many more factors in your choice of university than a place in a league table.

It just strikes me that the point of GCSEs was to get into sixth form and the point of A levels is to get onto the next stage.

However, the school's opinion about likely grades at GCSE became completely obsolete on results day. If the school predicted GCSE grades conservatively, it wouldn't stop you getting a conditional offer and being able to take it up if you get the grades.

In contrast, if the sixth form predicts low for A levels, then there is no way that you'll get conditional offers from the more aspirational universities.
So, the 6th form teachers view can make a material difference to outcomes.

PS this is just theoretical. I'm not fretting about DS. His school are predicting somewhere between A and A* for him.

Exams not student.

I once bought DD a sequined leotard on eBay. Does that count? I made her have gymnastics lessons for 3 years so that she would never face the humiliation I had of being unable to do a backward roll.

Back to an earlier topic, there is a whole world of degree courses out there beyond the world of Oxbridge, which produce intelligent, well-adjusted employable graduates. A gap year merely puts you up against the following year's bright young things. I've had a grad intake of around 60 students this year and I think only 1 or 2 are Oxbridge. They usually do no better or worse with their maths/physics/history/PPE degree in their professional student than the ones taken on my the Big 4 from any other uni (non-RG included).

I’ve never been that dedicated.

I think that calls for a photo of the many sequined costume

Wow that’s dedication Jufus

It works the other way too. Some see medicine or Oxbridge entry as a two year process - if you don’t get an offer the first time and think you could do better with another shot you can apply again with grades and being a year older and more mature - many have gone this with some success

Hmmm You can apply for a higher level course though ucas on adjustment if your grades are higher (like clearing but the other way round) but Oxbridge aren’t included in that. I was going to say the best thing would be to take a gap year and to apply (probably with your original course again as a fall back) and more and more people are taking gao years and not the straight route of year 13 and straight to uni - but is guess that doesn’t work for maths - unless you could go something mathsy in the gap year.

Having said that Oxbridge isn’t all about the grades - if a top school experienced at Oxbridge entry doesn’t think it’s right then they may be right

Hello all. Haven't been on here for ages due to a combo of work being a bit crazy and having to finish DD's new (and probably last!) dance costume for a weekend festival we are attending this weekend. I have glued over 20,000 rhinestones on a leotard over the past week - all by hand one by one!

Seems so strange that DD has completed her first half term of Sixth Form - results day seems like a lifetime ago!
We are visiting Edge Hill in November and looking at open days at Derby too. DD is dead set on Edge Hill for Policing so we are looking at that one first - she's even started looking at houses!
So far she is coping really well with the work. She did two Sociology 20 markers this week and got 18/20 and 20/20. She had the highest mark in the class and the teacher gave her a sticker! Thought I had seen the last of that in primary!

Alexander hope DD makes some progress with her ankle, DD's friend has Perthes in one hip and has been overcompensating on the other hip for years resulting in upcoming surgery on her good hip! Problem is dancing DC do overcompensate on good limbs when they have injuries - often without realising - I know DD did when she dislocated her knee.

😂😂 key thing is they go where they want to go and not where they think school or us think they should go.

Apparently they won't support the application if you decide to apply and they don't think you should.

I've been puzzling over this recently. What happens when a student does significantly better than expected at A level (eg so that they could have got an Oxbridge/Imperial/ UCL type place had they applied and everyone expected them to do so well?)
Does it get written off as a fluke and they continue with their pre-result day plans?
Or do they have to take a gap year and try for the following year (I guess this isn't a credible option with sibjects like maths where they like you to stay in the groove i.e. no gaps)

DS2's school: You should think about applying to Oxbridge.
Me: It's worth applying; you have the aptitude and the passion for the subject.
DS2 at the moment: Meh. More impressed with the redbricks (flashier labs, better sales pitch at open days).

Hmm this is a tough one. DH and I have always talked about how uni and being away for the first time was the making of us. Best time of our lives and all that. Especially for DH who went abroad. So DD has it in her mind that it is a bit of a rite of passage. But she is equally a Home bod and doesn't know how she will be away from home. And thinks it means that she has to really grow up and leave Home forever.

There is one London uni that she does really like - Imperial and it's hard to imagine that she wouldn't apply or turn it down if she gets it just because it is local to us. DD keen on Oxbridge but apparently School tell us towards the end of the year if they think she is Oxbridge material. Apparently they won't support the application if you decide to apply and they don't think you should.

My way of persuading DD to leave is to tell her what a great reputation of local uni has. Edinburgh here she comes!

My dd is considering our local uni but she absolutely doesn't want to stay at home

Our local uni is in the top 5 of the league table for her subject and entrance criteria is similar to Oxbridge so she might be being a bit optimistic.

She's at sixth form almost in the grounds and she's loving the atmosphere.

Limit may you be forgiven

And lots of them come back home until they're 30!

True, though DS did say he's going to have to look after himself for the next 60 years so what difference would three more make - though I suppose the difference at uni is your all learning together and with halls there is a bit of transition

Ah I see

Totally with him on E M Forster though

@LimitIsUp That would the the moment when I nearly relegated DH from ‘potential boyfriend material’ based entirely on his preference for Exeter City over early 20th C novelists. Now a byword in our family for rash judgements...

My DS2 is at home for his HE but that's really only because he has SN. He's at the local college and the local uni is quite niche in the courses it offers and a very new uni to boot.

I think I'm also biased against staying at home because I think that a large part of uni is the 'growing up and managing for yourself' experience within fairly safe boundaries. But London may well be different. My DSs couldn't even consider London unis because of the cost and once out of halls all students there seem to have a long commute. DS1's girlfriend is at Goldsmiths and lives over an hour's commute away.

Cherryburn - don't forget we are only talking 2 or 3 per year. I know that for the last 4 years they are def telling the truth but that's for offers. One missed her grades.
And yes, really thorough
PS advice will be tailored to the Unis they applying to.

I wasn't sure whether this was a 'normal' approach to Uni applications. I only became involved a few months before GCSEs and don't want to be unprepared and clueless again!!!

Very glad to hear that it's not unusual for London students to stay home- my only reservation about commuting was that she might be the only one and she would miss out on the social side.

I am on annual leave so have too much time on my hands😁