Top Unis - am I missing something?

[OnTheRoll]

DD is in Year 13, predicted 3 A, already has an A from a language A Level she did last year, and 11 GCSEs all 8/9. Got a great work experience in her chosen field, lots of academic reading, etc., etc. Has been working very hard and aiming for a top uni.

The problem is, it seems that unless she gets into Oxbridge, there isn't a suitable option for her?

We are in SE so decided not to go for Durham/Edinburg as the travel is just too much, 5+ hours, and she would not be able to come home more than once a term. She would very much prefer a campus experience rather than a city uni which rules out LSE/UCL in London.

There are of course great options like Warwick, Bristol, Bath, Exeter. We visited and DD loved them and so did I.

But I cannot help thinking that if she were to go to one of those unis she didn't really need to spend that much time working, studying and sacrificing her free time. Does it make sense? Entry requirements in those unis in her subject are all quite lower than her current and predicted grades.

Would appreciate some perspective.

She didn't know which unis she would want to apply to eventually. And how far Durham was. And that Edinburgh meant 4 years rather than 3. And that she be apprehensive about having to commute daily to classes in London unis (she will have her whole working life for that). And, well, the vastly increased cost and scarcity of student accommodation in London.

She definitely didn't think of that when she was 15-16 and just trying to study.

I did politics and then worked in the city / law. I had to write my subject marks and A Levels on every post graduate job application I did.

I also worked for an MP for a while - and a lot of my former University colleagues are involved in politics (consultants, working for NGOs / charities). No one needs high A-Levels for these jobs. It's about getting your hands dirty putting leaflets in doors on dodgy estates for 14 hours a day and doing your time

What does your daughter want to do at the end of her degree?

Durham to London isn't 5 hours.

Certainly good to know if that's so!

Durham has been in the same place for a few centuries. I would have thought a child with so many A*s to their name could figure that one out

Has she spoken to any London students? Or visited the London options?

I found the student experience in London incredible- so much diversity and opportunity for widening experiences- I think it really grew me as an individual. University halls are usually pretty central too, so it's a rare chance to live cheaply in Central London for a year. My favourite thing was nipping to the theatre on a weeknight and picking up the cheap last minute tickets for a show! I'm sure there are plenty of political events that she could attend to inform her studies too. Travel links to everywhere too, so she can come home, or visit friends elsewhere in the country via train or coach.

Oxbridge aside, London will be the best for her future if she can get in to UCL or LSE.

Find someone to talk her out of the campus experience - it’s really not what it was.

There are of course great options like Warwick, Bristol, Bath, Exeter. We visited and DD loved them and so did I.

They might not be Oxbridge but I would class all of those as 'top universities'. Your DD has applied to Cambridge; there's nothing more she can do at this stage other than continue to work hard and prepare for the entry process. If she doesn't get into Cambridge, her work, particularly extra-curricular work, will prepare her well for success at one of her other choices.

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. I have no idea how often she will choose the option to visit home once she's enrolled, and neither does she. But she has to make her choices now.

All the more reason to focus on the university itself rather than its location. It really isn't an unusual situation, many (most?) students have to move some distance to tick the boxes they require from higher education, I remember how much the students who stayed local when we were growing up were looked down on because it was deemed as being so limiting.

If you're going to be an appropriate support for her you need to reframe your own thinking, it's a bizarre train of thought so don't pander to it, she's worked hard but the hard work doesn't stop at 18.

Working hard is a good habit for your DD, which will help her to excel at whichever university she ends up going to. It's a good thing in itself, not only in terms of which university it wins her entry to.

Certainly having a degree from a university with a good reputation can be helpful, but I don't think they should be the sole purpose of working hard at A-level.

Useful to know, thanks.

We are not in London. It is 5.5 hrs from the SE town where we live.

Well here’s a great life lesson in efficiency and enjoying yourself. She could’ve checked last year the entry requirements for universities she was interested in and aspired to those grades. She could’ve then had more down time, a part time job, picked up a new hobby or spent more time with friends.

I could’ve been an Oxbridge candidate but decided that wasn’t for me, so didn’t pick up the extra curriculars I would’ve needed and instead walked the 4 As I got at A levels (before A* existed), and went to a Uni needing ABB.

Life isn’t about slogging as hard as you can all the time. It’s about understanding the next goal and working sensibly towards that. Of course, over performing is never going to hurt her and her learning will likely help her excel in her degree course too.

My DD is at Sheffield, where her dad and I also went. I've just looked and the entry requirements for politics are AAB, is that too lowly?

I think this is where you step in as a parent and guide her. If she wants a stellar career and is bright then she has to pick London or Oxbridge with Durham as a back up. You can ask her whether she prefers distance or London uni. She can decide. There isn't a uni on the par with those. That's realities of life. Explain it to her, if she is bright then she'll get it.

This is ridiculous advice. 18 year old can't dial their results up and down.

Imagine saying to a young person oh you only need ABB make sure you go the pub and don't bother working that hard.

Don’t be daft

There are plenty of high achieving young people out there and the majority of them don’t go to Oxbridge

the fetishisation of these institutions on here is insane

For most of the unis you've listed, the typical offer is only one grade lower than Cambridge (AAA as opposed to A*AA) There will be plenty students there who got higher grades than that. I think it's a bit of a reach to say going to Bristol or Bath as opposed to Cambridge will adversely affect career prospects. I'm yet to come across a company wholly staffed by graduates from only 2 universities (unless they're a group of mates who founded a start up or something)

OP would it blow your mind to know that EE offers were the Oxbridge norm when I was applying? We all (generally) carried on working hard and got As but it took the pressure off!

What do you mean by pushing herself? I hope she didn't give up on living a healthy and happy life in order to study like a machine. If she needs to study like that to excel, she won't have a good time at Oxbridge, nor will she make the best of it.

I hope she will start to enjoy learning freely and finding unexpected ways that her education enriches her life over her entire lifetime!

I can't bear children being disciplined into use-value learning.

Durham! Really? It's so unbelievably rah. I always thought Warwick would be better academically than Durham.

Is she in private or state school OP?
Those results won’t be good enough for Oxbridge if she’s at private. Unless she interviews exceptionally well but it sounds like she’s got a poor attitude to hard work.

DS wants to attend Warwick 3As needed for his course exactly the same as Oxford/Cambridge. He is looking like getting 2A* and As and it’s like a top 10 uni. You get what you put in. Its about being happy not prestige sometimes so if she’s telling you “better” unis are to far listen to her.

3 A stars and an A?

I think you'll find it's quite hard to get higher grades than that.

Ok, this is where she starts to grow up. Find a good university that has the politics course she is most interested in at a university with a good reputation for the course itself.
From there, chose the campus / additional things of interest, then start visiting

The travelling home thing is ludicrous, just get the train, fly from Glasgow / Edinburgh/ Aberdeen if needed.
As for the grades, who cares, pick the uni and the course, if she has higher grades then great she'll get the offers no
Doubt.
Good luck!

If she has applied to Cambridge and has an offer from Warwick. It hardly matters what she writes in the rest of the form does it??
With her specific criteria she isn't going to do better than Warwick unless she rules London and Durham back in.

Honestly this is ridiculous

A million years ago I had straight As at GCSE and at A level - it was really hard to get those grades then, we are talking early 90s.

I didn't get into Oxford, and went off Bristol sure that I would be the cleverest there. Nope. I was in the top cohort for sure, but there were many many people there who were as clever or cleverer than me.

Your DD will be among clever kids wherever she goes because there are loads of them! And I can assure you that in my long working life that the cleverest people I have worked with have definitely not all been Oxbridge graduates.