To have limited sympathy for the Cambridge applicant who missed out on his place because a postman stole the mail?

[CountessDracula]

I mean
you don't apply to Cambridge and then assume you haven't got in just because you don't get a letter do you?

You ring and ask.

I think in a Darwinesque way the right result was reached as this person was clearly too dim for Cambridge.

or far too trustng in Her Majesty's postal services.

I thought it was all done online these days?

I don't know about that
I just thought HOW WET

"One of the victims was a student who did better than he expected in his A-levels and requested application forms for Cambridge University. "

So he never even got as far as applying.

DS1's school is in Cambridge and the application forms for Cambridge University for his year were all lost in the post. Sensibly the teacher in charge of applications had checked whether they had been received and vowed to cycle them over to the colleges in future.

They didn't have that level of detail in the metro!

All the same
He could have called and chased it up

I see what you're saying, but a lot of would-be students are needlessly in awe of oxbridge (and it puts a lot of good people off). In addition to that, a lot of people do get to interview who shouldn't because their teacher did it all for them...

BTW - I meant to add that he might well just have presumed he hadn't got in when he didn't hear anything at all (after all, that's what happens with jobs).

He never actually applied in the first place. The story doesn't even relate what his A-level grades were. Maybe he didn't chase up the forms because he thought better of it.

So he never actually applied then? He just sent for the application forms and never received them? Well, why on earth did he not phone them and chase it?

QUITE

"Well, why on earth did he not phone them and chase it?"

Because he realised his grades weren't that good anyway? Because he realised that Bath was a pretty good option after all?. He probably forgot about it until some journalist phoned him last week.