Parents of Oxbridge applicants for 2013

[Thowra]

Anybody else have DC applying for Oxford or Cambridge at the moment? DD submitted her UCAS into school on friday for checking. There are only two applying in her year. Trying to keep her feet (and mine) on the ground as she has fallen completely in love with Oxford and the college she is applying to, but realistically we know she's more likely to be rejected than not. She's got the grades, but I don't know if she's got enough confidence to carry off the interview. All the uni's she has applied to look fantastic, though, so we'll wait and see.

DD1 had very few choices but DD2 sends me her lists and says what do you think? Which I love. DS1 has just phoned I think to say he's happy and ok but left me feeling I should have phoned him first - I do try very hard to be hands off.

Glad to hear they got to France! Its a good trip, really.

Yellowtip I know, I know, but people are already getting offers

I did my LNAT last Monday and it went okay. Durham tends to be quite late with offers, but Exeter has been fairly early in previous years so I'm hoping I'll get at least one before this year ends. I saw the lovely new building at Durham a couple of weeks ago

Quite bolstering to go to the interview with a decent offer under your belt cinnamonnut, but lots don't. What's your order of preference?

yellowtip it will probably be possible, when the time comes, to do that degree whilst living on the Scottish island.
Is your Scottish island real? Xenia also has one.

Mine wouldn't dream of consulting me on module choices. I get shown/told the list in freshers week: I gabble excitedly about some of them, then they do the ones I ignored. Well actually I don't know what modules they do because they don't tell me in case I interfere. It's no use me trying to find out by saying I'll buy the books. The DC keep firm boundaries. Its their degree, they say, not mine. I find out ultimately when they ring me up to say they got a nice comment from the tutor and would I like to be emailed a copy of their fantastic essay with tutors comments.Then I have to pretend I read it. Though now I'm an old hand and I say I read it and it was totally above my head and how amazing they are and well taught etc and how happy I am they are doing stuff I can't understand. I also keep dates of terrible family events with documentation showing independent verification in a separate file for if/when mitigating circumstances need to be applied for. By 'terrible events' I mean muggings and heart attacks and so forth.

cinnamonnut some hear early and some don't. If you don't hear early this could be a good sign as it means computer has not said no.

yellowtip It's Oxford, Durham, Bristol, Nottingham and Exeter, although I haven't really decided a particular order of preference for the last three.

My Scottish island is very real but I don't own any of it - yet. My mother's side of the family have summered there for well over a hundred years, it's beautiful.

I'm hugely impressed by the tragedy file. We've very prone to tragedy, but I've never previously thought to file it. Not too many muggings down here but lots of scope for tractor accidents and badger savaging I'm sure. I should get on to it really.

Good order then at least for one and two cinnamonnut :) Your list is almost identical to DD1's and DD3's with the exception of Exeter. They had virually identical GCSE grades, identical AS grades and predictions and LNAT but DD3 got a November offer from Durham and DD1 had to wait until Feb. Don't lose hope is the main thing, as funny says. These things can move in mysterious ways.

Are you rash enough to say which college at Oxford?

sympathetique aargh! done it again. Sorry, result of multi tasking. I meant when they started secondary school!

Couldn't have been more inclusive in Primary, their school was actually run by the parents and teachers, as in set up, owned, run and governed by the parents and teachers. Mostly it was a fantastic partnership and it was all the more disillusioning to discover when my friend became a Receptionist that as I posted before some parents went to the dark side. My involvement always provoked a mixture of embarassment and pride in DD, but her friends (and teachers ) are all still in touch, Facebook friends! and I totally agree with you about adult role models and relationships. However I did appreciate that come 11 it was perfectly legitimate to move to arms length. Her primary now has a secondary, not sure how they are handling the parental involvement, probably as your DCs school. The Head always was good at drawing the lines.

funny person BIG problem for me! I beat her going back to uni but the place to have done my thesis would have been her uni. She is a Scientist, I am not, but still I think it unacceptable to pop up in her friends' department , at 18 it should definitely be their space. So I have a very periapatetic PhD, wondering from Institution to Institution to assemble what I would have got in one place! I really could not disapprove more of a teacher I know of who has actually bought a house in Oxford to be near her DD because she misses her so much .

Betelguese disabilities such as dyslexia/dyspraxia/autism/long term illness should be mentioned on the UCAS form then they count as a 'flag' for the student who has overcome adversity to achieve. Many students/parents might be too shy to put it on the UCAS form.

Then when the student is admitted, the university student learning support unit should be involved at the outset.

I agree with you on your other thread that access to education e.g by scribes/extra time at interviews or in seminars, and to be able to demonstrate academic ability by using scribes/extra time/dictating machines etc in exams is really important to ensure equality. There is some interesting Cambridge admissions info on students with a disability. They achieve as well as those without. Presumably Cambridge has a learning support unit.

yellow there is badger savaging. There is penguin malaria. All sorts of disasters can happen. But the independent verification and dates are crucial.

That's appalling Copthall (the house thing), it absolutely is their space.

It's an EXPENSIVE trip, certainly. But it's the first time she's been abroad. She now knows that I'm not joking when I give my considered assessments of all these places I visit.

Yellowtip I don't think I'll tell you the college, don't want to give too much away

No penguins funny but we do have a few seals. Not obviously malarian though - they looked quite chipper last time I looked (there's a seal lover who sets up binoculars-on-a-pole by the beachuts and asks if people want a look - seems mean to say no). Badgers galore though and Finals # 2 coming up ....

Just to reinforce what funnyperson has said. The universities entirely understand the strengths and weaknesses of those with SLDs and autism, and how people who have overcome illness have shown greater motivation. It isn't just flags to help level the playing field for admissions, people with SLDs often come into their own at the higher level (providing they get the right support as soon as possible ). We want diversity on our courses so you get the benefit of different perspectives, and different thinking. Helicopter thinking is a good thing, helicopter parenting is not.

Yellowtip Not Magdalen college no

Is the purple haired person your DD yellow? How is she enjoying not being a first year?

Copthallresident Your DD isn't at Oxford reading Chemistry? See post no 2 on this thread.
Only just got round to catching up .

harbingerofdoom No. She plans to become a millionaire making designer babies, thankfully her course covers ethics

Just wondering if anybody's DC took the ELAT last week and what they thought of it?

Yes, dolce - I know all OPx admissions lean more and more on the AT tests. Anyone here whose dc took the PAT last week? DS said they changed it a LOT from the sample papers on the web, the little dears. :(