Looking for the helpful Cambridge admissions tutor who posted a while age..

[seeker]

......if you're around, could I ask a couple of questions, please?

seeker I just wanted to share my thoughts on the pursuit of excellence with you: If you have a DC who is fortunate enough to have been born with a good brain, then there is the choice to pursue excellence or stay above average. Top Universities such as Oxford Cambridge LSE UCL enable a young student to develop the skills and mindset to pursue excellence in studies and in extracurricular activities. As to social networks these will be present at all universities.
My DD and DS are fortunate enough to have secured places. It would have been harder to pursue excellence at other places without being called nerdy and without sacrificing those extracurricular pastimes which also make life worth living. Look at the auditoria of Magdalen College Cambridge or Magdalene College Oxford. Fantastic as the theatre music and dance which the students fill them with. Or the Holywell of Wadham. Then think that your child will be researching and writing multiple essays per week and getting timely feedback and you will see that this education is matchless. Likewise, for example, Architecture at the Bartlett/UCL, or History and Economics of Asia at the School of Oriental and African Studies or Physics at Imperial. A student comes out with a very different and much extended brain and mindset capable of the pursuit of excellence. If the DC want this, then working for it will not be a burden to them, but a series of challenges and opportunities and rewards.

For sure Cambridge is not the place for philosophy. Unless you want mind numbingly boring Anglo stuff. Essex, Sussex, Warwick, Heythrop much much more interesting, if you want the Continental tradition (ie not stuffy old logic, but Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Adorno etc etc)

Hmm. I had to read Nietzsche and Schopenhaur during my Cambridge degree and I wasn't even studying philosophy.

I sincerely doubt that Cambridge is as terrible as all that.

Anyway, sorry, just wanted to say I am a true example of what fatand warns about the children of pushy parents coasting their degrees.

My best mate did philosophy. She had a whale of a time. But then, she also had grades some seem to feel wouldn't get you in!

(I love your name btw! )

It is that bad. It is all logic, philosophy of mathematics and analytic philosophy (Wittgenstein's legacy). The only light in the darkness is Raymond Geuss.

Given the GCSE grades, it's a bit peculiar to be fretting over whether or not to apply to an elite university at ths stage.

seeker - don't take this the wrong way but iirc your daughter was predicted much better GCSE grades than she achieved, your son was a dead cert for grammar school , ... might it be wiser to use those experiences to better manage your children's expectations by waiting for the AS results?

That's a little harsh Littlefrieda.

seekers daughter may have approached her AS levels very differently to her GCSEs.

IIRC she was doing ahell of a lot of toher stuff (including a lot of socialising) during her GCSEs. At the time both she and seeker felt it had been worth it. She may now take another view and have calmed her extra currics and her socialising right down. She may be putting all her efforts into her AS levels in a way she didn't before.

Kids grow up a lot between year 11 and sixth form .

LittleFrieda, read this that I posted earlier "Thank you all. She wasn't eventhinking about Oxbridge -she used to have vague fantasies, but thought her GCSEs ruled her out. Then she bumped into her head teacher today, who asked her what her plans were, then threw cambridge into the mix. So I thought I'd see what I could find out. I suppose it's got to be worth a punt....( no pun intended!)" then just bugger off. Thank you.

Kids change.
If they didn't we'd all be fucked, wouldn't we?
It takes some longer to knuckle down. It takes some longer to work out what they want to do.

Some positively flourish in sixth form.

Thank you, word.

Some people seem to take a positive delight in being petty and mean spirited. Sad, really.

Well here's the thing.

However much we all disagree about politics etc...kids are kids innit?

And actually, I do think a lot of DC have a rethink about studies in sixth form. Once you get rid of all the subjects you're 100% in love with, life can seem much lighter.

And I think in many ways it's a shame that GCSEs are now given so much credence. I think deep down we all know that if your DD got a B in art or physics or whatever at 15/16 it probably says very little about her ability to do a degree in philosophy at 18/19/21...

But it is what it is...

I don't think I realised quite how important GCSE results can be- and that anything less than an A in some circumstances are not good enough. Sad, isn't it, that the personal statement seems to be getting less important- I wonder if admissions tutors are seeing more and more cookie cutter applicants?

But if you and she had known seeker, would she have done anything differently?

By all accounts she enjoyed her extra stuff. There's always a trade off. if she'd have aimed for straight A*s, she'd have had to live like your brother's daughter, no?

I recall you saying the kid had barely left the house for a year!

Was recently in a school, Ofsted 'outstanding' fantastic staff, and talking to one of the HODs. The DC are told - here is your profile, based on what you achieved at GCSE, modelled on what you are likely to achieve in UCAS points. I was but maybe they will blossom at AS... But it is cold hard stats, and apparently refined with each cohort.
As a teacher, okay, fine will work with that and obv do my best with the DC.
As a parent, I was shocked, but is a wake-up call, and although my own DC are still pre-GCSE, have suddenly woken up to the fact that, ok, actually, GCSEs really matter....

Yes, there is little room for irregularity. I don't think it is good and leads to an unhealthy focus on grades.

If A child does well at AS, the school reference can explain less convincing GCSEs. The problem is that there is a large number of applicants with near perfect scores. The universities at the very top are inundated anyway and can choose who they like. The numbers they take for each subject Aren't large and they are choosing from an international pool. That is the reality.

And I think in many ways it's a shame that GCSEs are now given so much credence. I think deep down we all know that if your DD got a B in art or physics or whatever at 15/16 it probably says very little about her ability to do a degree in philosophy at 18/19/21

I can understand how individual parents feel that, but as Admissions tutors, we deal with large cohorts, year on year. And achieved results at GCSE are actually reasonably good predictors of likely ability and success at university, at cohort level.

The other thing to say is that we all get where we need to be, but not necessarily by the route we thought we'd take.

I know it's a cliche, but things really do work out -- as long as children are engaged and supported.

GCSE results are given some sort of score when deciding on admissions at pretty much every university, sometimes by computer. eg Durham and Lse you have to have at least 6 a star at gcse or computer will say no, and the PS and As grades wont even get looked at.
Oxford they get ranked according to how well they did in the entrance test and gcse scores come into play when deciding who to give an offer to, I think, but humans decide, but the competition is fierce and a lot of children at even heartsink schools will have done a lot better wont they?.
I reckon if the AS module scores are below 90% this summer, then forget Cambridge, whatever the head teacher says.

GCSE results are given some sort of score when deciding on admissions at pretty much every university, sometimes by computer. eg Durham and Lse you have to have at least 6 a star at gcse or computer will say no, and the PS and As grades wont even get looked at.
Oxford they get ranked according to how well they did in the entrance test and gcse scores come into play when deciding who to give an offer to, I think, but humans decide, but the competition is fierce and a lot of children at even heartsink schools will have done a lot better wont they?.
I reckon if the AS module scores are below 90% this summer, then forget Cambridge, whatever the head teacher says.

"I wonder if admissions tutors are seeing more and more cookie cutter applicants?"

The big issue with PSs is that they have become a genre, and some applicants receive a great deals of training and help with their PSs (including several years of suitable past times and appropriate reading with which to fill it). PSs are often tutored for.

GCSE results are given some sort of score when deciding on admissions at pretty much every university

What is your evidence for such a statement? I work as an admissions tutor and this is not the case for my university and many others I know. Yes we look at them, but applications are not 'scored'

And a strong set of AS grades, relevant to the degree subject, are often more important an GCSEs.

The other important thing to remember is you don't have to apply for uni before your A levels. So a student who is on an upwards trajectory can be better off waiting until afterwards. Post-A level applications are fantastic from an admissions point of view, because there is no uncertainty.

Although you can of course go into adjustment, this doesn't leave a lot of time to really think through where you want to go.

Although I couldn't say this in public, I don't think any applicant should apply through clearing (whether because of better or worse grades), much better to take a year out and think about your options.

Well, in departments I've worked in (all top ten universities) that's simply not true.