Oxbridge 2015 #2

[Molio]

Continuing Roisin's thread.

I've even succumbed to TSR, having sworn I wouldn't. Still no news here and haven't heard of news from any other source in the same subject at the same college but being very uncool tbh as the reality is that rejection after an interview would be much kinder for DS than a no ab initio. Massively cheered by a late afternoon offer from Bristol though. I thought I was chilled, I'm clearly not .

Fingers crossed for everyone still waiting and hoping. It's very hard to see them disappointed, is the problem :(

The A in humanities is really tricky, yet Cambridge seem to hand out offers requiring 2 A for some of the more popular humanities/social science courses. One poor boy we know missed by about 3 UMS.

Dechorate. Rather than a tutor you might try those one day Justin Craig courses that run on weekends and over half term. We used them for GCSE English, as dyslexic DD needed the best possible grades, in what was always her most difficult subject, and so we thought it worth while for her to get some tuition in "mark-grubbing" on top of her perfectly sound, actually very good, teaching. She was in a selective school where almost all the class would have been expected to get A*/A, and so there was probably less emphasis on squeezing every last mark out of the process. She did far better than expected, and found the course helped reinforce what she had been taught in the classroom and gave her real clarity on what she needed to put down on paper. They were also very good at building her confidence. Partly in her case because it made a nice change to be at the top rather than the bottom of the class.

I am nervous and unhappy.
Apparently the dropped grades is the reason for the board change.
DD is going for the approach of tweaking the essays, getting them remarked and seeing how she does.
Hitting the nail on the head sounds sensible.

DD has her last day of school on Friday and I am feeling rather sad that her school days are coming to end. DD is quite ambivalent about it and is revising her socks off. Good luck to all of our year 13's and fingers crossed that they all achieve their required grades.

Last day of school today. Eek.

Same here. Apparently the entire year group are going out tonight. And I bet every other school in area too. I'm avoiding the town centre!

Dd can now apply for her Oxford accommodation - any pearls of wisdom in terms of older/newer rooms, location, etc. There seem to be a range of locations for each price band & conversely each staircase has a range of prices. All to do with room size apparently. She's not sure whether to go for newer room (guaranteed sink) or more characterful with better view but no sink.

Decorhate I would advise any of mine to aim for the accommodation where most other first years will be, which I think in your DDs case means the new accommodation. And has the distinct bonus of a sink! (not that any have ever had a Room Without A Sink. The girls would not have liked that - some of the communal wash area leave a lot to be desired....). Only one of mine has had the option of selecting by price and he went for mid/ upper price which translated into a small room four floors up a tiny staircase but with a fabulous timbered ceiling and his own shower room and a view over a quad. First years in his college are scattered, so that consideration didn't matter so much. I think he got value for money but he says the smallness of the room has been a bit of a pain. But I guess unless you go for top whack something will give. Another was allocated randomly to a magnificent room with an amazing view and his own shower room but wasn't in the new accommodation with the vast majority of his year group and says he would have swapped if he could, despite the loveliness of his room and even though the new accommodation was just around the corner from where he was. He's very sociable so it wasn't a particular problem but I can see it could be for anyone shy. Two girls were in the area of their colleges which housed the majority of first years and said that was important for them.

Thanks Molio. That more or less echoes what did said about preferring to be with other first years over having a room in the pretty bit. There is always the option of moving back to the old part in 3rd year.

Arghh. Dd not did. Damn autocorrect.

DD just gets allocated a room - think they said that currently it was in alphabetical order, but there was possibly a plan afoot for this autumn to do it in subject groupings. And everywhere is the same price. So that makes things easier, just turn up on the day!

I think a sink is essential, tbh. When my girls and I have looked at uni accommodation, I said to them that I would pay for a sink but not for en suite!

I think too much choice is not necessarily a good thing!

Just to say good luck to all DC starting A2s. DD was rudely awoken by a rook flying down her chimney! She said it's an omen but I rather think it's a sign that some birds have made a nest up one of our chimneys yet again
Anyway, she went off to her history exam like a lamb to the slaughter. This good luck card did at least raise a smile:

Stress - aargh - I would so like to look forward to fast forward to August, good news or bad.

Hi all. Anyone know what the procedure is on results day if you need to contact Oxford - do you speak to the college or a central admissions department? (Just want to be prepared if dd doesn't meet her offer & is having a paper remarked). Thanks

I think your DD's Ho6 would need to speak to the admissions tutor at the college Decorhate, not central admissions or even medicine admissions. Your DD could speak direct of course, but at our school at least the Ho6 always phones any uni or college where grades have been missed - apart from anything else, students are often upset. The only thing I would say is that the colleges will already have had the results for four days and will have held meetings to make decisions about students who've missed their grades. If it's any comfort I happen to know that the college your DD has an offer from had a large batch of missed grades last year and certainly took some. In this house, it's clear that DS3 isn't confident but we're not discussing results. personally, I'm not convinced that if ucas bleeps up as rejected on the 13th that there's too much scope at Oxford for further manoeuvre, so I reckon we'll know as soon as ucas goes live. Anecdotally, Cambridge seems to reverse preliminary decisions more often, but my sample isn't huge. Fingers crossed it goes well for them all.

Thanks Molio. I know the college/university will have given missed grades a lot of thought but my understanding is that they don't get the UMS marks so won't know if it was a near miss that would make a remark advisable?

Decor, you may well have already checked this but has your DD received anything about such an eventuality - hopefully one that won't happen of course. Whilst DS1 is at Cambridge he did receive a quite lengthy missive from his college director of studies towards the end of May (last year before exams) wishing him all the best for the exams, recommendations for summer activities to keep the subject fresh, an extensive reading list which he might like to dip into, but buried away towards the end a very clear set of instructions as to what to do should the offer requirement not be achieved. So might be worth your DD checking, if not already done so, whether she has received anything similar.

TBH I'm glad to have a year off from the secondary stress of exam results - I do feel for you all though. Fingers crossed for her, and indeed all the other DCs covered by the thread that everyone gets the results that they need.

I hear the students hear the day before or the night/early hrs of the morning via email (this, I gather, is all unis) as to whether they have got their place...(not their results grades...but this implies they have). Does anyone know whether you get an email regardless, ie, whether you have got a place or not, or just if you get your place, so no email means no place at their chosen uni?
DD is hoping for cambs...A* A A to read Middle Eastern and Asian Studies. Should they all be checking their emails from the day before, every five minutes?

Is it true that they don't see ums scores? Eek. What is the point of them then?

Dd had an email from Cambridge a few months back saying that if you miss your offer then you need to call them with your UMS scores as they won't have them but they need them to make a decision on whether you still get your place. It could vary from college to college though. I feel quite ill thinking about it all!

I hear the students hear the day before or the night/early hrs of the morning via email (this, I gather, is all unis) as to whether they have got their place...(not their results grades...but this implies they have).

Does anyone who has been through this before know if this is true ? I also , as well as Grammar, am interested. I had assumed everyone needs to wait until the UCAS / firming thing goes live. (i.e. Thursday morning)

To my certain knowledge none of my previous five have heard anything prior to notification through UCAS. Last year DS came home from getting results at school to find an e-mail from his college sent at c.10am, then got a letter the next day.

That makes sense MrsB and explains why Oxford (with pre-test scores to hand and more interview feedback on the whole) feels able to make decisions prior to results day whereas there seems to be more negotiation available with Cambridge post results.

My daughter knew she had got into Cambridge by checking UCAS track on the morning of results day. She had no email from the college but did get a letter which arrived on results day. It made the drive to collect the results a much more pleasant experience! I think some of her friends had emails the day before from other universities saying congratulations.
Good luck to everyone waiting - the lack of stress this year is wonderful!