Anyone still waiting on Imperial London for Computing

[shockthemonkey]

Hi everyone, fretting a little as my charge is waiting to hear from Imperial regarding an application that went in on the 13th October.

It is absolutely AGES to wait. All his other answers are in but it's Imperial he wants.

He is doing French bac S predicted 18.53 overall with 19 in maths, 19 in English, 17.5 in physics and chemistry... this equates to about AAA*A (depending on who is doing the equivalencies translation) so I don't understand.

Not my son, this is not a stealth boast, he is the son of a close friend and I am advising him as best I can. He is just brilliant in every way, and a wonderful kid. Cannot figure it out -- had a great PS and glowing ref.. what more can Imperial want?

I know they have already asked others to interview, and one week ago told his dad to calm down (they had not gone through all their applications), but really this is now getting silly.

Is anyone else still waiting on Imperial? Mum is calling me daily. I am sweating as I said he had a good chance at any UK uni. Thanks in advance!

According to Which Uni about 36% get offers. So, strip out a few who just shouldn't have applied in the first place because their grades are not top notch, and you'll be left with affair few candidates all of which are as clever and rounded as your young friend with great PSs. So, he probably does have a "good chance" but that does not mean he is a for definite offer and the deadline isn't here yet for Imperial to have to do their stuff.

Mum needs to calm down and you need to stop sweating. It might happen and it might not. He has four offers - hopefully good ones.

It is ages to wait but it is in the rules and it's a price you pay when applying to the most coveted courses and institutions.

To be honest they will want an awful lot. This is a seriously competitive course. A friend of DS ended up with a 5 A level offer.

I can't immediately find the ratio of applicants to places, however the AVERAGE entry tariff appears to be 571. Four A*s are 560.

We met with friends last week whose DS, again with a European background, had just started another, perhaps less competitive, course at Imperial this year. They had initially been disappointed their son had not gained a place at Cambridge, but instead have been surprised that every other student their son is doing lab work with has a minimum of 4*s.

The real difference between England and France is that in England the number of places is set. In France the cut tends to happen at the end of the first year. All applicants will meet the minimum entry requirements. There may well be as many as 7 or 10 applicants per place. This is a world ranked course so candidates will come from all over.

No news is good news in that it suggests that he has got through initial sifts and is still being considered. The candidate (not his mum or dad!) should look at student room www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2802377&page=234 to get a sense of what is going on. There is usually a good crop of French students applying for competitive courses in London who then get cautioned for posting in French so he will find others in a similar position and who may be able to offer advice.

DS, who was predicted 4xA*, was still waiting to hear from three of his choices LSE, UCL and Warwick for economics at this stage last year. He got one out of the three which may give some idea of the odds.

Thank you! I definitely said "good chance", but to some parents that sounds like "dead cert"...

I know the lottery it all is -- HEAP says it's 6 applicants to a spot for Computing at Imperial...

Candidate has been on The Student Room, thanks. A few others are still waiting and many have already had rejections... but this info is doing nothing to reassure the family since they know the last interview date is coming up very soon.

Some of the French students already invited to interview at Imperial for Computing (with or without maths) have predictions of 16.5 to 17.

Will try to stop sweating then. Family is quiet today.

Comparing one candidate to another is the first step to madness! We had a bit of this, as DS knew others early offers from Universities he was later rejected from and with lower predictions.

Given the level of competition from applicants not just from Europe but from the rest of the world. students at all the top ranked UIniversities will be very able. For what its worth, there might be a real silver lining in not going to Imperial. Firstly your chances of a first might be better elsewhre, and second it might be good for a student to get away from the French ghetto that is South Kensington. Imperial is the University of choice for many of the London based French we know and presumably for others from France itself. However others have deliberately sought to get away from their, sometimes cliquey, countrymen.

For DS things started moving in mid-March and he heard from the last one a week before the deadline.

Thanks, sleep. I had not thought about the French bubble aspect of Imperial!

Hopefully he has other offers which are good ones to choose from.

Yes, some great offers, but after interview at Cambridge he did not it beyond the pool.

Still, Edinburgh, Manchester and UCL are all very good and he'll make their conditions easily. He should be happy!