Experience Cambridge (Sutton Trust reject)-anyone's DC done it?

[laughingcow13]

DS was not accepted for Cambridge sutton trust summer school.Little surprise really as he goes to a grammar school and live in a high socio-economic postcode (it is meant to be for kids from poor schools and or deprived areas).
He has been instead offered a place on the 'Experience Cambridge' Initiative which (it says) is for kids who have applied to Sutton Trust with a strong GCSE profile but don't meet the contextual criteria .

It involves doing a project with them .You go to Cambridge for a day where you are put in groups .They introduce the project and have lectures and clasises on it.Then there is a 3 week period where you work on the project using online resources on their VLE and you are mentored by a current Cambridge student.
Then a final day where you go back to cambridge and talk about your ideas and look round the university and have taster lectures
I wondered if anyone else's kids have done this? We are a good way from the university but I think it would be something to put on his UCAS

hi,
my dc hasnt done it but I think what I would be asking myself is when is it? How does it fit into key periods of study and also how much time would it absorb. If you dont get the grades, you dont go.
tf

Dd2 just got invited to do this too - I haven't even read the email yet though, so don't know anything more than you do, although I think hers only involved one day in Cambridge. Am inclined to encourage dd to do it - although she is on the Uniq summer school for a week in July, so it depends on timing, expectations, etc.

I just read www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/outreach/experience-cambridge

DS was also rejected by Cambridge for Sutton Trust but I think might have met the postcode criteria. I was in first generation of my family to go to uni but his dad didn't so I'm guessing that counted him out. He hasn't been invited for the programme you mentioned but I'd have encouraged him to do it, as long as the dates he needs to be there don't conflict with any other plans. We're not near Cambridge either so I'd also have to have considered the high cost of the train fares, but I think the experience would have helped him to decide properly whether he'd like to go a top tier uni and whether he would feel like he fit in there, so I think the costs might be worth it. I suppose it's something you can mention on a personal statement too but others might know more as I've no experience of UCAS since I didn't go to uni in England (my family moved abroad when I was in primary school).

tropicalfish It is in late June and July so their results won't be out be then.
That link is is useful AtiaoftheJulia