Exeter offers : incompetent or arrogant?

[TalkinPeace]

DD submitted her form last October
Exeter have still not had the courtesy to send an offer (the other four Unis all have)
when phoned they said

• no offers have been issued (bollocks as DDs friends have theirs)
• offers will be made by end of December (bollocks as its now late march)
• offers will be made right after the UCAS cut off date (bollocks as it was in January)
• offers will be made by the end of March ........

Exeter are arrogant liars
the word needs to go round

Sorry we've rather hijacked the exeter thread

Boys stand a statistically much better chance of getting in though!

So it could be a yes.

Ds2 seems to think end of April beginning of May. He never checks his email though so I will keep an eye on Twitter so we don't miss it!

Ds is focussed on the NT Connections Festival now. And football. So February is something that happened in about 1845!

C'mon Exeter get a move on. I'm over invested in this thread and I want the OPs DD to get an offer or at least a decision today.

Stopboasting take heart, you are not alone! I came on here for exactly the same reason. C'mon Exeter, make up your minds!

It's a worse cliffhanger than Lost!

Fingers crossed for TiP's dd today. Yay- Exeter - you know you want to give her an offer!

Can we ask MNHQ to change the name to "Cliffhanger..........."?

Then we can all be waiting for news for MsPeace, MasterPyjamas and RussellMinor

" I wonder if independent parents are able to influence the schools reference? (that comment was made this weekend, about this year's interviews and a particular school)." That would seem preternaturally shortsighted by the school , Molio.

Anyway having no offers to wait for in the Crocus house, fingers crossed for MsP, MasterP and RussellMinor.

I'll place £10 on Friday.

They will be waiting for a medic or high flyer to reject them. Bet she gets an offer.

Talking to a friend who is a prof in and MFL at a leading uni, not Exeter. He says he places minimum reliance on ref as they never tell him what he want to know. And not interested in the personal statement at all, other than as an ice-breaker for interviews.

Indeed it would Hocus but Eric has already mentioned the different dynamics at independent schools in a different context, so I wondered. Clearly relatively weak applicants are being bigged up though and that could cause problems for the rest if this school doesn't shift down from its universal superlatives.

No UCAS application here either, thank God.

Perhaps your prof has an aptitude test to rely on MrsG. Because if you strip out the reference you only have grades left to play with.

He says he places minimum reliance on ref as they never tell him what he want to know.

So what does he want to know?

Molio My experience is that throughout the UCAS process parents at well known independent schools are firmly told to butt out. You can ask to see the reference but on the firm understanding neither it, or any of the rest of the school's input, will be changed. One of my DDs had a complete witch for a tutor who had not hesitated to use the threat of a bad reference as a tool of manipulation so I did ask to see it and was surprised to see it was indeed an articulate and fair exposition of her strengths, if not weaknesses, which you could detect by omission. Apart from anything else if you give all those pushy parents an inch they will take a mile and make the school's job and credibility impossible to maintain.

My school was brutally honest about my quote "general air of insouciance" in my UCCA reference, as the Headmistress said in her last words as I left school I was one of their naughtier girls. Exeter, York, even Lancaster, rejected me. It looked bleak as I was not allowed to apply to a "new university", I was called in to the Headmistress for the sin of putting down Kent. Thankfully my tutor said afterwards he was intrigued and looked forward to meeting a girl who could provoke such spite!

TBH I don't know how much influence a parent could have on a reference at DC's school, as I'm not at that point yet.

My experience to date tells me it's likely to be 'not bleeding much'. The powers that be do not take kindly to being told what to do .

That said, when pupils have sterling GCSEs and will likely get sterling A levels/pre-u, when they've taken an active part in school life and are generally a reasonable human being, why would a reference be anything but positive? And in some schools that will describe most of the pupils.

I recently went to a workshop in a school in Cambridge and I would have been hard pushed to big up anyone in particular over another. They were all exceptionally talented. If I were the teacher writing references I couldn't have stated that any of them were not exceptional IYSWIM.

eric They are only interested in academic potential so even taking an active part in school life isn't relevant unless they have demonstrated skills like determination and resilience which would help with academic success. However there are variations in academic potential even amongst the very bright and accomplished. Particular strengths like imagination, lateral thinking, logic etc.

It's just grades they are interested in. Not hinterlands.

I've met some really quite ordinary pupils from a top English boys' school who had 4 A*s at A-level and were exceptional sportsmen. I think you can be pretty clever but not inspiring IYSWIM.

99% of people are rather pedestrian and students are no different. A few may be clever - supremely clever - but having to have personality bursting out of every pore surely is not a prerequisite for getting a university place. How exhausting for all concerned.

He says he places minimum reliance on ref as they never tell him what he want to know.

A lot of references contain no additional information: they discuss the applicants' subjects, their grades and their extracurriculars, but all of these things are elsewhere on the form.

Very few references seem to discuss applicants' abilities and strengths in a meaningful way.

I have never seen independent schools "big up" weak candidates. I have frequently seen state schools with few high achievers "big up" candidates they think are strong Oxbridge candidates, but who aren't. I have also frequently seen unenthusiastic empty references (as described above) from all types of schools.

Agree with Eric that parents at my DCs schools wouldn't be able to influence references.

Quite.

I'm involved in admissions and I'm not looking for anything breathtaking .

You don't have to have personality bursting out of every pore but, IME, there are some 17 year olds who have something extra that others just don't and they are the ones that get the offers at the most competitive institutions. I can see why schools might big up some of there pupils and suggest they have that je ne sais quoi that makes them stand out, even when they don't.