Take a gap year and reapply to Oxbridge?

[tyngedyriaith]

DD has been rejected from Cambridge. People with far worse grades have gotten in. She's disappointed. She mentioned retrying next year if she exceeds the standard offer?

Is it worth it considering Welsh fees are going up next year?

Not unless you're a monumental snob, no.

So yes, probably, you are.

You are the one who served up Lord Sainsbury as some kind of trump card i.e. you are the snob 😂

What's your subject again, LRD? Obviously not Philosophy/Logic

Yes, I am very dim. But not quite so dim as to believe your conspiracy theories.

Whether you are dim or merely naive is a moot point. But if you seriously believe that university admissions are up to individuals and not subject to institutional prerogatives you need to wake up to RL.

Why don't you scroll back down the thread and reread sendsummer's insightful post about institutional prerogatives at play in admissions?

LRD the neighbour in our tiddly village also has a large palatial house in Kensington I regret to say although it is quite an interesting village with a lot of dubious history and Wadham was founded by the old lady who used to live just around the bend.

Bobo it never ceases to amaze me that with all your inside knowledge you never get any of your protegees into Oxbridge. I just don't know how you do it :)

You do get that the bit where send refers to 'the History Boys', she's referring to a fictional story, right?

I'm curious how this scenario of yours would work. Do secretaries sworn to secrecy tip-toe into admissions offices at dead of night to remove the applications from comprehensive school oiks? Or are we meant to picture a couple of academics on the first day of term faced with a group of students they've no memory of selecting? 'Look, Jim, when we interviewed them, they were called Sophie, Rachel, Ellie, Ben and Simon, and now they're Tarquin, Tarquin, Tarquin, Tarquin, and Lady Sarah von Poshface. Kids eh?!'

Honestly.

Institutional issues do come into it - at the level of taking into account a candidate's background and allowing for the fact he or she might not have been given opportunity to show real potential. That is very unlikely to discriminate in favour of Eton students, and it is all entirely above board.

I'm sure there are several Etonians, and their parents, who would be only too happy if bobo's theories were true .

As was mentioned by a pp, Etonians were overwhelmingly in support of Remain, according to a poll in the Chronicle, btw.

A friend working in a sought-after UK university recently wrote to me:-

"I've interviewed UCAS applicants from Eton. In spite of their paid-for educational advantages, frequently they haven't been very impressive. We do expect far more from any UCAS applicant who comes from a hugely advantaged school (i.e. small class sizes, regular excursions, extra-curricular etc etc)."

MrsBernardBlack - I'm sure they were. David Cameron among them. As they don't want to damage their brand any further they have engaged Theresa May as their hatchet girl.

Thank you, AnnaMagdalene, for that interesting quote that supports my hypothesis.

Sorry, Bobo, I've rather lost track - what institutional prerogatives are you referring to specifically (and yes I probably am being dim )

Basilisk - if you really are interested you can read the very short thread.

My friend was saying that those involved in admissions are trying to pick the most innately able students, taking into to account that some will have been in environments that provided them with paid for advantages, while others have come from backgrounds that did not provide them with these advantages.

This is not quite the same as saying that anyone independently educated who shows genuine individual ability at interview is nonetheless going to be 'punished' - and will be denied a place on the grounds that their parents are likely Brexiteers.

Perhaps oxbridge have strictly standardised their interviews such that it is more possible to compare the candidates. They don't go off piste such that a private schooled child with significantly more confidence may be able to impress them.
Significantly more applicants apply now. Its harder for anyone to get in.
Also perhaps Etonians this year applied for more competitive subjects.

I do also think that schools where a significant number of people have attended oxbridge are at an advantage to feed back their experience to the school such that the batch next year will understand the format, and may even have know the subject areas that the question types will be about.

But tropicalfish 70 to 20 is an absolutely astonishing drop in a single year - really properly amazing. Did other top independents take that sort of a hit? Does anyone here know?

It will be interesting to see the independent/state school stats for this admissions round when they come out.

AnnaMagdalene - you have not understood either my hypothesis or how your friend's comment backs it up.

goodbyestranger - indeed, I would also be fascinated to know the numbers for other traditionally hard hitting players in the Oxbridge places league.

Also, purely in terms of percentage of the Y13s getting a place, it reduces Eton's success rate to that of a pretty middling grammar or very good comp, despite it requiring 'very high academic potential and additional strengths' from entrants to the sixth form, and that's before you even factor in the enormous educational privilege. As I say - astonishing.

Astonishing - or suspect?!

The massive drop in numbers of offers to quite a few private schools is nothing to do with Brexit and everything to do with a huge push in the widening access programs.

Some departments and colleges set the bar incredibly high for candidates coming from those institutions this year. Some might say impossibly high.

It's difficult.
On the one hand of course Oxford and Cambridge are fully committed to widening access but on the other they don't want to cut off their noses to spite their faces.

It will be interesting to see how all this plays out. Which other institutions gain traction from this ( and they certainly will) and what will happen during the next few admissions cycles in terms of applications.

Well the first thing I'd ask if whether the info is correct - no offence intended MrsBB but I know very well from my own DC how things can be mis-reported. It's just the scale of the thing!

Thank you, GetAHaircutCarl, for the confirmation from an admissions insider that institutional prerogatives are at play when decisions are taken to admit candidates from specific schools.

Has your DCs' school taken a similar hit for this round Carl, from what you know? Don't feel you have to answer!