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?

I heard it was decimated in certain subjects last year.

bobo, are you actually unable to read?

Let me put the relevant bit of her post in bold for you:

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.

See that bit where she says 'nothing to do with Brexit'?

That means she thinks, unlike you, that it is nothing to do with Brexit.

We haven't had anything official from school so the information I've got is from my DC; by which I mean take it with a pinch of salt.

But there certainly seems to be a bit of around the place.

There are rattlings, you know?

That said there are always surprise successes ( DD was definitely one) and the gap year applicants seem to have done rather nicely.

But as I say, don't take any of this as gospel as I'm mostly relying on DS ( who goes about in an almost-coma most of the time. DD is a better bet for gossip but she's been proccupied with the other stuff).

How did your place do goodbye? You usually have a good skew of yes pleases, no?

We usually have a fraction of the places your DCs' school gets Carl but we're certainly down - although I'll add the same caveat re my own DS/ reliability of info!

Absolutely no offence taken goodbye, you are right to raise the possibility, and to give me the opportunity to agree that those numbers are in no way official, but are merely what DS has been told.

I also have to add that one cannot exclude the possibility that DS was not offered a place for reasons other than because he is the victim of a dastardly plot against Etonians!

Agree goodbye re: info not being correct. I'd heard numbers similar to previous years from Mrs BBs school, so around 70.

Well if you're correct LODOD, whither Bobo's dastardly Brexit revenge plot?

Any other Etonians out there with relevant intelligence?

It very much depends on predicted grades and what other offers she has in hand. The obvious risk is that if she reapplies to Oxbridge next year and is rejected again she may not get the offers she got this year as back up and end up in a worse position. My DS had his heart set on Christ's college Cambridge for maths and computer science but was rejected after panic attack interview. He considered reapplying as he already had maths A Level at A and was predicted AAA in the summer. However, he got an offer of AAAA from imperial so decided that if he managed to make that offer he would go to imperial as he couldn't risk not getting an offer the next year. He actually ended up with 4A*s and is now in his second year of joint maths and computing at Imperial and is very happy.

Not all the indies had a bad year. My DD's school got 45 Oxbridge offers. Last year they got 39.

Is your DD at an all girls' school, horsemadmom?

It is an all girls' school that horsemadmom is talking about but why should that make a difference?

I'd be fascinated if offers to girls had held up but not to boys!

Does anybody else understand what bobochic is on about or is she operating at a superior level of intelligence that mere mortals - albeit ones with good degrees and experience of how universities operate - cannot hope to appreciate?

Nope. I'm out :)

Anecdotally DD and her girlfriends (from a number of schools - some single sex, some co-ed) seem to have got plenty of offers.

But that might just be pure chance.

Presumably all of those schools are private schools that your DD has friends in Carl?

Our co-ed state school had an even split of boys and girls getting offers, just to chuck further data in there for the multi faceted conspiracy theory. It certainly wasn't girl heavy. Perhaps state schools are irrelevant here. But just in case they're not :)

The plot thickens

Yeah, private schools.

But a fair few are at her school of course. So presumably subject to the same high bar as the boys.

Sorry realise that makes it sound like only has mates at private school .

What I meant was her girlfriends who tried for Oxbridge were all at private schools ( and seem to have done well).

The plot does not thicken, for goodness sake

Steady on Carl otherwise it will begin to sound as though you think indy kids have to demonstrate more potential than state schoolers, which I'd quibble about. I'm sure kids from St Cake's are equally as meritorious as those from Craptown High, but not more so.

My dds school was down from 39 to 26 ( I think that's right)
Dd applied with 5 A* prediction and was rejected. She is planning on waiting till results day and if she achieves her predictions, reapplying next year. I think the interview was her stumbling block and an extra year of maturity with some interesting gap year work will help her. Yes there are other good unis but if that's what she wants then why not have another go. Am secretly bit pleased to have her around for another year.
I do wonder if the application process this year has been affected by the lack of AS results ?

'I'm sure kids from St Cake's are equally as meritorious as those from Craptown High, but not more so'.

I agree with this. I would hope that some of the push for widening access and its profile in the press has led to more state school/disadvantaged children applying and also admissions officers and academics looking for potential and ability where it is not so obviously polished and showcased. So elite schools are not being penalised but may have lost some of their previous advantage (if it was ever there). And if that is the case surely that has to be a good thing.

My DD applied this year (and was successful) and neither she or I had any prior knowledge of Oxbridge or the process but were hugely impressed by the efforts taken by Cambridge to put information on their website and explain each step on line and at open days. And also with the huge amount of time and effort put into assessing each application. Which would suggest that they really do seek out the brightest and those with best fit wherever they come from.

Well done your DD user920.

Well we've certainly heard some local private schoolers from well known boarding independents complain of discrimination. It slightly grates when there's a suggestion that a student has to now be that much cleverer to get in from one of the big name schools. The vast, vast difference in £ spent on their education (ten thousand a year at least) means that they still arguably have an easier ride by some way.

The Achilles heel of the amazing opportunities of schools like Eton with regards Oxbridge entry is also their raison d'être, lots of extracurricular activities on which boys will spend quite a bit of their time. In order to stand out at interview with the present increased drive to widening access it is insufficient just to be rather bright, well taught and interested in one's subject. The students who are not part of widening access but score well enough in their interviews now will be much more likely to be those single minded grafters who have spent a great deal of their free time reading extensively or covering more advanced stuff. Post A level application gives more time to do this for those sort of students.