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?

The Eton model with so many non-academic EC activities is well suited to US university entrance.

Obviously I've just contradicted myself so I'll revert to my initial position :) I'll leave it as equally meritorious even if in the borderzone I don't quite believe it.

No one believes it, goodbyestranger, for the simple reason that the opportunities afforded by big name schools as well as the very specific culture within their makes direct comparison between their pupils and pupils from normal state schools exceptionally difficult. In England the differences between schools are massive.

Well, something certainly thickens, but I don't think it's the plot.

anna, no, I'm no wiser. Either bob is credulous in the extreme and someone has been telling her tall tales, or she is somehow making money out of peddling lies about Oxbridge. Possibly both?

Bobo - I have read the thread - but in what way does the plot thicken?

Asked Ds and (true to form) he is rubbish on news / gossip re his former school ( Independent , very decent % s - albeit not Westminster style % s of pupils going to Oxbridge) .

Not quite the same point but although his school keeps up a fairly consistent average , it can vary year to year by subject. So the year above him , had the same percentage of over all pupils but his subject was lower than normal. In his year, his subject did pretty well but some other subjects did less well than they normally would. I think there is a point (not 70 to 20 as much of a point) in that it will somewhat depend on the cohort and I do think it helps to be in a cohort where you have a decent number of strong candidates applying for the same subject as you are - I suspect Ds benefitted from this). Now I understand that will not help those whose DC's school does not have a reasonable number of DCs applying, whatever subject, but I think (personally) it is a factor.

Oh and if the reason that independent schools are lower on acceptances is because of widening access - great. Not helpful to those who have missed out on a place but I do not think Ds ever thought he would be given quarter. And because he has had a good and wide education and has had an encouraging school, I don't think he should have been. That said , (which I probably wrongly interpreted from one of Bobo's posts , truly , honestly I do not believe that the name of the school or donations make a squidge of difference in getting in.

My DSSs, who knew very few (no?) English people of their own age were absolutely agog at the public schooled DC they met when they first went to university in the U.K. These are two well travelled, wealthy and quite sophisticated boys who had been at Catholic school in the 7th arrondissement, grown up in Jewish Neuilly and acquired an English stepmother in the way, so they were quite at home comparing cultural nuances. But the public school culture had them

Bobo by contrast my DC who went to Oxford from a state school in a backward rural shire have had no problems comparing the cultural nuances they encountered. But perhaps this is because they are the direct descendants of Charles 2nd who seems to have had the common touch.

Obviously, we've fallen on hard times.

goodbye.

In what way "agog" Bobo?

Heh heh Goodbye

Agog at how very certain they were, of everything. Trying to compare people who are quite so self-assured with others is not a simple task when there is not much time available and the stakes are high.

And actually - sorry, momentarily off topic OP - if the two couples in question had actually bothered to get married and of course the whole Catholic/ Protestant thing hadn't been blown out of proportion then my DC wouldn't have the current problem they're having with London property prices because we'd be sitting on a nice fat piece of London real estate which they could have all happily shared. Assuming sufficient bathrooms that is.

Bobo I'm sure you're a lovely person but highfalutin does spring to mind. Or it could be that I'm horribly dim. I did say to my youngest today that I reckon I peaked intellectually aged 7yrs old, so it's more than possible. If not practically certain. But half the time I just don't get what you're saying.

I think we can probably all find some genealogical misfortune that snatched wealth and status from us by a whisker, stranger. I've just inherited the family silver (not metaphorically) to remind me 😪

That's a fair comment Bobo and some pupils come across as more self assured than they really should. That is not a thing IMHO you should ascribe to just anyone who has been to a "public" school. It's a thing young people learn with all sorts of people.

oops missed some posted there !

Well you've bagged the family silver Bobo so it's easy to be sanguine. My family didn't even think to hang on to ChristChurch after their temporary stay. Anyhow, don't get me going - back to the thread.

Not bagged it, exactly - there was an awful lot to share around. As my sister remarked out, when the M and P families had their forks and spoons engraved with their crests in the 18th century, did they think that dozens of distant cousins would be condemned to that pattern in the 21st century?

I'm guessing Marlborough? I drive past the house where the first duke was born on my way to our local station. It's ok, but not overly glam. He did well for himself. I suppose it helped to be flexible in terms of religion!

No, not Marlborough . The P* line has tragically died out through lack of a legitimate heir. Had illegitimate heirs been able to carry it on, we'd be rather than making do with useless souvenirs like snuffboxes and wine coolers...

I was at Oxford and they would put the colleges in a group, and you'd get a second interview at another college if they wanted you.
What I'm saying is, grades aren't the be all and end all with it. If they want you, they will try to get you in. They look for other stuff in the interview - everyone has grades, reads around etc.
I'd suggest going somewhere else. There are other universities.

Well, I have no family silver (bar what I pick up in the junk shop with someone else's initials on), no exciting connections to the aristocracy, am not 'well-travelled' or 'quite sophisticated,' and certainly wouldn't have dreamed of being so aged 18.

I do, however, also not have a chip on my shoulder about Oxbridge entrance. And I think I know which set of haves and have-nots I prefer.

1. I have family silver
2. It is not English family silver.

3, It lives in a drawer and the battered soup ladles are my favourite. I get them out if there's a party and we are having mulled wine.

1. The only person I know who has a title only has this because his gay older brother died without marrying his partner.
2. Despite 1-4 I do not believe I have unique, privileged insight into how the Establishment works.
3. When it comes to university admissions I have an unfortunate tendency to give weight to information put out by the universities themselves, and to the accounts given by those who regularly participate in the process.

You need some remedial reading lessons, AnnaMagdalene

Are those the kind of 'remedial' lessons that would explain to the rest of us how you confused a flat-out contradiction of your nonsense with agreement, bobo?

No problem at all.

I'll just nip back to Cambridge college where I studied English and say someone off the internet reckons I can't read.