Sutton Trust Summer Schools. Anyone successful?

[Myidentity]

DC rejected from Bristol offer for medicine. Some 1200 applied and 160 successful.

Bristol says:"There were a number of applications which met all of the above criteria, where this happened places were offered to students with the highest performance at GCSE(or equivalent.)
Criteria were:

• Will be first in generation in family to attend uni. Have achieved at least 5A/A at GCSE
• Are taking relevant subjects in relation to course applied for
• Attend schools or colleges with a low overall A-level points score
• Come from neighbourhoods with low overall progression rates to higher education
• Under age of 18 at time of summer school
• Have been in care system

A number met ALL the criteria. Really! Is this probable? Or do you think people are lying about their circumstances to get a foot in the door.
DC says that people are making up lots of "interests" non academic achievements on applications, knowing full well that unis do not have resources to corroborate them all. Very sad if the insane competition is leading to this deceit.

mousymary we live in the middle of nowhere and some of the less well off kids round here have access to a good number of these opportunities. The internet helps greatly.

Current schemes are better than nothing, I agree. But still very socially divisive, applied as sticking plaster over a gaping wound.

There are people, some living in social housing, others juggling bills, going without holidays, etc.,who will scrimp and save to send a child to independent school.
This group, as one example,can feel very resentful when its offspring is knocked to the back of the queue in a system where it is possible to bend the rules.
A good education at a high ranking university can set a child up for life.
The ratio of applicants greatly exceeds places.
In this climate, the elbows will come out. Either subtly or overtly.

It's not very edifying, but a fact of life that people will fight to advance their own flesh and blood.
Saying this is terribly, shockingly ghastly and "not normal," is hypocritical, and usually comes from a subset that spends its life agitating teachers about its offspring, writing to boards of governors, claiming every last smidgen of advantage for itself.

Myidentity I can understand your disappointment but your reaction is very extreme.

Hopefully your DC has an offer to read Medicine elsewhere. If so, then I'd let this bitterness go.

Well in fact I'd try to let it go anyway.

Oh, and I might add, demonising other children and other parents in the process.

Plus the Sutton Trust is very London-centric Well, all I know is that when - as an academic - I did some volunteering for them, it was in the rural NW.

demonising other children and other parents in the process

Much as you did in your OP ? :

""

Oh dear, maybe I've fallen for a troll or a GF.

MyIdentity, how would you like the Sutton Trust to do things differently?

My DC is on a similar course elsewhere, based on academic potential, and at a higher ranked university than Bristol.

Bristol would have been an insurance place.
I'm not that invested in my offspring going to Bristol, to be perfectly frank.
Now I expect I'll get flamed for being "greedy".
I can't see why my questioning a set of stats has led to such hysteria on this forum.
I can only conclude that participants are as invested in the subject as I am.
If their children are going through the same process, that's understandable.
If not, I'd say it's time to stop getting off on the self righteous bullying.

Why would anyone accuse you of being greedy? It's normal for dc to apply to several summer schools if that's what they would like to do as the chances of getting into any particular one of them are low.

No I'm not in the least invested - my last DC to go through the process doesn't want to read Medicine and the DC that is reading Medicine is at the top ranked uni for Medicine :)

I just think you sound a bit sour grapey, despite the heated protestations.

Incidentally neither he nor any of my DC have applied for Sutton Trust summer schools.

I can't see why my questioning a set of stats has led to such hysteria on this forum.

I really don't see any hysteria except your overreaction to people calling you out for the way you questioned a set of stats by accusing successful applicants of lying Now that's irrational
although for ideological reasons I prefer not to call it hysteria

I am not, repeat not, accusing all successful applicants of lying. I made that perfectly clear in my posts when I said I believed the majority were deserving applicants.

I am raising the possibility that some may have cheated. That is not an illogical supposition.
I have said myself that my own DC is on the deprivation indices.

You are attacking the mother of a disadvantaged child, because she has the temerity to ask a perfectly acceptable question.

It's really not an acceptable question; it's akin to the kneejerk reaction of assuming a high proportion of people on welfare benefits are benefit cheats. Most of your first post was a set of offensive assumptions about how people must be lying. But if you can't see it, go ahead, keep throwing out accusations.

reminder to self: do not get sucked in by goady fuckers or trolls

I don't even really see why you'd assume that some people would lie. The advantage to the sort of people you seem to assume would lie would be minimal. I think you're seriously over estimating the advantage a Sutton Trust summer school would give in the application process and seriously underestimating the part the interviews play in terms of selecting applicants for Bristol med school offers.

Agree with goodbyestranger.

If either the school, your DC or you are reasonably on top of the medical school application process, I would have though it is better to do some hands on stuff which gives you a realistic idea of what being a doctor entails.

Bristol medical school is a tricky one. They have a huge ratio of applicants to places and offer quite a lot in terms of contextual offers. DD has a place starting September but it was very much her aspirational choice and not an offer she expected to get. I am not surprised to hear that similar problems exist for summer school places.

Bristol just says " a number" - it doesn't say all met the criteria.
Secondly
"There were a number of applications which met all of the above criteria, where this happened places were offered to students with the highest performance at GCSE(or equivalent.)
Criteria were:"

if this is the direct quote the first suggests were there different criteria !above"? ( Isay that because the quote gives the criteria "below" the sentence not above it so it lokos very strange indeed.
My daughter went to Bristol and her younger brothers (twins) accepted Bristol offers last week (assuming for the higher offer one he getst A*AA in the summer which he may well not) and did not do these Sutton Trust things. Both my twins got those GCSE grades and I don't regard it as at all unlikely that most of those applying to Bristol will have that level of grades in good GCSE subjects.

Medicine is very competive (my boys have not applied for medicine although family members are doctors) so not surprisingly I expect it is one of the most popular summer schools. You can still get in without doing a summer school. Just apply and hope for the best. Most of us have had loads of failures in life - I certainly have and those get on are those of us who keep trying regardless and just make the brest of it.

On the UCAS form you can put down your hobbies (and none of my 5 children by the way has ever lied in any way at all on a UCAS form or job application for that matter) but the universities are much more interested in your exam grades and subjects and interest in the subject so I would not worry about about having a particularly impressive hobby.

Applicants to the summer schools have to provide a school reference to support their application. So this would make it rather difficult to lie about:

Have achieved at least 5A/A at GCSE

• Are taking relevant subjects in relation to course applied for
• Attend schools or colleges with a low overall A-level points score
• Come from neighbourhoods with low overall progression rates to higher education
• Under age of 18 at time of summer school
• Have been in care system

So the only thing they could possibly lie about would be being the first generation to attend university.

DC says that people are making up lots of "interests" non academic achievements on applications, knowing full well that unis do not have resources to corroborate them all

Well that's odd. Because the Sutton trust application form doesn't ask for your interests. So where does your DC think people are making it up?

My DS has a place on a Sutton Trust Summer School.
I am not sure how you could lie on the form.
You provide your address, school etc.
My DS also has a recognised disability, so we tick an extra box.
To be honest as much as I'm pleased he has a place on the summer school, I'd be happier not to meet the criteria.

Well done to your DS,hope he enjoys the summer school.