Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)

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Today is a big day for many... time for a new thread too

Yes, I think there was a student at our place a couple of years ago whose remark from a B to an A star only came through on the last day Oxford would wait. If it had been a day late, he'd have reapplied the next year.

One of my DDs tell me that a significant sum was offered for something to do with the library at her college and the sum was very gratefully taken but the donor's DC, then going through the interview cycle, nevertheless didn't get a place :)

ShalomJackie would there be time to do that and get the result before the selection process for Oxford?

I have heard that rich parents are buying terraced houses in poor areas so they can correspond from there and their dc will get classed as being in a low participation area.

If you need to cheat to try to give your DC an unfair advantage, chances are they won't cope that well when they're there. I can't imagine that particular tactic working well anyway.

Surely that only works if the rich parents are also sending their children to the local disadvantaged schools as well. Seems quite a gamble to me - and not one I would take however rich I was.

It’s based on the fact that if you give an address which is flagged on Polar/acorn you are guaranteed an interview.

Yes but if you then speak ‘ fake cockney ‘ I’m sure you don’t get a place. That’s all silly tbh.

Well done to those Brompton kids !
I totally understand the frustration of parents who have worked very hard to give their children the best and now feel that might have worked against them.
But : you’re child would not want to be a Syrian refugee or a child in care ...
You’re child has a loving mum who cares enough about them to be here on mumsnet and your child will do very well in life at another very good university.

I have heard that rich parents are buying terraced houses in poor areas so they can correspond from there and their dc will get classed as being in a low participation area.

How dishonest and sad!

DD has had a lovely email from her college encouraging her to chat with others on a offer holders’ Facebook page, and inviting her to an offer holder event.

Probably a re-mark them, or mitigating circumstances they haven't broadcast to the entire school community (the DC is entitled to privacy after all and doesn't have to defend herself). If the parents were that influential - and assuming your cynicism is founded, which I don't believe it is - then they'd have pulled their strings the first time around, wouldn't they?

Hingle, re cornflakes and toast - totally political. Have a look at the regulations on nutrients, food labelling and packaging, food hygiene, VAT, plus fuel costs, minimum wage, rents, rates and so on, and you’ll see how it’s not just the price you pay for food but its actual composition that’s affected by politics. If these political decisions go our way, we tend to remain unaware of them. Wait till No Deal affects supply and price of your favourite cereal though, or abandoning EU food safety regs results in food poisoning or whatever.

Apologies to all on here for a non-Oxbridge post there - just answering Hingle’s point. Goodbye, love your story about the library donation! Good to know inducements don’t pay.

Rianna, totally agree about Brampton - although it’s not that kids from wealthier backgrounds are seeing it count against them (they will still be the predominant group at Oxbridge), rather that the pool of potential applicants is slightly bigger. It is a shame that there are just two universities with Oxbridge prestige. There is no reason other than tradition why there shouldn’t be half a dozen such universities, then there wouldn’t be so many disappointments. We all know that some other universities are just as good; but we also know that an Oxbridge degree can appear to open more doors.

Cinnamon toast ,I have a child at one of the easiest uni’s to get into...excellent teaching and support. But also understand the appeal of Oxbridge otherwise would not be on this thread .

Ps this is a bright child who went to ‘easy’uni.circumtances .no regrets .

Yes, my DS is at SOAS - small, quirky, highly specialised. He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Goodbyestranger - I thought they said they had an offer didn't make the grades, has reapplied and got another offer (nit an actual place) - I assume still conditional on making the grades by resitting this Summer.

Cinnamon toast that’s what I mean.
There’s clearly more bright people than Oxbridge places. Somewhere else can be the right place for your child.

I've read on here about the Summer Pool at Cambridge. Is there something similar at Oxford? So, if a child does not get the grades and is rejected by their college, could another college pick them up or does this never happen?

What a shame that a supportive thread about our children has now descended into political rants and Chinese whispers

No it doesn't happen at Oxford. All colleges have meetings after the uni gets the A level results but before the students do to decide which, if any, applicants they'll take in the event of missed grades. But no additional offers are made. If on results day, where they've decided to reject an offeree, a priority re-mark is being put in for then the college will probably hold the place open for the couple of days that it takes for that sort of re-mark to come through. But unless it goes up the chances up that the post results decision to reject will stand.

Discussing the poor levels of social mobility some people experience may be a ‘political rant’ but I think it’s one worth having. I hate the idea we are not allowed to talk about these things without being criticised for daring to speak out.

Which are the Chinese whispers?

Yes I agree Bowchicawowow. I'd simply say political rather than political rant.

Haven’t seen the thread turn unsupportive. Interesting to discuss these things IMNVHO. Though I’m trying to limit time online so I’m not weighing in.

Would much appreciate the support of the thread in working out how best to support DD who has got her mocks results back. A* in Latin and Maths and... D in history. She is totally laid back about it, and still doing very little discernible work. Argh.

For the record she is very very keen on going to Oxford and her only possible insurance offer is AAB from Warwick — the others are all the same as Oxford (AAA).