Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)

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

How I wish Mumsnet would let you type A* Star reliably without the bold glitch.

A Star
A Star
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Converts to AAB on Mumsnet.

Difficult to know what grades we're actually talking about.

Oxford accepts the missed grade applicants that it wants to accept before results day. One of my DSs got AAB on results day for an AAA History offer and UCAS showed as confirmed at 7.30am that morning, well before he'd gone in to school to collect his grades. At 10am the college sent an e-mail saying congrats we want you anyway despite slightly missing your grades. (In fact his grades went up on re-mark to A* but that was irrelevant to the Oxford place). And then the fat letter with all the financial bumph arrived in the post. The fact remains that the colleges meet and decide ahead of time on the whole, with those they're less certain about usually getting leeway for a few days pending priority re-marks. Lots of apocryphal stories always fly about though. I think the attempted scrutiny of why did this girl get a second offer fairly mean spirited though.

I do certainly think that certain schools are still very persuasive when it comes to the students who haven't had the Yes button pressed on UCAS and see a No instead, and that does seem unfair. But the student would need to be on the cusp, in terms of grades and in terms of what the tutors though of him or her on paper (aptitude tests/ interview score).

Admittedly we are aristocratic on my father's side but of the dispossessed European persuasion and I don't think it's immediately obvious from my DS's accent etc - so I don't believe there's evidence that that was a factor :) (his aptitude test was very high and he went on to get a First, so that suggests Oxford knows what it's doing with missed grades).

• How I wish Mumsnet would let you type A Star reliably without the bold glitch.

Difficult to know what grades we're actually talking about.*

Having started on these threads in old style gcse days, I've learned how to parse them, but yes, it's a pain. (Likewise when people c&p something with a pair of dashes somewhere and a chunk appears struck through).

Anecdotes about unfairness in the past - whether real, fictitious or really just down to random good luck - aren't very appropriate on a support thread. I think some discussion of access issues is unsurprising among a group of people who by their presence on an HE thread can be assumed to be interested in education. However, I apologise if posting the link to the Times articles re the Harris Academy (which I thought might be of general interest or people on the thread) was unhelpful.

Increasing access is of huge interest but it should not be confused with deriding the accomplishment of those students sent to a private school. The two must not be conflated.

Nope I can confirm said girl did not get in on results day. Her UCAS track put her into clearing and she had an unsympathetic email from the admissions tutor.

With the disgruntledly let in applicant, she was told by AT that they wouldn’t usually let in but in this case they would.

Increasing access is of huge interest but it should not be confused with deriding the accomplishment of those students sent to a private school. The two must not be conflated.

Absolutely!

the colleges meet and decide ahead of time on the whole. That is true of all universities. They get students' A level results a week before they are released to the students.

Increasing access is of huge interest but it should not be confused with deriding the accomplishment of those students sent to a private school. I don't think anyone is deriding their accomplishment. But remarks like that are defensive, because they assume that increasing access for underprivileged children is inherently a form of attack on more privileged ones. It is not. As Ruth Bader Ginsberg memorably said, about discrimination against women: 'I ask no favours for our sex. All I ask of men is that they take their feet off our necks.'

It is true of all unis cinnamontoast, I think everyone going through the process gets to know that the unis get the results ahead of students precisely for this reason but my point was that the Oxford colleges each have meetings and go through all the info on each applicant and some applicants do simply get accepted without a re-mark or intervention by the school (or, not very credibly, 'Daddy'). I found from my experience with this DS that that causes a lot of surprise, that he didn't even need to get a re-mark.

Fortunately this DS was very popular in his year group so there was no snarky stuff but had he been less well liked then no doubt comments would have flown as they have done about the students further up the thread. People can be peculiarly mean minded about Oxbridge success.

People can be peculiarly mean minded about Oxbridge success.

So, so true!!

Cinnamon It seems to me that everybody on this thread is in support of increased access. Perhaps their views are less vehemently expressed than your own, but they are no less genuine.

But remarks like that are defensive, because they assume that increasing access for underprivileged children is inherently a form of attack on more privileged ones.
Cinnamon there was nothing defensive about my remark and no assumption either. Why would there be? Nobody in my family has ever had a private or privileged education.

DD has had a letter from the Head of her Sixth Form College congratulating her on her Cambridge offer. It also points out that the new Linear A levels are very demanding and she will need to work very hard to get the top grades. No pressure then!

It seems to me that everybody on this thread is in support of increased access.

Yes.

I'm just keeping silent in real life. It is all a bit surreal.

I've not really mentioned it IRL because I don't think he's going to accept the offer. Feels very anticlimactic to have it and not just be able to be straightforwardly happy about it.

Sorry Atia what is the background to his decision?

Good idea. It means he won't feel pressurised.

I'm just being quite vague when people ask me where ds plans to go. At the moment I'm saying he is choosing between options.

He just wants to go elsewhere! No real background. Applied to Cambridge because he felt like he probably had a good shot at it and so 'should', but thinks he would be happier living somewhere else for 4 years.

Happiness is really important. Has he spent long enough in Cambridge to make that decision?? If he has and he still prefers somewhere else then really much better to turn his offer down. For you as his parent that might be very disappointing - I do understand that.

No rush to make any decision though!!

Oh, it's not disappointing, just feels weird! An anticlimax, as I said. Doesn't feel like much point telling people if it might not happen. He's finding it odd too - getting well dones etc from his friends and he can't quite get his head round why people look at an Oxbridge offer so differently from his other offers.

And no, I don't think he's spent enough time there (has been to an open day, with his sister, after a bit of persuasion, and then obviously to his interview - this is where I think the Oxford system is way superior, lets you get a much better feel for the place). I've suggested he makes a term time trip to see what it's like full of students. I don't know if his college do an offer holder day - dd1's Oxford college do (I think at least partly because it's one that quite a lot of people end up at having chosen a different one), but I don't think that's common.

His other choice is Manchester, same offer as Cam, for an integrated masters, and he just loved it there, felt immediately at home, etc. The dept is big and busy and buzzy, and he could clearly just see himself there.

And no, no rush!

ds has been invited to an offer holder day so hopefully your ds will get one too. He is still going to his Warwick Offer Day as it is 50/50.