Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)

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

LittleSpace,

Thank you for posting that link. I have learned a few things from it.

My cousin who applied from Sweden is among the EU acceptances that did not in the end take up their place at Cambridge because of a lack of clarity around fees. She opted for Poland.

Also, if I may say so LittleSpace, your DS sounds like a natural mathematician, Cambridge will miss out on a huge talent if they don't admit him. Warwick is of course very good but has he thought of/would he consider MIT, which is need-blind? He will have a multitude of career pathways at MIT.

There has been a lot of talk about how impressive Brampton Manor kids have been but, to me, your DS and others like him are more deserving of a place in Oxbridge because like I said in some old posts, kids in London have a lot of resources available to them.

There’s a possibility my DD will end up being hosted by your DD’s friend in that case!

For the offer holders event? AFAIK she'll be paired up with a first year.

Ah yes of course Errol

That is so lovely of you Maliaka. I honestly have no idea how good ds is in relation to Cambridge undergraduates. He might be as good or STEP might prove a STEP too far! What is MIT?

What I do know is that he spent the first bit of secondary school bored out of his mind. The maths teachers realised this and I cannot thank them enough for setting him extension work, allowing him to help teach in class and sending him stuff via e mail to keep his interest in maths alive. They are true stars.

It quite amused me that ds applied to one of the colleges to the far left of the chart and got pooled to another one on the far left!

Mailaika I don't think we should talk of offer holders as being more or less deserving. This is dangerous territory.

True. They all deserve an offer don't they? Need a few more universities with the same funding.

LittleSpace,

Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

They will want similar grades to Cambridge.

I will PM you later.

Hubbleisback,

I don't think we should talk of offer holders as being more or less deserving. This is dangerous territory.

Then what's the point of contextualised offers? This is still in play for those who very narrowly miss targets. Also, aren't you taking what I said just a bit too literally?

Mailaika Contextualised offers are there to make sure the most able do not miss out despite deficits in schooling.. It does not mean that those not requiring context to be taken into account are less deserving surely.

Not sure why you think I took what you said too literally?? I am not meaning to offend.

Hubbleisback

I generally struggle to understand what you are saying, and I honestly don't mean to offend...perhaps it is just that you and I don't speak the same "vernacular".

In the real world, tough decisions have to be made and when one of two applicants with identical academic achievements is turned away and the other given a place, I absolutely do not think they both are deserving of a place (from the POV of admissions tutors). Perhaps this is not your reality. In my world, most things have relative worth.

I don’t wish to speak for Hubble, but I confess I shared her reaction too. As for those with contextualised offers, they aren’t more or less deserving of the offer though, are they? Oxbridge just recognises they’ve not had every advantage available to them. Privileged or otherwise, pupils at Eton still have to do the work and achieve their grades. Bit harsh to say they, or pupils from other ‘hothouse’ schools, are less deserving of a place, no?

Mailaika I'm not at all sure what you're basing your opinion on. The fact of living in London, disregarding the enormous educational drag of being in care/ on FSM etc? I realise that 'only' half of the offerees are in that very low income bracket but even so. It's not only dangerous territory but it's based on an incredibly flawed notion about the advantage given by being in London. We live a very long way from London in what a lot of Londoners would view as a cultural wasteland but I don't spring from that to saying my DCs' offers were therefore intrinsically more deserving. These offers are based on how young people's minds think, not on how many artefacts they've been to see in the British Museum.

Yes Mailaika I think we must be talking about different things. I was initially referring to your assertion that LittleSpace DS was more deserving of a place than DC who lived in London?? Is this not what you said??

No offence LittleSpace your DS is equally deserving of course!!

Goodbye,

I do not disagree with anything you are saying. For instance, among the Brampton kids there's one girl (refugee?) who arrived in the country at age 15 with only a knowledge of the English alphabet. This girl sat GCSE exams having had only 3 months of English lessons yet obtained A*s. To put into context if I was looking at her application against an application from Eton and there was only one place available, I'd offer it to her, assuming of course that she met all other conditions.

When I said LittleSpace's DS deserves a place, I wasn't speaking in absolute terms, that he should go in front of the queue ahead of everyone in London...

From what I have read on this board, LittleSpace's DS's school couldn't be more different from the one your kids attend/have attended.

The point is, the moment I pick one applicant over another, I am saying to the world (rightly or wrongly) that the reject doesn't deserve a place. Nothing anyone says will change that fact.

Some private schools have over-coached and standardised interview practice responses such that in the actual interviews you can see their students all take the same approach to questions by attempting to relate new concepts to those they already know.

You notice immediately when someone comes from a completely different domain, you can see they are thinking about what they know and what they need to know, prompts are not wasted on them.

I really don't think LittleSpace's DS's merits should be the subject of discussion, nor his school compared to my DCs' school (which I didn't mention). I'm a bit puzzled that you feel you know enough about the two schools to adjudicate in any event. Perhaps it would be a good idea to keep it less personal but I am a bit puzzled that you cast aspersions on the students from Brampton who got offers. The stories I've read seem to make them incredibly meritorious, as far as I can see, without any need for qualification. Just like - incredibly well done to all of them.

Umm.... I think you have to have a bit more faith in the selection process Mailaika. It may not be perfect but I get the impression they know the kind of person they are looking for. It is not appropriate to judge worthiness of candidate according to the nature of their schooling.

That's weird. I meant to say prompts are (often) wasted on the first group, not the second group.

It must be difficult to judge. Should you always choose the disadvantaged pupil? Surely some candidates are darn clever no matter where they've been educated?

Ds (ordinary comprehensive boy) says that without exception all his peers at his college are extremely clever and very industrious. Someone is not less clever or less motivated because they've been to a private school.

Hubbleisback,

Now you are putting words in my mouth. I could equally have compared two kids from private schools.

No offence taken. Once you go down the road of who is more deserving it turns into a giant snarly knot in your brain. The interviewers must have a nightmare making decisions and I think some get lucky or unlucky on the day.

For example ds has the advantage of being in a settled supportive family. Someone in a much better school might endured a lot at home. From what I heard about those kids they have achieved more amazing things than ds.

ds is in an average coastal comprehensive that has had its funding cut and is experiencing problems as a result. Like most comps in the country!

It might also be that not receiving an offer is a bullet dodged!

ds may well have to deal with disappointment on Results Day.

I don't want anyone to let him in if STEP goes badly. Imagine how awful it would be to be at somewhere like Cambridge if you couldn't cope with the work. I'd much prefer him to go somewhere else in that situation.

IrmaFayLear,

I agree with all that you say.

I am not saying you should always choose the disadvantaged kid.

My response was only to Hubble's assertion that all applicants deserve a place. I am rejecting that notion.