Anyone still waiting to hear from Durham?

[PortusCale]

Just wondered if anyone else is waiting to hear from Durham for an offer for 2019 entry?

See that offer holder day bookings are now open and I understand college allocation has begun.

DS still waiting here, DS application went through in November.....does this mean a rejection will likely be on its way?

Ok. He has to come a long distance to do it so I was wondering if it was worth it. Also, can anybody go or are all the attendees put forward by their schools/colleges?

None of my DC have done these Masterclass things but DD4 went to the Oxbridge Open Day for Classics in March and went to three lectures in the afternoon, all three of which she said were incredibly interesting, and she's quite bright Bowchica, so I think they're pitched at a sensible level for would be applicants. One father insisted on asking a 'clever' question though, wasting everyone's time (turned out the question wasn't quite as clever as he originally thought, once the lecturer responded to him :)).

Parents don’t attend the Cambridge masterclasses.

And they are open enrollment - your school doesn’t need to know you are going.

I won’t be attending never minding asking questions!

Well aware, but the Oxbridge Classics Open Day is not far removed, so I'm contributing what I can from my own DCs' experience if that's ok. The quality of the lectures was the main thing, not the parent.

Did your elder DCs' go to Cambridge for undergrad, or Oxford Maria?

Neither. The elder DC didn’t explore the possibility and the middle one really didn’t feel attracted to the small town vibe - he most definitely wanted London. He’s going to Cambridge for an MPhil next year and, while he is very keen on the course, is not entirely sure he’ll like the ambiance! Unlike his elder brother, who loved his MPhil at Cambridge so much that he is due to go to Oxford next year for (yet) another degree, I think in part to escape London.

Ah right. I thought both were in finance. I wondered about undergrad actually, not Masters, which are rather a different beast.

Anyhow, just an idle question - thanks for the response. Yes, London is an acquired taste.

Yes, both are in finance - the elder one has a proper job in M&A in a big bank whereas the younger one is doing a 10 month internship in a private debt fund in a gap year between his undergrad and his Masters. If you want an international career in finance you absolutely need a masters degree for the long run.

I'll take your word for it (although DS2 and a lot of the DCs' friends got offers in 'big' banks straight from undergrad. Perhaps their careers will go nowhere....).

Dd did a masterclass at Cambridge in Y12 and thoroughly enjoyed it. I think she had three lectures in total. As it meant an overnight stay, I just wandered around Cambridge for the day (it rained incessantly the whole time and it was the first weekend in December as I recall, so not the experience that I had anticipated....)

I believe she mentioned it on her personal statement. Not paragraphs, but it was definitely referred to.

I think this was her first experience of any form of lecture. Her subject is more niche and so there were perhaps 30 or so in the lecture hall. There were droves going into the more popular subject choice areas. Whether they had a different view I don't know.

DC1 had offers in finance straight after undergrad but tbh he wanted to do several internships and make an informed decision based on 3/4/5 months experience at each employer in different sectors. If you want to stay put in the UK and you are British, an undergraduate degree alone from Oxbridge has traditionally been good enough but that isn’t a background that is valued in the rest of the EU. DC1 does recruitment at Cambridge for his bank and, while in theory any undergraduate degree is worth looking at, the reality of recruitment is that Brexit proofness has become a valuable asset. 2 or 3 passports? 2/3/4 languages? A highly quantitative degree that “speaks” to other cultural perceptions? All increasingly desirable.

More generally the LSE hosts a number of public lectures through the year, though not specifically aimed at potential students. Worth looking at the programme if you are within striking distance of London.

Banking is a broad church. DS thought a Masters in the area he was interested in (effectively monetary econometrics) was pretty much essential. However I am sure elsewhere it is less so. A lot of the LSE's income seems to come from students taking expensive one year Masters courses in variants of finance and economics, so I guess others think the extra year is worth the investment.

You also get a talk and advice on the application process.

Cambridge History Masterclass - you book yourself, school need not be involved or even know, cost £20. 2 history lectures and one why Cambridge lecture for student. There is a parents lecture on admissions procedure (Cambridge specific). Email is sent to student to book this for parent 3 days or so before the event.

Still pmsl that anyone would truly believe that an Oxbridge degree does not hold much store in the EU!

I haven't had any word from DS that there is a talk for parents

OKBobble - that is not what I wrote. An Oxbridge undergraduate degree alone is not career currency in the EU. You need a Masters to get any sort of decent job (the sort you can get in the U.K. with a three year undergraduate degree) elsewhere. And Oxbridge degrees with dodgy content (Classics, Philosophy) are not good for anything but teaching.

Dodgy content - my Aunt Fanny. How rude. Also bollocks about only being good for teaching.

If you are going to stay in the U.K. (and, tbh, British youth are unlikely to have the luxury of any choice in that matter in future), your Classics or Philosophy Oxbridge degree will probably have the same, genteelly declining, market value (outside teaching/academia) as it has for a while. Just as it will continue to be a career dead end elsewhere.

It rather depends on what you consider to be a career dead end, I would suppose.

A temporary TEFL teaching job juggled with tutoring for an Oxford philosophy graduate?

I am not sure about that Marie. A lot of recent recruits at the Bar and top legal firms have Classics degrees. They are considered to be academically rigorous degrees which have transferable skills in challenging professions.

I don’t disagree, Bowchica. I am taking abou the value of such degrees in an international context.

Classics and Philosophy can be studied across the world, why would an Oxbridge classics degree be a dead end internationally? Is a Harvard Classics degree a dead end, or a Bologna philosophy degree?