Oxbridge 2020 (6)

[Justneedatemporaryname]

New thread ready for when the old one gets filled up!

@Arewedone - same at DC's school. Head has told pupils and parents again and again: sometimes the people we think are sure shots don't make it and the outliers get offers. It is impossible to tell who will get an offer and who won't.

Like @Arewedone and @milliefiori DS1's school typically gets a lot of Oxbridge offers. Interestingly that does mean that if DS1 doesn't get an offer he'll be around quite a few in the same situation as a significant proportion of the year apply.

DS1 is not one of the 'sure shots' (I typed that carefully ) and that helps a bit. There are plenty of those and I'm sure there will be eyebrows raised in the school community if these superstars don't get offers. There will probably be eyebrows raised if DS1 does.I've always thought that he's sailed under the radar a bit at the school.

@sandybayley that was my DS totally. He was never one of the stars but just did his thing quietly & always conscientious. It was the other parents who were unkind in backhanded compliments when he received his offer. I think the colleges know what they are looking for so hopefully the fit is right for both student and colleges when offering places.

My view is that we are where we are.
There's nothing anyone can do. The colleges have already made their decisions (unless you are one of the very very rare candidates brought back) so we can think about it/theorises/stress all we want but it
won't make any difference....we just have to ride it out, make sure that we support our DC and try to downplay it all.
....don't forget, even if they get an offer they still have to get the grades. So my response will be "Well done but no biggie. It means nothing until you get the grades. How confident are you? Do you def want to take a punt at Oxbridge as firm? What do you want as insurance?"

She has other fab offers all of which she would be more than happy to go to.

@Coleoptera - well done to DS on his LSE offer - my perception is that it can be as competitive as Oxbridge for some courses, and it's certainly prestigious, so that's a great one to get.

That's a very good offer! Well done to your DT.

Does anyone know when the Cambridge offers are due?

That's a great set of alternatives to choose from already, Coleoptera.

The only wiggle room I've heard of at Cambridge - and this was 3 years ago before the change to give disadvantaged students with great achieved grades an offer in summer - was someone who'd got 4 A stars but missed the STEP grade, and one who got 2 A stars and 2 As but the A stars were in the 'wrong' subjects rather than those specified in the offer. (Something like getting the stars on chemistry and maths, rather than the FM and physics).

And whether coincidentally or not, these two both changed courses/uni after the first year.

Great news on the LSE offer @Coleoptera! My DT2 is also waiting on one. He's desperate to get an offer from them as he sees it as very prestigious and a chance not to lose face if he gets an Oxbridge rejection.(Even though I suspect he'd prefer the course at KCL)

Brilliant news from LSE. That's the first of those I've heard. Is that the history or English twin?

Hmm - well mine (getting in with missed grades) was years ago. I overcompensated on one part of the offer and flopped the STEP altogether. But I was from a comprehensive and first generation, so I presume that might have swung it... Good luck to all for next week...

Oxbridge is lovely but it is available for postgraduate too!

Just read back my last post - I meant to write 'don't think ds will THRIVE not 'receive' - looks like I am expecting an offer which I'm not! Phone auto-corrects!

For Cambridge, my understanding re missed grades is that all the people accepted in the summer pool managed to get in with grades under their offer and some will also have been accepted by the college they applied to with dropped grades.

Summer pool totals for the last 4 years - 2016-84, 2017-81, 2018-89, 2019-92. I don't know where they put the people who got in through Adjustment.

I know of one person at DC's school who got in after missing a grade (or two. Not sure) School phoned and explained some circumstances (which were exceptional and valid) and his offer was altered to allow him in.

Re missed offers - here's my tuppence based on DDs' cohorts over past couple of years, at both places...

Oxford - we know of a small handful who were still offered with a narrow miss (I'm talking 1 UMS off in an unrelated subject i.e. Maths for a Humanities degree) - however, and here's the biggie, in each case there were other mitigating circumstances, in one instance prolonged illness during Yr 13. I can immediately think of many more who 'lost' the place with a combination of say A*, A, B, for an AAA course.

Cambridge most certainly seems to over-offer more and use A levels as a final hurdle (and as for the poor Mathmos with STEP..). Factor in as well a noticeable anecdotal increase in higher than typical offers last year - ie AAA for Humanities vs A*AA etc and the use of adjustment for the first time, definitely less wriggle room for missed grades & placement through Summer Pool. I'm struggling to think of anyone who missed such an offer, who still achieved the typical offer, being accepted. I am equally sure, however, they take a close look at contextual information in making these decisions, so it's impossible to give a hard and fast rule.

The other thing to bear in mind - and I've seen this first hand with one taking the 'old' modular A levels and the other taking all linear - it's so much harder to predict how grades will pan out - there were some real surprises in 2019 (especially amongst Humanities results) - students performing (in schools' eyes) at A level, coming out with As & Bs - and vice versa. And of course the percentage of As attained nationally dropped for the first time in Lord knows how many years. All these factors mean that the Unis have to recalibrate their expectations on results day & it may well work slightly differently across subjects.

Sorry, a lengthy response to essentially say that an offer should absolutely be celebrated for the success it is, in its own right (we did in this house). With a strong caveat that no matter how proud we were of them, there was more water to go under the bridge and all we could ask is that they did their best come exams. No pressure or further expectation. We also invested a lot of time in ensuring that the Insurance was a real alternative and somewhere to be excited about - I've no doubt that if either had gone to their Insurances, they'd have flourished and had a great time.

I have everything firmly crossed for all of you and your DCs - best of luck!

Oxford - to my certain knowledge - will accept a dropped grade even for the relatively low offer humanities subjects. After A level results are released to them each college has a meeting to discuss whether to reject or accept an applicant with a dropped grade. They'll look at the general profile of the applicant, interview performance and aptitude test score and make a decision which will appear on Track on the morning of results day. The letter of acceptance then begins with something along the lines of 'Congratulations! Despite narrowly missing your offer grades we are delighted to confirm your place at *** College and here's a load of bumph about accommodation etc.' This requires no haggling on the part of the Ho6 or waits for re-marks. Some applicants may be rejected initially but be allowed (on request) a few days for a re-mark and if successful with that, they may get their place re-instated.

One final thought... Cambridge has a 'charming' habit of sending out offer details after the acceptance email - it can be a few days later.

Therefore don't assume that the grades required will be the 'typical offer' - they may very well be, but just to manage expectations.

Some colleges may even include them in the initial correspondence - I hope they all move to this.

Oxford still seem to hold to the standard offer approach across subject areas (someone correct me if that changed in 2019).

Hope that helps x

Very good news about the LSE offer for DT2!

That's more positive then. We were given the impression that there would be no hope as if you couldn't pull your finger out to get the "easy" grades, they wouldn't waste time with you. That was backed up by a friend whose DD missed an A+AA offer for chemistry with A+A+B and was promptly turned down. To rub salt in the wound, she lived in Oxford and had to face jolly families celebrating their success everywhere she turned.

It may of course soon all be irrelevant...

Cross post with jaguar67s'. The recent(ish) applicant I'm talking about got AAB on results day from a high achieving grammar school and had no mitigating circumstances whatsoever. His Track updated at 7.30am to say Oxford offer confirmed and the e-mail sent by the college at 10am read as above. His marks did subsequently go up significantly on re-marks but that was an irrelevance. He'd scored very highly on the HAT and had interviewed well - he went on to get a First alongside having a very full sporting and social life, so they seemed to have judged pretty well. But not a mitigating circumstance in sight.

That was DS2 incidentally. I thought UCAS had made a mistake when I heard his results, prior to the 10am e-mail, so I intervened (since DS2 was being far too laid back and had started celebrating....) to ask the Ho6 to check with the college (I was worried he might miss Clearing since he'd also missed his insurance with those grades). College said we want him anyway.