Oxbridge 2020 (8th thread)

[DadDadDad]

A thread to continue discussing entry to Oxbridge in October 2020 (less than nine months away ). All welcome, although this obviously will be of most interest to those with DS or DD holding an offer, and wanting to find a bit of support.

All too soon, 13 August will come over the horizon. Until then, ask questions... share experiences... discuss news and stats... write a poem... (we did briefly have some poetry on a previous thread).

With huge thanks to @HugoSpritz and predecessors for previous threads.

Same as HugoSpritz checking in as I’m rooting for all your DC even though DD is no longer in the running as it were.

DD on AAA for Classics II. Five offers are in and she's keen to put Durham AAA as insurance ( as in, she doesn't want to give up Durham) but hasn't clicked any button as yet. Mocks happening now (this past week and next) and still parts of the syllabus to finish for all three subjects at school.

Same in reverse to Hugo and aibu - please update on your DS and DD too.

Ds's backup university was the same ( i.e. grades ) as his first choice. But then , he went for what he wanted to go for so - bit scary - all offers given were the same grades so no obvious insurance place

For those wondering what to do about second choices with the same grade requirements it might be worth asking your school UCAS people if they know if your possible insurance places have discounted grades recently. Ds1 had the same offer from Oxford, Durham and Warwick (AAA). He spoke to his school who said that as far as they were aware Durham and Warwick hadn’t discounted in last 3-5 years. He put down as insurance somewhere with ABB where he really didn’t want to go. After exams it looked like he was not going to get an A and it was a worry he would end up somewhere he didn’t want to go. In the end he got the grades and made the offer and is happily in 2nd year, but do make sure they really do like the insurance place and have a realistic chances of getting a place if the grades are the same as Oxford / Cambridge.

Yes to the above re insurances. DD1 had the same offer from 4 universities (AAA) and AAB from the other, which she made her insurance though she didn’t really want to go there. As it happens, she probably could have made Durham (AAA) her insurance but didn’t realise it at the time. I gather from a friend that it depends on the subject so obviously worth checking with the department and/or school.

Same as Hugo - nosy!
Thankfully DS is over his rejection now and has stopped talking about reapplying. Unless he gets 3 x A stars...

Lovely to hear that Terfin, Hugo, AIBU and others are still along for the ride on this rocky journey. It will be great to see where all these fine young people end up.

I met one of DD1's KS1 teachers yesterday. It was lovely to be able to let her know about DD's offer. It's a very ordinary, somewhat challenging state primary, widely (unfairly) regarded as being a bit too rough for the precious snowflakes that live in the wealthier parts of town. So it was jolly nice to be able to give her some nice news to take back to the staffroom.

Just realised that online STEP course I linked to is £160 . DD is also working through Cambridge's STEP support program which is free. Hopefully others facing STEP have already found it, but worth googling if you haven't. My tablet is playing up so I can't link right now.

maths.org/step/welcome
:)

DD emailed her GCSE history teacher this week to say thank you for encouraging her to think about applying all the way back in year 11. I believe seven from her year group applied to either Oxford or Cambridge and DD is the last one standing. I think she is torn between wanting to shout it from the roof tops and thank everyone from nursery upwards for helping her get this far and refusing to tell anybody in case she falls at the final hurdle. It's going to be a long few months until 13 Aug for everyone regardless of which offers they have firmed or insured when there is still so much that could go right or wrong.

thank everyone from nursery upwards for helping her get this far

Why stop there? We are actually in contact with one of the NICU doctors who looked after DS when he was born 10 weeks early and less than 1 kg, so she was delighted to hear where he'd got to 18 years later - apparently the NICU have a place to pin up stories and photos of their "graduates", so she was asking for some details.

Same DadDadDad. My DD1 was transferred to the NICU in Louisville when she was born and I remember very distinctly in the darkest of days reading the stories on the board. The NICU has since asked me to do the same for their current patients. I haven't sent them anything yet - a good reminder.

Parents of current patients I mean.

No NICU babies here but I donated gallons of breast milk to NICU over the years.

(Off topic — I randomly bumped in to the midwife who was present at DD3’s birth the other day. I got all emotional (DD3 had major health issues as a baby) and hugged her... I later remembered she had been absolutely awful at the birth and wished I could retract the hug...!)

Sorry the BM thing sounds show-off-y. Meant rather as solidarity.

Sounds bloody wonderful to me, PantTwizzler. (My iPad now knows once I've got as far as typing 'pan' that's the most likely word I might want to autofill.)

Checking in to provide statistics, idle speculation and anecdotage.

Checking in to offer a student perspective if it's needed. Thought I'd say that I put Durham as my insurance, despite it having the same offer, because I reckoned if they didn't let me drop by one (eg AA B instead of AAA) then all my other choices had consistently been in clearing for mfl, so I just made a plan to ring up Nottingham first thing

Meant A A B sorry, the formatting did something weird

Pairs of asterisks are used as markup for bolding on MN, BakedPotatoAndGin, the effects can be different when using the app vs the browser. They make a mess of threads discussing A level grades of bright kids - one good thing about the new number grades is that gcse threads are becoming more comprehensible!
After a while one gets used to parsing it, I think you mean two A stars and a B.

*are used to bold on Mumsnet’s system so it’s exasperatingly easy to mess up when discussing A levels.
They’re also the way to do an entirely blank post - unless that quirk has been ironed out lately; which I once inadvertently managed when discussing A levels.

DS has an offer to study a science subject at Cambridge.

They want A in F.Maths and A A in Physics and Chemistry (in whatever order). The offer is only on 3 of his A-levels, and doesn't specify a grade in Maths, but anyone getting A in F.Maths will likely get an A in Maths, so it's effectively A A A* A. Not complaining though; he is very lucky to have it.

(Hypothetically, if he gets an E in Maths, would they still have to take him? Hypothetical because A* in F.Maths and E in Maths is obviously very unlikely)

X post

Your iPad’s autofill is oddly touching @ErrolTheDragon

Lovely post @Coleoptera.

@Ironoaks yes! (I went to Oxford in the days of the EE offer and every year it was rumoured that someone had actually got close to it...)