Oxbridge Aspirants 2021 - New Thread (2)

[Baaaahhhhh]

Sorry posted last message on the last thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3757768-Oxbridge-Aspirants-Sep-2021

Here is the new one......

No admission tests here, but he does have to submit 2 essays by early November (he’s done those though)!

Can I ask - does anyone know about the SAQ? There is the 1,200 character limit where they can supplement the PS, but then he showed me yesterday another box and it was something like, “Anything else you would like us to know?” Is this basically for extenuating circumstances? Or could they also put something like extra curricular achievements in there, or the fact they would be interested in applying for a choral scholarship if made a conditional offer?

@CoolKittens

Congrats to your DD *@summerlovinn* Bristol is a fab choice! Hopefully DDs will be sent by school today. Will be interesting to see when offers arrive!

thank you @CoolKittens! She's excited because she loved it when we visited, and can also relax now that she knows her PS can't be so awful! @Johnathonripples we're the same here, lowest a level requirements will be AAB (lowered from AAA due to a summer school project). We discussed the risk of applying to only solid/aspirational unis rather than even 1 'safety' and she said she'd reapply rather than go to uni for uni's sake- I'm also privately hoping that the higher conditional grades will motivate her to work harder!

School been sitting on DD's application all week..... grrrr. It's definitely with the HT, but not been confirmed as finally sent yet.

On another note, just had a letter from the HT.

Suggests EXTREME caution over the half term (we get two weeks), no going away, no mixing. They have also authorised leave for the first week of November, until you sit your paper, to minimise risk of being asked to self-isolate.

They have spoken to unis, and confirmed there is only one shot at it, no extra sittings. If you are ill, or have to isolate, it will be up to the candidate to contact the college directly.

@Baaaahhhhh as depressing as it is (we try to get away every holiday) I am resigned to the fact this is the most sensible thing to do .....

@Baaaahhhhh staying off school until after the test is not a bad idea. Will discuss with DD!

No such guidance here. Does remind me of when we booked a holiday of a lifetime to Disneyworld at Christmas (ah, those were the days) and I kept the dcs off school for a week beforehand as I was terrified of flu/tonsillitis/norovirus.

Back pre-Covid a candidate would have limped in to a test/exam with the bubonic plague, but it’s a whole new ballgame now.

@Baaaahhhhh wow that is cautious! We've not heard anything from school. Surely there should be some back up plan if a child needs to isolate on the test day? I'm starting to stress.

@Johnathonripples @summerlovinn Same 5th spot debate went on here. I was trying to urge York as they will take A*AB instead of AAA (although that is hardly a confortable banker either I guess) and went looking for any actual AAB universities, but DS1's view was that he would just apply to where he wanted to go and deal with failure to get an offer or make the place if it arised. Any most places want AAAs anyway for history, until one moves quite a long way down the foodchain.

Most of the lower-offer places seemed to be in clearing, so I guess the candidate could try to hoover something up then if applications had been unlucky, and sometimes they seem to come into clearing a lower grades too, which could deal with a grade nightmare - that's his theory anyway.

Didn't really want to have a pitched row about it, so strategy is to try to secure an A*AA and an AAA offer and hope grades go OK.

My worry is as much about number of chances. Oxbridge is really a stretch punt, and I am nervous about Durham given suspicions about how many of the 2021 places have already been given away to CAG-deferrals, so has he really only got three real chances on his form.

Anyway, school have submitted it, so too late to change anything now

Just found this on the Cambridge Assessment website re not being able to get to the test centre. If needed you can have 'remote proctoring' but you need to apply by 26th October, so only really helpful if you know that you need to shield in advance. support.admissionstesting.org/hc/en-gb/articles/360049425732

Anyway, school have submitted it, so too late to change anything now

It isn't. There is a whole section on the UCAS website re how the applicant can change all kinds about their application and the relevant timescales for each, including 'university' or 'course'.

@MarchingFrogs. Of course you are right - thank you. 14 day cooling off period! I was probably being a bit flippant. Plus DS definitely interested in more discussion

DDs application was submitted this evening. A bit of last minute drama when the teacher submitted the wrong reference and had to get it withdrawn but done now.

She is going to do a practice TSA this weekend. She is applying to US schools too so hoped to finish her common app essay too. And practice for her driving test which has finally been rescheduled after it was cancelled in March. Terrible timing just before TSA but there is an 8 month back log so she thinks she should at least try.

So busy weekend here.

Chimney I think your DD has applied for the same subject as my DD, another one from a very ordinary state school background. My DD moved into her college earlier this week. Where else has she applied?

Hoghgyni
Best of luck to your DD, very exciting even if very unusual circumstances.

She applied to Durham, St Andrews, Bath and Exeter. Durham and St Andrews she went to open days and loved. The other two were based on online research. She didn’t want a big city.

In the US she is applying to Georgetown for early application and will apply to some others too. I was born in the US and DD is a citizen but she has never lived there.

Her real insurance choice is Trinity here in Dublin but we live between the college and the halls of residence which is really putting her off.

Hoghgyni this sounds a relatively exotic applicant tbf: a Dublin applicant with forms filled for Oxford, Georgetown and Trinity!

It went. Hooray. DD got a notification from UCAS yesterday evening.

DD did a few old HAT papers over summer and got them marked when they returned. She also did a proper mock HAT this week at school, using last years paper. All marked and happy. She needs a good HAT as her GCSE's are not stellar, and being in a private school, albeit a pretty standard one, she needs something to stand out.

Goodbyestranger I think the only thing “exotic” about DD is her dreams. Most of her class at school will go to university in Dublin and live at home. She wants something else.

Even having US citizenship is not that uncommon here as a lot of Irish people have lived in the US at some stage due to all the waves of emigration.

Two of my DC were born in the US, so no, that's not what I meant by exotic :) The fact is that far too many very, very bright DC in ordinary state schools in England get zero encouragement to apply to Oxford, let alone the US or Trinity. The fact that your DD is doing all three is definitely exotic, compared to a disadvantaged but able student in an ordinary state school here.

DD applications are very much self driven.

The “encouragement” from her guidance counsellor in school was “you’ll never get in” for Oxford and “those applications are far too much work” for the US colleges.

He may we’ll be correct. Most people who apply don’t get in to Oxford and US applications are a huge amount of work and the good schools have low acceptance rates.
But she just went ahead with the applications anyway.

In some ways it is easier this year to be an independent student because so much is being done online. She could do open days and summer schools that she would not have been able to travel to.

Some of her other teachers are way more supportive.

Her school does have a very good track record for pupils going on to university. It is just all local.

Tbf again ChimneyPot, if Trinity is your local uni, then the kids are sitting pretty!

We don't have a guidance counsellor at our school, just a Head of Sixth Form. Does this guidance counsellor do anything positive, or merely say no point in applying anywhere other than Trinity?

In fairness to this guidance counsellor, the US applications do seem an almighty faff.

And not merely for the applicant. Our Ho6 told me years ago that it created a vast amount of work for the school too. Not easy in an extremely underfunded state school such as ours has been - although the school does its absolute best if a student is determined (not many have been , historically). Hardly surprising that the overwhelming majority of UK students going to US schools for undergrad are from the independent sector where the workload of uni applications isn't funnelled down to a tiny team, sometimes of one.

But I do agree disadvantaged students here would face huge financial barriers applying to Oxford or the US. Just the cost of going to an interview would be prohibitive for many in any other year.
Trinity have a big outreach programme though and actively encourage and incentivise disadvantaged students.

DD definitely isn’t disadvantaged. She is privileged to have the opportunity to apply to lots of good places and hopefully she gets the chance to study at one of them.

I think the role of “independent schools” in helping kids with the US applications is overstated. DS has a lot of friends applying this year, but they almost all have been signed up with some external advisory service for years from what I can tell. Also, they tend to have been in summer programmes over there over the last couple of summers. Yes its expensive! But it’s more to do with the families and the outlook, rather than the school itself. The parents have often studied there themselves. Many are expat families - DS’ friends are mainly Middle-Eastern. The Italians tend to go for Bocconi (may have spelt that wrong) and somewhere else I can’t remember. The parents are usually one step ahead of the school.

Cross posted there.

The university application process in Ireland involves much less school input than in the U.K. There are no predicted grades, no personal statements and no school references. Students just list 10 courses in order of preference and the get the highest choice they have the grades for.
UCAS involves much mire work for the school than irish applications and the US is at another level.

Thankfully DD has a very supportive economics teacher who when he realised how enthused she was by the subject has been great. He has written her US references.

We have 4 local universities in Dublin. There used to be rules barring catholics/most of the population from attending Trinity so it would still be regarded as a bit “other” by some people. Most students from DDs school go to one of the other local universities.