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......

@mikeandike thank you

@mikeandike

Second conditional offer just come through for DD!

She must be chuffed!

@quest1on

I wonder how they factor in the EPQ (if there is one) as an A in an EPQ is worth half the points of an A in an A-level (28 points, I think)? This is what it says on the Cambridge website -

“We welcome the Extended Project and would encourage applicants to undertake one as it will help to develop independent study and research skills valuable for higher education. However, we recognise that not all students have equal access to them and so completion of an Extended Project won't normally be a requirement of any offer made.

Please note, this supersedes the guidance published in the Prospectus that the Extended Project Qualification won't be a requirement of any offer made. Applicants should instead refer to the guidance above.”

My DDs EPQ only made a difference of one grade in the offer at her 5th choice, not at any of the ones with higher offers. However, a relevant epq may provide a bit of good content for the PS so may be one of the many factors which could tip towards getting an offer.

Today one of our Oxford geography applicants got an unconditional offer from Newcastle. Not a bad insurance option!

@Summer15coming

The Charterhouse stats are very interesting, but ultimately not that useful for DD, whose course isn't listed on there. Do you know if similar info re: the really small courses is available anywhere?

On page 5 of the report there's a link which might give you further information

Ds's UCAS finally went through on Friday. He got to read his reference in sixth form. He couldn't remember much from it so it is good to know we can see it via UCAS.

He has applied to Cambridge for Computer Science and needs to sit a test in November so is studying for that at the minute and just finishing up his SAQ which is compulsory to validate the application according to the emails he has received from Cambridge. The only part he isn't filling in is the optional personal statement as CompSci is the same at all universities.

He also received a conditional offer of AAA from Leeds uni which is his insurance choice which he is relieved about because if it all goes wrong at least he still has that

Sadly he is self isolating at the minute due to a classmate testing positive for covid.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom. Lovely to have an offer already under his belt, especially if it is his preferred insurance.

DS1’s has been in for nearly a week, so I don’t think he will be getting any super early offers sadly.

Congratulations on another offer to mike’s DD! Also others with early offers.

Could I ask... has anyone had so much as a confirmation email from either Durham or UCL yet?

I’ve heard Durham are the slowest ..,. ?

@quest1on DD got a confirmation email from Durham last night, took them two weeks so we were getting a bit worried she hadn’t actually applied!! DD didn’t apply for UCL but three of her friends did (sent off October 1st) and none have received an acknowledgement email yet.

Thanks - it’s been about 2 weeks since his UCAS went in. Are Durham still asking for an alternative PS, do you know?

@quest1on I thought they were but there’s nothing in DD’s email about an alternative PS. As for being slow, they say in the email that it’s very unlikely applicants will receive decisions until after January 15th.

BTW the email from UCAS (which told us that school had finally submitted DS's application) said "We have sent your application to all of your chosen universities and colleges for consideration. Be aware that some universities and colleges will write to you to thank you for your application, but others won't contact you until they have reached a decision."
So it sounds like some universities simply do not bother to acknowledge applications. Bit poor, I agree, but it nobody else has heard, then maybe that is the case with UCL.

Yes to Durham but no to ucl.

@Revengeofthepangolins yes it is a relief.

Ds has had a confirmation email from Warwick but nothing yet from Durham but his UCAS email confirming submission was only Friday at 5pm.

Remember that Leeds is his insurance offer of AAA he needs A A A for both Camrbidge and Warwick. He is taking 4 A levels including further maths, has always known he wanted to do CompSci and has done a lot of supercurriculars in that area which he wrote about on his personal statement.

Re contextualising, I am by no means an expert but UCAS provide this info. So when ours sat GCSEs in 2019 schools publish their data in January 2020 which means it is available ahead of applications for September 2021. It looks at how well a student performed against the school's usual results and for the last 10 years at least for historical data.

Plus they use % of free school meals as an indicator of the school's cohort. I know from another thread that some people don't know that FSM = pupil premium meaning the school get money for each child on FSM. They have to publish how this money is spent because it isn't on the lunches but on many things, sometimes enrichment activities ie music lessons and school trips, or it pays for extra staff for behavioural issues etc.

Statistically children on FSM are far less likely to achieve the 5 grades 9-5 including English and maths. In black and white, on average 49.9% of non-disadvantaged pupils achieved the 5 GCSEs grades 9-5 whilst only 24.7% of disadvantaged children did. Considering Pupil Premium has been around a while that gap isn't closing

They also use POLAR postcode areas for identifying the area you live in which you can look up online. This for us is ridiculous as we live in a nice area but our POLAR covers a large deprived area miles away from us so it benefits us when it really should take smaller areas.

The POLAR postcodes thing is a pain. DD was ineligible for a couple of opportunities along the way in her school career to date as a result of bloody quintiles

I'm separated from dh, who is not Uni educated. We live in a high density housing area but come out a quintile 5 (High level of education etc etc.) due to an anomaly with our rather large area.

One of DD's friends lives in a gorgeous 5 bedroom house out in a very pleasant village. Both parents are Uni educated professionals and the software defines them as living in a quintile 1 area. It's rural and due to the demographic mix of people in the village plenty being involved in rural trades, classed as an area with very few Uni educated people.

So single parented DD in a high density housing area ranks as being more advantaged than her friend who benefits from being in a 2 Uni educated parent family living in a far more desirable house/location than DD.

When DD found this out at school it was a real education in not placing too much reliance on computer manipulated (aka mangled) data. Algorithms anyone ?

Ours is a bit odd too. Our Polar4 is quintile 5. But all the other bits and pieces come out as 2, 3, and 4. Not sure I quite understand the definitions tbh.

Delighted for everyone getting early offers.

We had to deal with some extra stress today. DD has to do TSA in an independent centre as her school couldn’t register. She applied to the centre last month and got a receipt and a holding email saying dated not finalised yet.
They have not be answering calls or emails since. I spoke to the Cambridge Assessment help desk today and they said they would follow up and get her statement of entry.
This evening DD got an email from the independent centre here that it had come to their attention she was not registered and could she pay again. She paid again.
Hopefully this all gets resolved quickly.
DD is expecting the test to be difficult but she was not expecting that getting to register would be a problem.

@Summer15coming There's some more info on courses here, it's the Merton page, but if you click through by subject, the figures are for the whole university. I've posted this before, on the Oxbridge 2020 threads - my D1 has just started at Oxford (History joint)
www.merton.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions-feedback

E.g. if you click through to the History page you get detailed information www.merton.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/inline-files/History%20Information%20for%20Applicants%202019.pdf including the weighting of elements of the application at different stages - pre interview, post interview.

I found this quite alarming at the time and remember thinking that I wished D1 had applied for single hons - but someone has to get in!

You can also get info from the subject pages from the main Oxford University site and individual College pages, such as how many students they take for each course.

Apols if you've seen this before!

People have posted loads of useful
Links. Thank you!

I like the fact you can request feedback at interview and can get your scores at entrance exams

@calculatorqueen and @JulesJules; thank you for your links.

Calculator - by following the links right through, I did find a table with the high level info for more subjects listed, including my daughter's. A bit scary - it has a tiny intake (which I knew) but proportionately a fairly healthy number of applicants.

OnTheBenchOfDoom DS is also applying for Computer Science at Cambridge. He's not sure that it's for him, but he goes to a school where half the boys to do early UCAS applications so he's having a go.

I looked at the Cambridge admission stats someone posted and Computer Science is one of the hardest to get into with 11% of applications successful. For Classics and Anglo Saxon Poetry it's 60%.

Well you have to be a bit careful about these %s, in terms of competition, or 'hardness'. There are ten times the number of applicants for CompSci but to say it's 'harder' is arguably making the same mistake as saying that because far more students get an A*/9 in Physics than they do in say English at GCSE, English is much harder.

It is funny (not ha ha) that people are desperate to dumb themselves down as much as possible...

I see on the student room applicants constantly asking what they can pull out of the bag as far as extenuating circumstances are concerned. One person I saw mentioned covid!!!!! They'll be the only one for that, for sure . Now parents are cursing themselves that they have degrees, or live in a decent area, or even have a job...

I bet the entrance test organisers are getting a bit worried about the possible disruption to exams due to lock-downs etc. DD's school is now adding another week to half term starting next week... the test centre (a local school) she will be doing the BMAT at is due to be open again on the 2nd Nov, with the test on the 4th.... not much wriggle room.

Apparently you can register to do it at home with a proctor by registering by 26th October - not really a great option with all the trouble with UCAT Applicants had with technology, connections etc.

Meanwhile, by this half term, DD will have been at school 3 weeks out of 8 due to one self-isolation period and now, school only teaching the junior school for the past 2 weeks due to so many teachers being off. What a year!

Bit late to the party but a warm hello to everyone 👋🏻
My DD1 has her PS written up and ready to submit this evening. The anxiety is off the wall already and she hasn’t even submitted the UCAS application yet! It’s great to see some students have had early offers already, this is very encouraging! We live in Spain and DD attends a small independent international sixth form. The teaching staff did not seem to be in the loop regarding early application to some UK universities and were geared up for the January submission date. Luckily I pointed this out having had to go through this process myself (some years back granted ). In addition, my nephew has just finished his 4 year Masters programme at Oxford (unsure which campus) so he knows what is involved. So we are finally ready!
She is applying to Oxford to study Law. She has the predicted grades set by tutors and has 2 A/S level grades already. She’s taking 4 A-levels in total. 3 out of the 5 universities she has chosen require the entrance examination to be undertaken. I would expect these will be online with us not being in the UK and Covid restrictions applying. She will need to submit essays in addition which she is aware of. I will read some of the helpful links posted here. Thankyou to those who posted them.