Languages Applicants for 2021 (and 2022) entry

[Tenpastseven]

For those interested and moving over from the St Andrews thread (that became not about St Andrews)

FlyingSquid! I have a tendency to wave madly at people at the best of times, much to dd’s embarrassment!

She is NiamC, and help for next year would be most welcome!

Great news @NiamCinnOir and @RainBow725 😊

Thank you @Tenpastseven and @FlyingSquid. Well done to everyone. I'm going for a nap now. I've been awake since 5.30am!

Any old hands with advice for this year's MFL applicants?

I’m not sure how great my advice will be, but happy to help if I can @ACJane

It would be great to hear:

1. what offers did your dc get and what were there predicted grades
2. where did they end up and how's it going?

Two years ago Dd applied to Bristol, Leeds, Oxford, Exeter, and St Andrews. Her predicted grades were 3 A stars and she had an A star in EPQ before she applied. She was very lucky to have offers from all of them which ranged from 3 A (Oxford) to AAB (Bristol) and I think the others were all possibly ABB, though my memory is a bit hazy. I think Exeter might have made a lower offer because of her EPQ. She firmed Oxford and insured Bristol and is now at Oxford. It’s going well but the workload is huge and intense. She has a small group of close friends, mostly from her course and she’s really happy with the teaching and support she’s had, but hasn’t found time yet to take up any regular sport or club which I do think is a shame.

@NiamCinnOir that's so useful thank you!
Seems like a bit of a trade off with Oxbridge - an amazing academic experience but limited time to explore interests and hobbies.

Would love to hear others' experiences too.

Dc has sent the UCAS form in and has a fair few of the 'late offer' choices so isn't expecting a flurry of offers in the near future!

That’s been dd’s experience of Oxbridge so far, @ACJane, but she’s also doing a joint degree and started one language from scratch so I think her workload is greater than some of her friends doing one or two post A level languages. Will be interesting to see if she manages a better balance this year. She also didn’t do any open days because of Covid, but I’m not sure that she would have chosen differently.

Well done to your dc on their offers. Where have they applied?

Ah sorry confusing wording from me - dc has applied to several of the universities which are renowned for offering very late eg St Andrews. No offers yet.
Applied to Cambridge but not expecting an offer realistically.

Hello @ACJane DS has applied to Cambridge, Exeter, Durham, Bristol, Bath for MML (or equivalent). So far he's had an offer from Exeter. We're expecting Durham to be v late (which is shame, as it's probably his favourite after Cambridge) but he does also really like the Exeter course.
Where had your dc applied?

St Andrews, Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh and one other tbc...
So not expecting offers for a while as they're all late!

I should say offers or rejections of course!

Hi everyone - lovely to see people applying for modern languages.

My DC applied last year to Oxford, Durham, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Bristol and separately Trinity College Dublin. Background; comprehensive to GCSEs then state grammar for 6th Form but no contextual criteria.

Offers:
Bristol: ABB (arrived in November)
Oxford: AAA (Jan)
Durham: AAA (Jan/Feb can't remember)
Newcastle: AAB (quite late - maybe March / April)
Edinburgh: DC gave up waiting in early May - DC's friend who waited a little longer was offered AAA in mid May.

DC didn't get to go to any face to face open days - though we went on day trips to see the cities) but went to offer holder days at Oxford and Bristol. Bristol facilities were fantastic - lovely ML department - with a cinema you can book.

DC loved TCD and was made an offer (apply in Jan/Feb via Irish system) Offers come out after A levels results. Benefit is Irish go on points so if you end up with say A star, A, B points may well be sufficient while you would miss a 3A UK offer.

A Levels went well so DC is off to Oxford in 2023- applied for a deferred offer and is in France for a year at the moment.

Good luck to all and happy to answer any questions though of course DC's experience is theirs and may not apply to you. MN I find is good for triangulating different experiences.

Apologies @ACJane - I completely misread your message about your dc's offers! Something I didn't really take into account re Oxbridge when dd applied is that the chances of being made an offer vary hugely by subject. There are far fewer students taking MFL for A level (sadly) compared with, for example, maths or STEM subjects, and therefore their chances of receiving an offer are statistically higher (something like 1 in 3 applicants for dd's course received an offer). I don't think Cambridge have an admissions test for MML, but might test at interview. Oxford do use an admissions test for MFL, and also ask for samples of written work to be submitted.

Bristol was definitely very high on dd's list - facilities sound great, @Juja although she never got to see them!

Great to see a new wave of MFL applicants coming through - they do feel like somewhat like a dying breed.

@ACJane re clubs and societies my DC1 is already at Oxford - just started Year 2 - a different subject - They are finding time for sport and other clubs - probably too much time 😀work life balance very much focused on the 'life'
I do understand MFL has a high work load and any ab initio language will mean a great deal of work to get up to speed in the first year...

DC applied to Cambridge only as taking a gap year and got a standard AAA* offer. There was an online test and 2 online interviews.

Ooh I had forgotten I had popped up on this thread in 2021, a year has flown by. She is in her first year at Trinity College Dublin.

Best of luck with this year's UCAS applications ACJane. This may just be anecdotal, but I think DD was very fortunate with her offers due to being a language prospect (low demand etc). Many of her peers had top predicted and achieved grades but had failed to secure offers across their many of their choices, it was a tough year resulting in unplanned gaps for some.

Like Juja's DC, DD offers ranged between AAB (Bristol) and ABB from Manchester and Leeds, with one rejection from Cambridge. AAA firmed with Durham with all offers in by Dec followed by Cambridge's rejection in January. Her predictions were 3 x A stars and a B in AS Maths, she managed to get all A*s plus an A in AS Maths in the end. She also had a couple of international offers, opting for Middle Eastern & European Language Studies at TCD (Arabic & Spanish integrated with international relations/politics, history, culture etc) and loves it.

Just make sure your DD looks carefully at the course detail for each as they do vary. DD very nearly missed the fact that Arabic ab initio wasn't part of the core curriculum at Bristol when applying for MML so had to discount it, whilst at the others it was very much part of the core MML offering including year abroad options.

There was definitely language test for Cambridge with 4 online interviews . She was hopeful but took the rejection well, with later feedback asking her to come back for post grad studies. Who knows if they really meant that but it made her feel better at the time and she has a good work/life balance for now.

I forgot to add how lovely it is to hear about all the other MFL DC on here thriving, even if continue to be a dying breed ;)

@ealingwestmum so lovely to hear your DD went to TCD and is enjoying it.

My DH and I were in Dublin on holiday in September and it happened to be Freshers week at TCD. Looked like such a cool place to be a student - actually living in a Sallly Rooney novel 😄

Thank you Juja, hope your DC is enjoying their gap year ahead of Oxford!

DD is enjoying Dublin life. Less so the cost of food, but, with fees this year of 2,000 EUR (they are rebating 1k EUR this year only) she can’t really complain. And there are less UK DC there, more US and other internationals so it’s a good mix with Irish nationals.

@ealingwestmum thanks for asking - the au pair role is going well - challenging charges aged 3 & 6 but she only has to do 4-8pm. She’s teaching teenage refugees French 2 afternoons a week and goes French classes for 16hrs a week so all in all v busy and seems to have developed a social life.

Yes Dublin is expensive especially with the exchange rate but as you say much cheaper fees help. Is she in Trinity Halls?

A brilliant experience for her Juja, I can imagine this year will fly by with her weeks being so wonderfully busy.

Sorry for the somewhat personal discussion re DD’s outcome but I hope if anyone is considering alternative, or even parallel options to UCAS, the Irish insight is of some help!

She got rejected from Trinity Halls Juja (the main halls of residence for TCD), but I think that was because I had paid a deposit for the private halls, Kavanagh Court which is also contracted to TCD. I didn’t want to run the risk of scrambling for accommodation in September when offers were issued. Whilst most freshers are at TH, it is 40 mins from TCD, vs KC being a 10 mins walk and in the heart of Dublin. So the nights out and popping ‘home’ is easier, with freshers and returnees at KC providing a good mix between the 2 halls.

For cost comparison if anyone is considering, TH is cheaper. KC is circa 9,000 EUR for 38 weeks, both self catering only. However UK nationals qualify for Irish Free Fees Initiative so they don’t pay full tuition fees other than a yearly student contribution of 3k EUR.

But there is no Student Finance like UK, a big downside. Net net I think Ireland will work out cheaper but with us bearing cost vs UK Govt, though DD is funding most of her cost of living herself.

I will stop boring about Irish HE now!

Thanks @ealingwestmum helpful to hear your experience and I do hope your DD continues to have a great time - TCD is v well regarded for Modern Languages but as you say it does require a level of financial support or family in Dublin to lodge with so not for all. The 3 years at Irish Uni do count towards the 5 required for Irish citizenship so another advantage - especially given the current state of the UK 😊

Back to the UK there are many great ML departments keen for students so I hope all applying this year find a course that appeals to them. The courses vary enormously so important to drill into the details of module / number of languages & the languages / literature options etc.