Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3

[Baaaahhhhh]

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4016760-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-2

New Thread !

Last year Durham often sent out batches early on Monday evenings. In fact it was exactly 12 months ago that I ordered a G&T with my hotel dinner to celebrate, as I was working away when DD got hers. Edinburgh was another matter entirely & waited until the spring to say no.

@goodbyestranger

Good choice MidLifeCrisis007.

This is just me being nosy/ interested, so of course no need to reply, but at what stage of the process did he get his offer last year?

College at Durham is of very little consequence, but you've probably been told that umpteen times and are fed up of hearing it.

Last year he applied for History and (an unusual) MFL. He thinks the offer came through in March.

As a Durham graduate myself, I know the college doesn't really matter that much.

I've tried to persuade him that he'd have a much better time at Durham than at Oxford, but he was determined to reapply! Fingers crossed he gets another Durham offer as his Oxford chances are very slim indeed!

Nothing heard from Durham here (History)

Congrats @MatureStudent21. Excellent news!

Nothing from Durham here yet either.

@SATSmadness

Regarding reapplying in the following year...it just goes to show how some schools are not best placed to offer Oxbridge application advice to their pupils.

The school might not want to disadvantage their own next year's cohort by comparison.

Many congratulations @MatureStudent21 🥳

DS just received a Bath offer! First one. ABB due to his EPQ. Thank god. It’s the only one he’s applied to with Bs in it. And this course has an international placement year.

They sent it at 9.07pm. How odd. They’re working later than the Nevada vote counters, clearly.

Woop Woop @quest1on. Worth the wait.

Your vote counting comment made me splurt my tea with laughter. These offers do seem to come at odd times though don’t they?

@quest1on congratulations 🥳

quest1on Congrats, and on the reduced offer.

School never bigged up EPQ's preferring to stick with AS and their own extended project. Wish we had known it would reduce offers. I wonder was this known when they were introduced, or is this something new?

Seems DD is the only one on this thread NOT applying to Durham?

@Baaaahhhhh No EPQ or Durham application here either.

Thankyou so much.

Baaa - the man from Bath came to DS’ school and basically took the UCAS evening. We really liked the sound of it and they make reduced offers for her EPQ.

At DS’ school they won’t let them do 4-levels anymore (unless one is Further Maths) and they push the EPQ instead. They also do an extra elective course per term and they have to do so many hours community work each week.

No EPQ here either. She's doing Further Maths instead. Wonder if it will put DD at a disadvantage.

@whiteroseredrose I don’t imagine it could? They don’t offer EPQs at DS’s school or many others.

@quest1on congratulations! Will DS be using Bath as his insurance choice or does he not know what his preference order is yet?

white - no I’m sure it won’t as Further Maths will be far more relevant to a lot of subjects.

I thought the EPQ would be a long esssy basically, but it’s not. It’s a year long course - 2 / 3 timetabled sessions per week, I think. It’s all about learning to analyse sources and different types of evidence and independent research. They had to write several essays before they even chose the subject - to practise source-evaluation and this kind of thing. All the footnotes analyse the sources. They have to present it with a slideshow and keep a journal alongside it. It was 15,000 words and about 200 sources in the bibliography. What a palaver basically. And it’s still not finished apparently. Now they have to do a self-evaluation essay about it. It literally never ends.

Evening all. No further news here save for DS's entire sixth form is now isolating due to two confirmed cases, so apparently live lessons (although shorter to 'give a break from screens') start tomorrow for two weeks.

@MatureStudent21 massive congratulations on your offer.

MstureStudent - at this point he’s delighted to have an offer. He would be happy with all his choices basically. Really tried to downplay C as odds are slim. I think his second choice would be LSE, but not sure about the student experience as we’re in London anyway. I feel like he needs to break out!

The big problems with our school was that they already did a 6th form research project, and as this had been going on for years, they expect everyone to continue to do it. So you could be in a position of doing the school dissertation, plus EPQ, plus 4 A Levels, all in year 12, bonkers!

And, as you say, plus all the extra curricular, the community service, house and 6th form duties, scholars extension work etc etc etc Just too much.

I should add they don't actually let anyone do that, but, you have those options........

It’s a lot Baaa, for sure.

Congratulations to those with recent offers .

Whiteroseredrose not doing the EPQ will not disadvantage your DD. There's no correlation between students at our school who get Oxbridge offers and don't, based on whether they do the EPQ (which has been offered at the school since the year it was introduced). Six of my eight DC have done it and the general feeling is that it's incredibly easy to put an A* EPQ together with the minimum effort provided you tick the deadlines, and no originality is required whatsoever. On that basis it's vastly overrated except as a vague training in independent administrative training. So if limited use for top unis. It's of huge use for underfunded state schools though, since it provides students with a qualification with the absolute minimum of staff time - and thus a big winner for HTs trying to negotiate budget cuts. My youngest just said no to it and still got all five offers, incl Oxford, Durham etc. And she didn't take a fourth A level either. Definitely not something to worry about!

*of limited use