Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3

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

New Thread !

Wow congratulations on all these Durham offers tonight, lucky DCs (and mums)! Fantastic!

So is this “we are dealing with your application” email a good sign then? (though at this point any form of email from them to DS would be a miracle)!

Revenge - no I don’t understand that about the Wales announcement either. Who knows?

Thanks all
revenge the course entry requirement is A*AA. Dd has been offered AAA ...or AAB if she firms them up

@Revengeofthepangolins

Congrats to the Durham offers!

Out of curiosity, can you explain the “reduced and contextual.. AAA and AAB contextual? I thought contextual offers were offers below the published tariff to reflect disadvantage, so why does the candidate have to firm to get it? Or what the difference is between reduced and contextual?

@Revengeofthepangolins standard entry for Durham for computer science is A* AA.

Ds was offered conditional offer of AAA

But he has been offered a contextual offer and if he chooses Durham as his first choice and they will accept AAB.

This is similar to those who were offered Birmingham on CCC grades on this thread. ie they know the student will achieve well above that grade so will have an outstanding student but only if they choose Birmingham as their first choice.

The only "disadvantage" he has is a POLAR postcode, Dh and I both attended uni, never in care/on free school meals, his sixth form is rated outstanding as was his school and they have good progress 8 scores. So not from a deprived area or poor performing school.

We've still not heard from Durham (maths).

Not concerned thankfully as he's already decided that Lancaster would be his preferred choice if his Cambridge application isn't successful and Durham is now his last choice.

In fact he's actually getting quite enthusiastic about Lancaster so I'm actually really happy in so far it was my first choice for him and I'm hoping that means if Cambridge doesn't work out he will still be a very happy camper.

Hope others are getting to know this sort of "happy space".

@Beetlesand, @DahliaMacNamara and @OnTheBenchOfDoom
Congratulations on all your Durham offers. A real confidence booster

DS just told me he knows 2 people who have received Cambridge interview Invites. So it looks there is now movement on the front

@DeRigueurMortis just delurking to say we were going through similar agonies last year and DD chose Lancaster in the end over and above a clutch of RG stars - she visited and fell in love with it and in fact it's turning out to be a very very smart decision. She absolutely loves it there even in lockdown mode

@BCBG thanks so much for posting that information.

I'm really glad your DD is happy there.

I feel quite strongly he'd thrive there, but obviously we are being supportive of his Cambridge aspirations whilst trying to temper the reality it may happen.

Thanks again

@IrmaFayLear

Dd’s school no longer allow 4 A Levels, too, and pushed the EPQ. But abandoned any support/guidance in the light of, well, you know what. Dd didn’t want to do one anyway because, as goodbyestranger said, it looked (from the ones displayed at open evening) that you could have written “EPQs are poo bum wee” and received a top (internally marked) grade as long as you ticked all the procedural boxes. Dd didn’t want to attend all the compulsory sessions which, as I said, didn’t take place in the end.

Congratulations on all the recent offers, and for those still waiting, they will come, in good time.

DD did an EPQ, not ‘pushed’ by her school (a middling comprehensive), just offered. Of the students who started an EPQ in Y12, more than half dropped it, possibly because it is much harder than it appears, and involves more than writing ‘EPQs are poo bum wee’. . DD didn’t take the EPQ in the hope of getting enhanced uni offers (although two of her offers are lowered if she gets an A or above), but because she wanted the opportunity to delve deeper into a subject which links two of her A level subjects together and which she’s been fascinated by for a long time. It took her 6 months to finish, and many hours of reading, comparing and analysing sources and eventually writing the extended essay, referencing it and reflecting on it. It was a good use of her time in lockdown 1.0 when there was no online teaching and she’d lost her part-time catering job. It’s given her a potential topic to discuss at an interview and means she might have enough points to achieve a place Irish university, which she wouldn’t have with 3 A levels alone.

Same good feeling here about Lancaster @DeRigueurMortis

We actually had a representative from Lancaster come to our school to do a talk. Interesting, because as an Indy Southern school wonder what their motivation was, perhaps to steal away those interested in Durham. Did look and sound great, however, for us, like Durham, just to far away and felt remote.

Lancaster is a really popular choice in dd’s School and she says that last year’s students who went there are really enjoying it. We are in the north so not too far

@IrmaFayLear

I think some EPQs are very valuable - the ones that demonstrate practical application of a science subject, for instance.

Not very convinced by the yards of “The Brontes vs Jane Austen” or “Elizabeth I as a feminist” yada yada that I saw at open day.

DDs was valuable as an end in itself, not entered into as a means to an end. It was an 'artefact' project, designing and building a robot. It only got one grade reduction on her lowest and least preferred offer, but was useful for developing her skills (with access to the school's equipment) and including setting out design criteria, costing etc. As it turns out, it may have been a stepping stone to landing an internship which has now resulted in a job offer...

Vargas: It was certainly no 'box ticking' exercise

NiamCinnOir: it is much harder than it appears, and involves more than writing ‘EPQs are poo bum wee’

Of course conscientious students can write a fabulous EPQ, where the substance is of real originality, or at least very well considered. But that misses the point that an A is easily achievable in the EPQ by simply making sure the deadlines are met. The quality of the content is of incredibly minor significance, which is why it's of very little significance to unis such as Oxford and Cambridge. A really interesting extract might be of interest as one of the required pieces of written work, but that's the limit. An interviewee also can't rely on spooning in a discussion of their EPQ to an interview - the tutors are far smarter than that, and lead the conversation. In short, the fact that EPQ student #1 has laboured night and day over his EPQ and written a stunning piece of original research and been awarded an A doesn't mean that EPQ student #2 who was smart enough not to fail to meet deadlines but whose content was poobumwee recurring doesn't also merit his A*: he looked at the mark scheme and conserved his energies for other stuff :) The students who drop out of the EPQ at our school are as often those who think what an empty exercise as those who think this is too much like hard work.

Quite Errol. The EPQ can be a useful vehicle to hang an interesting project on but an interesting project isn't what gleans the marks, so the project can as easily be pretty much plagiarized to be awarded an identical mark.

Thank you, goodbyestranger, for articulating better my "poo bum wee" comment!

Basically not all A EPQs are poo bum wee, but a poo bum wee EPQ can get an A , simply by following procedure.

(I wish I'd never said poo bum wee; am I seven?!)

DD considered EPQ but decided (with school's express approval) to concentrate on trying for A*s in all of her A Levels to maximise chances for Oxbridge.

@Beetlesand Durham has made me the exact same offer! I’m rather surprised they will reduce further with firming though as I understood that they had a lot of deferrals for 2021 because of the fiasco with a-levels this year

At my college EPQ is available but isn’t pushed, and the teachers have said that they may ask people to leave the course if they think that it’s affecting their a-levels

Not sure why I feel the need to get into this but, in defence of the EPQ....

Firstly, it is a qualification. An A at EPQ is worth exactly half of an A in an A-level in terms of UCAS points. An EPQ also has more weight then an AS level in terms of UCAS points.

Like any qualification, it is only an empty exercise if the student approaches it as such.

Like Vargas, I would say probably half the students who started EPQ at DS’ school ended up dropping out. This suggests that there is slightly more two it than just meeting deadlines.

Some of the EPQ titles I have seen are really original and fantastic actually, and definitely stretch them well beyond the A-level syllabus. Unlike an A-level course, they are not spoon-fed information.

I can really only speak for DS, but I would say his EPQ was far more useful than the qualification itself. It has focused his mind in what he wants to do as his degree. It has showed him the links between two of his A-levels and enabled his to expand into other areas such as anthropology that he wouldn’t otherwise have even known about or considered. Just as importantly, he realised, in the process of writing, that the frontline of research in the areas that motivate him are happening right now at the LSE, UCL and KCL. This has driven his applications to LSE and UCL because the sources he was investigating were written by the actual professors who are there now. The research is contemporary and spans the social sciences and this is where its happening. This is far more of an insight than any open day or prospectus can give them.

Also, off the back of his EPQ he became very interested in another line of enquiry. He wrote an essay for a national competition which he never heard back from, but it still an area of interest beyond A-level and he referenced it in his PS, Then, over lockdown, he wrote another essay inspired by an unfinished line of investigation in his EPQ and he sent this off thinking it would get no feedback, but he did and it’s going to be published in an online journal for undergraduate work / research. None if this would have happened - he wouldn’t have even thought of it - were it not for the EPQ. It’s really focused his mind on what he wants to do in the future.

Has anyone’s DC applying to Oxford been asked to send a photograph of themselves in? Lots of people on the Oxford thread on the student room keep mentioning it and now I’m really worried that I haven’t been asked for a photo?

@MatureStudent21 no photo request as far as I know

@MatureStudent21 I think that everyone who sat one of the entrance tests last week had to take in photo ID. I actually never asked my DS if they did anything with the photos, but maybe the scanned them then or something??

Colleges vary MatureStudent21. Some ask for a photo, others don't.

Like Vargas, I would say probably half the students who started EPQ at DS’ school ended up dropping out. This suggests that there is slightly more to it than just meeting deadlines

No, it doesn't suggest that any more than it suggests that there are bright students such as my own DD4 and Irma's DD who found the tick box nature of the EPQ a potential bore/ waste of time which could be far better used in other ways, including for independent reading of a more sporadic nature.

The main benefit of an EPQ, if one's a cynic, is to bag an A to maximise As on a CV for the purpose of future employers (as opposed to uni applications) with the minimum effort. It was compulsory for the six DC of mine who did it and I don't suppose their As in the EPQ does any harm. It kind of looks like an extra A level A :)

Lancaster also very popular in recent years at our southern grammar. A beautiful part of the country and a really good campus. None of my own DC have applied there but plenty of their friends have.