Hi, wow this thread is filling up already!
To the pps, DS is applying to UCL and LSE. Nothing from them, except the initial acknowledgments. I think, last year, LSE sent out a chunk of offers in mid-Dec and another similar-sized chunk in March. UCL, no idea, but I get the impression they offer late. But it probably varies massively, subject to subject.
In other news, DS finally managed to get through in the phone to Durham 
. This is after about 6 attempts where he has been holding for 40 mins, only to be disconnected (or he’s just given up). They don’t reply to emails on their internal system either. Anyway, they have now confirmed they do in fact have his application and alternative PS and not to worry. Apparently they don’t have time to send initial acknowledgements to everyone (I thought these were done automatically, but there you go). She said they were still replying to emails from October and have a huge backlog!
In terms of C, nothing here, but when you look on the website for his college, the interview date for his subject is still ‘tbc.’ He does know a few at school who have recently received interview dates for the same subject at other colleges though (this is C, not O).
In terms of choral scholarships at C, absolutely nothing happens with this until March. In the miracle event DS received an offer, he would go for a choral scholarship... but obviously not even factoring that in at this point.
Organ scholars are very different as (I believe) they are the only ones allowed to apply for both O and C. They are very sought after, so who knows?
He has had two mock interviews now through the school. One was with a teacher at his school who, shall we say, takes no prisoners (the other one is fine though). The other interview was with teachers from another school (there are about 4 schools round here who link up to do interviews across subjects) and he seemed much happier after that. But most of them obviously don’t even know they will get an actual interview yet...