Oxbridge Aspirants 2021-New Thread 4

[Baaaahhhhh]

And we are off:

Thread 3 link: www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4070531-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-3

Yes I agree - redirected a much better way of looking at it! Looking forward to celebrating all outcomes; the beginning of a very exciting adventure wherever that may be. Congratulations on all news to date - thrilled for you and hand holding nervously with everyone else.

@Knotanothername someone who had been "redirected" in a previous year posted similar on a TSR thread.

I put it to DD that she has chosen 5 paths from about 20 options. It's like being in a maze, some of them may be blocked off partway down the path but that just means that she needs to try one of the others. She's applied for medicine in a year when applications are up massively and the CAG debacle consequences being sneakily booted forward has implications for the current applicants through no fault of theirs.

We discussed whether it's "medicine or bust" and she wants to try again next year if she doesn't get a place anywhere this year but currently doubts she'd try again for Oxbridge.

Being re-directed to the path of staying at home (and hopefully getting a part time job) would enable her to get some work experience/additional appropriate volunteering and build up some savings to help fund herself during the Uni years so it would be the silver lining to the cloud.

She's a joy to have around so another year at home wouldn't bother me, it'd just be a worry if her peers going off to Uni unsettled her.

DS said his GF has unfortunately been rejected from Exeter. I think this is based on the UKAT - such a shame. Or maybe it was her PS, don’t know. She wanted to go there I think as I think the course is more practical all the way through. She has only lived in the UK two years and is on a full bursary / scholarship at school (crazily competitive for a fully-funded place, more so than Oxbridge.). She has seen horrendous injuries in her country of origin due to bombings etc and this is what made her want to go into medicine. Hopefully she’ll get something else. She has top predicted grades, so fingers crossed...

Sorry for all the “I thinks” there

@quest1on That’s such a shame, she sounds like an amazing girl, definitely Exeter’s loss! DD’s boyfriend has also been rejected by Exeter for Medicine and says everyone at his school with top grades has as well. I think they only interviewed those in the 97th percentile for UKCAT - he was in the 96th percentile

That's a shame Quest1on

Exeter & Bristol both seem to have scarily high UCAT cut off points this year even for second round Bristol interview invites. Sheffield's was higher too.

Hopefully with aims such as she has and top predicted grades, she will succeed somewhere.

@quest1on so sorry to hear that! She sounds very motivated so imagine she will succeed wherever she goes.

Quest1on that is such a shame she sounds very capable and deserving.

DD heard today of someone in one of the local fee paying schools who has an interview for History and Italian so it makes it more real.
She does know though that only 20% of EU applicants for PPE get an interview so she is trying to not get her hopes up.

Still no other offers.

Over on TSR can see the PPE interviews coming through , agree all seems v real now!

@quest1on that is a shame. But hopefully she will be redirected somewhere even better.

The wait is over (well this bit of the wait anyway) for us. DS has been offered an interview 👍. Thrilled for him.

I offered champagne but he says it is too early to celebrate. I have no idea where he gets his level headedness from - sure isn’t me!

Congratulations to your DS @Crikeyblimey - these teens seem far more level headed than I remember me and my friends being!

Congratulations to your DS Crikey!

He sounds the same as mine - I offered DS some Prosecco the other night and he just said, “Don’t be ridiculous.” These kids!

Well done, Mini Crikey !

@quest1on

Congratulations to your DS Crikey!

He sounds the same as mine - I offered DS some Prosecco the other night and he just said, “Don’t be ridiculous.” These kids!

I know!! You wouldn’t need to get to the end of the ‘would you like...’ sentence before I’d be holding out my glass! Strange creatures 🤷‍♀️

Wow, congratulations to those with invitations today, and commiserations to those who have been redirected by Oxbridge and other places. I believe the redirections will lead to other wonderful doors being opened. Not easy, but it will all end well.

DS son won’t celebrate yet, either. Acknowledging he has done well, but said to me “this process is so challenging, if I get in, it will be the greatest achievement in my life so far”. I almost wanted to cry. His grandparents have now all passed away, and he keeps saying how proud they would’ve been of him getting this far.

Practically my first thought after ds got in was that my parents would have burst with pride. There really is no one else in the world apart from grandparents who celebrate every triumph, big or small. With everyone else you have to be very self-deprecating. Even siblings are somewhat pleased for you, but if they have dcs too, have a bit of a curled lip, so you have to point out all the bad bits, “Oh, yes, ds will have no time for any socialising,” or “Yes, it is a long way from home” or “I don’t know how he got in”. Said ‘em all.

For those subjects which have an at interview assessment, if you are invited to sit this, does this mean you are through to the interview stage? DC has login details etc for assessment and said somebody from the admissions department will be in touch with details of the interview

@chopc

For those subjects which have an at interview assessment, if you are invited to sit this, does this mean you are through to the interview stage? DC has login details etc for assessment and said somebody from the admissions department will be in touch with details of the interview

I'm not sure about Oxford, but for Cambridge DRM jr. had his pre-interview assessment today (said it went "pretty well") and you only do the assessment if you WILL be invited for interview.

Interviews will take place between 1st-12th Dec (this is for Maths) and they've said they'll advise a date shortly.

DS (who has not appled to Oxbridge, so is watching this from the sidelines) came home in shock, because someone in his class got rejected by Oxford, pre interview (for biochemistry). DS is like - well if he didn't even get an intervew, there would have been no point me even thinking about it. Apparently there are no pre-tests for Oxford biochemistry (he says that if there had been, this boy would have smashed it out of the water). Thinks maybe it was a mistake for this boy to not to have applied to NatSci Cambridge, to specialise in biochem, but the boy preferred the course at Oxford. He says this boy is already doing university level research. Couldn't get DS out of my room because he was so stunned. Anyway, the boy has offers to be redirected to, but it just goes to show what a lottery it is.

@DeRigueurMortis thank you for the input. Glad your son's assessment went well

Gosh bimkom that's quite sobering. I know DS is managing his expectations but naturally we all hope that our DCs will be successful. This just makes me think that I need to do a better job of managing my own hopes for his success.

Bimkom I think not getting an interview for a course where they interview 80 or 90% must be more difficult to accept.

It kind of depends on the siblings Irma! My two siblings are very generous in their congrats, indeed my brother is dead keen to make a bid for the Guiness Book of Records on their behalf, but is meeting strong resistance.

My father lived long enough to see DD1 get a place for Law and was completely tickled pink (he's been sent to a school near Oxford as a wartime refugee and had an enduring love of the place). But if he'd lived to see the whole family get there in the end, I can't imagine how thrilled he'd have felt. I expect that at some point reality would have hit, and he'd have realised what a disappointment it was that none of the eight read Maths, or even Physics come to that. He'd probably have retreated to his chair with whisky to work out what went wrong, and where....

Interview assessment is a Cambridge only thing surely?

[quote chopc]@DeRigueurMortis thank you for the input. Glad your son's assessment went well [/quote]
No problem.

The only sobering update is that by DS's estimate there were between 80 - 100 candidates doing the assessment.

Looking the admissions table there's a 26% success rate of those applying getting an offer and 17% actually taking up a place post results.

So still a very long way to go and the odds are very must against.

That said - my own "re-direction" story.

I had a Cambridge offer but missed by one grade on results.

I went to my second choice and had a fabulous experience.

I've had a great career (both financially and wrt fulfilment) and was lucky to meet my wonderful DH.

I've no idea obviously exactly how my life might have turned out if I'd gone to Cambridge, but I can say with great conviction that I don't think my life would have been any better than it has been.

This is what I've explained to DS. Yes it's a pivotal point in your life, but it's absolutely NOT one that automatically directs you to success/happiness.