Oxbridge Interviewees for 2021 Entry - The Journey Continues - Thread 5

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New Thread from old one:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4088426-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-4

@IrmaFayLear I'm sorry I didn't see your post about your daughter's experience yesterday, till now. If she had connection problems I hope she tried contacting the admissions team or something. My husband was involved in interviews yesterday and said that one candidate dropped three times early on, and the candidate then went back and forth with the admissions team and they sorted out that a different platform was working ok and were given a new interview slot via that means at the end of the day.

Well, what’s done is done. I have decided not to mention the O word again...

DD’s (state) school packed up a couple of weeks ago. Dd doesn’t mind too much. I think humanities people have it easier than their stem compatriots ( and many other practical-element subjects).

Hope the interviews have gone well today.

I get the impression that Durham admissions are fairly chaotic and understaffed, as far as these things go. It takes them almost a month to reply to emails, even through their internal system. DS never received a confirmation that they’d received his application and was getting worried as they were sending emails like “It’s not to late to apply to Durham...!” It stated in the website that you should wait for the confirmation before submitting an alternative PS, but it had been about 6 weeks and nothing. He tried to call about eight times, but the holding time was always over 40 minutes, so he was just giving up. One day I called and just left the phone on speaker for an hour before someone answered. The woman said, “We’ve got too many applications and we’re all working from home so don’t know what’s going on.” She said they were a month behind replying to mails because of “all the applications.” I’m not sure what they think is happening at other unis, tbh. She also said that some admissions tutors get allocated a course like “Mechanical Engineering which take a long time to wade through’ and as they’re all working from home, they can’t cross-reference and this is why offers may come out in dribs and drabs. Anyway, after all this, she said she couldn’t tell me anything about DS’ application due to the data protection act. I said, I didn’t need to know anything about DS’ application, but could she just ping him him a confirmation email. She said if she said any more she would lose her job! Absolutely nuts! The next day, I called at 9am sharp and, miracle of miracles, someone answered the phone - “Yes we have his application - no worries - etc etc...” So, in my experience, they don’t seem co-ordinated.

Another topic, but all this wfh business is in many cases just not working. If I hear a recorded message saying one more time, “Due to the pandemic...”

@IrmaFayLear

Another topic, but all this wfh business is in many cases just not working. If I hear a recorded message saying one more time, “Due to the pandemic...”

God, yes. It doesn't matter if it's the bank or John Lewis, they are all at it. Can't get hold of anyone. What does seem to be working better is emailing. I have had a few issues with deliveries/refunds etc lately, and all have come through successfully via email. Takes a couple of days, but better than hanging on the phone for hours.

In other news, Virgin was down for 6 hours here today. No telephone, internet or TV. DH and DD had to hot spot from their telephones to keep working. Was thinking if DD2 had had a second interview today, that would have provided an extra challenge.

Irma - I hope your DD is feeling a bit better today?

One applicant from school had an Oxford History interview today with five tutors from three colleges. She's a friend of DD's. I can only think that that's a moderating interview or that History is spreading the pooling interviews when doing them online to maximise coverage for particular applicants. The girl in question is an incredibly high achiever though so I'm assuming moderation rather than three shots at being pooled. Did other DC have tutors from multiple colleges at their second round History interviews?

No multiple colleges for DS - just 3 tutors all from the same college.

Thanks LaundryFairy. Friend is unnerved but I would assume it to be positive one way or another.

DD's interviewers were from two different colleges at her first interview

That's interesting in a different way FlyingSquid! They're really mixing it up this year.

DS2 has had three interviews from two colleges, apparently one ok, one bad, one good. He might still be given another, apparently.

He is relieved it is all probably over.

School have allowed him to be at home over the last two days, marking him present.

Mock's first two weeks in January. They announced today there will be no lessons during that time, and while not exactly study leave, attendance not always required.

Dd has mocks in Feb but has had lots of class tests this term also. She’s looking forward to the end of term and hopefully getting to the end without having to isolate again

DD’s school has also been supportive and her teachers have been lovely. But dd puts a lot of pressure on herself like many other similar students and the thought of mocks looking in January is worrying her.

DS’ mocks are also not until after the February half-term, but they had a formal exam week first week back in September, plus they’ve had various in-class assessments / essays all term. He does have an NEA to hand in though first week back, worth 20% of an A-level. It never ends!

If there is going to be a third wave of Covid. and / or a new strain of it, I’m wondering if they will end up closing schools again for a few weeks? If so, I think exams may be cancelled at that point. DS has missed no school yet (except for when he himself was ill), but loads have suddenly come down with it in his school.

Oh gosh I hope now @quest1on . The young ones have already lost so much - I know a year in the grand scheme of life is not much. But to me every year of their time with us at home and their time at school - especially secondary - matters ...............

I don’t see how how the exams can go ahead in England. Some Year 13 students up and down the country have already missed weeks of school since September and the provision of online learning varies widely.

Hmm I was talking to one of my friends who work in education and whilst the first time round the online provision was well below par in some schools, most of them now seem ok ......... who knows. But my DC knows that every test and assessment matters .......

Yes my dd also knows the importance of tests. She’s just done in tonight, looks pale and tired. She’s got a test tmw that she hasn’t revised for. I’ve told her to go to bed but she’ll probably do a bit of work.

So in response to two posts.

How's DS (general thread question re: all DC's) coping? - surprising well. He's got mocks this week and so far, so good. He seems remarkably unstressed.

He's revising diligently but calmly iyswim.

Re: Durham DS is actually pretty annoyed by the amount of "spam" he's got from them.

Obviously the usual "we have your application" plus lots of other emails about the Uni and how good it is and asking to share/follow/like on social media (as if it isn't stressful enough without the world knowing your Uni aspirations).

He's annoyed about it in the sense that sending that before they've made an offer is really "mean" (his word) the subtext being you can promote us on social media and (his thinking) is that part of the evaluation?

I actually agree with him that it's inappropriate before an offer.

On the positive of how to do it "right" DS got a lovely card (dare I say elegant and embossed) from Lancaster, congratulating him on his offer with a lovely inspiring (generic) message inside about how they choose their students and why they want "him".

It's a really nice touch and I'm really glad it's his 2nd choice and am (can I confess?) actually sure it would suit him better than Cambridge (obviously not saying that to DS).

Totally agree on the spam - you know he is interested in Durham because he has used on of his precious five slots to apply to you. So confirm you have his application and piss off and stop wasting his time with emails until you have made a decision - market to him all you want once he has a choice but stop triggering “ooh is this an offer email
Subject line “ reactions until then. Oh, and while I am whinging, get all your offers out before starting the college allocation process and, in normal years, the offer holder days. Really not rocket science. As you fail to do this every year, more admin staff perhaps?

And yes, I am a bit worried about what the increasingly ridiculous five days of Christmas is going to do to covid in January and how lent term will look as a result. DS’s school went online last week in an abrupt manner that could be characterised as a sensible and preemptive move to protect the pupils or a star burst dash for freedom just ahead of PHE descending on them all. Mid teens number of cases reported since. Day schools locally also hit - one had to go online entirely about 2 weeks ago, having had years 11-13 out for a week before that.

Durham had better watch out with Lancaster snapping at its heels.

Durham is an interesting one.
Dd has applied there but is considering withdrawing before an offer/rejection because she was so unimpressed by their answers to questions about diversity on a zoom applicants' meeting.
I think that 7 students from her school have applied for the same subject (there could be more but these are the ones that applied early as also applying to O or C). All of them got o/c interviews. The one whose GCSE results/predictions are lowest has an offer from Durham and all the others have been told the decision will be made at the end of January. DD doesn't care but some of the others are quite keen and it's even putting them off.

Also, the way Durham carry on - holding onto offers until March and this kind of business - it’s actually a total nonsense in the case of the course DS has applied to. It almost reeks of trying to make places appear more competitive than they actually are when, the fact is, last year, out of something like 520 applicants, they made offers to 500! Similar situation in the two cycles before, as revealed by a FOI request on WhatDoTheyKnow. So what is the point if keeping students waiting and releasing offers in dribs and drabs when they know full well that, in recent years, everyone who has the grades was made an offer and probably more than a fair few who didn’t. I don’t know, I just think it’s all unnecessary. I guess this year might be different as they might have a lot who deferred (due to the financial incentives they offered last year), but still. What a hoo haa they make of it.

Doesn't Durham have a disproportionate number of Oxbridge applicants though? So, maybe their thinking is that there is no point in early offering as some 25% of those whose applied in the early cycle, will end up going to Oxbridge. I assume every year they have a huge number of applicants who then disappear to Oxbridge, so they somehow have to balance those applicants off against others who are more likely to put them as first choice. It must be quite tricky to balance the numbers.