Another path to greatnesses

[chopc]

I woke up around 4:30 this morning and it hit me like a tonne of bricks. Couldn't get back to sleep so thought I will have a go and starting the new thread. Hope the title is not too cheesy

It was A*AA last year too

@Applepieco

Durhams response to question regarding referral numbers;

The 2020 target for History was 205. There are currently 35 deferred
applicants holding a place for 2021 entry. Please note that we would
expect this number to decrease over the next year as applicants withdraw,
particularly as this year UCAS have allowed applicants to submit a new
application to 2021 without withdrawing their deferred application first.

Really?!

My DS had a deferred place but had to withdraw it to reapply to Oxford.

I’ve copied Durham’s response exactly. That’s odd Midlifecrisis007 - Durham’s response suggest he didn’t need to.

With regards the A*AA offer, it was introduced a couple of years ago to distinguish between candidates.

Season - of course you are welcome and we’re all randoms on here, it just came across quite bombastic, like “here I am from last year to put you lot straight...”

Anyway, I did find your comments on the EPQ interesting. The particular college DS applied to told us the exact opposite, but that’s all irrelevant now anyway. He won’t be reapplying!

Could I ask where you got the Durham stats Apple? I’m surprised they don’t have more deferrals to be honest.

Yes for the first time ever because of the situation candidates were allowed to submit a 2021 application whilst holding a deferred offer from 2020. Then by the end of January they were to make a choice which application they wished to continue with. This in particular allowed an Oxbridge offer to come through on reallocation with grades in hand or with the benefit of a changed result in the autumn sitting, or allowed a change of heart. The school would have been aware of this.

*reapplication not reallocation

__ quest1on

The details were in a FOI request from a student in this years cycle. I’m not sure if I can link to it.

I think that’s a lot of referrals for one course.

I thought I attached a screenshot so will try again

www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/how_many_of_the_2021_first_year#incoming-1689883

Applepieco Yes we had heard that the competitive courses at the top unis had up to 15% referrals so that is slightly over that.

I thought I read somewhere not to use EPQ extracts unless you had to. Mainly where students were studying non essay subjects but where submission of an essay was required. Mainly because the structure is different I think.

The situation regarding grades last year was always going to cause problems for the 2021 cohort and 2022 might have problems too if the 2021 results are very high. The only hope will be fewer overseas students but then that’s less income for the universities.

yearinyearout very exciting :) My own DS is in that row of buildings in Oxford too, starting out on his DPhil. It's a bit quieter than usual at the moment but next year should be back to normal [fingers crossed].

Thank you @Applepieco and @SeasonFinale

My DS was unaware of this special concession. I sincerely hope he gets re-offered by Durham this year. It will be a cruel blow if he doesn't having had a place to start in September with a nice financial incentive too!

Everything crossed for your DS @MidLifeCrisis007 and for DD of @bendmeoverbackwards for a Durham offer

@Applepieco

Interesting news re; Durham regarding History applicants. It would appear deferrals from last year are holding a very high percentage of places already 35 out of the 210 available. I suppose you could factor in those students changing their minds or Durham increasing places available (not sure they have college space?).

Oh gosh that’s not good news for us. *@Applepieco* do you know if that applies to the Ancient and Modern History course too?

Yes & no. This is where Durhams response doesn’t make sense. At the end of their response they say

Please note that both of these numbers are for Home, EU and International
and for all History programmes including Joint Honours programmes.

Yet at the beginning it says of 205 places - but if you add up all the places available for all History places, it comes to a lot more than 205. The straight V100 is 205 places alone.

So if you analyse it, their response is nonsensical.

@IrmaFayLear

I'm not sure you have fully considered why "niche" subjects appear to be statistically easier to get Oxbridge offers. Niche subjects focus on a very specific field of knowledge that you cannot pick up in school or from a tutor.

There are very few 17 year olds who have the breadth and depth of knowledge to even apply for one of these places. It's a small field and they often know/know of each other before they even apply.

Niche subject students are often astonishingly knowledgeable in their field and are able to converse easily (and even argue) with academics long before they even apply. They also have to possess the bogstandard attributes of the basic candidates too.

Reading through their response I can only interpret as; there are 205 places for straight History.

There are 35 deferrals across all History programmes.

So actually they haven’t answered the students question, which was how many History places are available in the 20/21 cycle.

They are little b*ggers when they answer those FOI requests and try to answer in an ambiguous manner. Warwick in particular try to wear people down. They only have to spend a certain cash amount answering so if they query what you are asking enough time suddenly they say there is no £££ left to answer. I helped a friend get an actual response from them re Maths.

@MidLifeCrisis007

Thank you *@Applepieco and @SeasonFinale*

My DS was unaware of this special concession. I sincerely hope he gets re-offered by Durham this year. It will be a cruel blow if he doesn't having had a place to start in September with a nice financial incentive too!

It might be worth contacting admissions and letting them know that his school hadn't advised him of this possibility so could they bear in mind he was a 2020 offer holder or might he worry that it might scare them off?

Morning! How are we all doing? I am sleeping a little later now but still waking up early. Still the first thought that comes to mind is DS message saying he was rejected ................😔. Look forward to the day i will get a full nights sleep and this is not the first thought of the morning!

Have work to keep me busy today. Have a great day everyone!

MidLifeCrisis very harsh indeed. I assume that your DS would have had to have firmed Durham last year, but I'm assuming he did that and got the communication about deferring/ the payment? If that's the case I'd tend to encourage your DS to contact History admissions as Season finale suggests, even though I'm usually very against contact once forms have gone in.

I'm astonished about the whole thing though, being able to defer while reapplying.

I think institutions were rather too generous to last year’s applicants. There was a kind of knee-jerk reaction, with some vowing to honour all offer holders whether they made the grades or not, giving people another chance with retakes, offering cash for deferrals etc.

So the least they could have done is be up front with this year’s applicants. They misled people by not being honest that a good proportion of places were bagged, and that the accommodation had been snaffled too!

Durham appear to have been caught on the hop - is there no one at the helm in Admissions or did they just bury their heads in the sand?

My guess would be that Durham panicked, being a collegiate uni with a commitment to house all first years but over offering on a scale nothing like Cambridge even, let alone Oxford. I wouldn't have liked to be in charge at Durham in August last year.