Outlier.
- "Narrowly" was not a scientific expression, but I meant those DC who had the grades, and who would have been capable of thriving at Oxbridge. Perhaps a different day, or a different interviewer and they would have got the place. Perhaps it was confidence. The person before them had had a gap year so offered a year's extra reading and maturity, so landed the place.
- DC went to LSE and Bristol, and Butt-sore-ness was much more apparent at the latter.
Before Brexit LSE was about 50% international and 25% EU leaving only about 25% of the student body from the UK. Of that 25% a surprising proportion will be either BAME, or Londoners, or both. Some of DS' international friends were butt-sore about not getting Harvard or MIT. Another friend came from the only ethnic Chinese family in his Welsh village and could not wait to arrive in cosmopolitan London. Three of his friends were East European born, London raised, with parents with relatively poor English and manual jobs, for whom it was natural to live at home. (LSE does very well with its encouraging participation links with local state schools.) You apply. You might get Cambridge, you might get LSE, you might get neither or both. If you go to LSE the one given is that it will be infinitely more diverse, but I don't think many saw it as second best. Cambridge will offer advantages., but even if that is where you wanted to go, there are real silver linings in studying social science in the centre of a world city, with a wide range of course options and all manner of interesting research going on.
Butt-sore-ness was what I assume Cinnamon was alluding to. It can be an issue. If anyone's DC still remains deeply disappointed about not getting into Oxford to the extent it overshadows they enthusiasm for going to what is their firm choice, it is worth considering a gap year. One friends DC applied for one of the most competitive courses at Oxford, and got feedback which suggested he had done exceptionally well, but so had others, and there were simply not enough places. He had not wanted to stay in London but when the summer came he realised that his heart was not into going to Bristol. He took a gap year, had a chance to visit friends in different places, "narrowly" missed Oxford again but had a clearer idea of what he wanted, so ended up happily at UCL studying something slightly different.
In contrast one of DDs friends was still hurting about Cambridge well into his second year. The glittering prizes, the Footlights, the late night conversations about poetry, should have been his. Which stopped him from appreciating what Bristol had to offer. A gap year, and an understanding that he gave it his best shot, would have been so much better,. He got his act together eventually, but lost much of his first couple of years wishing he were somewhere else.