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

@BigWoollyJumpers it is just too cruel that you have to deal with two funerals so close together.

I did point out that she would not have had an en-suite at Oxford Ds said the en-suite was to make up for not getting into Cambridge it is his top priority now and he has chosen a college with no shared rooms in Durham.

@SATSmadness exactly the same for us.... it will be end of March/mid-April before we get any news. It's such a horrible time, and then throw in exams, no exams, well, sort of exams.....

@SATSmadness will PM you

@MidlifeCrisis007 I hadn't seen that particular FOI.

What would be quite interesting to know too as they haven't made it clear in their answer, bearing in mind this is the first time that HAT scores were contextualised, is whether this shows the actual scores of each candidate or whether, where the scores were contextualised, they have shown the contextualised score.

After E&M yesterday from Durham some PPE through today.

Hi all,

Busy few days here for one reason or another.

DS has now finished his online exams and is 'off' till after half term. It feels like wading through treacle at the moment, time has taken on a very different quality.

@Millylovespuddles

DD reckons that exams would at least break up the monotony of life at present. But she quite likes exams anyway.

Hi just checking in. I agree with time feeling like treacle, Tenpastseven. So sorry to read about the funerals, BWJ. You are going through so much, I feel bad chatting nonsense on here.

Still no news from LSE. DS says there is an LSE admissions person on a thread on TSR who claims they have now started making offers, although nobody on the forum has had one and nobody on his Discord chat either which had a lot more students on it. Season - have you seen anything from LSE yet?

Then, some people have said on here that they make offers in Thursdays and rejections on Fridays, so if you get to 5pm on Friday you’re safe for another week . Can’t wait for this... and it may well go on until the find of March. Amazing!

I’m worried that they will be giving our very restricted offers this year too, so feeling quite despondent about the whole thing, actually. As for Durham, he’s done the college-choice thing just now, but is beyond caring with that one. It’s been over 4 months with no communication whatsoever (except for this college choice email).

In contrast, Bath had a student from the course he has an offer for there ring him the other evening to see if he had any questions about anything and if she could help. They had a quite good chat, by the sound of it, so good marketing strategy there, Bath! And UCL have invited him to at least two offer-holder online things.

Anyway, we’ll just have to hang in in there, I guess.

He also found out that there was only one place for his course at the C college he applied to. One! Someone took the Nov exams last year and took the other place. They usually only have three places at the best of times, but this year it was two (I suspect due to accommodation) and one went to this 2020 candidate. So that was a waste of time and I feel stupid for even thinking he had a chance. I wish he’d applied to a college with a bigger cohort for his subject. I feel I should have researched the numbers more and advised him. To be honest, he has met the boy (online) who got “the place” and he has 6s and 7s at GCSE (fair enough, that’s contextual and he does have the minimum predicted A-level grades if A*AA). But without going into too much detail, he has applied for a more niche subject to all his 4 other unis except C (where this is not available) and this area happens to coincide with the research of three of the interviewers (a subject that also was the entire theme of one of DS’ interviews and also slipped into the other one). I’m sure someone will come on and tell me I’m being mean-spirited or whatever, but anyway.., I’m just saying the facts as as they are. DS is in conversation with this boy and fine about it now anyway. It will be interesting to see the C feedback, but I’m expecting something very generic and, at this stage, I’m not sure it’s even worth having.

@quest1on none as yet

Thankyou Season, you are our “woman on the inside.”

@SeasonFinale
Given that in the admissions report they cite a very different looking number for the contextualised HAT scores, I think any hat results that look like percentages are actual/raw scores. That’s my guess anyway.

The data sheets show the raw scores ie out of 40.

Quick question - I think DS is going to ask the Oxford college he applied to if it is possible to have more feedback, as they only sent his aptitude test score (history). His impression is that some other colleges provided written work and interview scores too. Can anyone comment on whether this is right - did their children get more detail? (No point asking if no one gets it, but the info being in the admissions report suggests that one can know).
I assume one can’t ask for the contextualised scores for gcse and HAT?

Would just be helpful to know more to help decide whether to try again.

[quote SATSmadness]**@SeasonFinale

Can I ask what you're seeing where you teach as far as medicine offers is concerned.

DD says she daren't check for anything at the moment as it had become an addiction and she's now so invested in her alternative (non-Oxbridge) first choice that I fear an almighty crash if they too say she's not been successful in gaining the offer of a place.[/quote]
I feel so much for the medicine applicants this year. 3 of dd's closest friends are applying - 2 applied to O/C but weren't offered places despite 10 X 9 at GCSE, predicted all A* and very good BMAT scores. One of them has luckily has 2 interviews but the other has still not heard from 2 of her choices. I would honestly have thought that all 3 of them should have been snapped up by medical schools as they're also really lovely people who will be good doctors. I know it's always tough but this year is obviously worse plus it's just harder for them without the outlet of school/socialising etc.
I really hope your dd gets some news soon. Where else has she applied if you're happy to say?

Ah @BigWoollyJumpers what a tough time you're having, horrible for you

Agree, it's so difficult for the aspiring medics waiting and waiting, and dc still waiting for their preferred unis to make a decision.

I guess dcs who only submitted their UCAS in time for the end of January deadline aren't feeling this at all but for us oxbridge/medicine/veterinary etc early applicants it really does feel like a long old haul.

@BigWoollyJumpers and @Jan069 . Such a difficult time .. I hope things get easier for you both x

@Revengeofthepangolins
Yes DS asked his college for a breakdown of all his scores and got them although his 2 interviews were shown as a combined score out of 10 rather than 2 separate scores.

Still a fair bit of the white stuff about today, much to the delight of dpup. We've had internet issues this morning, fortunately both dc appear to be able to connect via phones but it's a bit slow. Really quite looking forward to half term now...how's everyone else doing?

I was just thinking about some of your children today as I had to go to UCL for a covid vaccine trial follow up. I walked from Kings Cross and really felt as though I was pretty much on UCL campus from a few metres from the station. There's even a new (since my time though didn't look new new) big halls of residence opposite the law faculty. When I was there I never thought about my experiences because it was just where I was and the only place that gave me an offer and I was very grateful - though I had a great time - but today reminded me how very much of a campus feel within a city it has. I took this photo for those of you who are still wondering what a UCL experience would be like for your children.

@chopc are you starting a new thread? I think my message now takes us to 997.

@quest1on how did you find out about the number of spaces available for the college your Ds applied to at C? Just curious to see where the info came from to look up Ds's college stats.

OntheBench - he only knows this through talking to the boy who did receive the offer (as this boy has had some communication with the admissions for that college and was told he was the only one from the 2021 cohort.

Chopc - hope you are ok? Is it worth another thread, do we think?

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4162502-Another-Path-to-Greatness-Part-II

Let's keep it going for at least another thread. Then if we run out of steam, we can all decamp to the general 2021 starters thread.