Another Path to Greatness - Part II

[BigWoollyJumpers]

Here we are.

@bendmeoverbackwards

They are brilliant GCSE’s! There will be just as many candidates with a much lower profile.

Neighbour got their offer for Durham PPE today after being redirected from Oxford.

Good luck to those still waiting.

Hurray found you all. @chopc great to see you back and thanks so much for the congratulations.

DS also had an offer through from UCL tonight - AAA, so I think he's minded to firm Imperial and insure UCL. He's very happy that either way he's going to London.

Obviously he needs to get the grades. We had his interim grade report today and he's down as getting an A in maths and physics- he needs A** stars in both for Imperial. However my understanding is this just represents an average of all assessments he's ever done since the start of year 12 and he hasn't had a grade lower than A star in the last 8 months so hopefully whatever the outcome of the Ofqual consultation all will be well...?!

@quest1on @ChimneyPot - thank you for sharing about your younger DC

Jan@069 - has the recent news about St Andrews students not being allowed back on campus the rest of the year swayed your DD towards Durham?

@Pumpkintopf I have often felt as though I would have actually paid attention in my lectures if I was back at Uni now! However retention of info is bad at my age so it wouldn't do any good anyway!

@PresentingPercy I didn't understand what you meant about History and Durham - did you mean to imply that if considering law afterwards, it's not a good idea?

@OnTheBenchOfDoom @Outlier - sad to hear about your childhoods and kudos for who you are today!

@Jan069 @BigWoollyJumpers glad the funerals went well

Wow @Pumpkintopf ! That's your DS sorted!

Yeah I also worry about the TAG's. DS a has low stake mocks first week of March. But he will treat at high stakes ......

I hope they get some time back at school.

I have always thought the journey was as important as the destination and it only occurred to me that I had been thinking that Oxbridge was the destination. However University will be the beginning of the next journey of DS's life as a legal adult but still with the support and guidance of his parents ..........

Hopefully so @chopc ! He's still going to try adjustment IF it's on offer which let's face it it may well not be - but he has stopped talking about retaking the year and trying to teach himself further maths in the next three months..!

How are you?

@Pumpkintopf wow well done to your ds, fabulous news! He’ll have a great time being a student in London.

Thanks bend I really hope so - it's lovely to see him getting excited about it.

Thanks for that link @Applepieco. History is lower than I thought.

I suspect, with fewer people likely to miss offers this year, the offer rate will be somewhat lower across the board... particularly for the more competitive subjects.

Perhaps today will be the day when they send out those long awaited history offers. I hope so. DS still has absolutely zero offers which is really unsettling.

Your poor ds @MidLifeCrisis007 where else has he applied? Fingers crossed for some good news soon.

Durham x 2 - for History and History and MFL (he would actually prefer the latter)
St Andrews - History and MFL
Exeter - History

He got a perfect score at GCSEs which should add credence to his A level results.

@MidLifeCrisis007

Can only assume there will be less offers across the board? Only 25% of applicants normally meet their UCAS predictions - all the Uni’s know that. But students can still only go to one Uni!

Did your DS apply to Exeter at the same time as his others?

No - Durham and Oxford (History) were done back in early October IIRC and then he added the other 3 post rejection - so only about 3 weeks ago.

Last year he got an Exeter offer within 45 minutes!

He's also still waiting for his Oxford feedback despite him sending 2 reminders (plus the original request on 12th January).

Hope you hear soon @MidLifeCrisis007 ........ it's still early days for St. Andrews and Exeter given he only submitted application a couple of weeks ago. I think loads are waiting for St. Andrews still

@MidLifeCrisis007

Ah ok! I was surprised he had not heard back from Exeter, but that now makes sense - DS heard the next day! He still maintains it looks like the best History course - even though he’s chosen Bristol.

There is a lot to be said about Exeter. The only downside could be that his sister will be applying there for medicine as her likely first choice come September.....

DS knows lots of freshers at Exeter who are having a great time. The same is not true of some other universities where Covid restrictions have meant a totally miserable and meaningless existence for many.

@MidLifeCrisis007

Yes - have heard that that lots of freshers are happy at Exeter. Similar situation - DS really liked the look of Nottingham, it has very high contact hours for History. But as his sister is there, so it was ruled out immediately!

It sounds like your DS is reapplying this year, or have I misinterpreted that? Did he not have offers to carry over from last year?

I hesitate as I post this as I don't want to be insensitive to those still waiting for Durham offers....

DD has found out she's been allocated Collingwood College at Durham which is her first choice, so she's really happy.

If it's any consolation, DS was still waiting for his Durham offer this time two years ago and frustrated that others were already being allocated colleges before the bulk of offers had been made.

I don't think DD got an email notification, I think she had to login to see the college allocation.

Great news for your dd @Jan069 don’t feel bad posting, we want to share all news, good and bad!

The college allocation is worrying dd, surely if you receive a late offer you will miss out on your top choice of college?

@Jan069 so our kids will now deffo meet ..........

Like a previous poster said - we have to have something to worry about 🙈. With Durham, as your college identity is "ingrained"'in the first year when you live in Halls, I wonder how the current freshers are feeling?

I am fairly confident though, things will be better in September

Congrats to junior @Jan069

Collingwood is a lovely, and particularly well invested (due to a v kind alumni), college.

Congratulations @Jan069.

DS is ‘waiting’. If your dd didn’t get an email, where did she log in to find out?

Re the allocation of colleges and dc with no offers yet. I believe they will only be allocating the same percentage of college spaces as they have sent out offers - if that makes sense.
So say they have 10 places for history students in St Mary’s but have only offered 50% of their total history places, they will only allocate 5 history students to St Mary’s in this first round.

Ooh! DS has just texted me (from upstairs) to say he’s been offered collingwood.
He really wanted a Bailey college, so not sure if this will mean he prefers Bristol or not.