Another Path to Greatness - Part II

[BigWoollyJumpers]

Here we are.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom luckily I do have friends whom I could talk to in real life - however the people who truly understand have been the strangers on this thread 🙈

Even my husband is sick of me ruminating so I come here and bare my feelings instead

@chopc sit here a while and tell us your woes then. I have always found MN to be a place where I can completely agree with some people and then feel I am on an alien planet at other times. But I like the pendulum swing

Dh is very involved in the whole process, watching videos of someone walking round Durham so he too can get a feel for the place. He is a massive planner as am I so he is being lovely listening to me talk about this thread

Think I might change my username from "Doom" at the end which was how I felt about the whole C process, just the waiting really which is why I really feel for everybody who has a DC stuck in limbo waiting for unis to make their decisions. It is March for goodness sake.

@Jan069 almost 'snap'
History:
Offered Durham and Nottingham
Waiting for St Andrews and Edinburgh

@BigWoollyJumpers DS will probably firm Exeter too. He has a virtual offer holder day in a couple of weeks but we had a campus tour booked on the 10th April, not heard yet if it will be cancelled. From what you're saying it probably will be.

If 'essential travel' is dropped on 29th March, then I presume that we can at least go and have a look at the campus /towns during the Easter holidays? We could do with looking at Bath too but that is A*AA and Exeter is BBB.

@calculatorqueen we are planning on driving to Durham in the Easter Holidays. It is fortunately an easy day trip for us but our fear is if we wait and then go into a local tiered lockdown we will have missed our chance to visit.

@OnTheBenchOfDoom As good as some of the virtual open days are, it's just not the same as a visit. I am hoping though that DS2 is more positive than DS1 who after arriving at the Exeter campus for an open day declared after 5 mins that it was not for him. We had driven nearly 3 hrs to get there!

@calculatorqueen ouch, I hope you at least had a lovely meal somewhere in Exeter.

And I agree, actually walking around gives you a much better idea of distance etc and just the feel for a place.

Another history here. Offers from Exeter and UCL from last term, waiting for St Andrew’s.

Not sure what he will go for - I suspect he is finding it hard to choose while not all options are clear.

The summing up is great, I find it hard to remember whose dc is doing what!

My dd is Ancient and Modern History (but now regrets applying for straight History☹️ ). Offers from Exeter, Manchester and Liverpool, still waiting for Durham.

*NOT applying, that should read

[quote calculatorqueen]@OnTheBenchOfDoom As good as some of the virtual open days are, it's just not the same as a visit. I am hoping though that DS2 is more positive than DS1 who after arriving at the Exeter campus for an open day declared after 5 mins that it was not for him. We had driven nearly 3 hrs to get there![/quote]
Oh no! What was it he didn’t like? Where did he end up going?

Hi all,

DS is Physics (applied for Natsci at Cambridge) - has offers from Imperial, UCL, Manchester and Bristol. He's pretty set on firming Imperial and insuring UCL as likes the thought of studying in London.

He attended the virtual UCL open day last week and loved it, which is great as he's saying he'd be happy to go there. He emailed Imperial as they've been dreadful throughout with their comms, to ask if they were doing similar- yes, they said, in April when all the offers have gone out - so I'm guessing some are still waiting.

On another note - has anyone's dc had their C feedback yet? I know the college DS applied to said by Easter, just curious really.

We are also hoping to plan some trips when allowed. Not sure if we'll bother with Manchester and Bristol as he seems determined to go to London and his insurance offer from
UCL of AAA should definitely be achievable for him - which is a shame as I really liked Bristol! Obviously it's not my choice though .

Would be nice to just have a wander round the general areas of the Imperial and UCL 'campuses' though. Those who know those two unis - any top tips?

I was also wondering the same about C feedback. There is a thread in the student room where some people have received feedback. Again there was a post about it being 20 page long which I think was said as a joke but sadly some people believed the poster ......

TSR is so full of tall tales. It was extraordinary how after Oxbridge interviews so many candidates were reporting having had extended interviews the interviewers were enjoying themselves so much talking “with” - not “to” the candidate and even learning things from the interviewee! People are either liars or incredibly bumptious.

Feedback of 20 pages indeed. 20 lines would be the absolute most anyone has ever received. I think ds got 20 words. “Fierce competition” yada yada...

Yep I'm not expecting much from it Irma, just curious really!

DS did actually get a really lengthy (three page) screed on rejection from Cambridge some years back, Irma. It described where he'd done well or badly, his profile compared with the average accepted, the level of allowance made for SEN, and a rather charming detail about their discussion of steam train mechanisms that went some way to soften the blow.

@Pumpkintopf. Your post made me smile as I was walking past imperial as read it - it is on my lock down walk route. Still bicycles there in the bike park although how many are just abandoned I don’t know. Also a Waitroaw trolley seemingly docked in the Boris bike bay, which adds a studenty touch.

I'm wondering how valuable any Oxbridge feedback will be from this exceptional application year.

On the one hand it might be possible that they'd includes a statement regarding the fact a substantial number of interviewees just had statistically much less chance of receiving an offer this year (due to the overall generosity extended to last year's applicants and the likelihood of there being no independent formal A Levels to whittle down offer holders to the number of places available).

On the other hand, this might encourage more unsuccessful applicants than usual (in pre-pandemic year ) to re-apply in the 2022 round, believing/hoping that for them it was reduction in availability of places that led to their post interview rejection. Some candidates in particular, i.e. the ones surer of making their grades.

I'm guessing that Oxbridge won't want to encourage those who weren't made an offer after interview this year, pooled or not, to re-apply in greater numbers than in a pre-pandemic year. This being in the hope that normality can be resumed as far as possible next year if this year's cohort just take the hit and move on.

@Revengeofthepangolins sounds terribly scenic I just want to get a feel for where everything is really - how close it all is and where it is so I can picture him there!

@bendmeoverbackwards
Sometimes your DC just won’t gel with a university or place. We had the same experience with DD over Exeter. We had actually stayed overnight!

The queue to get transport to the campus took 90 minutes. She missed a talk. We couldn’t find anywhere with a queue of less than 100m to get lunch. We went without. Managed to grab the last bag of crisps before we gave up and escaped. It was ludicrously busy. Potential students struggled to talk to anyone. Whole families sitting in subject talks. DD couldn’t get in despite booking. Parents were eventually asked by the university staff to leave. Just a bun fight from start to finish.

DD decided a city where you can cut loose made more sense. Exeter is like a continuation of boarding school and the mc students who flock there love it. Ex grammar and leafy Lane comps send lots there. Some people just prefer a bigger place but Exeter is very safe. You know exactly what you are getting and no shortage of similar mc DC.

Whole families in talks?? Just why?? How selfish apart from anything else, did it not occur to them they are taking up space that potential STUDENTS could have had?

Whole families sitting in subject talks

I remember this from when DD1 was looking. University staff pleading with large families, Mums and Dads, with small children in tow, packing into seminar halls with their precious entitled older child. It was carnage. Literally stand up rows, with the rest of the reasonable parents, just standing back and letting actual students in. It was awful.

@PresentingPercy what are mc students?

God, some people are wankers. I must say that's one aspect I'm not missing this time around. We mostly took DS plus a friend, so that they could look around the actual campus etc by themselves, but sometimes parents were expected on tours of accommodation or to finance talks. I'd manage to feel both irritated at certain brands of middle class smuggery, and inadequate about not being that kind of person myself.

@BigWoollyJumpers

Whole families sitting in subject talks

I remember this from when DD1 was looking. University staff pleading with large families, Mums and Dads, with small children in tow, packing into seminar halls with their precious entitled older child. It was carnage. Literally stand up rows, with the rest of the reasonable parents, just standing back and letting actual students in. It was awful.

OMG!