Another Path to Greatness - Part II

[BigWoollyJumpers]

Here we are.

[quote Wbeezer]@SeasonFinale numbers of Scottish students have been strictly capped for years so it's not them who are displacing English students and hardly any Scottish students go to English unis anyway due to the fees ( and our lower maintenance loans don't help). Scottish students have to get higher grades on average than rUK students to get on the same courses at St Andrews and have a lower acceptance rate.
I'm a lurker on these threads as DS did not go to Oxbridge because he refused to apply, leaving me with unsatisfied curiosity about the whole thing. He certainly ended up with good d enough grades but was not confident about interviews etc. He is very happy at St Andrews and finds it academically challenging and the lifestyle suits him too (in normal times!)[/quote]
Historically maybe, but it is different this year and indeed will be next year. Specifically dentistry and medicine but also spilling over to other subjects. There are a number of factors at play and advice for 2022 applicants from England would be to restrict applications to Scottish unis to one because of the issues. If you have an inside track into something different please do share.

[quote SATSmadness]**@bendmeoverbackwards How odd, it was year 9's testing positive at my DCs school too, although more than 2 of them and the younger sibling of one of them !

What is it about year 9s ?[/quote]
Maybe 13/14 is that rebellious age! I can imagine Years 7 and 8 are young and scared to put a foot wrong, and older age groups are more mature and sensible to take precautions. I've seen a lot of hugging going on!

@MidLifeCrisis007 I really feel for your ds. Surely for those with grades in hand, the decision should be easy! I'm keeping everything crossed for you.

I think, even if unis believe a candidate is an Oxbridge “dead cert” based on grades, PS and reference, they can’t possibly know how the interview went

Yes I agree. Even pre-Covid the whole admissions process is a mystery according to my neighbour who went through it with both her dc (her dd got into Oxford, her ds didn't). Some fantastically clever applicants being turned down and others getting in who didn't appear to be Oxbridge material.

@chopc as they say, "every day is a school day", always more stuff that any of us don't know than we do

Anyway its Friday, post 5.30 and Durham are moving.

What subjects @SeasonFinale?

Fingers crossed for all those on this thread waiting for Durham! 🤞

Law
CHSS
Modern European Languages with History
Politics

Will check later - we appear to have a few stragglers for history, economics and English but all others in.

Come on Durham with some nice offers for our friends here please!

hoping some offers come in soon for those still waiting x

I’ve got a horrible feeling that dd will be the very last to be informed and then it will be a no. I’ve lost all my positivity ☹️

Rooting for your DD bend

If TSR is anything to go by I think quest1on is right about thinking some Uni's have over offered before and are left in a position to reject top caliber candidates .......... I have been following Durham, UCL, Imperial and LSE threads and all have similar stories

@bendmeoverbackwards no news is good news - she is still in the running

Yes we had a maths with Cambridge and Imperial offers rejected by UCL as their application as they had a high number of applicants and their application was not considered to be as strong as others.

And a 4 A*/all 9s med with 4 rejections because they would not listen to advice re strategic applications

Out of interest - how do you apply strategically with medicine and why doesn't it apply to all subjects?

I thought it meant you apply for where you want for the top two choices then to less popular Unis for other 2?

There are BMAT unis and UCAT unis. If applying for Oxbridge they only take the Autumn BMAT so after you apply so in effect you apply without knowing your score.

Then they all have different weighting and how they select using different criteria so you need to work out best fit for you.

Exeter until this year used to interviews everyone with 3 x A* predictions. This year they didn't and their cut off UCAT was 3050 rather than 2850 in other years.

Some use gcses to get you through first stage and then don't count them again. Some still retain them in later rankings so if your UCAT is less secure you may choose them.

The good thing is they are very transparent about how they rank. The difference this year was 21% more applicants and a higher number of second time round with high grades in hand, which saw a higher UCAT than usual needed at some.

Last year one uni even changed their criteria after 15 October. I can't remember for sure possibly Leicester or UEA? This obviously was not usual or helpful!

So you definitely need to open up Excel and map it out.

This is the go to place for wannabe medics
www.themedicportal.com/application-guide/

Thanks Season. Let's see if my daughter will choose that route.......

I always hoped one of my dcs would go down the medical route, sadly none of them are even interested in STEM let alone medicine. My youngest is Y8 and says she wants to do Classics at Uni, I'm wondering what the chances are she'll swivel towards medicine by the time she chooses her A levels?

I'm wondering what the chances are she'll swivel towards medicine by the time she chooses her A levels?

DS1 at that age wanted to be a carpenter. Then (having realised what a terrible mistake choosing GCSE DT had been and not being at all unhappy that Mum didn't argue at all with the school's suggestion / request that he should drop it) an English teacher. Which confused the hell out of me when he chose all three sciences and maths for A level, but that in turn made a bit more sense when he applied to study Biochemistry. Now for his masters is back to the everything that Mum and Dad never really wanted to know about dinosaurs of his early years...

Did your DD ever try to take her dolly's appendix out at nursery?

Is anyone’s dc attending the Durham open day today? Dd thinks it’s extremely unfair that it’s for offer holders only and it looks like it’s the last one this year. Even if she gets a late offer, she might be at a disadvantage for accommodation either at Durham or elsewhere.

@Vargas

I always hoped one of my dcs would go down the medical route, sadly none of them are even interested in STEM let alone medicine. My youngest is Y8 and says she wants to do Classics at Uni, I'm wondering what the chances are she'll swivel towards medicine by the time she chooses her A levels?

DD1 moved away from Medicine to BioMed. DM was very sad, but it was a good call. More money, less stress.