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Original poster

Another Path to Greatness - Part II

999 replies

BigWoollyJumpers · 11/02/2021 12:52

Here we are.

OP posts:
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9
bendmeoverbackwards · 22/03/2021 23:48

@Chilldonaldchill thank you for your kind words. DD’s course is Ancient and Modern History, I wonder if they lump it together with straight History?

Has anyone heard of any outcomes for AMH at Durham at all, be they offers or rejections?

LoonvanBoon · 22/03/2021 23:52

Yes, good luck to your daughter bend. Surely they can't keep people waiting much longer?

Didn't realise it was normally as high as 60% of History candidates receiving offers!

Chilldonaldchill · 23/03/2021 00:00

I hadn't either but I think it says it here:
studyatdurham.microsoftcrmportals.com/en-us/knowledgebase/article/KA-02397

I think I agree with your DH @LoonvanBoon - that they just want to get the right number of students and are trying their best with a new algorithm to achieve that. Your dt2 and my dd are lucky but this process appears to be being absolutely brutal to others - hopefully your dt1 and bend's daughter will be on the right side of their decision making.

(A friend of mine has long insisted that she thinks that D are aware of who has O/C offers. It can't be true can it?)

SeasonFinale · 23/03/2021 00:20

You have to remember that you can apply to only Oxford or Cambridge but both sets of applicants are quite likely to apply to Durham, along with other high achievers who do not want to go the Oxbridge route so they have far more applicants to go through coupled with a later than usual equal consideration date, more deferred places, a higher percentage likely to meet their offers because there is no natural deselection by dropping grades on exams day for whatever reason (e.g. bad day, wrong questions). The reality is it is mainly high achievers applying for competitive courses and on a year where places are limited due to extraordinary circumstances there will be more rejections than usual purely because they do not want to be in the same situation as they were last year.

Durham are notoriously late with some of their offers, particularly English and humanities. They tend to make a certain number at the top/contextual and then have to wait to be able to give true equal consideration to the rest. Because there are fewer offers at the highly competitive unis this year fewer may have firmed up their Oxbridge offers as early this year thus not releasing them from an obligation they may have to commit to.

There is feedback on track but it can be as generic as your application is not deemed by us to be as strong as those of other applicants. We had one where they stated there was insufficient critical analysis (but that had an Oxbridge offer). Remember it is a subjective decision and what suits one admissions tutor may not suit another. There is no conspiracy theory. To those thinking back to our day remember far fewer people went to university back then.

Longtimenewsee · 23/03/2021 07:20

Gosh when you think of it like that, Durham’s task this year looks nigh on impossible. Just like Cambridge , they are probably having to turn away stellar candidates who in a normal year would have had a place. It’s such a brutal year for our dc .

chopc · 23/03/2021 08:09

All our kids would have have great applications - the way everyone perceives those applications are different. On another day the Oxbridge rejected DC may have had an offer. So actually why are we shocked that Durham has rejected some DC with Oxbridge offers? I know there is a process that we know about at Oxbridge and I don't think we know the process in Durham.

goodbyestranger · 23/03/2021 08:24

I can see a pattern at this late stage, I think. Durham had the rug tugged under its feet mid way through the cycle remember, with the cancellation of 2021 exams. That won't help the smoothness of a policy or strategy and will give an appearance of chaos when in fact what's happening now is probably damage limitation.

Is your DD at a grammar or a non selective state chilldonaldchill?

goodbyestranger · 23/03/2021 08:25

chopc Durham has always kept its strategies for selection close to its chest - any Ho6 will tell you that.

Chilldonaldchill · 23/03/2021 08:25

It's partially selective.

goodbyestranger · 23/03/2021 08:31

Her grades are fab. Did she do her GCSEs at the same school or did she move for sixth form? (nosy :)).

IrmaFayLear · 23/03/2021 08:33

People are also forgetting that in any normal year Cambridge expects a considerable portion of students to fail to meet the grades. That is why they over-offer. Every single year there are many, many very disappointed young people on results day. This year - hardly any.

On ds's course there were two spare places. Two people had missed a grade. The college did not make exceptions and nor did they go down the list and make an offer to anybody who had missed out.

So the same number of students are going to Cambridge as per normal. It's just that this year they are behaving more like Oxford and performing the cull (excuse brutality of word) earlier in the process. And, I suppose, they are doing the culling rather than students "self-culling" by missing grades.

Durham must be spinning in circles. It does seem that they - unlike Oxbridge - were crossing their fingers all would be back to normal regarding external exams and at first were offering as usual. Now they're faced with a mile-high stack of unsortable applications.

goodbyestranger · 23/03/2021 08:35

Exactly Irma. I think there is method in the madness rather than an eenie meenie thing going on.

goodbyestranger · 23/03/2021 08:43

I wonder if, perversely, it will mean more independently schooled applicants go to Durham this year?

Chilldonaldchill · 23/03/2021 08:46

@goodbyestranger

Her grades are fab. Did she do her GCSEs at the same school or did she move for sixth form? (nosy :)).
She's been there from year 7. We're very lucky - the school really helps students achieve their potential. I don't want to put too much info on a forum though. PM if you want more details Wink
goodbyestranger · 23/03/2021 09:04

No quite understood Chilldonaldchill. I've extracted enough info to satisfy my curiosity! Thanks.

Chilldonaldchill · 23/03/2021 10:08

For completeness I checked with dd this morning. The reason given for her lack of offer was that her PS didn't show enough critical analysis of history.

chopc · 23/03/2021 10:17

Yes goodbye- so your educated and experienced input in an opinion and not more.

And Irma I mentioned this before but what you have said about empty seats is not right in all situations- as I mentioned a close family friend's son didn't meet the entry requirements exactly but they still took him after a day. That is why they have the summer pool which I assume may be empty this year

Chilldonalchill - congratulations on your DC Cambridge offer. She wouldn't have been able to insure Durham anyway due to the grade requirements being the same?

fiveoldteddies · 23/03/2021 10:27

Intersting to hear from dc this morning that from her school at least 3 got a Durham offer. I don't think the school usually has many going to Durham.(No one who applied to OC got in).

In the meanwhile....sigh...dc still waiting to hear from 2 unis (incl her no
1 preference, above O)

LoonvanBoon · 23/03/2021 10:40

Chilldonaldchill, how did your D get the feedback from Durham? DT2 didn't mention feedback.

IrmaFayLear · 23/03/2021 10:47

Well, I suppose it depends on college and course. Ds’s prof told me that it would be unfair to take people with dropped grades (barring extenuating circs I’m sure) when others who exceeded their grades hadn’t had an offer.

You may know someone who was let in, chopc, but it’s not something to bank on. Admissions officers on tsr have said not to bother ringing and pleading. I expect they look at each case, but as a rule it’s a no, particularly at Oxford where the standard offers should be a walk in the park for someone who has achieved an offer.

SATSmadness · 23/03/2021 11:12

@fiveoldteddies Out of curiosity were there any contextual/widening participation applicants amongst those 3 ?

From what I've seen at DD's school and from elsewhere in the country too, applicants that Uni's need to meet ongoing improved equality of access numbers/targets are not experiencing the same level of disappointment as their fellow applicants alongside whom they are applying.

I think it would be a fair assumption that it would not have been considered acceptable for those applications to be subjected to the the unusually high number of "disappointments" having to be meted out to excellent candidates by the admissions staff at the most generally oversubscribed Uni's/courses this year. Hence the chances of an offer from somewhere like Durham fell yet again for a current Y13 by comparison with earlier year's cohorts.

Chilldonaldchill · 23/03/2021 11:13

@LoonvanBoon

Chilldonaldchill, how did your D get the feedback from Durham? DT2 didn't mention feedback.
It was apparently on track. Just one line.
Chilldonaldchill · 23/03/2021 11:15

@chopc

Yes goodbye- so your educated and experienced input in an opinion and not more.

And Irma I mentioned this before but what you have said about empty seats is not right in all situations- as I mentioned a close family friend's son didn't meet the entry requirements exactly but they still took him after a day. That is why they have the summer pool which I assume may be empty this year

Chilldonalchill - congratulations on your DC Cambridge offer. She wouldn't have been able to insure Durham anyway due to the grade requirements being the same?

Thanks I'm just feeding back on here to add to the picture. I know she wouldn't have insured a D offer and think she should have withdrawn really (and very glad it didn't make a difference to anyone else that she didn't).
SATSmadness · 23/03/2021 11:18

@IrmaFayLear

That was my understanding of the logic applied to the situation too (regarding dropped grades) but empty seats means reduced funds and to have made one candidate an offer over another in the first place might indicate that their interview performance allowed the candidate to exhibit a certain something that exam results might not (just hypothesising here) so who knows if they all abide by the same principles.

IrmaFayLear · 23/03/2021 11:23

I think reduced funds means less to some institutions than others. Recruiting universities will be desperate to fill their places; a few missing bums is less problematic for the big names.