Another Path to Greatness - Part II

[BigWoollyJumpers]

Here we are.

Thanks for the info chilldonaldchill - I'll ask DT2 to have a look later.

Yes, I gather some of the colleges are not shy about mentioning their robust financial position (aka wealth) too.

Remember now that for the first time last year Cambridge started an adjustment process which means that it is less likely that those with dropped grades are accepted as those places will be made available to those that have been notified by Cambridge after interview that they will qualify for an adjustment place should one become available.

SATSmadness no, definely not, but their course is a bit unusual/not as competitive I think

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

I'm not clear what this refers to chopc? I do have a little more than simply parental experience (so that might bit of my opinion might possibly count as at least informed opinion :)) but I'm not sure what I'm being criticized for here? Your comment is a bit out of the blue - happy for you to spell out what particular opinion of mine is valueless though, or are you being comprehensive and take the view that literally everything I say is rubbish?

might

That was first might not second might.

This is a strange year for sure. You could see on TSR that Durham was making offers very regularly during the Autumn term and the vast majority of these were contextual and international. UCL was also making a lot of offers in that period. I think both these unis have been caught unawares by the exam cancellation announcement, not to mention the extension of the UCAS deadline and this is why both are now having to make swathes of rejections to those with top grades. It’s no fault of the students - the unis have simply offered too much too soon. It does seem so unfair because I’m not sure what else these unfortunate students could have done. It will all come out in FOI requests no doubt, but then it’s too late.

It will be interesting to see how things pan out with LSE because, unlike Durham and UCL and most unis, they made no offers whatsoever until well after the UCAS deadline. They are a small institution (relative to UCL and Durham) but have very high applications to places ratio due to international popularity. Its nearing the end of March and LSE offers are only just trickling out in the last week or two, by the look of it. They have also had to extend their deadline for decisions from March 31st to April 16th. If DS doesn’t hear until then it will have taken 7 months! It’s so annoying because accommodation will be going at other unis in the meantime.

quest1ion, yes, I think I am happy LSE waited that long... But it's a bit nervewracking, LSE is dc prederred choice, more so than O.

I can’t believe Durham would have been so idiotic as to spray out contextual and international offers and then be caught out. If this is true then a few heads should roll - or be put on spikes for prospective students to pelt with rotten fruit.

Well, Durham’s loss is other places’ gain.

Irma they also made a number of 'ordinary' early offers for History and Law, to my certain knowledge (this is not opinion chopc :)). But they did seem to front load with the contextual offers. I'm not clear that that's more of a problem than front loading with those from wealthier postcodes/ higher achieving schools and then finding that there's no room at the inn for those justifying contextual offers. The problem seems to have come with the exams being cancelled and the knowledge that they had to change tack half way through the cycle. I said this some while ago (when it was mere conjecture, not
even opinion) because it was clear then that Durham was going to have a problem.

I’m also wondering if, faced with having to make tricky decisions between countless students with grades exceeding offer requirements, Durham is more inclined to offer to those who took the opportunity to write an alternative, Durham-specific PS? Maybe it shows willing to take up the place if offers? DS’ PS was very much tailored to LSE (because they are very specific that they put a LOT of emphasis on the PS) and also UCL (as it’s a similar course). He put nothing about extra-curricular because they state not to. He slightly changed the PS for Durham (though he almost didn’t bother), but now I’m thinking maybe he wouldn’t have got an offer if he’d just left it as it was?

I think both these unis have been caught unawares by the exam cancellation announcement

Well for top universities they are not very bright are they. It was pretty obvious that exams would not go ahead as normal even back in October.

The more that times goes on, the more pissed off I feel about the whole system. The universities don't seem to care at all about the students.

The whole system is wrong if you ask me. Why on earth does anyone think it's a good idea for offers to start going out before the deadline?? That doesn't happen in other circumstances. A deadline is set and once it is passed, ALL the applicants are considered TOGETHER before any offers are sent out. It's sheer madness to give offers before you have seen the full range of applicants.

In fact the whole A Level system needs an overhaul. When did we become this society that nothing less than an A is of value?

I was at university from 1992-1995. I did Chemistry at UCL and my offer was CCC (AND I narrowly missed it and they still took me). A Level grades should be more evenly spread. You can't get into a RG university without A or A* grades, that's madness.

It should be A or As for Oxbridge, As or Bs for Durham and Bs and Cs for other RG. Get rid of this A grade and award an equal number of students each grade from A to E.

Can you tell I'm cross today??

Re the D usually offer to 60%inf history , that is right but they also usually over offer by 3x, astonishingly, using the AstAA grade ask to thin out (alongside Oxbridge and of course some candidates choosing to go elsewhere), I assume therefor that they may have been able to make far far fewer offers this year, once the government’s repeated statements about A levels really really really definitely going ahead collapsed.

And @goodbyestranger your speculation that could there end up being more independent pupils at D this year , I doubt it, judging by the greatly reduced success rate at DS’s selective independent’s results.

Yes that was very speculative on my part Revenge and didn't take into account the early slew of contextual offers which would at the very least balance things out.

Well we have news finally.

It's a no from Durham for dd. She's in floods of tears, I'm not sure what to say to her.

Oh god no bend!!!

Now it's like bloody Oxford all over again. So her choices are now Exeter, do UCAS extra or take the year off and reapply. I'm hoping once she's had time to digest it, she might consider Exeter, she does like both the course and university.

I'm welling you now too....

Meant to say I'm welling up. So absolutely and utterly gutted for you. xxxx

I am so sorry @bendmeoverbackwards . Gutted for your DD

Looking at a table like this, though (from 2018-19), it didn't seem like most of the thinning out process at Durham - between offers and admissions - happened through students not achieving the high A level grades required, but through students not accepting the offers in the first place. So I'm quite confused.

The table is from Durham's website, under admissions statistics and under the heading Office for Student Transparency. It shows between two thirds and three quarters of applications receiving offers in the 2018-19 cycle, with only 17-18% of those who applied accepting the offers.

So if that's where most of the 'wastage' occurs, as with most non-Oxbridge universities I guess, why would they need to cut back offers as drastically as it appears they might be this year?

Oh shit, bend, I missed your post writing all that. I'm really sorry, I was so hoping your daughter would be one of the lucky ones .