Oxford and Cambridge current students

[sandybayley]

Nearly filled up the old one...

@HuaShan - that's so sad. I'm sad for your DS and I'm sad for you.

I'm sorry HuaShan. It's been incredibly tough, especially for the first years.

I can feel your disappointment HuaShan. All we want is for our DC to be happy and fulfilled and like all of us you probably hoped that your DS would trot off with barely a backward glance and quickly become engrossed by new friendships, new experiences. It is a crying shame that this hasn't happened; shame on, well, a lot of people who made bad decisions (and that is not even with the benefit of hindsight).

When he does finally return to O I imagine he will find plenty of others who have had a subpar first year and are eager to make up for it. He won't be the only one. I do hope he's still glad he's at Oxford and that this is one consolation at least.

Just read your post HuaShan and want to add my sympathies. Agree strongly with SnapSnapDragon about shame on the decision makers. With luck, October will be a new dawn for your DS and all those who feel as he does.

I'm so sorry for your DS @HuaShan I know that if D1 hadn't finally been allowed to return to college (O) she would have been the same, and we were really relieved when she was allowed back. Absolutely echo the feelings about how tough it has been for all of them - from applications, interviews, nightmare around results day etc - and then to have achieved places and for it all to have been so disappointing and stressful for their first year. And so much of it avoidable and due to poor decisions from DoE and some lack of care from colleges.

I hope as Goodbye says that October will be a bit of a new dawn.

I'm sorry too @HuaShan but I do echo the thoughts of others that our DC have been the scapegoats in this shitshow. Once their exams are over and hopefully more of them are vaccinated, as concerned parents, we need to remind them of their rights at the ballot box. It upsets and annoys me so much that one of my young gobby colleagues moans about no money for board pens but can't get off her arse to vote "as it's all a waste of time".

I know this is of little comfort to anyone, but thank heavens these DC aren't currently going through the utter shambles that is the GCSE and A level clusterfuck this year. I'm procrastinating from doing my share of the double-marking of some A level assessments - I spent most of Easter marking EPQs. Performance moderation comes next week for A level, then we start on the GCSEs. In a normal year, we do lots of practice questions, the practical stuff is marked by us then externally moderated, or marked externally and we are winding down by now. The government has had a year to sort things out yet we're running round like headless chickens. This same government that has given out confusing and misleading info to the universities leaving our DC up the creek.

Political rant over. I'll go and mark essays on Haydn instead...

Thank you all, I'm feeling less bleak today, DS was a bit flat yesterday but today seems better for having made a decision. Malbecfan I agreed our dc have dodged a bullet and this year has been truly horrible for Y11 and 13. At least our dc got the interview experience and actually started their courses. I am hopeful DS will just 'get on with it' in October.

I'm glad he's feeling a bit better, @HuaShan it's been so hard for all the freshers, missing out on so many opportunities within college and on meeting others in their courses, clubs, sports.
As you say, hopefully things are better in October. I just wondered if there might be communication and 'outreach' over the summer, whether that's from tutors, JCR or informal student groups. Something to keep him tethered to the others, so it's not a social drought then diving into an icy pool in October.

Really sorry to read about your DS's overall experience of first year @HuaShan, but glad he's feeling more positive now. My DD's group of friends are, almost without exception, people that she first met online over summer 2020 (so before even starting the course), on endless Zoom chats for both her college and her subject. None of her close friends are in her household (she really didn't get on with her Michaelmas household, and when she went back for Trinity recently she was allowed to move into a new household which is working out much better socially, but it's early days for her to have become really close to these new housemates). Maybe Zoom chats/WhatsApp groups for your DS's subject/college will continue over this summer, which he could tap into and which might allow him to make some new connections without too much pressure...

Yes, I'm encouraging him to stay in touch with course mates via Whattsapp. I don't think he's actually met any of them apart from his tutorial partner. I'm not sure Mathematicians are the most social of people, their group chat seems mostly about Maths! (Apologies for the gross generalisation!)

Visited DS yesterday and had a lovely time punting, followed by a hearty pub supper. (Can recommend The Red Lion in Grantchester — after all recommendations on this thread were booked!). He seems chirpier about life if not about work. Latest details to enrage me: it emerges that the college has bookable marquees where some supervisors have been teaching all along... but not DS’s. And they’ve been sent a lecture which should be 1 hour long but is 1 hr 45 min. When students complained, the lecturer told them to watch it at double speed... This is just one small part of an unmanageable workload.

@PantTwizzler I'm glad you had a good visit with him. I have heard that some lecturers have been going way over the hour.

I had a video call with DS, which was lovely.
He feels that the difficulty of the work and the pace of learning have really stepped up this term. He only just has time to consolidate a concept before they move on to the next one. Last term he spent some time each week recapping previous material, but hasn't been able to do that this term.

On the positive side, he has had some interesting face-to-face Materials practicals (he told me what they were but it went in one ear and out the other). And they are now allowed to eat in hall (with Covid distancing measures in place) as an alternative to a take-away.

He has made a few online friends through a hobby-based society, but none of them are in his year, college or subject, and he hasn't yet met them in real life. He has made some acquaintances in college, but doesn't seem to know any of them very well yet. e.g. there's someone he goes for a walk with sometimes, but he doesn't know their name. It's difficult to know how much of that is due to the pandemic, and how much is due to DS's neurodivergence. He seems happy enough though.

We're planning to do a mid-term visit in a couple of weeks.

That sounds like a good visit Pant.

It does make me laugh slightly ironically when people at other universities have little left to do this term. One friends dc finished everything in a weeks time.

HuaShan Third year Cambridge maths chat is equally unchatty. I just don't think that many of them are so good at that. At least when things happen in person they can stand around awkwardly with each other.

I had a nice chat with dd this weekend too. It's all exam prep this term, but as they get to select which subjects they take to exam she's very content. Just waiting to see now if they will be allowed to stay over summer if they have a research placement. Pre-covid there would have been no problem.

@Malbecfan

I'm sorry too *@HuaShan* but I do echo the thoughts of others that our DC have been the scapegoats in this shitshow. Once their exams are over and hopefully more of them are vaccinated, as concerned parents, we need to remind them of their rights at the ballot box. It upsets and annoys me so much that one of my young gobby colleagues moans about no money for board pens but can't get off her arse to vote "as it's all a waste of time".

I know this is of little comfort to anyone, but thank heavens these DC aren't currently going through the utter shambles that is the GCSE and A level clusterfuck this year. I'm procrastinating from doing my share of the double-marking of some A level assessments - I spent most of Easter marking EPQs. Performance moderation comes next week for A level, then we start on the GCSEs. In a normal year, we do lots of practice questions, the practical stuff is marked by us then externally moderated, or marked externally and we are winding down by now. The government has had a year to sort things out yet we're running round like headless chickens. This same government that has given out confusing and misleading info to the universities leaving our DC up the creek.

Political rant over. I'll go and mark essays on Haydn instead...

My younger dd is in Y11 . What with dd1 having had her first year this year in Cambridge I feel we've really been hit , educationally speaking.

Kaptain we are in the same position. I worry that kids that are currently 15 - 22 Yo will always be disadvantaged because they missed chunks of their syllabus'

In good news.... "Following a review, the government has announced that in-person teaching and learning should resume for all students alongside Step 3, which will take place no earlier than 17 May."

I've got a y11 too Kaptain - no wonder I've started grinding my teeth, haha

I have a Year 11 (DS2) as well. With DS1 and DD impacted last year I'm starting to wonder if any of my children will ever take exams 😬

Oxford have published the 2020 admissions statistics. I recall that several of us obsessively pored over previous versions of this document and it's nice to be able to see our DC in the stats finally. Interesting, too, to see the scale of the increase in admissions last year and the changes in demographics.

Thanks, @SnapSnapDragon. Lots of detail for stats nerds! Here's the link. www.ox.ac.uk/about/facts-and-figures/admissions-statistics/undergraduate-students/current

Thanks Snap & Dad if I had seen the acceptance rates for DD's college before her offer I would have encouraged her to apply elsewhere. Her course stats weren't that much better.

Fascinating stuff. I could waste hours noodling round those stats. Amused to see that DD1’s subject, DD2’s desired subject, and my subject are the three easiest to get in to 😬

Lovely people, I need your advice. DD has just messaged to ask whether or not to have her middle names on her degree certificate. I know she still has exams to go but whatever happens in them, she is a BA(Hons) already - this is her Masters year, so we aren't jinxing anything I hope!

So wise MNers, middle name(s) or not? DD's 1st name is only 5 letters, surname 6. 2 middle names 7 & 5 so should be ok for space.
Thank you as ever - I may ask the 2017 people too.

Malbecfan, I vote yes to your DD having her middle names on her certificate. It fully identifies her as uniquely her and includes names that you and her father will have specifically chosen for her for a reason and there aren't that many times in life when middle names are used or displayed. I always want DS1 and DS2 to include their two middle names each on everything but they sometimes choose differently!

PantTwizzler, I'm pleased to hear you had a good trip to Cambridge. How annoying thought that your DS's supervisors don't do f-2-f supervisions despite bookable marquees and others providing in that way. DS1 (C) has had some f-2-f supervisions and some not and DS2 (O) only on Zoom sadly.

Ironoaks, your DS is an engineer I think? Sorry if I'm wrong. Engineers are the main people DS has in his corridor and they're a really friendly bunch and invite him to hang out with them, although he has nothing really in common with their interests but he's getting on very well with them all. However, he has said that they have an enormous amount of work compared to him. So your DS is doing fantastically well to keep up in any way at all and should be very proud of himself for managing.

My DS1 and DS2 now seem to be doing a lot of socialising, DS2 far more than DS1 still. DS1 (C) has some connections - via an old school friend in a higher year - with others from a shared interest/society. He's also getting on very well with his household despite them keeping such late hours to what he'd prefer (bed around 3am if he wants to join in) and feels comfortable with this, although he'd still like to meet more arts/humanities students in his college. DS2 (O) seems to be 'burning the candle at both ends' and has lots of organised get-togethers related to various activities plus deepening friendships with a few people from college. I have no idea how I'm going to keep up with them both once they're home again - which actually feels scarily soon!

I really hope things will continue to open up for our DCs rather than needing to lockdown again. I still find it very sad when I see my DCs enthusing about being allowed to do something that, not very long ago, would have been taken for granted as a normal part of life.

Oh good question @Malbecfan - I don't know, is this for Oxford or Cambridge? I've just looked at DH's one (Cambridge 90s) and the certificate is nothing special to look at, name is just in fairly small type. He's got two middle names, total no of letters 26 and it looks fine. D1 has 33 letters including her two middle names, and one of those is DH's surname so I think she will want her whole name on hers. (Touch wood)

Oh yes, I'd go for middle names, they make a name more unique. And as mutter says, they were carefully chosen and therefore deserve their moment in the spotlight.

I just crunched some numbers from the Oxford admissions report, looking particularly at progression through the process. The chance of an offer was 22% in both 2019 and 2020, with a marginally higher chance for independent schools but little in it. There is, unsurprisingly a big change in the ratio of offer to accept. It was 84% in 2019 and 97% in 2020. Here there is a quite a discrepancy between school types with independents increasing from 90% to 98% and state increasing from 82% to 96%. Oxford admitted 324 more students in 2020 than 2019. I'm not drawing any particular conclusions from this, just interesting to see last year's shitshow shenanigans reflected in the numbers.