Another path to greatness - part III

[chopc]

Here is the new thread

We need some good news on this thread, I’ve lost track who is still waiting for what....?

Keeping everything crossed for anyone still waiting for offers.

@bendmeoverbackwards My Ds is at Exeter and absolutely loves it, the campuses, the small walkable city, surrounding countryside nearness to sandy beaches. He has made some great friends in halls and living with them all still. They do match with similar interests. He has been there nearly 3 years out of 5 for medicine and doesn't want to leave so may intercalate there for another year.
With regards to adjustment, you mentioned if going this route it stills leaves an element of uncertainty and there is something to be said of knowing where you will be going in September. We had a trip down in the Summer before and had a look at halls, near GP, the city, gym supermarkets etc so that he was familiar with the surrounding area when he started.

I really am not anticipating any top ones being in clearing.

@bendmeoverbackwards

We need some good news on this thread, I’ve lost track who is still waiting for what....?

Keeping everything crossed for anyone still waiting for offers.

I have all my digits crossed for @SATSmadness 's dd - awaiting a med school offer.

I'm so sorry for those being redirected from Durham. There was a mum on wiwikau yesterday saying the same had happened to her DS. All A* predictions and school said PS was especially strong.

I agree they're worried about over offering and don't think they'll be in clearing.

It seems very unfair again.

@LoonvanBoon I'm so sorry for your DT1. The thing that's hard to fathom is why this has happened to so many excellent candidates. Like you, several of those who have D offers whom we know are way "weaker" on paper and that just doesn't make sense. Why do D not want the most academic candidates? I'm not surprised you are angry. After the year all our children have had, I think we just want them all to have something they really wanted to look forward to.
I hope he bounces back soon - where are his other offers from?

@bendmeoverbackwards, I've only just logged on here since this morning - I'm sure she was angry and upset and frustrated last night (and of course you were in the firing line ) but the fact that she has bounced back so quickly is testament to her resilience. I'm sure Exeter (should she choose to go there) will be so lucky to have her - and all the others redirected there this year.

Loonsvan - so you have twins with identical (top possible) grades; one with an Oxford offer, but both rejected from Durham. AND they achieved these grades from a non-selective school! What do Durham actually want?

I’m so sorry. This kind of situation makes a mockery of the whole process.

Basically, Durham (and UCL and no doubt others) have offered too much to soon and they ran out of places, at which point they have rejected everyone regardless.

These DC have done all they could, but been caught out by a shift in cover offer ratios following the announcement of A-level cancellations. It’s very difficult for them when they’ve done everything right, but, ultimately, outcomes are determined by what are administrative circumstances beyond their control.

Yeah I don’t like the narrative that those form widening participation backgrounds are taking places away from those with more privilege backgrounds.

If that was the case then everyone is free to move to a low POLAR area, send their kids to a ‘needs improvement’ state school and presumably they would just walk into Oxbridge.

Obviously no one would do this as we all know going to a better school and having a better education and living in a ‘better’ area gives educational advantage.

They are simply correcting for that adavantage nowadays so of course the demographic is changing.

I’ve heard many employees are now doing blind applications and have never heard of any filtering out Oxbridge. If that is now resulting in less Oxbridge graduates getting in then I guess it does say something about the real difference in quality between Oxbridge graduates and others.

quest10n this doesn't explain the people getting rejected from LSE as they gave out no offers til a couple of weeks ago and even Imperial whom I think were very careful with their offers

My friend's DS got rejected from Imperial with predicted 45 in IB with offers from
UCL, Edinburgh, Manchester and Bristol ........

Sorry to go off current topic and jump in. Seasonfinale hope you don’t mind me picking your brains but just wondering whether you have any students awaiting Edinburgh? Would be good to hear from them soon!

@cinammonbuns some people do withdraw their kids from private schools and put them in state school for this reason. I know people in RL who have done this

We have had a few Edinburgh offers but many still waiting. The Scottish unis are generally slower with their main batches.

Durham have merely done what they always do. They make a certain number of early offers based on historic criteria matching and then they need to stop and wait until the equal consideration deadline passes to assess the remainder as they are obliged to give equal consideration to any received prior to that date. Some courses have more applicants than others and thus those who may look academically less able on paper may still be the best candidates for those courses.

Judging a personal statement is a subjective process and I am sure your DC have not seen the personal statement submitted by his "less academic" classmate. Whilst I understand the disappointment of not being selected I am not liking the 'dissing' of those who have got offers who presumably do meet the predicted grade requirement otherwise their application there would have been a wasted space on their form.

[quote chopc]@cinammonbuns some people do withdraw their kids from private schools and put them in state school for this reason. I know people in RL who have done this

[/quote]
If you mean for sixth form then they are seriously misinformed because it is the school where you take GCSEs that is considered too.

IB is often not suitable for Imperial if they choose the wrong HLs and SLs combinations whatever their predicted score. Approximately 1% of people get a 45 so there must have been another factor which saw him make the no pile.

@chopc as @SeasonFinale said they contextually GCSE in the school they did them so doing that would be completely pointless.

SeasonFinale I think you may be on to something there. it's entirely possible that when the exams were cancelled in spite of the repeated assurances that they absolutely would not be, Durham reverted to its old policy of putting significant weight on the personal statements of those remaining in the pile for consideration. It's inconceivable that these decisions are random, and the fact that the grades don't seem to be the deciding factor suggests that the invisible part of the application now have primacy in a way that they haven't in recent years.

Goodness please feel free to insert the correct grammar in that post!

I did not say which stage these people have withdrawn their kids did I?

You are right about the Imperial reject @SeasonFinale . They agreed that may have been the case. I don't know why it would specify on the Imperial website that they only need Maths and Physics at HL for engineering if a third science is desired

Oh bloody hell @bendmeoverbackwards and @LoonvanBoon, I'm raging on your behalf and I'm so sorry. It's the disappointment on the back of such a long and anxious wait. I'm pleased both your DC seem so resilient and wise though.

This year is just quite simply a fucker, isn't it?

I think it was @Pumpkintopf who asked in the last thread if DS has firmed yet? He hasn't though I'm not entirely sure why. Perhaps it's because he can't decide where to put as insurance. The only Uni he still seems interested in other than Bristol is UCL which has the same grade offer.

These parents really dumped their kids in some hell hole of a state school just on the vague off chance that they might get a place an an elite university? Really? Although if they sent their kids to a prep and then they failed to make the grade, I suppose the parents could claim they had an ulterior motive so nobody actually knew the truth.

As for the DC who've been rejected by Durham, Oxbridge, St Andrew's & co. They're going to get drunk, cook pot noodles, play their favourite sport, miss a few deadlines, make new friends in their first term, spend the next term trying to get rid of those same friends, fall in love, fall out of love, sleep with some unsuitable candidates, try vegan, try different pronouns, play musical instruments, try things they shouldn't, stick a traffic cone on top of a British Empire statue, protest, be protested about, pour bubble bath in a fountain and have a student experience just like thousands of others who have also been rejected by one or two (perceived to be) elite universities. Best of all, they won't be stuck in their home counties bedrooms, because they're growing up and having fun. Maybe it's time to cut the crap about redirection and taking another path to greatness. Just a suggestion.

Durham gave Ds a contextual offer based on the only criteria he fits which is POLAR, whereas I believe with other unis and it might have been C too, they don't look at contextual offers unless you are in 3 or more categories. So moving your child to a lower performing school isn't the answer.

Leeds, Manchester and Warwick just offered Ds with no contextual and their regular entry grades. He is predicted 3 As and is right on the cusp of A/A with another subject. I hate feeling I have to justify his Durham offer because he attends a state school. He got more 9s than 8s for GCSE and has been doing supercurriculars before we knew they were important. Plus he is applying to study computer science and his A levels are not subjective, maths is either right or wrong whereas an English or History essay is open to more opinion and discrepancies in marks. My own degree is English Lit.

@chopc

You are right about the Imperial reject *@SeasonFinale* . They agreed that may have been the case. I don't know why it would specify on the Imperial website that they only need Maths and Physics at HL for engineering if a third science is desired

Their school is at fault there. They would know that the Maths would not match up to Maths and FM Maths or PreU so should have realised that they would need to compensate in other ways for Imperial engineering courses. They will tell you what the normal courses are that their offer holders have even if they are not strict requirements.

Oh the first part of my message is missing, really sorry to bend and Loonvan for no Durham offer. Totally shit at this late stage making them wait. As this thread is titled, another path to greatness, let's hope that wherever they end up they love it.