Another path to greatness - part III

[chopc]

Here is the new thread

@Jenthefredo so many DC's wanting to read History at Uni. And History was supposed to have gone down in popularity this year allegedly. Can't recall where I read it

As in so many DC on the thread

Should have said ds has applied for history and politics :)
Maybe joint honours don't get as many applications?

Ds1s history lecturer has told them all that history is the 2nd hardest degree after law...no idea how true that is! :) I think he just mean in study time/reading needed.

So DS got his Cambridge feedback. He was correct in thinking his interviews had gone well.

They said they take all aspects of the application into account including the history assessment, GCSE grades, Predictions and Reference

DS said his reference was good
GCSE grades: 999999998AstarAstar
AL predictions 3x A star (History, Economics, Music), A (Maths)

The only unknown is the at interview assessment. DS was confident when writing it and I will trust his judgement as his judgement of his work has usually been on track. The score was not given for this and DS forgot to ask at the interview when asked if he had any questions for them.

They concluded " chopcDC will clearly make a good undergraduate student in History"

In the last paragraph: As is always the case, we have had to reject hundreds of very talented applicants. A rejection in no way indicates a lack of potential; rather, that they were not as strong as those who led this year's field. We have no doubt that chopcDC will have a very successful undergraduate career

DH thinks as expected feedback was useless. I think it was good to know that there wasn't more DS could have done.

DS thinks his chances may have been better if he was able to do a backflip! (He has wanted to try over the past couple of years but I have said not to due to being too old to start trying and for the fear of injury - maybe I will give in after his AL).

Not sure how I feel TBH. Need time to process

Ds had the same GCSE grades and slightly more detailed feedback - HAT very good, interviews a bit iffy.

With your ds’s feedback, @chopc , perhaps he should have another go. Ds reapplied with 4 A* and he read like a demon before the interviews.

Hmm @IrmaFayLear

I don't think he wants to try again when he has offers from Durham and UCL and I don't want to encourage him as we may be in the same position next time as well.

Don't know if anyone watched any Jack Edward YouTube clips- he got rejected from Oxford and went on to get 3A stars at AL. Got rejected for a Masters from Oxford but went on to get a 1st in his degree (English lit). He said it was very difficult to reconcile that his best was not good enough.

Given DC credentials (he also competes or did do before Covid, at national level in a sport and whilst Oxbridge doesn't care about extracurricular the fact is he is able to achieve these grades whilst managing to be at such a high standard in a sport which takes a lot of training time) , I think that is how I am feeling. That despite giving his best - it still wasn't good enough :(

Dc is still waiting for 2 unis but I did ask dc if she got rejected from those 2 whether she wanted to reapply next year. She didn't and I am actually glad as not sure how much you can do in the coming months/year.
I can't see how it's worthwhile waiting a year to reaply for Oxbridge if you already have a good place like UCL etc. For dc O would have been second choice anyway.
For what it's worth, I have worked with many graduates over the years. Some of the best were from OC, but also from various other unis. Or the other way round, not all OC rgaduates were great.
As quest1ion mentioned LSE has 26000 applicants for 2000 places. If dc doesn't get a place, I won't think she isn't good enough. Just that it's difficult to distinguish who is best from so many applicants and that there is also luck involved.

DS is also waiting for LSE. Don't know how many offers they have sent out for History yet. I don't think History is competitive at LSE so it will be interest to see if he gets an offer as that may well be his insurance instead of UCL. Or he may do a you turn and decide on a London Uni after all.

The margins at the top universities are definitely fine. But I thought even taking this into consideration, he would make the cut at Cambridge. I had just about gotten over his rejection and this feedback has taken me back a step or two

I have no doubt that DS doesn't need an Oxbridge degree for his future success. More that that would have been the pinnacle of his educational journey and he would have loved it there .

However I think he will love it wherever he goes as he is just that sort of chap.

Interesting, dc1 actually preferred UCL to LSE history, course at LSE " too narrow".

"pinnacle of his educational journey", oh, well there is always masters and PhDs to do...

Agree with the course @fiveoldteddies

At this point moot discussion as he hasn't got LSE as an option

Can I be reminded of who is waiting for what so we can see who we are still cheering on?

Which uni?
Which course?

@fiveoldteddies not in the plans at the moment. Wants to do Law conversion and carry on down that path. Don't think a Masters will add to this.

I looked at the Masters in Law available at Oxbridge and I think if you are not doing Law at undergraduate, the chances of getting in are remote.

Yeah, not sure what dc1 wants to do. Did talk about law conversion as well, but difficult to predict what will happen. Pandemic not helping.
There was talk about earlier on this thread "where do you see yourself in 10 years' time". I think it is imprtant to be flexible in life.
I have various postgrad degrees, I had no idea I was going to do those whilst an undergraduate...

Various postgraduate degrees @fiveoldteddies ? I am intrigued

And did you fund them all yourself?

@OnTheBenchOfDoom

Still waiting for LSE History

chopc, what a long wait for feedback! Is that normal? My two didn't request it from Oxford. Frustrating that Cambridge didn't give interview feedback: it's obviously the most 'subjective' part of the process, but I thought they supposedly graded them?

Interesting to hear about the differences between Oxford and Cambridge too. Does Cambridge not use the HAT or an equivalent?

DT2 was expecting to have to do a source based assessment within his Oxford interview, but was informed a couple of days beforehand that the interview wouldn't involve one. I still don't know if that was just the college he applied to or whether the Oxford history faculty as a whole decided to simplify the process this year. The interview was just one 20-30 minute conversation involving 3 academics and DS.

Your son sounds amazingly talented - I was obsessed with gymnastics as a child even though I could barely manage a cartwheel , and would never tire of watching backflips! I had no idea you had to have started by a certain age, though not hard to imagine they could be dangerous!

Ha ha chopc, I am paranoid people recognising me. But my MSc was a good arrangement, I worked 1 day a week somewhere and in return I got paid to do my Msc at UCL for the rest of the week. And got some pocket money and free accommaodation..

DD is still waiting to hear from St Andrews for international relations.

She is also waiting to hear from other US universities that are due out over the next 3 weeks but I think she is fixed on Georgetown.

She got accepted in to UCLA last week and it would be much higher ranked and she did do a virtual offer holder tour but wasn’t tempted.

Good for you @fiveoldteddies !

DS sees himself on the golf course in 10 years. He of course doesn't remember the long hours and hard work in DH and I's (?) younger days

@LoonvanBoon they gave detailed feedback on the interview and it was good. So DS did judge his interview performance correctly.

There was an assessment he had to do a week prior to the interview which would normally be done at interview. His performance in that is the only thing we didn't know about

I didn't think they would ask him if he has any questions so it didn't occur to me that he could have asked how he did in that until after the event. But he was confident on the source and subject matter of the assessment.

Thank you for the complement about DS. He is amazing - not because of his achievements but he has such a good character (and no I am not biased as I have had this fed back to me from multiple sources since he was tiny).

I love this thread - just ruminating on it this morning has already made me feel better!
Thank you fellow thread members!

@chopc that's good that your ds got detailed feedback, my dd's feedback from Oxford was very vague and didn't tell her anything at all.

Your ds is clearly a very able student and I bet in a 'normal' year he would have got an offer.

[quote chopc]@OnTheBenchOfDoom

Still waiting for LSE History [/quote]
Keeping everything crossed for LSE @chopc is it his first choice?

I had no idea History was so popular this year! I thought it was Geography everyone was doing these days.

You might all find this article from Schools Week interesting on reduction in Oxbridge offers this year

schoolsweek.co.uk/oxbridge-cuts-offers-to-avoid-another-grade-inflation-admissions-bulge/