Another Path - part IV

[321zyx]

Apologies if I've done this wrong! I seemed to have filled up the last thread, hopefully the abbreviated title is ok!

@bendmeoverbackwards I'll get DD to ask her friends there for a video - might be a little while as they all in the middle of exams.

[quote mumsneedwine]@bendmeoverbackwards I'll get DD to ask her friends there for a video - might be a little while as they all in the middle of exams. [/quote]
That’s really kind thank you. Only if it’s not too much trouble, dd can see pictures of the rooms online.

We're off to an open day at Birmingham tomorrow, looks like most buildings will be open apart from the halls, we get to look outside of those with student guides around.
Lovely bonus from Birmingham, because we live in a WP area and our household income is under the £60k household threshold, it looks like he is entitled to a yearly bursary of £2k, plus £1K off university accommodation in the first year. I think that might swing it, although he'd pretty much decided it was a better course than Exeter.

Assessments finished over a week ago for him, they do seem to be going on for a long time, are the ones still going or just finished, in private schools by any chance?

@derekthe1adyhamster my DS school finishes second set of assessments next Friday (private school)

Assessments finished over a week ago for him, they do seem to be going on for a long time, are the ones still going or just finished, in private schools by any chance?

Yes, for us, but don't forget we get longer Easter holidays, so back later than most state schools I think.

We're still going for GCSE and A Level - both state grammars.

@derekthe1adyhamster hope you have a good day in Birmingham and the rain holds off! We looked at Birmingham for my oldest dd, the campus is beautiful.

@derekthe1adyhamster how was Birmingham? It has a special place in my heart as I bought my wedding dress material from Birmingham rag market (huge fabric choice not rags ) many, many years ago.

Ds has an exam today and his final one tomorrow. State sixth form.

@bendmeoverbackwards really good that your Dd liked Bristol. It is great when you see they are truly lit up by a university especially considering most of them didn't get to experience an actual open day.

Hi everyone. Just in case anyone is remotely interested, Cambridge have updated their interactive graphs showing 2021 admissions data.

Hmmm. So, no surprise, this year has been a nightmare. I did a quick tally for the subject DS’ applied for. In the last few cycles they have between 290 and 340 applications to which they generally make around 130 offers. This year, I counted at least 490 applications across the various colleges but only about 110 offers were made. With the exception of Maths (where they can still use STEP to filter them down), it’s probably been a similar picture across all subjects. What a year!

He loved Birmingham - but it's so big! Really well run considering we couldn't go into many buildings. He had a one to one with one of the lecturers of his course - he wasn't expecting that so had to think of some questions on the spot.

Off to Exeter for a look around next week, we'll meet up with DS1 and his friend (friend is studying at Exeter) but I don't think anything will swing it now from Birmingham. Still there is an ikea in Exeter so we'll pick up a few bits for him, along with the all important socktopus!

DS is at a state 6th form with 3000 pupils so I guess they wanted yr 13s out so that social distancing was easier with just the yr 12s.
I work at a private school and we went back a week before the state schools did, I have wondered if they needed to provide more teaching to justify the fees this year.

@quest1on hmmm with students continuing to defer, maybe it will be worst next year? I wonder how grades achieved this year will be looked at next year 🤔

@quest1on, I'm surprised applications were up quite as much as that. Does anyone know why? People deferring and deciding, CAGs in hand, to apply for higher tariff universities than they had the previous year? Or are there demographic factors too?

@derekthe1adyhamster, the Birmingham visit sounds great - nice that he had the chance to talk to one of the lecturers. Had to google socktopus and the reality is a lot less exciting than the name - not sure what I was expecting! Funnily enough one of the top results when you search for 'socktopus IKEA' is a MN thread from a few years ago and you're one of the first posters

@bendmeoverbackwards, so glad your daughter enjoyed her Bristol visit and is excited to be going there.

Re assessments and school, my two still have to go in until the end of this week (state school). DT1 is finished but DT2's final two History assessments have had to be postponed until Thursday and Friday because most of the other History group is self-isolating.

School is definitely going out with a whimper - their leavers assembly is happening over Zoom while the students sit in separate tutor groups - and it's scheduled after the end of the school day! Wonder how many will even bother to stick around

@quest1on

Hi everyone. Just in case anyone is remotely interested, Cambridge have updated their interactive graphs showing 2021 admissions data.

Hmmm. So, no surprise, this year has been a nightmare. I did a quick tally for the subject DS’ applied for. In the last few cycles they have between 290 and 340 applications to which they generally make around 130 offers. This year, I counted at least 490 applications across the various colleges but only about 110 offers were made. With the exception of Maths (where they can still use STEP to filter them down), it’s probably been a similar picture across all subjects. What a year!

Are you able to link to the interactive graphs @quest1on ?

I'm not being lazy, I just can't seem to find it online myself.

@LoonvanBoon - That does sound like the most dismal option for a leavers assembly !

Would be interested to see that too quest1on.

Love the socktopus idea. Glad your DS enjoyed his day at Birmingham.

That leavers assembly doesn't sound fun at all. Ds's last day was also quite an anticlimax- such a shame.

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

I think I've finally found it.

@LoonvanBoon I think another of the reasons for increased applications is just more of a "have a go" mentality. I met up with a group of mums the other day and one of them was telling me about some other friends' children, all of whom had applied to Cambridge (their GCSEs were not good enough to risk Oxford) as one of their 5. None of them happened to get an offer but, judging by what happened with the 400% increase in offers at one of our local schools, this attitude has paid off for some students.

Leavers' assembly this week for both 11s and 13s (separate assemblies as usual). The rest of the school has an inset day which is not usual but I think is brilliant as it will allow much more freedom to the year groups leaving without them having to bubble quite so tightly.

@SATSmadness

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

Definitely more applicants across the board (except to Jesus - we were wondering if they had a much worse website than everyone else or normally have a very good tour? DD liked it and it made her top 3 but I thought the website made it look a little stuffy).

Looking at History for Cambridge, similar application rates over the five years, including this year, however, slightly more offers made LAST year, and a startling 40 more acceptances LAST year. THIS year, 40 less offers. Kind of says it all really.

Wondering whether the higher acceptance rate is linked to more BAME students getting offers, and being encouraged to accept those offers? Such a complex number of reasons behind the offer/acceptance rate for BAME, but 2020 was also a bumper year for BAME, to 30% of undergraduates.

Numbers for geography rose considerably this cycle. I wonder why? Maybe all the news about climate change?

Also, geography is a huge course at Durham (in terms of offer ratios and numbers). I wonder how many of those were being paid to defer and thought they may as well have a crack at Cambridge in the meantime?

It’s hard to tell how TAGs will influence decisions for next year?

Comparing the stats from 2019 with this year for history & English...

a) the number of applications is about the same.
b) the number of offers made is down.
c) the number of acceptances (actual places taken up) is likely to be about the same.

Medicine, on the other hand, looks much more competitive with ~30% more applicants.

Overall UK Medicine applications were up by 21% this year (28,690 applications in 2021 against 23,710 in 2020 so 4,930 more this year). There are approximately 7,500 places available overall so offers as a % of applications was 26%.

Looking at the Cambridge graph, for Medicine as a whole, it looks like there were 2,024 applications this year against 1,817 last year (increase of 11%) and an offer as % of applications figure of 14%.(16.8% in 2020).

@BigWoollyJumpers

Wondering whether the higher acceptance rate is linked to more BAME students getting offers, and being encouraged to accept those offers? Such a complex number of reasons behind the offer/acceptance rate for BAME, but 2020 was also a bumper year for BAME, to 30% of undergraduates.

I think the higher acceptance rate for 2020 is due to CAGs. My DD knows someone who was rejected on results day, but when gov said CAGs could be used, that student was later accepted. In most subjects the difference in 2020 between offer and acceptance rates is smaller than typical years (except maths due to STEP). Even law. And in Theology, ALL with offers were accepted.

The green bar just crept up last year. Maybe 20 in this subject, 15 in another. All together it really added up.