OR 22 - Edinburgh, Warwick, St A, UCL, Durham, Nottingham, Bath and more

[Valleyofthedollymix]

Following on from the Oxbridge rejects thread but I've got rid of those two words. I for one am interested to know where they all end up and when Durham might finally deign to reject/offer DS...

@Valleyofthedollymix brilliant. We are no longer rejects. We are parents of fabulous offspring who will do wonderful things. Here’s to the last decisions being finalised soon and the DC being happy with their offers, and achieving the results they deserve.

Here! Here!

Thank you for the new thread @Valleyofthedollymix! I’m on tenterhooks to hear about everyone’s final offers.

Thanks valley. Here's to a week of offers (fingers crossed emoji!)

I'm in ... still waiting on THREE decisions here!

Presenting for duty .. Onwards !!

I've been following the thread with interest but not contributed before. My son has just received an a*aa offer for economics & politics from Durham but is still waiting on Warwick.

Checking in! Much solidarity with @kitnkaboodle and @doubleshotcappuccino! Still waiting here on Durham and LSE.

Hi @Apix and congratulations to you DS!

@fishingeagle I'm interested in what you said about it being so much worse this year than with your older kids. You mentioned the increase in contextualisation (which as you say is a good thing) - what practical difference has that made.

Do you think it's also all the inflated grades from the last two years and the knock-on it's had? How much quicker are universities usually to make decisions - I've got nothing to compare.

I'm here toooooo! Thanks for the new thread and here's to lots of offers coming their way for those still waiting it out

@fishingeagle .. ahh thank you .. glad to see so many familiar names here .. I understand we might be waiting till May for LSE . Very grateful for this thread and support .

@Apix congratulations!! Great news and a warm welcome to you ...

@kitnkaboodle DD is also waiting for three!

@ACloseMatch sorry to hear that .. seems like there's still a group of us waiting for three .. hoping for good news soon

Thank-you for the new thread!!! We can all continue to wait together!

Well my DS is debating between St Andrews and Warwick. Hard decision, leaning towards Warwick because graduate employment links are better as Warwick is a target Uni for finance careers. But he loved St Andrews. He got a brochure today and said ‘I haven’t decided for sure yet’. Still waiting on Edinburgh which I’m glad of as it’s stopping him making a rash decision

Hello!

DS eventually got Cambridge feedback today. He's not very happy . It was a little contemptuous of his ability, he felt. Said his GCSE results and A Level predictions were an issue. Don't bother interviewing then?

There is a huge context behind one of his results including a sacked teacher which school did underplay. But also it is rather crass of Cambridge to point out a state school student's GCSE results when so much has been in press lately about inflated TAGs from a certain set of schools.

There were some positive words but he felt that wasn't the main thrust. He remembers most the word 'patchy' and not the word 'impressive'.

Fellow HSPSers - it said that there were 10 applicants for every place!

@Darbs76 its a tough decision but a lovely one to have. Don't let St As not being a so called target uni for employers put him off. Remember it is a small uni compared to other big names. I can only speak anecdotally but my ds obtained a graduate position in a big 4 company and there are several other St A students in his stream. ( He isn't a maths grad). My dd knows several maths graduates and all secured very good positions on graduating.
Ultimately they are both amazing universities and what ever one he chooses will be lucky to have him, and I think his longer term prospects are excellent.

Thanks @Alittlewornout. Yeah I think he’s leaning towards Warwick too as it’s only 2hrs from home not 8, plus is was always his favourite. But it’s the only one we have seen inside and we have been to 2 open days there so maybe swaying him. He did love St Andrews and was over the moon to get an offer. So hard! But yes a good choice to have

@Piggywaspushed Wow so very competitive this year then?! Dd didn't want to get feedback as she felt it may really dent her confidence. YY to the GCSE comments cheeky b@stards! Ah well their loss....seems like such a distant memory now I'm actually glad she got rejected in the end. Very much looking forward to new horizons

piggywaspushed sorry the feedback left a bit of a bitter taste. How odd that they cited his grades and predictions when they obviously merited an interview?! Typical that he focussed on the word 'patchy' rather than 'impressive' that's exactly what my DS would do. 10 applicants per place is very competitive!

I'm bad at keeping up, but what offers does he have or is he waiting on?

He has firmed Birmingham and has York as his conditional so all is good!

Ouch @Piggywaspushed can't understand how they thought that would be helpful for your talented DS ... well done on his brilliant offers .. both sound fantastic. Fellow HSPS reject for C so will feedback when DD hears .. bracing ourselves and we head for that plus 3 decisions ..

He is a resilient chap so he will bounce back.

@Valleyofthedollymix I think the impact of contextualisation has been in the fact that they have formalised targets. So eg for Durham I believe they are on a mission to get their ration of POLAR 4 quintile 5: quintile 1 admits down from about 10:1 to 3:1. They can't do that just by attracting massively more numbers of kids from quintile 1 so they have to up the numbers from 2-4 and reduce the numbers from quintile 5, which they apparently do by having differential offer factors. It doesn't resolve along state school/independent lines on the basis that DC who live in quintile 5 typically attend the highest performing schools in the country. Oxbridge have a different model as far as I am aware that applies an algorithm by school band to contextualise an applicant's results, predicteds and interview score. I think their targets are more state/indie oriented, to get roughly 70/30 i think hence they take a lot from state grammars and those with v academically selective sixth forms. So it's hard to know exactly what you have to do to get an offer as it all depends.

When DD applied in 2016 she got 5 offers from Durham, x2, LSE, Exeter and Edinburgh. Had all of them by end of Feb. Different course but same predictions as DS