Oxford/Cambridge - current students support/chat thread 2022 - cont

[Panicmode1]

@petitebleu - so sorry to hear about your DS. I hope that some time out over Christmas may help to give him some space and time to think about his next steps.

@Malbecfan yes, it was so awful that your DDs' cohort completely missed out on a proper graduation during the pandemic and I suppose I ought to be grateful that DS1 will have some kind of ceremony, if not actually be awarded a degree. I'd also forgotten about the MA thing and wonder how DS1's cohort will be affected and if they'll still get one, if they never have their degree marked? I hope your DD can have an extra special PhD graduation when that time comes to make up for missing out before. Lovely to hear she's enjoyed 2 recent sea swims!

@Ironoaks thanks for wishing good luck to DS1 and DS2 with their career related applications. Good luck also to your DS with his PhD applications and I bet he gets his highly intelligent academic brain from you, even if you never went into that career path!

@ofteninaspinmassive congratulations to your DS on his degree! You must be really proud of him!

DS1 (C) has now said something about hearing that Medics and Music students have also suddenly been told that they won't now be having their degrees marked at Cambridge? This is very last minute, if that's the case. Has anyone else heard this too? He's not very attentive/ organised so may have got this wrong. Meanwhile, all his friends have now had their degree results (including Maths and Classics) and it again feel sad that he'll be at the same graduation ceremony with them, yet not actually getting a degree.

@mutterphore communication at C does seem really poor. DD has said that no-one has actually set out what the Provisional marks will include nor explained why it will take up to 3 weeks given they say papers have been marked. Meanwhile others don't even have the comfort of knowing that marking has happened. Can't believe some are only being told now that they have not been marked! It's all such a disgraceful shambles.

@Ironoaks I'm not entirely sure which discipline your DS is studying but for DD, she asked during her Masters year and her department also made "we are interested in you" noises to her. I urged her to look elsewhere but to be honest, C was the only funded one that interested her, although she seriously considered Manchester and the chance of living rent free with my dad. Then I suggested that she change college (you nominate 2 from memory) but her undergraduate college made her a really good offer to stay and promised her some supervision work, so she stayed. If you want to PM me, I am happy to message her to ask.

@HewasH20 great result in the tennis!

@ofteninaspin congratulations to your DS. I hope you have a fabulous time. The college certainly did a great job for us.

@mutterphore DD and I both think that you can't change what's going on so you might as well accept it. She mumbled something about using other staff to mark finals, so hang on in there. I share your pain as my DD2 (not O or C) is awaiting final results, although has been told she is progressing onto her integrated Masters. She opted not to graduate this year - her results were due mid-June so it's looking rather late now.

@goodbyestranger the jellyfish were keeping away yesterday. One colleague of European heritage was recently on local TV and in her words "has gone viral" due to her photography of certain sea mammals. We didn't see them (or her) either as they tend to be further west. I put a photo on FB of 2 DDs & DH's heads bobbing in the waves and an empty beach. By the time we left it was filling up. Today has been a bit cooler but still sunny.

Sadly congratulations are misplaced. The real tennis win was several months ago, whereas Cambridge thrashed Oxford for proper tennis this weekend. I was looking small positives for a hot, tired and sunburnt DD!

Degree results are starting to come through with DD's boyfriend being awarded a first for the first half of his medicine degree. Unlikely to see or hear anything about her PPE degree though as that will rely on her politics tutors. I think she has filed away all thoughts on her results and the longer it takes, hopefully the less important it will seem.

I'm loading the car with her final bits & bobs on Wednesday, then that's it, she can wave goodbye to Oxford and start to think about what to do next over the summer.

A win is a win @HewasH20, regardless of when it happened so the congratulations still very much stand.

I hope your DD doesn’t have to wait too long for her results. DD received her results several weeks after leaving Oxford last year and graduated in the September. I don’t know if this the norm for the MBiol as hers was the first cohort of the four year course.

Bit of a random question from a long-time lurker, but has anyone successfully put sub-fusc in the washing machine (post-trashing) rather than dry cleaning?

Yes! Put standard Oxford gown in the washing machine - came out perfectly.

Perfect! Thanks so much. Didn’t want to shrink it but it does look as if it would cope with a delicates wash!

I am pleased to hear of others' DC success in their final years. The best of luck to all of them in the future. At the other end of things our DS is pleased with his first year results that put him firmly in the 2.1 sector: about halfway in the year ranking with a good incentive to aim higher. The special part of it for him is that it lifts the slight lack of confidence he had in his A level & STEP results last year. He exceeded the offer on the one hand and didn't meet it on the other. His college's confidence in him appears to have been vindicated; from his viewpoint. Next year will be harder. For now he his after a summer job - that seems even harder - even though he is aiming lower.

I didn't get the chance to try. D1 trashed, left her subfusc in a carrier bag in Oxford, came home for a week... had to bin the whole mouldy lot on her return! Apparently she won't need the gown for graduation, but will have to replace the rest. Kids, eh.

@Clemenc0 Congratulations to your DS - excellent that’s he’s feeling buoyed by his great results. Certainly last year my DS felt encouraged by reasonable Prelims results and that more effort may be worthwhile!

@Clemenc0 - that's a good position to be in at the end of first year, and I'm glad that it has boosted his confidence.

DS is packing for his internship. He has received an unexpected scholarship today from the host university, which will significantly help with food and other living expenses. They are already paying for his accommodation and will reimburse his travel fare, but the cost of living is high there (even compared to Cambridge) so he was very pleased to receive this.

That’s brilliant news @Ironoaks. I hope your DS has a great experience this summer.
Looking forward to meeting DS’s girlfriend tomorrow. She is travelling to the States for a summer internship (engineering) shortly after DS’s graduation.
You can definitely wash Oxford gowns. DD always jumped in the river after trashing and bright home an unbelievable revolting soggy pile of sun fusc to wash.

Apologies for some really bad typing there.

Great news Ironoaks.

One of my DS's flew to Switzerland yesterday for a long secondment. I got a steady stream of WhatsApp messages about eg being picked up from the airport by a very smartly dressed driver in a big black shiny car and an amazing (fully paid for) flat in the centre of town near the water. I did say maybe a case of mistaken identity but we'll see. His packing which he sent a photo of from T5 was less impressive - much more standard DS.

Really hope your DS enjoys his weeks there Ironoaks.

Good luck to him @Ironoaks and indeed to @goodbyestranger 's DS. Which one, if you don't mind me asking?

Nothing much to report from me other than non-O/C DD2 received her 3rd year exam results yesterday and was awarded a First! She is thrilled that she scraped 90% in her viva. One more year to go for her, but unlike DD1, she is now planning on going into a graduate science job. Starting the research between shifts in a cafe.

The one whose name begins with C Malbec.

Gosh well done DD2 - fabulous!

@Malbecfan congratulations to your DD2! What sort of jobs is she looking at?

@goodbyestranger - that sounds very luxurious. DS will be in student halls.

He is going tomorrow and is feeling a bit nervous about the journey and finding his way around. He hasn't travelled on his own apart from last summer's science roadshow in the Midlands. Thankfully he has connected via WhatsApp with the other interns, some of whom have arrived already.

Yes Ironoaks but he's six years on from your DS. He's served his time!

It's good that other interns are already in situ - very good luck to your DS. I'm sure it will be very exciting :)

@Ironoaks DD2 is also a NatSci person, but biological rather than physical. Something in the molecular biology/genetics field I think, but what do I know? Anyway, let's hope that the rude punters of this part of East Devon are getting the full force of her as she's on front of house duty today. The latest moans are that the coffee isn't hot enough (when they asked for cold milk in it) and the coffee machine is too slow. A fortnight ago, one asked for a deconstructed cheese sandwich. DD asked if they would like the salad on a separate plate and received a tirade of abuse.

Ah the C one @goodbyestranger . I always muddle up whether he is DS2 or DS3. 3? Send him my best please. I had the pleasure of a couple of former students in/online yesterday. One left in 2014 to go to C. She has the most amazing job - her abiding school memory that she shared with y12 was choir.

He's DS2. He also left school in 2014. He's the only one I bought a Gillman&Soame matriculation photo for, in case he never graduated (was slightly wild in the sixth form). Anyhow, oh ye of little faith etc - no need to have splashed out as it happens :)

And thank you Malbec, I will do that.

Also plus ca change! (the rude punters of this part of East Devon). Mine had some memorable ones when they worked in the village cafe (also some lovely ones, fair to say).

@redgerbera I washed DD's sub fusc at the weekend, only reading the instructions after I'd pulled it out at the end of a 30 degree wash. It's not the first dry clean only item I've shoved into the machine, and I'm sure it won't be the last. It looks none the worse for its forbidden excursion; certainly better than it did when I found it. I didn't push my luck tumble drying it.

@Malbecfan good to hear your news and thanks for the wise advice from you and your DD about just accepting the marking boycott situation for now as I can't change it. Congratulations to your DD2 on getting a First and alongside this, coping with rude punters at her cafe job! Clearly a young woman of substance, ably fielding academia and 'cafe society' at it's worst!

@Clemenc0 well done to your DS on his first year results. That's very heartening for him.

@Ironoaks very good news that your DS also now has a scholarship for his internship and I hope it all goes very well for him and isn't daunting.