Durham - deeply disappointed child - any admissions insight

[albertandlilylight]

First choice university by a mile and really really wants to go there and college system would suit very well. 43 (IB) in predicted grades, am told by school very good school reference and personal statement. However, got an offer for a course did not apply for and for which has no interest. Don't understand at all. Worked so hard all the way through school, told hard work rewards and then this. Anyone got any insight to how Durham are offering and is there anything that can be done from here?

But they must give some narrative explanation, no?

Students in this year's Y13 most definitely did GCSEs, in summer 2021. 2020 was the year exams were cancelled.

The summer 2021 cohort had shortened syllabuses and their exams were marked by their teachers.

A/S levels in summer 2022 were back to normal and marked externally

My DS had this too - counter offer for two other courses (one related, one not so much but I’ve seen it flagged before so guess they are keen to run it but it doesn’t get many applicants). Narrative was along the lines of your application was strong but it’s a competitive course and we had stronger applicants, we can offer you X and Y instead.

DD didn't do exams in 2021. She did exams that were like exams but weren't really exams. It was a horrific year.

In that you are wrong, universities are not told what other universities the students applied for until they receive the results in August, but applications that are received by the Oxbridge deadline are in general of a very very high standard and it is immediately assumed that the kid is applying to Oxbridge as well given they adhered to their deadline or at least that their school considers them with the right potential to work at that level so they have grouped them to have their applications submitted by the Oxbridge deadline.

@bguthb90 there were no GCSEs or A-levels sat in England, Wales or NI, and no external exams in Scotland in either 2020 or 2021.
2020 saw centre-assessed grades (CAGs) and in 2021 they were Teacher-assessed. (TAGs).

I assessed on both types; my DS has TAG GCSEs from 2021.

Hth.

This happened to me - at a different uni and many years ago admittedly. It was a mistake. Ring up.

But if the course your child wanted is full don't take it personally as the top unis are all over subscribed by students all with very similar, very high grades. Hopefully she will get an offer from one of the other Russell Group unis with grades like that.

I've just checked with dd. They just change the name of the course and put offer on UCAS. There's nowhere for them to write on the UCAS form.
In her case she got an email from the uni before it got to UCAS, but it only said something like "unfortunately we cannot make you an offer for XX course, however we feel you would be suited to our YY course and would like to make you an offer for that."

If they started giving reasons then people would come back explaining why they were wrong, I expect!

@Xenia you say "May be Durham was wanting children from worse schools" but I think a more accurate description would be Durham may want more outstanding students, taking educational context into account. These are very different statements.

There could be a number of reasons but essentially these top unis have top choice. They also have 'social quotas' so they admit people based on ability/potential rather than privilege. If you fall into the 'privileged' group they'll be looking for something above and beyond good grades to differentiate the best of the best.
It's too late to change things now but a good personal statement is key. Do you have that still. Read it and see if the statement could apply equally to any of his peers. If so it's not personal.

As the course he's been offered is quite different from what he applied to do it might be worth trying to find out the reasoning behind that just in case there's been some terrible mistake and someone's pressed a wrong button, but I think he should be doing this not you.
I'm sure you have a plan B and C in place and it might be useful to do a bit of independent research so you can highlight some of the positives of other options.
Best of luck

It was more than 20 years ago now but I also got rejected by Durham. And accepted by Oxford (which was what I wanted), so I couldn't care less. Shows you how random it is.
Do they do history and archeology as a joint course? Is that a possibility? If she does well in first year, could probably drop the archeology.

No they didn’t. It was horrendously stressful. They were doing exams but they weren’t proper public exams. Every test my child did, they were paranoid it might ‘count’. It felt like they worked all year for fear of messing up teacher-assessed grades.

Thank you so much for this link - so useful!

Thanks for the additional info. I was thinking less along the lines of explaining the rejection, more some sort of explanation why they thought the other course was suitable, given that it’s their course and they must have an idea of the sort of student they want to take it, and they are essentially trying to sell it at this point.

It all feels a bit like “Tarte au Citron: out of stock. Substitute: Lemon Dishwasher tablets”.

They do know if students have applied to Oxford or Cambridge those applications are received earlier (the deadline is October rather than January).

Florentine, this dc has got all top grades, you have no way of knowing that any other applicant is more academically outstanding, whatever school they went to! Kids from good (and often selective) schools should be treated fairly too!

My apologies - you're quite correct.

Just looked through old parentmails and can see that, although my DS school ran GCSE-entitled and A'Level-entitled formal examination timetables, adhering to the guidance from CCEA the content was actually selected by the school.

After 7 years of formal school exams, it's all becoming a bit blurred for me.

What are her external qualities such as voluntary work, paid work, extra course etc.

Sorry - haven't read the full thread.
DS didn't get an offer from Durham a few years ago - it wasn't his first choice so didn't matter as much.
On paper he was the perfect candidate for the course - with high predicted grades/lots of stuff in personal statement about societies he ran (relevant to the course).
I can only assume that they had many 'perfect' candidates or he didn't meet a quota they were aiming for.
Durham are always different I think - DD got an offer but for a different (but similar) course.

For university league table position, but just having grade 8 music makes minimal difference to an application.

In addition most students who apply to Oxford and Cambridge do not get in to them, why wouldn't other universities want those students?

Frankly university admissions teams are busy enough that it it highly unlikely they think about when an application has arrived.

@Allthegoodnamesarechosen you describe how your DC worried about every assessment. I agree and relate as DD has huge issues. For my DD every piece of homework, test, assessment, ‘exam that wasn’t an exam’ was a potential test. She learnt that she didn’t like Teams classrooms, she hated being talked at and not having any input or opportunity to ask questions. Covid learning made her more determined to aim for a university that has small tutorials or one to ones.

My husband didn’t get in to Durham and was disappointed at the time but then he went to Edinburgh instead and met me and now we’re married with three beautiful children - everything happens for a reason!

I am very sorry on your DC's behalf at the disappointment but UK universities are harsh on requirements for students with IB points. The levels are ridiculous compared with A levels. There are a maximum 45 points available (perfect score) at IB and even then some courses seem to want 46.