Missed Durham offer - is it worth calling?

[RightWhoWantsABoiledEgg]

DD had a deferred offer at Durham for English. Offer was AA plus A star in English. Results were AAB, but importantly, she didnt get an A star in English Lit and Durham offer was lost.

There were reasons for this slightly lower performance (although not the B and we may ask for a remark). She was poorly for 2/3 of the exams for one subject (GP visit and medication confirms this) - had an A star for the first paper and As for the ones where she was poorly. Special consideration was meant to be requested, but don’t know if it was done.

More importantly, for English, there was an issue with the biggest mark question on one of the papers. The school does a very unusual combination of books, that very few schools opt for, for the comparative paper. In the exam, the big mark question had no relevant theme to compare the books by. All students were confused and said they’d had to wing it. School never reached out about it. Either the school messed up and missed a theme, or the exam board messed up in failing to ensure a theme that was relevant to this combination was included. An A in these circumstances seems pretty decent.

This is by way of asking if it is worth her calling Durham up to discuss and explain? Will they even entertain excuses and discuss a deferred offer? As the school hasn’t ever addressed the question issue (it is a very high performing grammar school so may not want to appear lacking), should she approach the school first to ascertain if they would support what she is saying about the problem with the question?

She worked so hard and feels like she has failed. She could resit and is considering this, but would Durham even consider her next year as she has failed to meet their standard once already?

Durham is small, that is why everyone walks everywhere! It also means you bump into college/course/society friends all the time. There are self-catering colleges just like anywhere else. Former state school pupils make up the majority and there are lots of international students. DS is a STEM student there and loves it.

@user68712226 I'm sorry your DS had rubbish friends at school but that doesn't really extrapolate across an entire university population.

This is a great story, but it is clearly from a different time. As university participation and a litigious bent in society have grown simultaneously, it has become necessary for admissions tutors to document decisions and show that they have been arrived at logically and without favour

Your description of her disordered eating immediately made me think OCD too. OCD is not about being extra tidy or organised that people who claim to be ‘a bit OCD’ laugh about. It is about having obsessive thoughts (eg being sick after eating) and carrying out compulsions to try and ‘placate’ those thoughts (not eating).

Without wanting to go into too much detail. The fear of being sick arose after she was sick after eating at school once. She was being bullied, she got anxiety/stress related tummy aches. School was initially kind and let her go to pastoral to relax (they weren’t aware of the bullying at this time and nor were we), but ultimately started seeing it as her trying to avoid lessons and stopped allowing this. She was then sick after a tummy ache. People witnessed it and that was that.

This is anchored in anxiety. She has spoken to several counsellors and none, after hearing her ‘story’, has said it is OCD.

She is not bothered about eating in front of people, she just can’t do it if she isn’t at home (if we’re on hols, home is the place we are staying).

we know Durham since DH went. The university currently has about 23,000 students. That isn’t small at all compared to royal Holloway which is far far smaller. The city itself is small of course.

I didn’t say everyone is a right wing homophobe. It’s simply that the self styled young tories at DSs independent school all targeted Durham.

@RightWhoWantsABoiledEgg - did you call/email in the end? Hope all goes well with your DD. X