Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

bestpud

freebie_junkie wrote: »

You can't deny that in the creative industries, many people are freelance. We all already do freelance work and actually do a unit about how to generate employment opportunities as a writer without havign to have a 'day job' aswell. Our emplyers are us. I have also been offered a full-time teaching post, as I said before, but I don't want it. I didn't apply for it, I was asked. They know I went to Bolton and they still asked, funny that. I'm sure that there are many people doing PGDEs/ PGCEs this year who achieved a 2:1 in their degree and didn't go to Bolton, so why would they ask me? Must have liked all of the other stuff I do, much of which I go involved with becuase I am at Bolton Uni.

On teh subject of drop-outs, do you think that many of these students leave because they don't like the Uni itself? I left Man Met (I did my 1st year there) and transferred to Bolton becuase I wanted to move back up North (I was at MMU Cheshire), nothing to do with the actual Uni or course itself. Many people leave becuase they can't handle their finances, becuase tehy miss home, the work load is too much for them or becuase Uni just wasn't what they expected. I know this as I used to work for the MMU SU as an adviser.

I hesitate to get involved with this debate as I can clearly see both sides!

However, re the drop outs: I think one would expect there to be a certain drop out rate across all insititutions for the very reasons you suggest. However, the rate should not vary too much unless other factors come into play. Obviously there are factors such as the number of mature students etc but then these should still be comparable with other unis with similar intakes.

The fact that Bolton uni has the highest drop out rate (consistantly it seems) suggests there is some other reason why students are not sticking with their course?

Like I said, I can see valid points on both sides so don't want to fuel the debate further. I'm just giving my observation of your point about drop outs.

Voyager2002

melancholly wrote: »

no particular reason was offered, i think they just really liked him and wanted him to go there. it's certainly not uncommon for unis (perhaps especially oxbridge) to offer low grades to some students to take the pressure off them once they know they really want them. this is only usually after interviews though, i think it is much rarer based on just the UCAS form alone.

When I was at school (a long time ago) Oxford and Cambridge had their own entrance exams. If you passed, your offer of a place was conditional on EE at 'A' level. Of course, these exams were a good deal more difficult than 'A' levels were. Applicants had to choose whether to take the exam or apply for a place based on 'A' level grades alone, in which case offers were generally conditional on straight A grades, unless something unusual was going on.

melancholly

Voyager2002 wrote: »

When I was at school (a long time ago) Oxford and Cambridge had their own entrance exams. If you passed, your offer of a place was conditional on EE at 'A' level. Of course, these exams were a good deal more difficult than 'A' levels were. Applicants had to choose whether to take the exam or apply for a place based on 'A' level grades alone, in which case offers were generally conditional on straight A grades, unless something unusual was going on.

well when i applied different colleges had different rules - i picked my college because it didn't ask for extra step papers or an exam...... i think even without exams, they can just decide they like you and give you a low offer! this can't really happen at many other places since on the whole, most people offered an oxbridge place will take it - with other places they can offer up to 10 times the places on the course knowing that some people won't choose them or won't get the grades.

surfsister

janeyjaz feel for you and your daughter as we had the same thing but took a year out she worked and saved some cash went on hols etc retook one A level and now a place at York beckons. so please don't despair.

The problem is the unis give offers depending on the school involved as well as the predicted grades eg poor school lower offer good school higher offer, just how it is. So if hers is a 'good' school she may have been expected to get higher grades than school have predicted. But come results days she may do beter than expected. Did she do any course work and whatwere her grades for that? If she had all A grades her exams won't need to be so high anyway.

The personal statement is so imprtant too but my daughters school helped them with theirs and gave excellent careers advice eg not allowed to take A level Lang and Lit together unless the student insisted. Also General studies is a waste of time if you intend to go to a red brick uni as they ignore it, the school should have told you that. Critical thinking is actually quite liked by Cambridge but more as an extra than a graded subject.

Also did she do any Higher A levels which unis quite like? my daughter did History and got a distinction helped with York.These are becoming quite routine now with many schools.

I think maybe the school got your daughter's hopes up and yours (I know how it is) but didn't carry through with uni advice. Durham and York are quite hard to crack and 3 A grades are the norm plus lots of extra curriculum stuff eg charity work/world challenge/ Duke of E/running kids groups at school etc. The school helped us with all this.

Clearing was hopeless for almost all of my daughter's friends there were almost no decent courses left (most go to oversees students so none are left).

Good luck and don't give up until the results roll in your daughter may have the last laugh as if she gets 3 A grades she can apply next year anywhere Oxbridge included!

digsby202

Surfsister you give such good advice in your post.

I agree with everything you said. My daughter applied to 6 of the top Unis (Warwick, York, Durham, Bristol, St' Andrews and Cambridge) and was offered places at all of them. She is now at Cambridge reading English.

The AEA level is important, but it seems they want distinctions in that, which my daugher achieved in English, History and Economics. Most of the English students in her year at her college achieved a distinction in one or more of their subjects.

Cambridge also asked for a breakdown of her A level marks and a list of how many pupils were in her class going back to primary school. Luckily for her she was always in a class of 35+ otherwise it would have gone against her.


Some good advice if applying to Oxbridge. Choose your college, research on the fellows of that College ( in your subject) ie. the subject of their research papers or any books they have written, chances you will be asked questions on their specialisation. Also, if you know a little bit about the person likely to be interviewing you it gives you more confidence. It could go wrong of course, one of my daughters friends was interviewed by David Starkey for History and was completely awe -struck.

Where ever you apply , the more groundwork you can do , the better.

Love d

poet123

freebie_junkie wrote: »

You can't deny that in the creative industries, many people are freelance. We all already do freelance work and actually do a unit about how to generate employment opportunities as a writer without havign to have a 'day job' aswell. Our emplyers are us. I have also been offered a full-time teaching post, as I said before, but I don't want it. I didn't apply for it, I was asked. They know I went to Bolton and they still asked, funny that. I'm sure that there are many people doing PGDEs/ PGCEs this year who achieved a 2:1 in their degree and didn't go to Bolton, so why would they ask me? Must have liked all of the other stuff I do, much of which I go involved with becuase I am at Bolton Uni.

On teh subject of drop-outs, do you think that many of these students leave because they don't like the Uni itself? I left Man Met (I did my 1st year there) and transferred to Bolton becuase I wanted to move back up North (I was at MMU Cheshire), nothing to do with the actual Uni or course itself. Many people leave becuase they can't handle their finances, becuase tehy miss home, the work load is too much for them or becuase Uni just wasn't what they expected. I know this as I used to work for the MMU SU as an adviser.

Of course, if you decide to go freelance then the above comment won't apply,and nor will it apply to everyone who graduates from Bolton. You have make allowances for indivIduals who are outstanding in their field,(maybe you are one of those fortunate people who would succeed./thrive wherever you studied, as you are bright and motivated):D

My point is that given the stats, Bolton would need to be a well thought out choice for academic students. Re the drop out rate,as Bestpud says the same issues apply across the board for all institutions, so it is a true figure,and is a high figure. There has to be a reason for that, other than natural wastage.

freebie_junkie

poet123 wrote: »

Of course, if you decide to go freelance then the above comment won't apply,and nor will it apply to everyone who graduates from Bolton. You have make allowances for indivIduals who are outstanding in their field,(maybe you are one of those fortunate people who would succeed./thrive wherever you studied, as you are bright and motivated):D

My point is that given the stats, Bolton would need to be a well thought out choice for academic students. Re the drop out rate,as Bestpud says the same issues apply across the board for all institutions, so it is a true figure,and is a high figure. There has to be a reason for that, other than natural wastage.

I can obviously only speak from a CRS/ Education dept. point of view but we only lost a few people and that was early on in 2nd year (and my friend told me that they also lost a few after the freshers fair when some realised that it wasn't all partying!) Bolton does a wide range of courses, it's possible that these losses are in the other areas. I can only speak for CRS and my DF did Civil Engineering and he said that there were no drop-outs from his course and he's since been head-hunted too.

And 'maybe' thanks for the 'maybe' compliment you 'maybe' paid me there!

poet123

My point was, that given your personal attributes (including but not only those of the academic variety) you would probably succeed anywhere,so to attribute your achievements to Bolton may be not relevant to the original issue.

The drop out figures are across the board,and obviously some courses will have none one year,and more the next. The figures do not specify which curriculum areas experience the most losses.

Janeyjaz

Got to see daughters personal statement and the first thing we spotted was that she had missed the word 'am' out of one of her sentences - considering school was supposed to check the statement I do feel that she has been let down, she does have a sight problem and has no lens in her eyes and relies on contact lens and glasses to adjust her focal length, any way she feels even worse now and after a couple of really bad days, we checked UCAS for extras and they were still showing places at Newcastle UNi for English Lit - she has decided to apply through extra, anyway I rang them this afternoon and they don't have any spaces at all, so it looks like a gap year to me.
Thank you for everybodies advice, sorry to have stirred up the debate about what is a good university.

poet123

This may not be your idea of the route to take, but has your daughter declared her eyesight problem as "disability"? it is a valid thing to declare and will entitle her to concessions/additional help

Dont discount clearing though if you have exhausted UCAS EXTRA,there is still a chance that she will get on the course she wants.