Any Ideas - daughter had 4 rejections

robnye

Janeyjaz wrote: »

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.

my daughter showed me her statement and she agreed with my comments, that it didnt sound like her, but the school was insisting that she rewrote in the way they wanted...... in the end it worked out fine for my daughter, but if the same process was used for all students at her school, it would answer why no one was accepted by cambridge/oxford, along with the apparent lack of advice for some of her friends regarding suitable mix of A levels to take...

digsby202

I mentioned in a post earlier about suitable A levels to even be considered by top Uni's. It seems that a lot of students aren't given good advice.

If you are doing 4 A levels (and most top Uni's now expect 4 A grades ), and you applying for an Arts subject, its a good idea to have at least one non-arts subject, ie. physics, maths, chemistry. This shows not only a grounding in arts subjects but a logical mindset. As I said earlier, most of the students I know studying at Oxbridge have 3 arts subject and one of the above.

Its well known that they don't consider subjects such as Media studies,business studies and general studies. Although my daughter had General studies at grade A. She also had Critical Thinking at A and they seemed to like that. All in all , she had 6 Grade A's, and 8 A2's , all at grade A, and , apart from the two mentioned they were all traditional academic subjects.

I also think a lot of students have their hopes built up by their schools, particularly if they have achieved really good GCSE grades, but in some subjects, the leap from GCSE to A level is huge.

I'm just grateful I'm not going through it all at the moment.

Love D

melancholly

given the comments on 'good' a levels to pick for top unis, i'll post a link to this story again:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/7174848.stm

some a levels are looked on badly - i'm not making any judgement about whether or not it is fair, but it's important that people taking those subjects know about it - in advance if at all possible!

Oldernotwiser

Stubert wrote: »

Woah woah, Uni of Manchester isn't an ex-poly unless you mean Man Met? I just want to clear that up

I did a course at Manchester Poly, which is now Manchester Met. Personally I prefer to refer to places by the names they were known when I studied there which is possibly some kind of reverse snobbery all of my own!

Kaellya

Originally Posted by poet123
That is really interesting,was any particular reason given for that offer?

I think Christs College in Cambridge give Matriculation Offers (EE), as do Corpus Christi. And sometimes the History department may? It tends to be only one or two individual colleges, presumably because they intend to accept the candidate anyway and may as well take the pressure off him/her. But most colleges/courses won't offer this at all (though some may be more lenient than others if you slip a grade and end up falling short of your offer.)


As for the original issue, English is unfortunately a really competitive subject. UCL, York and Durham are pretty much AAA universities for English - I'm not surprised predictions of AABC didn't help here. If Leeds and Manchester are AAB, then an application might have been OK, but English Language can considered a slightly 'softer' subject anyway. Which leaves an A for the Lit, B for History, C for French, which doesn't guarantee success for such a hard subject.

To give a hopeful story, I had a friend who achieved aaab at AS Level and was predicted AAA and still got rejected by Durham, Edinburgh, York and St Andrews, despite a good personal statement. She also applied to American universities and got rejected by several. Rather than settling for her least favourite choice, she took a gap year (which she loved) and is now going to study a slightly different subject at Cambridge, so it's all worked out for the best.

You don't need four A Levels - three are fine. And it doesn't matter if they're all arts subjects. Your daughter should concentrate on getting the highest grades she can in her remaining A Levels, and then re-considering her uni choices in light of her grades. She's going to spend three years there, so it's worth thinking hard about the course/university/reputation and aiming for the best possible with whatever grades she gets. Then, she can enjoy a gap year, if she decides to take one, with a spot of extra reading on the side.

Then, for the personal statement, ot may be worth checking thestudentroom.co.uk forums, as they offer very useful, clear advice on UCAS and universities, as well as a personal statement checking service. And personal statements should definitely be read several times and checked for obvious errors like missing out 'am'. It's also important to mention evidence of reading outside the syllabus. If you liked studying Pride and Prejudice at A Level, well, what other Austen books have you read? Have you looked into any other female authors of the time period? etc

It's hard to know how extra-curricular activities are weighted, but when I wrote my personal statement, I was advised 60-70% of it should be on my academic interests. Extra-curricular was put in only when relevant to the course, and I had to write about the skills I had learnt from it, not just reel off a list of activities.

Lastly, English tends to be a subject that summons you to interview quite a lot, so be prepared to talk about your books at length.

It really sucks to be rejected from all your choices, but it is entirely possible that the same universities fall over each other next year to offer her places. Everyone I know on a gap year has completely loved it, and it's worth holding out to find a good university, where she will really want to go, for next year. Good luck!

Janeyjaz

That is really good advice - will look at that website.Thank you

Oldernotwiser

Janeyjaz wrote: »

That is really good advice - will look at that website.Thank you

Better to get your daughter to look at it!

Rikki

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

Better to get your daughter to look at it!

True.

Once the child gets involved with a university they don't usually have any dealings with the parents.
(Ucas doesn't deal direct with parents or Student Finance when they apply for student grants and loans, parents are not allowed access to the information)

Worry as we might as parents we have to take a step back and watch them grow.

Janeyjaz

As far as I am concerned a parent is all about passing one's experiences and knowledge to our children - at my age that is a huge amount of knowledge and experience and that is what I have done and continue to do. A seventeen year old experiences will be very small compared to mine - I will investigate the website and pass the address and the information on - to all my children.
Thank you

Oldernotwiser

I certainly meant my comment to be helpful in that your daughter should be doing her own research about universities/loans/personal statements etc as it's her education that's in question. Universities would far rather speak to the student when it comes to negotiating places in Clearing and the SLC will not speak to you about your daughter's account once she's taken out a loan. I'm all for trying to pass on knowledge/experience to one's children (if they'll let you!) but your first post did say "I am lost on how to proceed " so perhaps posters assumed that this wasn't an area in which your experience/knowledge was adequate or appropriate.

Please don't take this the wrong way but it's annoying to be snapped at when we've taken quite a lot of time to be helpful.