It's a long way from where I live though.

Some may say that's a plus point

Thanks, Sarah.

Personal statement is not happening...

Not when you don't want to wash your own clothes I'll probably apply there anyway to make up the 6, but I doubt I'd end up going there.

You will have to learn how eventually you know

You know, universities do have big washing machines and tumble dryers .

That said, I had half a term's worth of clothes and went home for the weekend half way though .

No I won't. You can't make me


And I'm sure some people know how to use them. But that's not really the point

I have to admit, when I went home I did take clothes with me as the machines in college were often busy and sometimes unreliable. But for 4 hrs each way it was a bit far to go just for washing


I can't... I expect someone will one day though

I can manage washing machines

And about Oxbridge pressure.......... it does happen! I got my GCSE grades last week and have been asked by several people already 'are you applying to Cambridge?' Went to a family party this weekend and my mum's friend was giving me a full lecture about Oxbridge.

Nothing like being presumptous..........

You can come and help me then when I go to uni!

I feel sort of relieved I am not applying for Cambridge. I would have had to have found 2 pieces of very good written work (we only did class tests and they prefered only one of those), had to psych myself up for an interview, and possibly a written exam, along with all my other UCAS and school stuff. No doubt, it would be an excellent institution to go to, but just not for me..

Not in Durham my dear! Or indeed Sheffield...

Well, I am sure you could be persuaded

Hmm...I could send you instructions! It's really not that hard!

Nah, I should be ok (and if I go to De Montfort, hehe, I could just pop home )

Just a comment vis-a-vis Oxbridge applications. I've been tending to encourage everyone I know with good results to at least apply, since it's only 1 of the 6 and so you haven't got much to lose. I would say the pressures involved are at least partly down to your attitude. If you pin all your hopes on it and work really hard but don't get in, you'd naturally be very disappointed. If you just treat it as another option which you may or may not get an offer for, then you'll be far more relaxed about the whole matter. If you don't apply, then you'll always look back and think 'what if?' I'm always tempted to aim high, just to see if you can make it.

That said, some people do get more stressed about things than others, and there's no point working yourself into the ground for these things - it's no fun. And if you don't like the course, then obviously don't apply. I'm just trying to say (as there seems to be some anti-Oxbridge vibes going round the place ), applications to Oxbridge only need as much work as you are willing to put in so don't be wrongly discouraged. Dunno if that made sense, sorry if I offended anyone

I think it made perfect sense, and I'd endorse Trebor's view.

Oxford and Cambridge are both achievable targets for people who get the sort of grades we've been seeing in the results threads. And Oxford is certainly a great place to study (and Misterjay says Cambridge is too).

Don't dismiss them as options.

The thing is, I really like the Cambridge course, the city is lovely, as are the colleges, just think I'd put too much pressure on myself if I got in as the terms are so short/high workload/all top candidates (I don't know how to explain that bit, but, if other people are getting very high marks, I expect myself to do too)

But, for the vast majority, isn't everyone in the same boat? Aside from the naturally brilliant, they'll all have to work very hard to keep up. I dunno if I'm putting this right. You are one of the top candidates, so others will have the same thoughts that they have to keep up with people like you.

I get what you mean, but I worry more than most. I don't know whether I'd be able to enjoy my uni experience, even though that is what it is for. I'm not sure. I think you'd be fine, you're really chilled. Hmm. I am not sure....

Plus, I don't even know whether I can get 3 As next year.

Katyjay, I'd agree with you that Oxford is a great place to study. If I'm readin it right, Nicki obviously feels that Oxbridge is not the right place for her, but it will be a great place for others - and finding the right place is the most important thing. Right from a very early age it was rather assumed that I would apply to Oxford, and on visitng it, it just didn't feel right at the time - a bit too opressive somehow. In the end I went to Bangor - hardly the most prestigious place at the time, but after visiting lots of universities, that was the one that felt right, I thought I would be happy there, and it was a good place for my subject.

Several years later, I was lucky enough though, to do my masters at Oxford, and loved every minute of it. Pity the degree didn't last longer! Now that I'm thinking of doing my PhD I'm again trying to find the 'right place'. It's just a shame that I've got to do it part-time, but then you can't have it all...

Good luck to everyone trying to find the right uni - it might seem a long slog now, but it will be worth it in the end.

Course you can. Optimism (blind or otherwise) is always the best course

I am not sure. I did like Cambridge, but there was something missing, I felt rather scared by the prospect of going there


A in Music - ha, that's going to be interesting....considering a lot of weighted on aural, which one is CARP at!

You'll get an A in music


My dog is running around with my socks...

Nicki, can you turn the 'scared' into 'excited'?

Sometimes you have to go with your heart....

I really don't know. I like Durham and Cambridge. Both require 3 As. Then I like York and Sheffield, and then I'd probably need a couple of others. But my PS will have to be stonking (hmm), I have had no interview practice, I don't know *that* much, but wanting to learn.

Back in the OLD DAYS we didn't have a PS to do.... Doesn't your head of 6th (or whatever it is these days) give you interview practise?

Someone who speaks my language. You'll do great

And I agree with Emma C.

No. Our school is rubbish like that.

*goes to talk to friend at Cambridge about situation*

I hope so, apart from that would be nerve wracking as my head of 6th form is scary!

The only thing I remember about interviews was having to stay in cheap B&Bs that had nylon sheets and dangerous electric heaters! I don't think the interviews themselves were too bad.

Husband agrees with MisterJay .

Nicki (and others), don't get worried by thinking that wherever you end up (particularly if it's prestigious), you'll be surrounded by people who are absolutely brilliant at absolutely everything, and that you'll just end up looking like Little Miss Ditzy in comparison. Husband sailed through O Levels, sailed through A Levels, and was convinced that he would hit the wall when he arrived at Cambridge, but no, although he was stretched, he didn't struggle.

Wherever any of you end up, remember that the book-learning you receive is only part of a university education. My A Level grades were complete pants, and I ended up at Kingston, with a place won through clearing about ten days before the course started. OK, not the finest of universities by any stretch of the imagination, but I had an absolute ball for three years: I worked hard, played hard, partied hard, even learnt how to use a washing machine, and twelve years since graduation, nobody actually cares where I went to university.

Thanks...um don't know what to say, but it has helped me be more assured...(brain not working should really go to bed)

Just in case Nicki feels slightly got at - we're really not trying to convince you to do anything you don't want to. We're simply trying to encourage you and make sure you know all the facts when you're deciding

Oh, no I wasn't feeling got at all

I just need to think straight which I don't do when I stress.

Thanks!

Oh good. It looked kind of like we were ganging up on you Anyway, didn't you go to bed?

I was going to go to bed at 10.
I said goodbye to my friends on MSN at quarter to 11.
I cleaned my teeth and put my pyjamas on by 11.
I am now sitting on my bed wanting to go to sleep, but wanting to stay on the fora too!

I'll really not cut out to be a student (alcohol and late nights!) *grins*

Well you can't have it both ways

Very wise advice Trebor on both sides of the coin.

I didn't put "the work" in for my Cambridge application - I was very last minute and totally disorganised, and wrote both PSs (as I recall I had to do an extra one) pretty much straight out. I still got an interview!

I met people on interview who had the (to me) very strange view that if Cambridge offered them a place - any place - even at a college they emphatically didn't want to go to - then they would accept it. I found that odd... I also met someone at the open day in Durham who had been on my interview day, who essentially told me that she loved Durham and loved the course, but would still be totally gutted if she did not get into Cambs (given that she didn't appear in my 1st year classes I guess she did...). That seems, to me, a slightly unhealthy attitude, although I guess that desperation to get to Oxbridge may give the motivation to work one's socks off.

However I agree with Trebor, it's better to look at it as "one of six" rather than "THE place to go", and if you don't like the course or think it will be too much pressure, don't allow anyone to tell you you "should" or "must" apply. I don't regret applying to Cambridge, and I was actually relieved not to get a place. It wasn't the place for me, and I only found that out by going for interview and meeting the people who would be teaching me and those I would be studying with. I found that... well... I didn't like them very much - or the atmosphere of the place, and the attitudes of the teachers and the applicants bemused me.

In retrospect I only have two regrets about it: firstly, I applied to totally the wrong college for me, though I guess that also meant that I had the above experience and ended up going to the perfect place for me which was Durham, so it's not a huge regret. The second is the final question they asked me in my interview: "Why should we offer you a place?" To this day I wish I had been brave enough to go with my first instinct and say "If you do offer me a place, why should I accept it?"

Unfortunately I was too shy at 18 to say what I thought!

Anyway I'm rambling and waffling here so I shall shut up...

You never know - you might get an EE offer...!

I don't think so!! Cheeble off here got an offer like that, and she had definitely met the requirements for her course. Me, on the otherhand, no!

I think I can probably beat that...

With the AS Results coming out almost 2 weeks ago, obviously some people were happy, some disappointed.

I have friends who could probably get into most universities in the country and got really good grades. A fair few along the lines of AAB. Anyway, as chance would have it, lots of them got a high B in the subject they want to do at uni.
Now, my view on that was, either apply for a remark (if it's only a couple of marks off the A), or resit one module to get it up to the A. If you do that, your overall grade on UCAS is "pending" so as long as their other grades are good it shouldn't harm them too much.

Off the top of my head, I can think of 3 people who are changing the subject they want to study at university, purely because they thought they'd have a better chance at Oxbridge with that subject.

Now that strikes me as strange, doing something completely different for 3 years just to go to Oxbridge. I honestly fail to understand why anybody would take a subject they don't particularly want to just for the sake of getting in. *Sigh*

Yeah, me neither. And there are other people who do a subject because they feel they should, not because they enjoy it. For instance, a friend of mine's father is a doctor and so he always thinks he should be going to study medicine. He spends all his time moaning about having to do Chemistry and admits he enjoys History a lot more. But despite my (and others') suggestions, he still doesn't think he should apply for History. If you're gonna spend 3 or more years doing something, it should be something you really love, in my opinion.

My cousin really wants to do politics at university but was put off that idea after getting a low B at AS (A,A,C for the modules) whereas she got As in English lit, Drama and Art and is considering applying for English Lit now.

I want to study music, so far applying to leeds college of music and then not quite sure about the ucas ones...got lower in my AS level than predicted so not sure where to go now!
Personal statements...don't even go there!

I am hoping to do a very rubbish first draft today of mine

That is... just SO silly....


No kidding: esp with medicine which is probably a lot longer than 3 years and really is more a vocation than a subject. That's really sad!

Yeah. Me and a mate are doing our university advice therapy thing on him (and a few others whom we think are applying to wrong uni/for wrong subject). It involves a great deal of abuse and moaning, and they usually get quite annoyed after a while, but it's worked a couple of times and people have reconsidered. We feel it's our personal career advice service

A public service!!