So where else did you apply?

Undergrad: Oxford (rejected after interview), Bristol (rejected without interview), Exeter (offer BBB), Sussex (offer BBB), Nottingham (ABB), Manchester (ABB). All were for English and Classics or English and Philosophy.

Postgrad: Oxford (offer, high 2.1), York (offer, 2.1), UCL (offer, 2.1), Cambridge (rejection)

What is a 'high' 2:1? Do they want an average percentage or something?

Pffft, who knows - it was a rubbish offer anyway, being deliberately vague on their part (I suspect so that if they got an overwhelming number of people with firsts they could chuck anyone with a 'high' 2.1 off by saying it wasn't 'high' enough).

All universities ask for a transcript anyway to prove that you've met their conditions, so I sent Oxford mine, hoping that they would have fun with it seeing as it's an absolute nightmare to look at. Mine says at the top that I got a 2.1 followed by listing every single module mark. At the bottom it lists my average for each year, but not my overall average. I didn't bother sitting down and working it all out because a) maths is not my strong point and I'd have likely got it wrong and b) even if I had sat down and worked it out correctly, the result would have been useless seeing as Oxford never specified what a 'high' 2.1 was (above 65? above 68? who knows?). Each year was worth a different amount too, so it wouldn't be the easiest thing to work out (i.e. my second and third years were not each worth 50% of my overall degree mark).

So I wrote under all the averages what each of them contributed to my overall degree mark and sent it off. They spent a whole month pondering over it before telling me 'the guy looking at your application didn't understand it, therefore on the basis that you got a 2.1 of some description, we're letting you in' To be fair, it was Exeter's fault (for not including the overall average for my degree on the transcript) as much as Oxford's, but still, it smacks of a sheer lack of organisation.

God that sounds pretty awful! But you got there in the end, which is what matters I suppose.