Can't understand this (uni offer)

I have no idea why she was rejected because she is clearly very bright but I have a genuine question; Does she ever sleep?!

Maybe Durham weights GCSEs more heavily than other places would be my thought.

Durham definitely does. I was so surprised to be given an offer as my GCSE's weren't anywhere near as good as their usual student. I sat in on a chemistry talk on an open day and they showed a graph with the amount of A*s a student obtaining an offer achieved, and the average was about 7. I achieved 3, and the statistic was very low for % of offers with 3 A*s, although I achieved 8As too.

My poor daughter applied to Durham for Engineering, and has her heart set on it.

She has 14 GCSEs (8 at A/A*), holds one of the most prestigious scholarhips for 6th formers in Engineering (Arkwright Scholarship), was the first girl in 8 years to be awarded the Hugh Potter shield in Engineering, beat 2000 other students in a separate wiring challenge and won.

The last 3 summers she's either done work experience in Avionics, or has been at Uni Summer school doing either Inspire or Headstart courses in Engineering (both of which are difficult to get into, and this year she was also subsidised by a separate scholarship one in civil engineering, one in aeronautcial engineering)

She's taken 4 A levels (maths, further Maths, Physics and Chem) with predicted grades of A*AAA

She was made deputy head girl at her current school (which is a 'world class' state school, and the highest performing state school in the entire region), has set up and run two sucessful businesses whilst at school) and is one of 12 young people recognised as future leaders in industry in our county.

She was a founder member of the young engineers club at her current school, and has won the highest award in her school twice.

Outside of school she's taken both both Bronze and Silver CREST awards (highly recognised science awards) and help set up the silver award scheme in her current school.

She also volunteers for St John Ambulance, and ran the cadet section for 5 months, has done her D of E and National Citizen Service.

So, obviously she has a clear talent and commitment to her chosen discipline

She hasn't even made the first cut and was an immediate rejection.

School gave her an excellent reference

I honestly don't know what else she could have done.

It's made me question the whole process to be honest. Thoughts anyone please?

Given that 75% of applicants to Durham engineering get an offer (https://university.which.co.uk/durham-university-d86/general-engineering-4-years-9250-h100 ) this definitely sounds iffy.

I would suggest contacting ucas to get a full copy of her application (just in case something in her reference is wrong or if she somehow entered her qualifications incorrectly). Ucas are open over Christmas apart from weekends/bank holidays.

Was the rejection by email or on ucas Track? If it wasn’t on Track then I would double check that the email is genuine and not a prank. If it’s on Track then check whether the supplied a basic rejection reason. If not then google for their admissions policy which should explain the process for getting more detailed feedback and also the complaints and appeals process.

I have no idea why she was rejected because she is clearly very bright but I have a genuine question; Does she ever sleep?!

Loughborough offers a better Engineering course than Durham - perhaps she will actually benefit.

I wonderif her PS was focused on what she has done rather than skills she's acquired and passion for Engineering?

I wonder that too. Did she receive good guidance on the content of her personal statement? Did she know not to repeat achievements and attainments that would be already included in her reference? Did she use her very limited space to the best effect or perhaps include all that extra stuff you have told us about? Did she write it and did someone who knows what they are doing check it? This situation is very hard for you to bear. Just don't give up until you have exhausted all possibilities.

I'm not sure that stat is right. They had over 1000 applications for 150 places

Sorry just coming back on, haven't been online for days due to Christmas/family holidays etc, and in any event there wasn't much else to say until we heard back from Durham - the response we got is bascially her predicted grades aren't high enough compared to other students with similar contextual data so that's the answer

I think she has been used by her school.

14 GCSEs is an excessive number that should really only be taken by someone who is going to nail A/A* in all of them, Anyone getting Bs should be sitting a smaller number of exams.

4 A levels is appropriate for a school offering further maths. It would also look very odd for someone reading engineering at a good university not to take further maths if it was available. Over 16,000 pupils did further maths A level in 2017. Over 4850 got A*. As schools generally over-predict grades, there are probably nearer to 6000 students with a prediction of A*, which your daughter didn't have.

Your daughter has clearly been distracted, and it looks as though she was encouraged to be distracted, from the key academic achievement of getting the best A level grades possible. Her school looks as though it was chasing press coverage for this award and that award. I wonder if they would have kept her more focused if she had applied to Oxbridge?

In relation to the Arkwright Scholarships "A record 1,594 students applied for an Arkwright Engineering Scholarship in 2017, with a record 425 Scholarships awarded."

I couldn't find any statistics for the Crest Silver Award but at this state school, it appears to have been what the "also rans" received. http://www.ogdentrust.com/about-us/news/post/1382-going-for-gold

I’m not too sure about Durham, but most unis pay a lot or most of the attention to personal statements. They’re not looking for things you did under some sort of list but the things you learnt from them, the reason why you’re passionate about the subject, your personality, etc. In my school the advice is that students should get their personal statement read by people who can advise them and redrafted multiple times. I guess that’s probably what it is, as she seems like a great applicant under every other aspect.

Is she not happy with at least one of her remaining choices? If not, I'd bee looking at adjustment / clearing, but more probably a gap year, and including Oxbridge next time. What didn't she like about Oxbridge?

No, she was quite careful to match experience with skills and talk about her passion.

No clearing places at Durham Uni have come up for several years for General Engineering

She did a maths course at Oxford last year and just decided it wasn't for her.

She pursued Cambridge a bit more (went to some of the Robogals events there, had her Arkwright Scholarship interview there, went to open days etc)

She said it felt too chaotic, felt they were trading on their reputation (her words, not mine!) had concerns about the moving of the Engineering department which would happen whilst she was there and thought it could detract from the experience.

She also thought the STEPS process would be a distraction from getting on with her mocks, and as she wasn't that keen on going in the first place decided to put her focus elsewhere.

If I was bright enough to even have considered going myself, I might have looked on it differently if it were me - but it was her decision and her choice and she made the decision not to pursue it.

She didn't write a list, she was careful to match what she'd done with what she'd learnt and how it furthered her interest in engineering.

She did re-draft it multiple times and it was checked by 3 different tutors at school so I think she was probably given the same advice as you.

Durham have also confirmed that her grades weren't high enough