I feel like a failure

I applied to Girton College Cambridge for Computer Science and I was rejected because I messed up my TMUA. I have also applied to Imperial but I don't think I did too well in the admissions test so I doubt I will get an interview. I had so much potential (predicted 3A* and achieved 1A*) but I feel like I've just thrown it away, I prided myself on being to smart one but now I'm not. I have offers from Durham, Manchester and Edinburgh but they just don't hold the same prestige, I really ruined my chances of being the best of the best. Anyone who's gone through something similar do you have any words of advice? I just feel so dejected right now...

Hey, I get you.

I wrote the ELAT and attended two interviews with Trinity Hall Cambridge for English and they all went really well; I was well on track to getting an offer from Cambridge. Ended up messing my A-Levels (I was predicted 3 A*s and 1 A and I ended up with 2 As and 2 Bs. I've got no ******* clue what went wrong) and got rejected. I've got offers from Edinburgh, Manchester, and KCL but I only meet the offer requirements for Edinburgh. It's a global T10 school for English but you're right, nothing quite matches up to Oxbridge, especially when you've had your heart set on that.

We all come across bad days, despite priding ourselves on being smart. It's just unfortunate that our bad days had to make us do a complete 180. I don't really know what else to say, because I feel like a failure too. People do keep saying that eventually it'll feel better, but once again, you're right---so much potential was wasted. We can't really just get over the opportunity of our lifetimes slipping through our fingers in a few days.

I guess I replied even without words of advice 'cause I wanted you to feel less alone in this---I know I do.

You sound smart, one bad run can't and won't bring you down. It'll get better.

On that note, congrats on your other offers!

I get you aswell bro I am predicted 4A*, got rejected from Cambridge for comp sci post interview. Haven’t heard anything from Imperial even though I did the test like 4 months ago. Only have a queen Mary offer so ur in a better spot than me. I just try to immerse myself in school work to keep myself distracted.

I applied to Girton College Cambridge for Computer Science and I was rejected because I messed up my TMUA. I have also applied to Imperial but I don't think I did too well in the admissions test so I doubt I will get an interview. I had so much potential (predicted 3A* and achieved 1A*) but I feel like I've just thrown it away, I prided myself on being to smart one but now I'm not. I have offers from Durham, Manchester and Edinburgh but they just don't hold the same prestige, I really ruined my chances of being the best of the best. Anyone who's gone through something similar do you have any words of advice? I just feel so dejected right now...

I get you aswell bro I am predicted 4A*, got rejected from Cambridge for comp sci post interview. Haven’t heard anything from Imperial even though I did the test like 4 months ago. Only have a queen Mary offer so ur in a better spot than me. I just try to immerse myself in school work to keep myself distracted.

We applied to the exact same places for the exact same course! I too got rejected from Cambridge from Gonville and Caius college but for an entirely different reason. In the room where the admissions test was taking place, there were 7 other admissions tests taking place at the same time. The end timings for each test were presented in a tabular format and I was sat at the back of the room. I saw the wrong row for the end timing of the first paper. I know in practice that it's one hour 15 minutes but at no point did I clock that the end timing I saw was actually for one hour 30 minutes. I worked through the first 10 questions within 20 minutes and so I decided to pace myself a bit more so I didn't make any stupid mistakes. When there were 17 minutes left before what I thought was the end timing (2 minutes before the actual end), I started to slowly fill my answer sheet and shade the lozenges. After two minutes went by, I had the nastiest shock I've ever experienced - I got told the test is over and to put my pencil down. At this point, I clocked that I looked at the wrong end timing and I only managed to get half of my answers down on to my answer sheet. The test wasn't even that hard but if I knew what the end timing was, I would have continued to work through the paper at the same rate I started it at and then leave enough time to fill in answers but that didn't happen. For 20 minutes of the second paper, I wasn't in the right mindset and literally sat there thinking there is literally no point in me being here, but I wrote my answers for the paper anyway. I knew I was getting rejected at this stage because the first paper is always the paper that I do better on and that was the one that went badly. The worst bit is that in practice, the lowest I've scored was 7.2! Imagine how I must have felt knowing that the hard work was in vain. I have a friend who was scoring 5.0 and he scored 5.2 in the actual thing and got an interview. Imagine how I must have felt scoring 4.5 and then getting rejected.

After that mishap, I received my Imperial interview invite and knew I had to smash it so I put my head down and put a shift in and a week before Christmas, I got my offer!

University name doesn't matter. We obviously want to do well for ourselves otherwise we wouldn't have aimed so high but after sending off that application, nothing else is in your control - it's the decision of the admissions tutor that makes it. Also, university name doesn't define you. You can be an excellent student at a medium tier university or you can get into Oxbridge and/or Imperial/LSE and fall off. University will just aid your process into the real world but by no means is it the only path. I mean, you have three offers, which is something to be proud of! All of those three institutions are amazing for CS so if anything, you are spoilt for choice. Accept the rejection and move on. Make the admissions tutors rue the day that they decided to reject you. In your position, I would probably firm Edinburgh and insure Durham.

I've also got offers from Edinburgh and Manchester but I'm still waiting on Durham, which is really annoying me. The final thing I would say is don't make assumptions about decisions just yet till it arrives. Imperial looks at your admissions test and personal statement and give equal importance to both, unlike Oxbridge who definitely look at your admissions test score more than anything else. If you have a strong personal statement, that could potentially make up for the weaker admissions test score. The fact that you haven't been rejected shows that you show some merit on your application otherwise you would have been rejected just straight away - you need to give yourself a bit more credit for what it's worth. Don't worry - I'm sure you'll get your offer in due time.

Said friend who scored 5.2 in TMUA sat his admissions test for imperial in October but still hasn't heard about interview so don't worry! Good luck for your future endeavours and I'm sure you will be successful in the future.

I get you aswell bro I am predicted 4A*, got rejected from Cambridge for comp sci post interview. Haven’t heard anything from Imperial even though I did the test like 4 months ago. Only have a queen Mary offer so ur in a better spot than me. I just try to immerse myself in school work to keep myself distracted.