I am sitting in the kitchen on tenterhooks: we are waiting for my Older Daughter's decision letter from Cambridge - whether or not she has been accepted to read Medicine next year.
We have accepted the sixth form place for Waif at the central London day school at which she won a place - there were 140 applicants for 12 places so she did well. Really it involves moving from one private London day school to another so it not too great a change BUT she will be going back to an all girls' school. With a desire to study maths, physics and economics this seems like a sensible trade as the chances are at her current school that she might well be the only girl in the higher maths set and (having been in that sort of position myself) that is not much fun as it leaves you short of female company. Waif is keen to remain friends with her current set, and I am sure she will as they all live locally to us and I know she will make the effort.
I have not been without qualms about the move as the only way that Waif will ever achieve any happiness in her life is to stay healthy. I have not persuaded her to weigh herself and let me know the weight but I have seen her several times in underwear and she is nowhere near as thin as she was 2 years back when she resembled a walking skeleton :-( OD dug out our holiday video from Christmas 2009 and we were all pretty horrified. She is now merely very slim which, although dangerous territory, is not in itself worrying. Hearteningly, she tucks in to chocolates when they are on offer and always eats ice cream for pudding at supper time. Apart from that, she eats very healthily: usually the vegetarian options, always lots of greens and often a medium small portion but not ridiculously minuscule. I am daring to hope that perhaps she will be one of the lucky ones to beat this thing once and for all. If so, I don't want to hold her back unnecessarily. At her new school she will be in a class of about 8 and they have a tremendously good Oxbridge record.
OD has just gone to the cafe round the corner and I am instructed to phone her when the letter arrives. Gulp, any minute now.......
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did the postman arrive?
ReplyDeleteYES! But without a definitive answer. OD was apparently of the right standard for Cambridge (yay!) but they had no room for her at her first choice college so she has gone into the "pool". This means she is not rejected but her file is sitting amongst all the other pooled candidates' files in a room in Cambridge being glanced at by other admissions tutors. With a bit of luck she will be asked back for an interview at a different college next Friday. About 1 in 4 get accepted after being pooled so the odds are not brilliant but nor yet is she doomed. OD is naturally rather despondent. I am resolutely hopeful as she would be absolutely right for Cambridge. Gosh, we really were expecting a decision today...... if she doesn't get in this year then she will probably take a gap year and give it another go next year. This could all turn out to be a blessing in disguise as she might do something memorable and worthy with her time eg work on a Mercy Ship.
ReplyDeletedoes waif blog? i think you should encourage her to network with other healthy life / eating disordered / ex eating disordered bloggers. it's the best therapy of my life, with regard to humans. x
ReplyDeleteJust to hearten OD: I am a current Cambridge student and got a place at a college through the pool. Girls tend to do better in the pool because the girls colleges pick mostly from there (as many people who apply direct to girls colleges do so because they think it will be easy- a misconception!). Good luck to her- but medicine is the only subject where oxbridge is not a big 'thing', as they are so focused on academic rather than patient based medicine!
ReplyDeleteThanks anon! TBH we would be delighted with ANY college at all. OD's great goal is to be at Cambridge. She is keen on it partly because she is focused on the academic side and would like to (fingers crossed) end up doing a fair amount of research alongside her clinical practice. She is young for her year so if she is rejected she will take a year out and re apply.
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