AIBU to still be annoyed about my oxbridge rejection years later?

Yes it's sad you didn't get pushed at the time, it's sad you didn't feel you could apply...

But this is utter nonsense op. You didn't apply, you don't want to go back, you have a successful career. What are you looking for here?

I voted YABU when I saw you made your first million. Why worry?? I doubt Oxbridge would have improved your life.

I'm older than you and don't have anywhere near 1 million. I DID apply to Oxford from state school with 4 A grades at A-level in the required subjects (when A was the highest grade) - and one additional AS at grade B - and didn't even get an interview.

How can we make Oxbridge do better for the younger generation of state school kids?

Who brings it up??? I'm 52 and I honestly can't remember the last time where I went to university came up, other than on my CV.

Well yes, it is your fault! Also your choice to frame it as a rejection of you, when you were the one who rejected Oxbridge!
I wonder if there is more behind this, perhaps a dissatisfaction with your life as it is now which is hard to pin down?

I know someone who ACTUALLY got rejected from Oxbridge, went to another uni and then did her masters at Oxford. It can be done.

You didn't lack guts. It just didn't occur to you as a possibility because it wasn't on your radar or on the radar of those around you. I think you need to give your younger self a pass on that one, and I also think (as someone from a very deprived background who did go to Oxford) that it makes very little difference to the rest of your life for most people. It's perfectly possibly you'd be exactly where you are now regardless of where you studied.

Congratulations in your success to date. All achieved without an Oxbridge degree. If you had applied and got in who knows if you would achieved it.

It's time to let this one go.

but of course there's a huge difference between applying and being rejected, and never applying in the first place, because you'll never know if you would have got in or not.

You could have applied and been rejected at the first stage. Lots of people with predicted straight A's don't even make it to interview, just because their applications don't stand out.
You could have applied, been interviewed, but been rejected at that point. Again, this is sometimes where state school applicants fail because they simply don't have the polish or experience of grammar/private applicants who know exactly how to play the system. I was amazed when I found out people on my course had had multiple 'mock' interviews with teachers.
You could have applied, been offered a place but decided not to take it up.
You could have been offered a place, started but dropped out.

Who knows? You can't go back in time, only forward. You've clearly done well out of life already. PPs have suggested a masters at Oxbridge if you think it's something you want, and will resent missing out on, why not apply?

You aren't "not technically a reject" OP. You aren't a reject at all. Come on.

So your thread should have been 'I didn't have the confidence to apply to Oxford, but still made bank, why do I feel dissatisfied?'

You don’t see a difference between wanting something but not trying and trying but being rejected? Really? As it’s a really massive difference.

Apply now, if you want to go. Or to Imperial/LSE/UCL. Do the thing.

It's not too late.

But you've done brilliantly without it. Probably better than most that went (I went and I'm a SAHM!). Either go as a mature student or do a masters or just enjoy the success. Does anyone ask where you went to uni? I think your story is achievement enough and make that the headline.

Yes this. Oxford has come interesting online masters and Cambridge life long learning options. Never too late

It's not that you were not 'technically' rejected, it's that you chose never to apply. They didn't do you a disservice, you made your own choices and are now bitter about them. Move on! Or apply now. Either way stop being bitter about something you never even tried to make happen.

Apply now!

Could you apply now? If you’ve made a million you could easily afford the fees.

What do you mean decades later? If you did your A levels at 16 or older and you're 25 now it hasn't been even one decade since you would have applied, let alone decades.

There is a really obvious answer here rather than sit in bitterness and regret.

Apply to Oxbridge now.

Why haven't you?

I’m really pissed off that George Clooney fell in love with Amal instead of me. Sure, I never met him, just stood beside a few red carpets and looked wistful.

OP honestly your post is totally unhinged!
Opportunities slip by, that’s how life is.

Many people with amazing A levels don’t go to the best universities. They aren’t “right” for everyone. Good Grades are NOT the only ring considered by admissions tutors, although they certainly help. Back when you could have applied, it was probably still entrance exams for Oxford and some students pass that and then don’t put the effort into A levels.

let it go, the bitterness is futile

With respect, if you didn’t apply you weren’t rejected and it’s not very fair to the system or to yourself to frame it as if you had been. Your issue is regretting not applying, not being turned down. Clearly you are very clever and very successful, with or without having been to Oxbridge. Even if you had applied with contextual evidence, you might not have got in, because there are more excellent applications than places.

It’s not clear from your post whether you went to uni elsewhere or not, but either way there are routes to study at oxbridge later in life if you really want to - postgraduate study can actually be easier to access than undergraduate, sometimes. But I think you should think about whether you actually want to study there, and if so why/what (it’s not for everyone) or if this is more the way you have channelled your anger at the raw deal you received in the first place.

I went to Cambridge many years ago and have always had very mixed feelings about it. I think that’s quite common, FWIW.

There are masters courses you could apply for now - and you would find plenty of people your own age.

If it helps OP, I didn't apply either, because I wasn't confident enough. I'll never know whether or not I would have got in. You have to learn to live with it. I haven't been held back, and I think I was happier being a bigger fish in a slightly smaller pond.