Physics at Uni, poss Oxbridge?

Worcester is a lovely college and one of the most oversubscribed so he must have done very well indeed. I'm sure he'll enjoy his time there and you should be very proud of him too .

Well done to him , I'm sure he'll enjoy his time there. Thanks for updating too. How did he find the exam and which college did he go for?

Well done to your DS.

Gosh, that's good news! Well done to him and good luck with the rest of this year and his time at Oxford!

My son may be applying to either Oxford or Cambridge next year and is also not the most talkative person around, so it's very encouraging to hear that your son coped! The lack of talk is likely to be a bit more relevant in my son's case, though, as he will be going for an arts/humanities subject, I think (he hasn't made up his mind). Oh well, they're very experienced interviewers...

what larrygrylls said.
go for it.

YetanotherMum,

Good luck with him. Please let him go for the best he can achieve. He will not regret it. It is a long time (graduated 1986) since I went but, if you (or he) needs any info, just let me know. I am happy to share my experiences etc.

I studied physics at Cambridge (starting as Natsci and finishing in theoretical phys in yr 3). There were a LOT of very geeky kids there whose forte was not speech! Having said that, it is tough. I was way top of a very academic boys' public school in North London and got about the best A level and S level grades, but found it really tough from 2nd year onwards.

I would not let the interview discourage your son at all. It will be a sciency interview, based on understanding of concepts and making educated guesstimates. If he really likes the subject, he will walk it.

What I loved about Cambridge was the campus atmosphere. You really do make friends for life (and bright ones), regardless of your background.

Is your son not interested in Engineering degrees? If he's good at Physics and Maths, he should enjoy Engineering, and it's more vocational than a pure Physics degree.

go to oxford or cambridge if he possibly can.

of course he'll fit in - the physics labs are full of, well, physics geeks from all different backgrounds, Brideshead was 100 years ago (and even then it was a story)

Rightly or wrongly Oxbridge will confer advantages for the rest of his life. And he'll have a great time.

Please do not discourage your son on the basis that he would not "fit in" in Oxbridge. My DH was a very shy, working class boy from a failing comprehensive in a very rural area, comedy accent - he showed up in jeans and t-shirt at the interview when everyone else was in suits. He got into Oxford for physics no problem, went and had a really good time becasue he found a lot of like-minded people who just loved science.

As your son, he also believed he wanted to do research (astronomy) - but ended up doing an internship at NASA and decided it was not for him, so went into actuarial work, which he really enjoys (something to do with modelling extreme events like pandemics etc).

He would say that there are a lot of good physics department around the country (he mentioned Leicester too), and if your son is definitely sure he wants to do research, then they are fine. However, if he wants to keep his options open professionally, then Oxbridge/Imperial/Durham or Russell Group are probably a better bet than a redbrick (all but the most technical employers have no clue which physics/maths/engineering dept. is best - they just rank the universities).

I did physics at Oxford, didn't apply to Cambridge as I thought the Cambridge tripos thing would be harder!

Do you still have to chose colleges at Oxbridge as well? Some colleges are more popular than others so theoretically you could increase chances of getting in by chosing carefully (these would generally be the smaller ones, ones furthest out from the centre, newest ones & ones that used to be women only). But overall it's basically luck of draw so not worth getting too hung up on.
(Interesting that there are some other actual physicists on mumsnet too! I alwaya feel like such an oddball, having worked in physics too until DS)

probably this is the reason - writing takes practice too

that's why I wouldn't worry

he can write about sience, cos is not wooly :)

he just has to have more believe in himself and trust his abilities

my nephew is in the second year of his Natural Sciences Tripos in Cambridge, he loves it

had he not got his place he would have chosen Physics in Imperial College

I think once he gets place at Uni he should be able to improve his writing skills

I strongly believe his inability must be down to some fear. He ca ncomprehend as he obviously understands complex questions.

With a good tutor he would be able to improve in a matter of weeks, but then it needs to be someone who can communicate with him and build up a good rapport.

My DH studied Physics at Birmingham and he tells me you have to be reasonably good at English due to the essays he had to write. Birmingham has a good reputation. He does not use Physics at all now as an accountant and did have to do post grad training but that was in the last recession when graduate jobs were hard to get.

I used to work for actuarial firms though and they would rather have a physics grad over a maths grad due to the amount of communication in physics over maths and the 'out of box' thinking. Some of the most interesting actuaries I worked with were physics grads.

My DH has PhD in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge. He did the Math Tripos as an undergraduate but started Natural Sciences before transferring because he had no interest in anything at all practical!

I asked him and he would recommendCambridge, Durham, Imperial, Oxford. While some of the redbrick unis are as good if you continue to do PhD, for a career outside Physics the four above also have a bit more lustre.

He does worry that A levels now don't distiguish the good from the brilliant. Oxbridge thus ends up accepting coached applicants over academically more capable but less well rounded types. His view was perhaps risk a STEP paper in Maths to differentiate.

DH has worked in academia, intelligence services but mostly in finance. They would always take math and physics grads over an MBA/economics/PPE even thoug no specilized knowledge is required.

Having gone to Cambridge, I would always encourage people to apply. It's a great place to study and you are well supported.

Physics at Cambridge is hard. You start on the NatSci tripos and then specialise as years go on.

However, it sounds like you son has great grades and he should give it a bash. Cambridge is looking for bright and motivated students, so a lack of conversation may not be a problem!

As for employability; even if there are few physics jobs around, employers love sciencey degrees from Oxbridge.

I would encourage him to give one or other a try if he wants too, especially if he's going to regret not trying if he doesn't. He has four other options on UCAS as well, so it's perfectly reasonable to have one choice as a bit of a long shot (though it sounds as though academically he'd fit in there).

If he sits the Oxford exam and does very well, they will take him more or less regardless of interview. If he's more in the middle then they will decide at interview (but be looking for physics/maths ability rather than English I would think) and if he doesn't do so well in the exam then he may not get an interview. He sounds like a bright cookie and is probably quite able to prepare himself for the exam - are there past papers he can work through? Be aware that the papers are likely to be very hard, so a good score is quite low (at least it was like that in days of yore). The Oxford physics course may suit him better if he's sure that's the subject he wants to study. As someone else mentioned at Cambridge the first year is a more broadly based science course unless you opt for the maths and theoretical physics route which would also require him to sit the (rather fiendish) STEP maths exams which do trip quite a few people up.

My DD is at Cambridge, tho not doing physics. There's a huge variety of people there so I hope your son doesn't think there's only a certain social type. If he's got the academic ability, he'd be fine! I do know Imperial and others are very highly respected too. My DS is looking at a science career so we'll be starting reserach very soon into these. (he's just started As's)