Why does Oxbridge do this? Do you know any Students like this?

[janeeire244]

Why are there so many students at Oxbridge who study competitive degrees like law with relatively low A-level grades such as anything below 3A*s but also including AAA or even AAB? Most of these people applied with inflated predicted grades but are let in when they get lower grades than they were predicted either because they still met the really low entry requirements (shockingly Oxford Law is at AAA) or if they miss it and get AAB, they are reprieved?

I don’t even think it’s fair to say that they shone at some other stage of the application process because I know of some students who got relatively low admissions test scores or mediocre GCSEs and got in as well.

This is all the while they reject people with much high admissions test scores or much better grades.

That being said I’ve never heard of anyone who did poorly on the interviews get an offer (poorly by Oxbridge standards not just them thinking they did badly).

Do you know anyone at Oxbridge studying a degree (especially a competitive one like law) with an average admissions test score or below average; or less than 3A*s at A-level?

This post nails it.

Exam results measure your ability to excel at exams.
Oxbridge are looking for people who will excel academically in their subject. They are basically looking for the professors of the future (acknowledging that most will not end up in academia of course). So they are not looking just for the best exam results but the ones who have genuine passion for their subject and will respond to the style of teaching.

@cheeseallthroughthebitch - probably about as well as you are. I have had experience with someone with similar narcissistic tendencies to the OP before, although that was in real life in the workplace and they were in a position of power, not a teenager applying to university. When that person left, I was left to deal with the fallout from the emotional harm they had caused to the people they had managed. I therefore now have a tendency to totally overreact to that sort of narcissistic behaviour when I see it, like a knee jerk reaction. Your post about why they were behaving in the way they were with their continual posts made me reflect on the things I had written to the OP and I realised that if they are the actual person who did not get into Cambridge and not the person’s mother (as they have previously claimed), and really are considering fraudulent applications to get into Oxford or Cambridge, then they really are mentally unwell, and my posts, therefore, unkind as you pointed out. I still disagree strongly that narcissism and a willingness to commit fraud to achieve a person’s aims are indicative of autism.

I think if you are totally overreacting, as you put it, then you are not quite as well as I am.

I get that you’re super invested in this thread by a random person you don’t know, enough to be posting on it at 3am in response to no one, but maybe you’ve said everything that can be said now.

Agreed. Yes, I am totally over-invested in this thread. It has surprised me how much it has brought back the feelings I had 15 years ago. It was an extremely stressful time. I’d never experienced that type of behaviour before.

It is quite a fun thread. (I even saw an "it's" which should have been "its" in a nit picking comment - the kind of error on a top law firm application that can lead to rejection as lawyers are paid in some ways to pick nits); then add on allegations of disability, you must be mad if you have XYZ view etc.

I think you can either let things get you down in life or just plough on and try to be happy. People do fine even if they don't go to Oxbridge. It is only a standard invented as important by our society anyway. Someone with different views might think laying down your life in a convent with vows of poverty etc is "doing better".

Do you think exam grades are the only markers of intelligence?

You are very bitter. Have you considered how you come across to other people?

My DC was one of those you despise. They had severe undiagnosed additional learning needs and covid to contend with. No, they didn't get 3 or 4 A*s in their A levels, but they exceeded their offer for a course which is more competitive than law at Oxford.

On their first day they were all told to forget about comparng themselves to others and instead achieve the potential they had displayed during the application process. My DC did just that and is now heading for a distinction in their masters.

I don't disagree with the sentiment that Oxbridge's requirements are very much fine (especially when they rigorously assess through interviews and, occasionally, exams) BUT, they do not care about extracurriculars, only supercurriculars (essay competitions, oxbridge residentials that are unpaid, books, podcasts etc). Being head girl, captain of a sports team or anything else is irrelevant to British universities that want you to be a highly focused academic machine alone. This is as opposed to the Ivies that might regard extracurriculars.