Eldest DD wants to go to Oxford I fear her tribe is not there

[Pisssssedofff]

But she's determined. I want to support her I really do but I want her to meet her life long buddies at uni.

Any thoughts ?

If you want to get into business it tends to be better not to study business studies at university. Anyway good luck to the daughter who is clearly as a new immigrant working very hard indeed and will do very well. Do make sure you listen to those who know about things and always pick by institution's status not course (is my view but I know a lot of mumsnetters disagree all part and parcel of the interesting group of people we get on here).

There is some good information on this thread, but also a lot of misinformation. If your children are thinking of applying to Oxford (or any other university), please please make sure you get up to date information from university webpages, prospectuses, open days, or via contacting admissions offices directly. I'm not going to attempt to unpick everything but just a few points.

1. I regularly interview candidates who don't have all A/A at GCSE. While simultaneously turning down candidates who do have all A/A. Please don't think you have no chance with the odd B.
2. All A-level offers are at least AAA these days, higher for many subjects (colleges jointly agree standard offers for a subject). What happened 20 years ago is irrelevant.
3. Some of the information given about colleges was very out of date or just wrong. There are no women's colleges any more. St John's college is rich but the students aren't.

If your children are thinking of applying to Oxford (or any other university), please please make sure you get up to date information from university webpages, prospectuses, open days, or via contacting admissions offices directly.

YY, that.

Why do people still believe the bullshit about needing straight A* grades? This is the myth that will not die.

If you think you would like to go to Oxbridge, APPLY to Oxbridge.

Come August, there are always stories in the papers about how horrible and snobbish Oxbridge dons are, because they don't accept a diverse enough intake. But they cannot accept students who've not applied. And every year, people who know nothing whatsoever about Oxbridge applications will insist on claiming that you need straight A grades at GCSE, which immediately puts off a whole cohort of bright students who slipped a grade or two, and who generally are more diverse than Tarquin who was coached into 10 grades at Eton and applied to Oxbridge simply because he and his teaches assume it's the obvious thing for him to do.

I agree with the last few posts, and would add that friends of mine involved in admissions for a few different subjects say they have to cut off somewhere as they can't interview everyone, and in terms of GCSE's that means C's. Every year there are some great looking candidates with all A and A* but then 1 C (often in a MFL) which they find such a shame apparently.

This might not be a rule across the board (though I suspect it is) but what I've taken from it is to encourage DD1 to put the most study time into her weakest subject. Not accept that 1 B will be okay, take foot off pedal with it and have it slip to a C. (Though hers will be the 9-1 grading and so it's all up in the air.)

Good advice above. One of my twins for example got a B at GCSE (French - languages again, lazy children tend to not to want to learn strings of irregular verbs etc) but their school definitely encouraged them to apply to Oxbridge notwithstanding (they both worked a lot harder for AS and got AAAA (but they can't be bothered and of course Oxbridge rightly does not want or need people who are not sufficiently dedicated to even bother to apply whereas had they both been very keen to go I would have supported them all the way of course.......).

Part of it is no one got to Oxbridge from their school last year so the school is very keen lots of people apply. Good for the school. You don't need 11 A* at GCSE to apply or even get in.

I don't agree Eton boys are coached to good results. You don't even get into Eton in most cases uniless you're very bright indeed whereas lots of pfee payment school cater towards not very bright children. Eton is like a state grammar - most people are not bright enough to get in and the results achieved reflect in part the original intake.

Me - I think we've miscommunicated a bit?

My comment about Eton and coaching wasn't intended to suggest that Eton isn't academically selective. I was commenting on diversity of intake. Eton is hugely economically selective. It uses its resources to provide a lot of coaching for its students - lots of small classes, lots of one-to-one, lots of opportunities. Which you may feel is absolutely fine, and what the families are paying for and what the children qualified for during their entrance exam.

The fact remains that, if you are a hugely economically selective school, you will not end up with a diverse intake. And if you use your resources, as an economically selective school, to provide students with more contact with teachers, smaller classes, and so on, you would certainly hope those students would get higher grades.

That doesn't mean a student with a few B grades, who has been to a school that does not have such resources, should feel less entitled to put an application in.

Oh, and no, Eton is not 'like a state grammar'.

I'm sorry, but it isn't.

Somerville I've found a maths tutor, she just needs support and some extra time on it and she's convinced she can push it up from a 7/8 to a 9. She'll never be a 10 but it seems worth aiming for

Eton is not our best example though of that is it as it is rich enough to hae a lot of boys with fee support whereas less well endowed private schools don't so might where academically selective better fit that profile.

State grammars have more applicants per place in some areas than some selective private schools so might well be getting in the higher IQs at entry point. It is all interesting stuff.

Is the 1 - 9 the new GCSE grades from next year replacing A* - E? If so I don't think they do a ten.

This is true, and I do apologise for not referring to Little Biddlington Boys' School, a famous and immediately recognisable name in the category to which you refer. That would have made my point so much clearer.

She'll never be a 10 but it seems worth aiming for

That's hilarious!!!!!

On a more serious note please check her fee status - she will be required to have been domiciled in the UK for five years (it's going up from the current three) which I'm not sure she will have been? Overseas fees can be eye-watering...

Yes, I tried to make that point earlier above regarding fees and when my twins just applied the form was not at all clear by the way - the UCAS form - on this issue in my view but that might just be my inability to understand the instructions.

and would add that friends of mine involved in admissions for a few different subjects say they have to cut off somewhere as they can't interview everyone, and in terms of GCSE's that means C's. Every year there are some great looking candidates with all A and A star but then 1 C (often in a MFL) which they find such a shame apparently.

If that is true - that's bloody scary. Does anybody else know if that is the case?

Thank you irregularregular as St John's is actually a pretty inclusive place, and certainly somewhere someone from a poorer background should consider (if only for accommodation and access to hardship funds if needed). And I know my ex Tutor used to prefer people from State schools with all A's to someone from private school with the same grade because: "someone from state school has had to work to get those grades, in a private school they may have been coached and helped".
Afterall if I was paying for Eton (or another school) I would expect my DC to be coached and helped to achieve the absolute best they could - thats what I would be paying for. In a state school they almost certainly have to be more self-motivated.

I'll second St John's for poorer students, and also for encouraging state school applications. There is undergraduate accommodation in college for all three/four years, and the college's approach to funding includes taking back running of the Lamb and Flag pub so that profits could be used to fund the Lamb and Flag scholarships. While these are for graduate students, iirc, there is a hardship fund for undergraduates, and the college are genuinely helpful in times of need, in my experience.

Definitely. I don't have many good words to say about St Johns (I was very unhappy there but it was 25 years ago) but they are and have been for a long time a good college for people without much money - they are more serious about widening access than some of the other big rich colleges, and being stinking rich they can and do give a lot of practical help in terms of hardship funds etc.

My DD went there from a poor single mum home over 20 years ago and made close friends there she still sees. The thing the Oxford students have in common is their academic ability. The rich parents are not as generous with subsiding their kids at Uni as you might think.

I don't think English is the OP's first language hence some crossed wires here.

OP, do remember that it is your daughter's turn now and her choice to make.