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Original poster

UPDATE on University Situation - Advice?

102 replies

Juliette96 · 18/09/2025 09:43

So, I have just been told by my private exam centre that they’ve managed to get the coursework issue resolved so I’ve now got my 3 A-Stars.

This is great and means I’ve achieved my true potential. Also, it means I am eligible to reapply to Oxford (no need for fraud!).

The only issue is that the Cambridge Foundation Year is now creeping up on me.

I have to attend an induction week starting this Monday and I still don’t want to go. They keep phoning me and emailing me about it, but it’s just upsetting me. If I didn’t want to go, how can I tell them no at this late stage without them hating me?

Also, what do you think I should do? I don’t want to do the Foundation Year and can reapply to Oxford and UCL as I have the grades now and I’m quite confident at my admissions test performance as I recently did it. But, I know if I get rejected from Oxford, I’d think I wasted a whole year when I could’ve just gone to UCL. This is as although I could technically also get rejected from UCL, I got in this year.

Also, Cambridge is still good but I just don’t want to do the Foundation Year!! If they could let me just bypass it but they refuse to.

Also, if not for the private exam centre messing things up I could have just gone to UCL to study history for a year and then transferred to their law course or reapplied to Oxford while there as Oxford allows students studying at other universities to apply ONLY if they want a change of course or have other serious reasons for applying. This means that I wouldn’t have to be scrambling for things to do in an unneeded second gap year. It’s now too late for UCL Clearing.

Just thinking about how if I had just applied to Oxford by the deadline, and got an offer, I would’ve had no stress and no issues and would have met the offer.

OP posts:
murasaki · 18/09/2025 09:46

Do the foundation year, as you've been advised many times. There is no guarantee you'd get an offer from Oxford or UCL this time round.

Pinkcherry26 · 18/09/2025 10:06

So many contradictions, but let's start with congratulations on your A level results and I am glad it has been sorted out and you can put that issue to bed.

But:

If you don't want to go to Cambridge for the Foundation Year, tell them. There might be someone who can take your place and this could change their life. Whoever reads your email at Cambridge will probably roll their eyes that you have taken so long to decline but won't care enough to remember your name in three months' time, let alone hate you.

But:

I thought you didn't want London? What has changed? You cannot let your fixed ideas about the status of different universities lead you to apply to somewhere that is not right for you.

AND BUT, BUT, BUT:

Your Oxford or bust attitude is unhealthy. Your Oxford is better than Cambridge opinion is bonkers. Oxford is not obliged to take you because of your grades. They might make you an offer, but they might well not.

If you were my daughter I would remind you that Cambridge saw something special in you. Even when you didn't have the grades, they saw something in you which made it worth offering you a fully-funded Foundation Year that many people would kill for. For someone so determined to make decisions based on status and what you believe you "deserve", it is incomprehensible to me that you would turn this down.

If you take the Foundation Year, you graduate in four years with an Oxbridge degree. If you take another year out to apply, you graduate in four years with what may or may not be an Oxbridge degree.

pinkdelight · 18/09/2025 10:27

I don't know why you - or I - am posting as you never listen but obviously do the Foundation Year as you're on another planet, need bringing down to Earth and that's your only hope. But I bet you won't, and will be back on here next year with similar stories.

LIZS · 18/09/2025 10:34

Do the foundation year and apply as you choose to continue to the first year in 2026, be it Oxford, UCL or ANother. Remember none if them “owe” you a place though, whatever your results were. You have a lot of issues to resolve and independence to develop, this gives you breathing space to do so.

LIZS · 18/09/2025 10:38

And why yet another namechange when you clearly expect to be recognised by posters who know your background.

murasaki · 18/09/2025 10:39

As said above, if you do the foundation year, you can still apply to Oxford year 1. And it would get you used to the supervision system, which I think you very much need.

pinkdelight · 18/09/2025 10:49

It'll be loads more straightforward to apply from the foundation than it would've been from a uni course - even if it had been a different subject, it's still not a good route in. It feels like you don't want the Foundation just because you've got it and you're obsessed with wanting what you haven't got. Your attitude to it stinks tbh. You should get over that and respond to their calls or decline it if you hate it so much. But doing it would help you move out of this unreal mindset into the reality of uni then you can actually start to move forward not in more circles.

ormiwtbte · 18/09/2025 11:11

What is the point of coming on here and asking the same thing over and over again? The majority of posters give you the same answer every fucking time.
Do the foundation year.

I am very pleased for you that you now have 3 A*s. Well done.
But the way you write, the questions you ask etc. indicate that even though it's obvious you are very capable you just aren't ready for the day to day life away from home at university. Doing the foundation year will enable you to ease into adult life away from home and get into the routines you need and get used to studying. Once you have started you can apply to Oxford anyway so I really don't understand what your problem is.
If you don't do the foundation year you're going to sit around for another year doing fuck all and what happens if Oxford reject you anyway? It isn't a given that you will get a place there just because you have top grades.

You should go to Cambridge, do the year, gain life skills (raw intelligence and top grades isn't all you need to be successful) and then move on next year and start your degree.

But I suspect you won't and you'll just not bother answering Cambridge's calls and messages. Someone else is on a waiting list for that place.

I think you should make the decision today. Are you doing the foundation year or not? If you aren't then phone Cambridge today (it's fucking Thursday and you're supposed to start on Monday for crying out loud!!!) so that they can phone the top person on the waiting list and give them this amazing opportunity.
Or you decide you are doing it, you start packing your stuff today and you go on Monday.

Decide today.

Dearover · 18/09/2025 14:25

If you are adopting the same approach to responding to Cambridge as you do to ignoring every response to every inane question you post on random topics on MN from Bring Back Boris to teenagers calling their home their home, to Prince Harry, no wonder Cambridge are frustrated with you.

However, you are a fool if you turn down the wonderful opportunity you have been given. If anyone needs a year to address the reality of university life, you do.

At this stage you are just a name on a list. They will have forgotten you within weeks if you revise to waste the opportunity. You are already competing against the 2025 and 2026 school leavers for a place in 2026.

Oxford is obviously a scratch you need to itch. Apply from Cambridge and research Oxford, UCL and any other choices on your UCAS form. It's still unclear if you have actually attended any open days or if you are basing everything on Tiktok. Tiktok isn't really.

For what it's worth, Oxford isn't the academic paradise you think it is. It's brutal. You can't fanny around in the way you do when you're faced with multiple essays and tutorials each week. Cambridge will give you an insight into the reality of rigorous academic study and taking responsibility for your own choices.

Dearover · 18/09/2025 14:39

BTW just in case you do go to Cambridge next week, nobody discusses their A level results. It's seen as bad taste.

LIZS · 18/09/2025 14:44

Dearover · 18/09/2025 14:39

BTW just in case you do go to Cambridge next week, nobody discusses their A level results. It's seen as bad taste.

Or opportunities that got away. Just be grateful to be there!

SheilaFentiman · 18/09/2025 14:51

Do the Foundation Year. If after a couple of weeks of actually being there, you hate Cambridge, then don't put it on your UCAS form, put Oxford, UCL and three other places (please god, actually research those places though, and don't put London places if you don't want to be in London).

Also, if not for the private exam centre messing things up I could have just gone to UCL to study history for a year

I assume this is based on UCL History being in clearing? There is NO GUARANTEE you would have got one of the (few) places for history as anyone speaking to you vs other clearing candidates (even those with slightly lower grades) would know that you had applied originally for Law and would have picked up that History was a stop gap and/or that you don't really like London. There is also NO GUARANTEE that you would have been allowed a switch to Law in second year, if that course was full or lots of people wanted to switch.

SheilaFentiman · 18/09/2025 15:03

And if you really want to do history for a year - looks like there are still clearing places for Lancaster, Leicester, Kent etc etc. Christ knows what would happen about getting accommodation though.

So.... Do. The. Foundation. Year.

LIZS · 18/09/2025 15:39

Iirc you didn’t meet UCL offer by the deadline and actually want to study Law anyway. It was just a placeholder of an idea. You actually planned to reapply for Oxbridge via UCAS while taking first year! The Cambridge foundation year allows you to do exactly that so why waste yet more time. Tbh you sound more interested in the process than committing to studying anywhere. If you were to decide not to take it up how do you expect to fund yourself or occupy your time?

HighLadyofTheNightCourt · 18/09/2025 15:55

I mean this in the nicest possible way but they won’t care and will be pleased to be able to offer your place to someone who actually wants it.

However, Oxford are not guaranteed to make you an offer. You don’t come across as ‘Oxford’ material. They make sections based on so much more than grades which you consistently ignore.

TeenToTwenties · 18/09/2025 16:00

Do the foundation year.
Move on in life.
Learn how to live independently and study.
I think anything else is a waste of your time.

Sweetpeasaremadeforbees · 18/09/2025 16:24

I think anything else is a waste of your time.

And ours tbh.

SheilaFentiman · 18/09/2025 16:27

As of right this very minute, OP, what could you do with the next 12 months that is better than the foundation year? It’s not like you are choosing between that and a year’s internship with a magic circle firm or something.

You will have a funded year in a great city learning valuable skills and a brilliant basis for your next UCAS application with those skills and your new stellar grades. Plus you can apply to Oxford from there if you want.

There’s no path that makes first year Oxford/Cambridge/UCL available to you for next week, so why not take up the path you do have?

SheilaFentiman · 18/09/2025 16:28

Also, Cambridge is still good but I just don’t want to do the Foundation Year!! If they could let me just bypass it but they refuse to.

So it seems Cambridge isn’t dreadful, parochial, whatever your past issue was, if you have been asking to go straight onto the “full” course…

DeQuin · 18/09/2025 16:29

OMG OP. Do the foundation year. You need to sort yourself out and it's a great opportunity to do so.

Parsleysalad · 18/09/2025 16:31

Oxford want people capable of listening and making rational decisons.

Take the foundation place at Cambridge, I say that with kindness

Dearover · 18/09/2025 17:25

The foundation year at Cambridge will get you ready for the next phase. You need to learn how to write, learn how to discuss, build your note taking skills, learn how the tutorial system works.

Many students at Oxford and Cambridge would kill for the opportunity to spend an extra year there and adapt to a rigorous academic degree course. I think you under estimate A levels v a serious degree course. They are not comparable, A stars or not.

PeanutGallerist · 18/09/2025 18:07

Good Lord! Are you still shilly-shallying over this, OP?

As others have observed, it’s hard to see how you will ever get an essay in on time if you cannot simply commit to something and get on with it.

I can’t remember whether you actually know Cambridge at all? Once you do you’ll wonder what on earth possessed you, and why you were so insistent that Oxford must be so significantly superior.

Start the Foundation Year.

Or accept that you find it way easier to turn up your nose and stay at home wringing your hands.

Muchtoomuchtodo · 18/09/2025 18:17

Do the foundation year.

I cannot imagine that you will spend the next 12 months doing anything anywhere near as useful.

If you’re still stuck on applying for Oxford to start in 2026, you really need to get cracking on writing your personal statement and getting your referee’s statement sorted. Have you approached anyone to do that for you? The format has changed since last year and the deadline isn’t far away.

murasaki · 18/09/2025 18:18

I imagine they'll reject her on Monday.