UPDATE on University Situation - Advice?

[Juliette96]

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.

You have wanted to go to Oxbridge for a very long time. Now you have a chance of not just going - but also getting to spend an extra year there, doing all the things you want to do. You are blessed! Please say yes to the Foundation Year and I guarantee you that you won't regret it.

Another thread, another name change. To be honest OP, I’m not sure why you or any of us are bothering anymore. You pose the same questions, are mired in the same confusion, ignore the same advice which everyone has been giving you for months now– so what is the point? At least have the maturity and decency to decline the Cambridge offer, you are not big enough or important enough for them to “hate” you. Hopefully even at this late stage they can offer the space to someone who will appreciate it and use it as the foundation for a great career.

Nothing is going to satisfy you apart from applying to Oxford but be prepared that many candidates with straight A* don’t even get an interview and frankly from your postings on here you do not come across as someone who is going to present well to them in interview. You better also find something worthwhile to do with this second gap year so you have something to talk about at interview.

You aren't ready for any university, let alone Cambridge or Oxford

@Juliette96 - people aren’t being harsh for the fun of it; we’re frustrated with your refusal to climb out of the hole you’ve dug - even when the ladder is right there in front of you.

You’re young - we’ve all lived longer than you. Pretty much everyone on all your threads will have applied, been accepted, studied and graduated from at least one university. Many of us will have been undergraduates at Oxford or Cambridge (I have academic connections to both and live in one of those places) and/or have children with that experience.

We know what we’re talking about.

And you are wasting your own precious time.

Imagine - on Monday you could be a Cambridge University student. Or you could be sitting at home making up a new user name for yet another thread asking for advice …

Oh god no, then we’ll never hear the end of it 🤦‍♀️

I'm assuming that if she isn't there for the start of their induction, with no communication, they'll cancel the place. She needs to shit or get off the pot. The induction will be particularly crucial for foundation year students. And to be fair to them they've tried to get in touch several times she's just ignoring them.

A fully funded year.
In Cambridge.
On what the OP thinks will be an easy course.
In Cambridge.
So lots of time to get the hang of being a student and learn how to make her own decisions and live independently.
In Cambridge.

OP if you don't appreciate this massive opportunity you should withdraw and let someone else who does appreciate it take it. Then live in your bedroom for another year and hope to hell you get through the Oxford selection process, which has a good percentage of luck/randomness about it.

Make a decision and let them know if you're no longer attending because they'll charge you for a year! Also that place can now go to someone else. Sounds like you've already made up your mind. However there is a chance you may not get in, and wasted this year. You could do the foundation year and apply to transfer over.

It's free, which makes it even more of a no brainer to go. Of course no brain may be the problem.

The daft thing is, that Cambridge is (obviously) far superior to Oxford anyway.
(OK so maybe I'm biased).

But Cambridge is a lovely place to spend 3 or 4 years, it is hard to think of someone turning down an ACTUAL offer from Cambridge for a POTENTIAL offer from Oxford.

I know, if someone had offered me a free extra year, I'd have bitten their arm off! And bedding into the supervision system might have meant eating less cake in my first term due to stress....

As a matter of interest OP, which Cambridge college?

Exactly

3 A* is clearly good but nothing special in the realm of Oxford applications.

If she took this opportunity, and then applied elsewhere for year one, would it be a 3rd go at the LNAT or would the foundation year override that?

And the Oxford app would need to go in very soon anyway.

Just wow 😯

Gently, OP, your approach to all of this is not healthy. The obsession with Oxford is really odd. I am someone who (one of many I am sure) who was offered a place at Oxford 20 odd years ago - and turned it down, because I realised I wasn’t for me. I only applied because I wanted to keep my options open.

My decision has done my career no harm at all and I have no regrets. My DH went to Oxford and loved it, but lots of people I know didn’t and in some cases they had a miserable 3 or 4 years because it wasn’t the right place for them. Seeing Oxford as the be all and end all is really problematic as it doesn’t feel like you have really considered why it is right for you, aside from it simply being “Oxford”. I don’t recall you even mentioning a specific college you are keen on. Every college and thus every “Oxford experience” is different.

And 3 A*s is great, but absolutely no guarantee of a place. Do you know how many hundreds of kids with those grades still don’t get in? They consider much more than grades because everyone applying has those grades. It’s bordering on meaningless in terms of offers.

I don’t think you are ready for uni with this sort of approach and mindset and like many have advised on this thread and the last, taking up the foundation year may be the best thing for you. You need to consider and tackle whatever it is that is causing this somewhat unhealthy obsession. Doing so while doing a foundation year may be exactly the time to do it. Best of luck.

Agree, taking the foundation year and availing yourself of the available counselling and mental health services would be beneficial.

If it's free then she should definitely go!!!

@Juliette96 rarely responds. There will be another woe is me thread tomorrow or on Monday under another pseudonym.

Are you autistic OP? I'm assuming you are based on your post although I haven't read your other posts.

I would say that if you are autistic and hate the idea of the Cambridge foundation year then it may be better not to do it. You're unlikely to enjoy it or see any worth in it and while you feel like that you are much less likely to put the effort required in or do well.

However you then need to think about what you are going to do this year that is going to impress Oxford if that's where you'd really like to be. So what are you going to do?

If you don't have an answer, then a year at Cambridge is something that might actually impress Oxford, it will demonstrate that you already have an understanding of and are able to cope with the system and level of work involved. It will introduce you to a lot of skills beyond being academically able.

I honestly think your best bet for getting into Oxford would be to do the foundation year at Cambridge. And if you don't then you can go to Cambridge. It's a win, win situation and you will have a years experience under your belt already putting you at an advantage over the other first years.

This is how I'd look at it with my autistic ds. You have to see the worth in it though. If you think you can do something worth more with your year then go ahead, but I'd be telling my autistic DS that this is a no brainer and the foundation course will be fantastic preparation as well as looking good on his application for Oxford.

@Sam390 I honestly think your best bet for getting into Oxford would be to do the foundation year at Cambridge. And if you don't then you can go to Cambridge. It's a win, win situation and you will have a years experience under your belt already putting you at an advantage over the other first years.

My understanding from earlier threads is that she will either have to decide on Cambridge after the foundation year or apply for Oxford. She can't apply for Oxford and use Cambridge as a backup. I may be wrong.

@Sam390 the OP applied and had an offer for Cambridge for 2024 entry. She got BBB as she didn't have extra time at that point following an autism diagnosis.

Last autumn she did well in LNAT but missed the early Oxford entry deadline. She discovered she was eligible for a fully funded Cambridge Foundation year, applied & got an offer. She has a place to start on Monday.

Since then she has decided that she is the wrong type of person to do a foundation year. She came up with all kinds of hare brained schemes to mislead Oxford which she no longer needs to do as a problem with her coursework was resolved.

She can't see that 3 x A stars doesn't guarantee her an Oxford offer for law for 2026 entry. She hates the fact that Oxbridge let in candidates she believes to be inferior to her despite never actually applying to Oxford. A foundation year will help her decide if Oxbridge is really going to meet her sky high expectations.

She can't apply for Oxford and use Cambridge as a backup. I may be wrong.

You're not! She has to decide (and the deadline is I think 15 October?).

Cambridge is far better than Oxford in my opinion anyway, bias I know

She can take the Cambridge foundation year and apply to Oxford for next year.