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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

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Original poster

Oxbridge again, I'm afraid - if they really want you there, what offer do they make in terms of grades?

73 replies

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:06

In the old days, if they really wanted you, they would make your place conditional on three Cs or even lower.

What happens now if you do really well in their own admission tests, and have done well in school, the school sing your praises to the skies, and you have a fab personal statement?

Do they still say they want three A*s? And let you slip through their fingers if you fuck mess up one of your A level exams and get a B?

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sparklyblack · 05/11/2010 16:13

Several of DD's friends applied to and are now at Oxbridge, none of them got lower offers that I know of. Of course they may just not have been fantastic enough but we went to quite a lot of Oxbridge talks, tours etc before DD decided she didn't like the type of course they offered and this question was asked, the answer was officially no. I don't know about unofficially. If, as you say, you excel at the admissions stuff, they give you an offer! :o not sure if the offers will all be 3 As though, I know that for certain last year Oxford weren't offering for any As and Cambridge for one. Obviously it will probably have changed for this year though.

sethstarkaddersmum · 05/11/2010 16:17

you might also want to ask if they ever give you the high offer but let you in anyway if you slip a grade or two - that happened to a friend of mine in 1990 but I don't know if they still do it.

webwiz · 05/11/2010 16:18

Oxford will be AAA this year I assume they can still make lower offers but they are thin on the ground - AAA seems low compared to the requirements for other competitive courses.

Cambridge's standard offer this year is A*AA but some courses/colleges may be higher and require extra qualifications such as the STEP paper for Maths - some colleges do make EE offers but I imagine you would have to be brilliant to get one of those!

tvfriend · 05/11/2010 16:18

My nephew has just started at Oxford. His offer was 3As. He got AAB and they said No but did say they'd wait until it was remarked before they said a definate No. Apparently they don't always do this but they were keen for him to come (not sure if thats true or not). Anyway, he was remarked and did get an A but they said there was no way with AAB.

Lilymaid · 05/11/2010 16:32

Someone in DS1's year got a 2 E offer from Cambridge - fairly unusual but he was a near genius and had very difficult family circumstances.

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:34

Seth, that is partly what I'd like to know.

If it's not three A*s then that does still allow some slippage/disasters.

Webwiz thanks; I thought there must be some people they really really really want and won't let go of!

Tvfriend, I have to say I find that example chilling. What if the remark hadn't gone his way? (Well, obviously, he'd be somewhere else.)

Also, if you take 4 A levels then presumably the lowest one is effectively disregarded? If they offered AAA and you got AAAB, then they'd still let you in? My nightmare scenario is where you really fck up one subject. It does happen after all, and doesn't necessarily mean you are dim! What if you took four and got AAAC? Still OK?

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silverfrog · 05/11/2010 16:35

I had an AAA offer, but along with it came a letter to my school basically saying that it wouldn't matter enormously if I slipped a grade or too, as long as I got an A in my relevant A level.

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:39

Thanks, Silverfrog - you must be a genius!

But you see I think that is only sensible. At a talk I went to, they said of all the applicants, there is a small band of "definitely yes" students, quite a large band of "absolutely not" ones, and then a vast pool in the middle. My point is that they can't want the definitely yes people to go to other unis.

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Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:43

Also, with GCSEs, the revision books are full of stuff about "here's what will take you up to an A". The A in A levels is very new, and as I understand it, a very narrow band. So then surely it becomes once again a tick box exercise of learning how to score the points to get you up to an A*. And if you're really clever you might make the mistake of going off on a fascinating tangent and not scoring the necessary points.

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AuntAda · 05/11/2010 16:44

Back in the olden days once you were offered a place all you had to do was get two A-level passes, ie 2 E grades.

For the lucky few a great deal of dossing went on in the second half of the upper 6th year.

timetomove · 05/11/2010 16:48

i thought the 2E offers were from the days when they had a 4th or 7th term entrance exam, so if you passed the exam (and interview) you got a 2 E offer, but in the days of no entrance exam it is always a 3A offer (or whatever the standard is for the course). I think different colleges can make different offers (e.g. way back when I went to uni some colleges made offers conditional on STEP and others did not require STEP for the same course). Not sure if this has changed though. I think the individual colleges also had discretion whether to accept people if they drop grades. Whether they do so depended on whether they have over-offered and how many others make the grade. Again, this may have changed and they may be more consistent these days.

AuntAda · 05/11/2010 16:48

Mikael -- yes, absolutely it's box-ticking. But I presume most of the people they'd be offering places to would be ticking all those boxes without really breaking a sweat.

I suspect there could be exceptions made for really outstanding candidates from very difficult backgrounds, but I suspect most of those don't bother applying to Oxford and/or don't go to schools with the requisite knowledge and nous to advise them and support them.

There's a shocking waste of talent out there. But yes, having done UCAS interviews for a Russell Group univ (though not Oxbridge) you can very quickly spot the really outstanding candidates in interview, as well as the real no-chancers. It's the middle 70-80% that are more work.

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:49

Yes, AuntAda, that's what I would like for my kid...

More importantly, presumably their mothers also rested mightily on their laurels. Instead of continuing as a nagging harridan.

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AuntAda · 05/11/2010 16:50

I think in them days parents took far less interest in their dc's education, for better or for worse I don't know.

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:50

X post, AuntAda - wanted the dossing bit...

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Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:54

To be specific, I think my ds will do fine in the STEP tests, no problems with his A levels in Maths and Further Maths, and by extension should not really have a problem with Physics because it's so maths-y. However, it would be possible for him to get the timing wrong in his History A level, or miss out a Q, or all the other things that can happen.

Part of my problem is that maths and physics are closed books to me. I remember messing up my History A level all too clearly, however - as if it were yesterday...

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sethstarkaddersmum · 05/11/2010 16:54

I had a 2 E offer but my mother still nagged me!

there was one girl at my college who took her two EEs offer literally and turned up with something like 2 Ds and a B. Her tutor was not amused....

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:57

Well, yes, and I would nag, too, just in case, just in case, a bomb fell on both Oxford and Cambridge and so you would have to pay heed to the offers from other unis...

better to be safe than sorry, belt and braces...

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webwiz · 05/11/2010 16:58

STEP is very difficult MikaelBlomkvist I've known some very good mathematicians fall down on it. DD2 is planning on taking it and is still at the freak out stage whenever she looks at any questions.

Batteryhuman · 05/11/2010 16:59

I did the 4th term exam thing (a very long time ago) and got the 2 Es offer and do indeed remember being very relaxed the rest of the year. I got a D in the subject I did the entrance exam in too which was somewhat embarassing when the freshers did the "what did you get in your Alevels" thing but the tutors never mentioned it.

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 16:59

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sethstarkaddersmum · 05/11/2010 17:02

don't stress too much Mikael though, it's not the end of the world even if a good-enough candidate doesn't get into Oxbridge when they should have done - they will do well wherever they go and could end up at Oxbridge for postgraduate work anyway. As far as I can see it only really matters if they want to be Prime Minister.

mrsshackleton · 05/11/2010 17:07

A lot depends on the school - I went to a very academic private school and back in the days when dinosaurs rulled the earth was offered two As and a B (when A levels were harder than they are now ) plus grade 1s in Step. If I hadn't exceeded that with my educational background I don't think I'd have stood a chance.

Friends of mine on the same course who'd been at bad comprehensives were made the same offer, or easier and still got in when they missed by a grade. Allowances were made, rightly so.

But so many more candidates get As now, the system will be much more rigid. Also it will depend a lot on the course and how oversubscribed it is - even at Oxbridge some courses in some colleges may not be overwhelmed with candidates.

Original poster

MikaelBlomkvist · 05/11/2010 17:07

Yes, thanks, Seth, I do know that. It's just worrying seeing ds being so laidback about it all. I really can't tell what his thinking is. If it were me I'd be working like mad trying to get the best A levels I possibly could, to try to maximise my chances. I can't quite work out why he doesn't work that hard!

Prime Minister - hopefully not.

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sethstarkaddersmum · 05/11/2010 17:11

maybe he doesn't care? or maybe he's like my brother who was very good at giving an impression of relaxation while doing a lot of work without anyone noticing. (My mother used to worry about how he seemed to spend all his time in bed, not realising he was actually reading French novels and philosophy....)

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