Parent of oxbridge candidate-peersupportneeded

[funnyperson]

OK so my DD is applying to Oxford for entry in 2011 and has a 75% chance of getting rejected so I am told by the Oxford website so I reckon a new thread would be helpful for us parents who may end up with joy or grief but in any event need to keep sane enough to support our loved ones. Any tips on maximising chances of success at this stage?

With current govt proposals even £75K wouldn't put 4 children through university. I cannot begin to put myself in the shoes of those with younger children. London universities expenses are fine in the first year in a college hall but after that work out ludicrously expensive due to living and travel and food costs. Oxbridge appears reasonable because of low living and travel costs and in fact in terms of value for money has to be the best in the world. Would I pay tens of thousands for a non Russell group uni education for my child? I am not so sure actually. The worry is that the Russell group will put their fees up and become like the US Ivy League- the playground of the wealthy. Please do not take this as inverse snobbery- just that I really do think it important that as far as is possible undergraduate education should be available to those who merit it.
What does your financial advisor say now btw? How much should one budget for?

just some backup support, whilst lurking (nothing on telly) - i did ppe at oxford and my interviews, as i recall, were utterly awful - really short, not much said (plus i'd only done maths gcse). i was convinced i'd failed, and when i did get accepted thought it must be to fill their state school northern women's quota... anyway, i really don't think you can read much at all into how you think it went. good luck to all.

It would have been plenty for ours, as it happens; eldest had £1200 pa tuition & loan of about £2800pa; second had NHS bursary, tuition paid by NHS, & similar loan. Third is there now so annual tuition is £3K & loan about £4.5K; DS2 will be the same (if he gets the grades to go next year...)

We have no financial advisor now I'm afraid (that was a one-off, combined with making wills).

oh littlerats, bless you I'll hang on to that idea!

But if he doesn't get an offer from Oxford, I know he will be perfectly fine at either York or Sheffield if he gets the grades

Ponders - how did your DS find out he was free to go? Mine says nothing up on noticeboard yet so he's expecting to stay the night now?

Maybe Donindisguise sought him out...

I don't know, fififi

have just texted to ask

Hi, I just found this site tonight and I've read your thread.

My son is at LMH (Sunday night to Thursday morning) interviewing for PPE and I wondered whether anyone could shed light on the 'outcome' so far. He has had three interviews, one for each subject which he said were 'OK', then 'harder' then 'much harder'. We don't know his TSA result because the exam board haven't yet sent the code necessary to log into the results webpage.

He told me this afternoon that the names of the applicants who had been pooled were put up on the board and his wasn't among them. We think that this could mean either that he should expect a rejection or that they have already decided to make him an offer, but there is no way of knowing which. Is that correct, or if LMH were thinking of making an offer, would he be pooled too?

RRocks (not good with uncertainty!)

reply

"I got the admissions tutor person (I think) to call the politics tutor & ask about me, & he told him I didn't have another interview & the list would be up soon"

I do hope he isn't being economical with the truth or I'll be back to putting him up for (very late) adoption

Hi RRocks

as far as we have learned on here, it is as you think: if not pooled, then you are either def in at interview college, or def not in.

HTH!

HI Ponders - DS doesn't think he'll need to stay. Apparently, from what I could hear through the din, they don't think they'll be sending the PPE people for any other interviews as all the colleges have had plenty of interviewees. I assume they all have enough candidates to put out offers and don't need to see others! Sounds plausible.....

I think other people on other courses will have other interviews but not PPE interviewees - according to DS1s college Does that make any sense??

well PPE is one of the most oversubscribed courses so yes, that does make sense.

Is your DS staying over or coming home, om?

funnyperson, have just noticed that Julian Assange's lawyer is Mark Stephens, of SWMNBN/baby-rockets into Lebanon fame

He's staying over because he's booked in and I don't want him driving home now. It's still awful here. 6 inches now of snow with a nice icy layer, roads like skating rinks!!
Ponders - how many others was your DS up against do you think?

Thanks, Ponders. If I'd found the Refresh button earlier, I'd have seen the very recent discussion on that.

Unfortunately, his train ticket is for Thursday morning because they said he had to stay until at least Wednesday morning and possibly later on Wednesday, but couldn't put a limit on 'later' when asked. I didn't want him arriving back at Glasgow Central very late at night, so he'll have to hang around until Thursday. Plenty of opportunity for reading then, although I suspect the pool table is a bit of an attraction.

RRocks

staying over sounds like an excellent idea, om. I hope it's a bit warmer tomorrow & the roads will be a bit less slippery for him - I know here it's been fairly fraught at about 7am this week but not nearly so bad by about 10.

no idea about numbers. DS2 didn't mingle much in the JCR; he observed, & listened (wasn't impressed by some of the rahs), & spoke to a couple of people, but had no idea who was there for what.

Hi Optimistletoemumma,

I might have picked this up incorrectly from at times uncommunicative son against background babble, but I think he was indicating that some people interviewing for PPE at LMH have been pooled.

I'll text him to ask him to confirm, but as he doesn't seem to have any interviews tomorrow he might be late back to his room and that seems to be the only place he can get reception on his phone.

RRocks

ponders in my day (1987ish!)you could name up to 3 colleges or leave choices 2 and 3 blank and be pooled if necessary.

FWIW I applied and was accepted at one of the colleges mentioned here and had my 2nd interview there at around 10pm after waiting around for hours and hours and missing tea.....and was convinced I'd failed miserably as it was very short and the tutor seemed so grumpy and uninterested.

I got my offer from that college though so just shows you can't read anything into it - i just think sometimes your face kind of fits with Oxford....I distinctly remember one amazingly bright and accomplished girl at school not getting in at interview which shocked the teachers as she was the dead cert! I was an outsider but seemed to have got in inspite of my own misgivings!

thirtysomething, that is fascinating!!! & well done you for getting in, you must have said/done something right

was the Oxbridge application part of the UCAS (UCCA?) process then or was it done separately? I mean did you have to apply to the central system for other universities & also apply to Oxbridge, or were you able to put 1-2-3 Oxbridge colleges into your main application?

Read, read read around the subject you apply for. They look for a genuine interest and a genuine love of learning, and a wider understanding of that subject is really indicative.

ponders we did it as part of the UCCA form - just put University of Oxford first then submitted a separate form to Oxford I think with the colleges on...timing seemed to be the same though we had to do an exam at school in two A-level subjects that was marked by Oxford. Then either you went for interview or were "de-summoned" i.e. told not to bother if the exam wasn't up to scratch.

I do think it's a lottery and to be honest lloking at the cohort I was with they aim for a nicely balanced year group across each subject in each college - equal numbers of trendy/slightly quirky/geeky types; mixture of state, grammar and public school and mixture of personality types. And I do think certain schools have a rapport with certain colleges - noone in my year was accepted by a college that the school had no history with; conversely, someone from my school was accepted almost every year by my college to do the subject I applied for and that was the same in lots of cases across the year - patterns definitely emerged then....

My best friend at college had originally applied to Queens and never even got an interview there-she was immediately pooled and accepted by a different college. There is a lot of movement around between admissions officers at this point in the process.

ah, ok, I thought the system must have changed since then. I like your way better

Certain schools having rapport with certain colleges still applies I think. DS2's 6th form college definitely seems to get most admissions into a small handful of Oxford colleges, but he took no notice of that & just put in an open app; the one he was allocated to isn't one of the handful, so it remains to be seen if that was a wise move (but otoh I don't think his 6th form college have any history of admissions in his subject...)

Nothing is ever set in stone Ponders so if it's meant to be, it will be! The great advantage of an open app is it shows dedication to the subject rather than a specific college - and IMHO tutors like to think the subject comes first! - and it means that he has the highest statistical chance of being accepted as he must have been allocated a relatively under-requested college.

Fingers crossed for all your DC!

I like this!

oh oops, that comment was meant to relate to the poem posted way above - sorry mumsnet newbie! with DS currently having PPE interview at Wadham college