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?

Hello there- well I am no expert but can offer the following: at DS school the boys were told to only apply to Russell group universities. Being old fashioned and cautious I felt that some of the places in Ponders' 1994 list were actually better than RG and gave lower offers so suggested that both DS and DD put down unis which I now see are in the 1994 table for one of their choices. For DS it was SOAS which gave him an ABB offer which became his insurance and for DS it is Sussex which has given an AAB offer which will be her insurance.
However this is subject dependent as Betelguese says and we mainly went by the TES uni league tables by subject and lots of questions asked of friends/open days etc.
The City and Law firms will only recruit from Russell group or so their reps say, but it depends on the specialism, for instance SOAS gives a very useful expertise in South and East Asia useful for emerging markets.

There was a boy at DS school who put down Oxford as his firm and LSE as his insurance (both were AAA offers) and spent the rest of the Spring celebrating his cleverness at getting such two great offers, and when he got AAB ended up going nowhere.

So for instance if DS is fortunate to get offers from both her two top choices she will only choose one of them as her firm and stick with Sussex as her insurance if that makes sense.

It is early days yet though.

Mumoverseas thats great your son has good places to choose from: congratulations

Anyway mums/dads can I share with you that my daughter and I have been shopping for the interview outfit!
We had a lovely time, spent £45 in total just buying stuff to build on what she already has and I think she is going to look stunning. I am also so happy as she is beginning to really sound the business- she has gone into such detail on all the things in her PS, read loads around her subject, made notes on her outside lectures and read a load more and I am so so proud of her I cant tell you. Now you can all tell me about your gifted progeny.

funnyperson:re Wadham.According to DS, Yes, the rooms were v warm, the food was variable, I think there was internet access although DS did not take one. Wadham sounds nice. DS researched carefully in making it his choice, and chose it for its liberal attitude, its non public school reputation, its academic status.

thehollyandtheififi: At Wadham, of the PPE applicants, 40% were girls, which is higher than usual, so that was good to hear.

Now DS is back he is far more keen on getting into Oxford , whereas before, UCL ( interview in Feb) was his favourite. I think once you've stayed somewhere for 3 days and made new friends, you've an investment you didn't have when it was just a name. He feels he did OK but not as well as he needed to, so he's quite down. I just want him to be OK, I don't mind where he goes, but seeing him want Oxford so much makes me want it for him - hmmm. I have spent some time offering him my parental wisdom about it being in the lap of the gods now, he did his best, great to have even had an interview etc, but I feel nervous even so... roll on the decision.

Thanks for that Poeticmum. Here is a link to a picture of the door at Wadham for your DS www.thestudentroom.co.uk/attachment.php?attachmentid=93606&d=1291380159

Which other college did your DS get interviewed at? Did he get the impression that Wadham was linked to any other college in particular?

DD read up and asked a lot and chose Wadham for the academics and the liberal ethos and the feel of the place on the open day. I haven't seen it but the TSR photo looks nice

Betelguese what do you mean by 'own job in teams'?

ponders His three offers so far are Southampton, Exeter and Cardiff. First two require AAA and Cardiff is his insurance with ABB although the A needs to be in french.

senua yes, you guessed it. Well done Sherlock A little worried as this is the second Uni that does LNAT and DS doesn't know how he did yet and have to wonder if that is why he was rejected from his first choice which was also LNAT.

What is the point of having firm and insurance choices with the same grade requirements?

Good luck everyone who has forthcoming interviews or waiting to hear.

"What is the point of having firm and insurance choices with the same grade requirements?"

I was listening to one of those yoof phone-in programmes on Radio 1, one August several years ago. It was all about what to do if you flunked your grades, clearing etc. I had one of those penny-drop moments about the state of education today and the quality of modern students [grumpy old woman emoticon] when they were talking to one distraught girl who had missed her CF because her grades weren't good enough. They asked about her CI and she said that she wasn't in there either because her CI asking grades were higher than her CF. And this girl was supposed to be the intellectual cream of her generation?
(a bit ironic to be telling stories about dumb students on a thread about super-brights worrying about not making the cut, but there you go)

PS: sorry to tell you mos, but I have heard of Durham keeping people hanging on until March.

Oxford website clip on tutors/interviews

Not sure that will be of any use to anyone or if it'll just be what you already know but it might be worth a look if you're still thinking about interviews :)

Still thinking about interviews! Yes but also on the mobile occasionally to DS who is in central london somewhere- not at lectures. Wondering how my grandchildren, if I ever have any, will get an education.
Have decided to take DS in by public transport into Oxford as they say parking is terrible. Anyone know of a cheap and reasonable place to have an early supper there?

There is a very good park & ride system in Oxford if you'd prefer to drive most of the way (depending on the snow of course ) rather than getting the train.

\link{http://www.parkandride.net/oxford/html/facilities/oxford_interactive_map.html\interactive map}

Buses very frequent & routes are colour coded

No idea about places to eat though.

DS went to Jamie's Italian before he checked into college which he said was good. Early is better to avoid the queues.

I think parking would be Ok on a Sunday evening ( is it Sunday you'd be going up funnyp - can't remember now ) but like Ponders says park & ride might be best.

Pasta dishes for about £8 to £10 DH has just added helpfully.

The Quod Brasserie on the High Street is quite nice too - and you can just have one course or even just a starter if you don't want to eat too much....

But the road that Jamie's is on is full of all the usual chain restaurants like chez Gerard, bella pasta, all bar one if I recall - to lower the tome of this thread I went to see Will Young at the New Theatre Oxford on two of his tours and passed all these restaurants! I can now never return to this thread

MN likes Will so you're OK, fififi!

Did DS not want to risk college dinner on the Sunday? It was pasta apparently, DS2 said it was OK - Mon was turkey meatballs & rice, also acceptable, & he can be a picky eater.

He did say though that the idea of having catered meals for the whole of the first year puts him off Oxford a bit (he is clearly a deep & profound thinker with a good grasp of what's important in life )

wow I really feel for you all reading this !!! Have been on a couple of times talking about my ds who interviewed last year but have since name changed...

You ALL seem to be oxford - where are all the cambridge ones
I must say the oxford thing seems a slighlty better process- all over and done with on the spot and you will ALL hear by xmas eve although if last year is anything to go on - it REALLY is christmas eve for some and there seems little rhyme or reason who or why?

Cambridge all drags out much more and christmas last year was VERY muted for us with the hangover.

Please don't stress over hard /horrid interviews - often it seemed that the easier interviews were later rejected and this seemed a bit more shocking

you poor mummies - i barely slept the days running up to the offer date....

once the interview is done though you can sit back and have a bit of a 'que sera sera ' attitude

They've all done their best

Good luck all

pagwatch I was like that with ds a wee bit tearful at all the 'lasts' but he is just home for his first christmas and it is so lovely having missed him and he seems all grown up ( all of 18 and 3 months old bless)
It's really very much the beginning!