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?

Ummmm
If you have an issue with the use of stupid perhaps you should have reached for something other than 'ultra confident or hopelessly stupid' when you asked us to decide in your original post.

Eton don't get 80 plus into Oxbridge and are usually ranked below dss school in academic results. But the boys are surprisingly nice and the teas very good.

Thanks, Fennel I've just spotted it, actually, listed (of course) under Sciences (durr - was only looking at Arts before) but even so I wouldn't have known what all the Ps were for

Ponders, no-one ever knows what all three Ps stand for, unless you've done it yourself!

fennel, I was assuming you weren't in my year since you said there were no firsts in your year... I was thinking you might point us in the direction of your stats or at least give a few more details on where they're from but it's not massively important as it's off-topic for the thread I guess. (So what year were you in? [nosy])

om, has your DS applied for PPE everywhere or different courses?

betelguese - sorry I don't understand your post! Ds has put down 5 choices, one of which is Oxford.Also DS really doesn't want to live at home and we think it is better for him to be away. I would really resent having to pay accommodation costs in London too.
ponders - yes PPE for all 5. Edinburgh seems to have a proximity issue and we were advised by school not to bother as they have very little success. I agree with you about Warwick but... I guess Manchester is the same for you as London is for us.

Ponders/Fififi

I went to Peters (94-97) but did History not PPE. I was interviewed by two tutors and they affectively played good cop bad cop!

One grilled me on the topics I covered at A level, really pushing me to have my own opinion. He asked me stuff I didn't have a clue about but I tried to put forward an argument and that seemed to please him. The other tutor just chatted about recent books and films. They then turned to a couple of topics that were making headline news at the news, just to check that I had wide interests and occassionally left the house.

I have my fingers crossed for them - I remember that train journey down from Manchester.

thanks Ponders,
no time, no place and no date as yet!
her flight's are booked so at least i'll see her soon
guess i'll just have to keep calling tomorrow, but don't want to be a pita on her behalf!
She does know from the web site that as an A to L surname interviews are scheduled for Mon/Tues
hope weather doesn't stop play, perhaps that's why i can't get hold of the admissions tutor?

oh thanks for that, nbb

I wonder if PPE interviews will be similar? The bumf from college says there will be 2 interviewers but doesn't specify what their specialities will be...

om, by "a proximity issue" do you mean not being Scottish?

Pnders

Only just seen the general admissions number advice, genius suggestion! thanks

gosh this thread is busy this evening!

iwastooearly, the weather probably is causing lots of probs so I would not worry about being a pita, better that than your DD turning up in Oxford with no idea of where or when she is required...

Nice for you to see her anyway! where is she & where are you?

She's having the time of her life learning Spanish in Spain, incredibly happy and buzzing with the thrill of it all, making life long friends and becoming a true European ( no hostels for her or her new friends when they next travel,as gauranteed homes and families to stay with around the world)
And we are in a rather non snowy Surrey
(expecting back packers for the next 5 years )

oh that sounds fab - I do admire & envy linguists

(Also envy most people living in Spain rather than here at this time of year)(unless she's in the chilly mountains?)

anyway hope she gets to her interview ok, keep us posted!

thanks Ponders

It is cold there now as quite inland, but then again parties are always warm!

(makes me wish I was 19 again)

PPE (& P/E)is offered by several other very good universities though, peteneras?

Of course, they most certainly do, Ponders. I?ve come to the conclusion long ago that Oxbridge is just a prestigious name carried over to the 21st century from the last millennium. Mind you, I?m not saying they are not brilliant either. It?s just that the word, Oxbridge has been permanently built into the psyche of our children (and us parents) as the touchstone against which educational success is measured. Just look at any world university league table today and you?ll soon see the world has since changed quite a bit.

But old habits die hard. Even students at top academic private and state schools talk of nothing except Oxbridge in spite of the fact they have been advised to change their attitude by some of the even more elitist but forward-thinking private schools, Eton included! LSE, Sheffield and York are absolutely fine universities, Ponders.

optimisticmumma, by virtue of your grammar school educated DS applying to Oxford tells me you?re bright enough to attend anywhere. If you don?t know it already, success at Oxbridge is quite largely (about 50 per cent) down to luck. A Cambridge professor and Director of Studies told me recently, of the 12 medicine places he has, even I could not fail to pick the first 6 (because they are absolutely brilliant) but the next half is a bit trickier. In other words, I interpret that as down to luck. Your "poor grammar school educated" DS stands just as good a chance, if not better (what with widening access and what not) against the 'callously confident' Etonians. Their callousness does indeed frighten me.

Btw we live in London and my "poor grammar school educated" DD deliberately avoided London to go to a ?faraway? university.

Errr . . . I don?t have an issue with the word ?stupid?. The choice was between ?either? and ?or?. It was either confident or stupid. Most of you voted for stupid whilst I opted for confident and callously so. My point was these boys are far from stupid.

So which school that ranks above Eton in academic results and usually get 30 -40 boys into Oxbridge that DS goes to? As for Eton, the figures here speak for themselves.

This may also be interesting.

I am happy to see these PPPers - not because I am one (I was boring-unimaginative-English) but because dh did that (and at Wadham, too, so there's a nice link to funnyperson's dd) and I've always rather wondered what PPPers did next. Dh says he chose to do it because it was such a tiny cohort let loose in such an enormous field of disciplines, which meant everyone had their own approach and it was all quite empowering. (We went up in 1980, though, we are verrr old.)

He didn't get a first

I am also intrigued by the everyone at Oxford has the ability to get a first but not the application. My experience is quite different - the firsters I knew had a special extra whizz which didn't have to do with application. Might have been to do with passion, engagement, etc.; but discipline was not the special extra something.

Iwastooearly what course is your DD applying for? Because another person who might know where she has been allocated to is the faculty admissions co-ordinator on the faculty website. This is certainely the case for history. Your DD sounds as if she is having a great time. Good luck.
Pagwatch where does your DS go to school? I thought 26/150 into Oxbridge was good for my DS school but there must be phenomenal expertise at your DS school.
Fenneldid you enjoy PPP?
I have this sense of Etonians and Grammarians and Mancunians and Introverted-self-raised-needing-lots-of money types and Goth-with-badly-dyed-hair and backpacking-Spanish-speaking types all journeying to Oxford. I think this is going to be a fantastic year group. If they get in: still the odds are improving.
How are siblings reacting?

Funnyperson

thanks again for that lead, will be making a nuisance of myself tomorrow! ( english btw)

siblings cool here,and excited she'll be home for a few days

I agree with Bink about the firsts - the people I knew at Oxford who got firsts (early 80s) seemed stratospherically brainier than the rest of us (maybe that was only apparent among scientists?). In those days most got seconds (not split) and a few got thirds and firsts.

funnyperson, my "self-raised-needing-lots-of money type" is not an introvert & the lots of money thing is merely relative to his elder siblings, who were raised with tighter purse-strings...

His 6th form college only had 1 Oxbridge entrant last year - I think 4 or 5 the year before - he's not a type at all. So we'll see how he goes on...

Paterneraswhat would be interesting as well as the 70- 80 Etonians in any year group who got offered places at Oxbridge but also the number in that year group who applied- then one could truly make a judgement as to whether the boys mentioned were callously confident.
Well I suppose now is the time to admit that I turned down a place to read medicine at New Hall Cambridge in the mid seventies for a place in London and have never regretted it as New Hall in those days was single-sex with a curfew and appeared extremely dull. Options for girls are much better these days.

very best wishes to all dcs with their interviews by the way, they must all be rather nervous even if it doesn't show I'd have thought.