Oxbridge info/ support thread 2014

[lismore]

Does anyone else with a DC applying for Oxbridge this year feel like having someone to share the highs/ lows/ questions- if so, please join in!
I have a DS who has just applied to Cambridge- our family has no Oxbridge background and he's at a state school which gives absolutely no advice so definitely feel at a bit of a loss how to support him.
I think he's incredibly brave even trying, especially as 80% get rejected unfortunately.

Lismore, congratulations! Fab news, bet you're all so happy!

Congrats to your DS lismore! My DD is in the pool - five more days of stress and waiting by the phone .

Postman didn't bring the news here - she got it by email so worth a check if your postie passed you by!

congrats Lismore, My DD has been pooled too, no letter but email she is disappointed she just dosent feel she wants to go through the interviews again if she has too, Her history course work is due this week so she is preoccupied, we will just have too see.

Well done to your son lismore. That sounds rather nail biting BeckAndCall. I'm glad your son has somewhere to go that he is happy with mindgone.

We have been persuading DD that her other universities would be great and she's coming round to our way of thinking. Some of her friends have offers and others haven't - she couldn't guess who would and who wouldn't though.

Congratulations to your son Lismore, that's brilliant news (and sounds like quite a reasonable offer). Glad your son is sorted mindgone. And guess what BeckandCall, our DS is also in the pool.... so we're mentally preparing ourselves for another week of waiting, too.

DD has applied to Oxford so I'm not as clued up on Cambridge. What does being in the pool mean? That they think they're good enough, but there's not enough space at the particular college they applied to?

Yes, exactly that. I think Cambridge pay more attention to UMS scores too - so we more or less knew that if DS didn't get into the college he interviewed at, that he would end up in the pool because his scores are above a certain level. Now all the other colleges look at those in the pool and so we wait and hope... so he may now get an offer from another college, or be invited to interview again at another college, or he may not be picked up by another college.

Congrat's Lismore we're also in the pool here (it's getting too full in there). Don't know whether to laugh or cry I think may be the solution.

Hatty I know exactly what you mean. Some young man on the Student Room forum summed it up earlier, saying it feels a bit like being rejected but very very slowly. Trying to stay positive here and doing lots of baking as a distraction.

Fingers crossed that all the DS/DDs in the pool will hear something soon.

DS has an offer to do Maths, subject to STEP 2 and 3 .
I am very proud of him for achieving this.
I don't know whether he will accept. He has other good offers and some health issues. I am walking a very fine line offering support while not trying to influence him.
I want him to be happy. To choose what's right for him, and not what he thinks will please others.
Well done to Lismore's DS.
All those swimming in the pool, fingers crossed. It will be a difficult week. Interviews are the end of next week I think.

Secret, that's fantastic news - well done him

I have been lurking on this thread but not dared write anything as my DS has been so adamant that his application is his personal thing and I am to leave him to it. But we are on our way back from holiday so I expect to get home and find his letter has been delivered. The problem is he is not home till tomorrow and naturally wants to open it himself. DH and I are in agonies!

Can anyone who has received a letter confirm whether all three sorts of letter (rejection, pool and offer) are all thin? Just know am going to be staring at it all night and would be good not to be prematurely downcast if it's thin!

The acceptance was a thin A5 size envelope with about 4 sheets of A4 inside.

The pool letter is also thin - 2 pieces of A4 folded into thirds in a standard sized envelope. Definitely no need to be prematurely downcast!

DS's rejection was an A5 envelope with one A4 sheet in. It really was a very nicely worded letter! I don't know if it would be different depending on the college, this was King's. Good luck!

The Postie did not bring anything, and DS is away seemingly beyond a phone signal. He is not expecting an offer, but obviously wonderful if he got one. I guess then another two days of waiting. Then possibly another few months as he waits to hear from three of the remaining 4.

Well done to those who got offers, and happy swimming to those in the pool. Dont splash too much.

Thanks all three of you and good luck to your DCs whatever they decide/whatever happens! Am sure they will all do well.

We will be off home and testing the thickness of folded paper I can safely predict!

Good luck all those pooled - all the best people are and now they know how to do Cambridge interviews.

FC for those still waiting for pool news, or for offers from elsewhere, or indeed working to get the right grades for the right offers.

And we are talking about incredibly clever young people here, who will no doubt be an asset to whichever institutions are lucky enough to get them.

Congratulations to those with offers! Wonderful news! Please remember to celebrate with your DC and not be like my parents who were disappointed when I got my Cambridge medicine offer decades ago. (because to go to Cambridge I would have to leave home)
Chin up and keep the faith for mums of those pooled. Cooking helps I gather.

Sympathy for those rejected.
So what happened to lancelottie 's son?

I recommend Fernley Whittingstall's blackberry cake which is very easy to make and yummy in this weather. I dont bother with the lemon icing but sprinkle demarara sugar over.

Blackberry upside-down cake

Serve warm with ice-cream as a pudding or cold with lightly whipped cream or crème fraîche at tea time. Makes one 22cm cake.

370g blackberries
220g caster sugar
200g plain flour, plus more to dust
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
120g unsalted butter, softened, plus more to grease
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
Zest of a lemon
150ml buttermilk, well-shaken
Juice of 1 lemon
2 tbsp icing sugar
To serve
Icing sugar (optional)
Vanilla ice-cream, whipped cream or crème fraîche

Heat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Butter a 22cm x 5cm loose-bottomed cake tin, line the bottom with baking parchment, then butter the parchment. Dust with flour and shake out any excess. Scatter the blackberries into the tin in an even layer, sprinkle over two tablespoons of sugar and shake to coat evenly.

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, beat the butter and remaining sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and adding a bit of flour if it looks like curdling, then beat in the vanilla and lemon zest. Add the flour and buttermilk alternately – flour/buttermilk/flour/buttermilk/flour – folding in until just combined.

Spoon the batter over the berries, smooth with a spatula and bake for about 40 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean – cover with foil if it looks as if it's browning too quickly. Meanwhile, put the lemon juice and icing sugar in a small pan and simmer for a couple of minutes. Cool.

Leave the cake to cool in the tin for five minutes, then loosen the sides and invert on to a plate. Peel off the parchment and trickle over the lemon syrup. Dust with icing sugar, if you like, before serving.

DS is in the pool as well, Funny -- hoping it's the shallow end...

Well done to everyone with offers or who have been pooled.

My DS is still waiting to hear - no letter

It's so hard - he'll have to wait til Monday now..

So an update to those kind folk who gave me input earlier. Got home and my DS letter is there so that is one victory. Feels like more than one sheet of paper [squeals excitedly]. Counting the hours till he gets home and have put it on his pillow to take it out of temptations way otherwise I'd be googling how to steam a letter open!

Thanks for the recipe funny. Before I saw it we had made two huge vats of soup, a loaf of bread and two batches of brownies. Cooking definitely helps.

Congratulations to those with offers or who have been pooled (but I can imagine the continued wait is very hard) and best wishes to those who have missed out on a Cambridge offer but it sounds as though they all have great options at other top Unis.
We did celebrate with DS last night and are thrilled for him, but his sister was a little wistful when she voiced her realisation that it means he'll be leaving in a few months- this was his first offer from anywhere and is a long way from our home. I know how she feels.
Baking for us this afternoon as well as the weather is vile.
I hope those in the pool are all fished quickly!
Oh and in case anyone's wondering, DS's offer came in an A4 envelope and was approx 6 sheets thick (included some forms).

So DD heard this afternoon that she's been invited for an interview at another college. Phew.