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.

[BeckAndCall]

Aah funnyperson stop it! Now we have to plan for freak snow!

[IndiansOnTheRailroad]

There was LOADS of snow the day I had my interviews. The train was late. I was late. The college were lovely. It was fine. I got in. They are used to bad weather there - a common saying is 'it's flat from here to Siberia' (it's actually not, not at all, but the way the wind whips in you could believe it was true). These days, given mobile phones and everything, being late due to WEATHER really isn't something to stress about.

[hattymattie]

We've booked Eurostar - are coming to the UK on Saturday and then up to Cambridge on Sunday, which I hope gives us a margin - please God do not give a week of solid snow like there was two years ago.

[twoteens]

we are in London should dd en-quire about staying the night, think it will be less stressful, specially if weather is bad or do they have to offer. feeling slightly out of depth. DD inner London state school.and her dad and I didn't go to university.

[HomeHelpMeGawd]

twoteens, I'd stay overnight if I were your DD. As much as your DD is being interviewed by Cambridge, she's also working out if she really truly wants to go. And staying there helps with making the decision.

I did it (20+ years ago) and I remember my stay even more clearly than my first proper night in college. I had formal hall with three other candidates (ie dinner in the big hall, standing up for grace mumbled by a very ancient Fellow) and found out that they were all completely different from me in both backgrounds and personality, but similar to me in being bright and interesting to talk to. I walked round the very beautiful grounds of the college and thought "this seems lovely!". I got to meet the porters, who were funny as well as slightly eccentric. And I got a short calm walk to my interview the next morning, which really helped. It still felt pretty exotic to me (as a northerner from a not particularly posh private school where four or five kids got to Oxbridge each year), but it had become a lot less unfamiliar, and so I could really concentrate on the discussion when it came to my interviews, without being distracted by the trappings.

Going to Cambridge was a gift for me, and I enjoyed it all.

[HomeHelpMeGawd]

twoteens, I should have said explicitly, yes DD should ask if she can stay. They may say no (although I doubt they will) but it certainly won't affect her application.

[Lancelottie]

This is weird. Why has DS been offered accommodation when it seems people from further away have not?

[HoratiaDrelincourt]

It must depend on the college. From memory Girton used to offer accommodation to everyone; my college said it was available on request.

[HomeHelpMeGawd]

This set of mock interviews may be useful to demystify things:
www.emma.cam.ac.uk/admissions/videos/

[funnyperson]

I am so happy nearly all of the Cambridge colleges take men and women.When I went for my interview there were only 3 colleges which took women, and no co ed colleges.I didn't like the one that gave me the offer but now the colleges are much nicer for women and when I wandered round trinity hall in the summer I felt very happy that modern girl students have the option of going which wasn't available not so long ago however brainy a girl was.

[funnyperson]

I am so happy nearly all of the Cambridge colleges take men and women.When I went for my interview there were only 3 colleges which took women, and no co ed colleges.I didn't like the one that gave me the offer but now the colleges are much nicer for women and when I wandered round trinity hall in the summer I felt very happy that modern girl students have the option of going which wasn't available not so long ago however brainy a girl was.

[littlesquid]

Oh, Dear.

scroll halfway down this page and they're talking about us

www.thestudentroom.co.uk/showthread.php?t=2336290&page=45


"...You should've known the answer to your query as soon as you wrote the words "thread on Mumsnet". I'd sooner take advice on Oxbridge applications from a group of Capuchin monkeys."

Little Tinkers!

[BeckAndCall]

This is like a collision of two parts of my universe - mumsnet and the studentroom all together in one thread! The two tabs on my iPad must have merged!

They have a point on thestudentroom though, taken out of context, the sentence is nonsense, which we've already agreed.....

[AvengingGerbil]

If I wre an admissions tutor (I'm not), any applicant whose parents phoned me up to try to circumvent the admissions process would go to the bottom of the pile, no matter how good. I'd view it as saving my colleagues a world of future grief.

[Lancelottie]

Point taken, Avenging. I'm a bit too used to being my son's advocate (he has SEN and communication problems) but there comes a point we'll have to step away, and it looks like this is it.

[Lancelottie]

Good grief, Funny, when was that?
I can remember when it were all fields round here there were only three all-women colleges, but not when there were only three that took women at all!

[HoratiaDrelincourt]

I think most changed in the 70s and 80s. Mine was still 2/3 men in 2000s though, which suited me fine except for how difficult it was to get enough women to make up a second netball team...

IIRC all Oxford colleges are coed now, although some of the PPHs are men-only, and at Cambridge Murray Edwards (formerly New Hall) takes men now? Lucy Cav and Newnham are still just women I think.

[glorious]

Murray Edwards is still all women and has no plans to change

[HoratiaDrelincourt]

If you say so! I could have sworn one of the colleges was debating it though.

I'm fine with single sex colleges while the gender balance across the university (worse the higher you get) still isn't equal.

[glorious]

You may well be right, I don't know about the other two I agree, it's actually quite depressing how male the university would be without the women's colleges.

[lismore]

The waiting seems interminable at the moment. DS hasn't heard from any of his choices yet which makes it even worse.
He will hopefully have heard about an interview / rejection by the end of next week, if my nerves can survive until then.

Well done to everyone's DCs who already have an interview lined up!

[BeckAndCall]

The waiting is tough, isn't it OP? If your DS hasn't heard anything yet from anywhere, chances are he's applied for medicine or vets as those friends of DD doing those subjects generally haven't heard anything yet. All other subjects seem to have heard at least something - but your DS may just be "unlucky" in that all of his choices are late decides - it does happen. Either way, keep hoping!

[Shootingatpigeons]

The process is very tough on medics. It is not uncommon for interviews and offers not to come through until they are well into final preparation for A2 exams and it can be hard to keep up the motivation when it is still unclear what you are working towards. One of my DDs friends got into two London medical schools but hadn't heard anything, not even an interview, by Easter. Very hard when all your friends have been sat on multiple offers for months.

[Timetraveller]

DS is still waiting to hear from his Cambridge college. He's constantly checking his emails - post has been today and still nothing. They must be one of the last to send out interviews. The waiting is so hard.

[VegasIsBest]

Also waiting to hear if my son has been selected for interview (for Oxford). It's nerve wracking. Much worse than when I applied myself about a million years ago. I think it was easier then as you knew next to nothing and just waited. I have been obsessively on the student room watching interviews start coming out (and rejections of course :-( ) for subjects other than my son's.

Good luck to everyone else who is waiting for news.