Oxbridge Entry 2015

[Roisin]

Do we have a thread already?
ds1 has decided to definitely apply to Oxford to do Biochemistry. He will probably apply to St John's.

Dd is still faffing too. She said she can scan and upload so she has until Monday. She's not in school tomorrow either. She was explaining to her Classics/Latin teacher today what the aptitude test was like! Thought perhaps that should have been the other way round

We are still faffing about as well. I am assuming we can scan and upload on Monday - that is what the cover sheet says.

DS said his deadline is the 15th Nov do I believe him or do I hysterically demand to see evidence. I think some hysterics are in order.

hysterics are in order - I'll find the link and post it for you.

Dates for Written Work for Oxford applicants.

Unless he has an email with a different deadline??

He's Cambridge Random not Oxford

Claudia how much did you pay for that absolutely obvious advice? The websites are fine. And free.

Gah found the relevant link www.study.cam.ac.uk/undergraduate/apply/tests/essays.html DS is right and I need to calm down

No need for hysterics after all.

Having same problems with dd webwiz. She seems to think she has all the time in the world.

The essay sending is a v slow process here too! Dd needs to write a list of books/other that she's happy to discussat interview... How many do you think is reasonable, I'm thinking some novels/plays/poetry, should all be off syllabus? All very stressful!

Offer from Bristol! English. A*AA.
Cathy and Claire is your DD applying to Cambridge?

Brilliant :-)

Well done Figment, that's great, Bristol is DD's favourite :)
Yes, DD is applying to Cambridge, I forget which thread I've said what on good thing I'm not applying anywhere
She's going for the course with Education, which is a little unusual but looks very interesting :) I think the book list is for the English Literature side of things though.

Well done to little figment! Bristol is great - my eldest dd really enjoying it there. Feel free to ask questions.

Well done little figment's DC. DD's early offer is also from Bristol, and is exactly as written on the website for her subject and qualifications. Perhaps we could have another thread about Bristol?

list of books/other that she's happy to discussat interview... How many do you think is reasonable

Three. At least two, but more than three would leave your DC wondering what they are going to talk about.

I think we are all going to have a busy weekend sorting out PDFs for submission on Monday. May I recommend the following naming system for documents that you sent?

SURNAMESubjectBriefTitle

For example, one of DD's submissions would be

FRIENDEnglishRussianRevolution

or something.

I receive applications and it is very frustrating to receive a series of PDFs intitled, "CVforRandom", "ResearchProposal", "PreviousWork", etc. with no indication in the title as to who they are from or what they contain.

ds1 got another offer this week: AAA from York (for Biochemistry). He already has one A and is taking 3 more in 2015, so he's pretty pleased with that.

That's fab Roisin.

These essays, is it just a Cambridge thing or both? Not for physics Anyhoo, so a bit off my radar.

Rather some colleges at both Oxford and Cambridge ask for examples of work written during your normal A level studies but it does depend on what subject you are applying for. It is more for humanities type subjects and just another thing that is considered as part of the application.

We have progress tonight DS has printed off the cover sheets to go with his essays so his English teacher can fill them in tomorrow and then he can upload the essays over the weekend.

Well done to all the DCS with new offers

Embargo on discussing details of the tests now lifted, but probably best not to look....

Agree Littleham..... The written work has been posted tonight and I'm blanking out the HAT. Impossible to gauge either way. Wide open essay question. There have been cases in some years where the essay question was disregarded in the marking as it was too wide and threw up too chaotic a variation of essays. Andyesterday's question was as wide as could be. Anyhow, downbeat seems the safest option, especially given modest GCSEs :)

York looks great :)

My son had an offer from York to do History three years ago. It was followed up by a generic 'York's great!' email from someone in the History department, which included some mention of the departmental football team. Rather nice. That's all I can contribute about York, though, as he turned them down so didn't go to the UCAS day and he hadn't been to an Open Day.

The one he did accept (as his insurance offer) was Lancaster. We went to the UCAS day and I must say, I was very impressed by the place. Lovely town, liked the campus, felt like a good, friendly History department.

Interesting Molio that they have disregarded the essay question in the past. Agree it was wide open on that paper. Everyone else seems to have discussed wars or revolutions, whereas my dd's answer was wildly different. At least she won't be boring!

Thanks AllMimsy - What particularly attracts her to York, is that it is History with a year abroad - so four years. Looks fabulous to me.

The submitting essays thing: how does that sort the wheat from the not exactly chaff, but certainly those who have had a great deal of input? Even purchased input? And some schools probably know just what type of essay catches the eye: a regular A Level piece would probably be quite mainstream, but what would float Oxbridge's boat is, a la History Boys, something a bit out there.