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.

Littleham my DCs' school gave and gives no help at all with the HAT, along with most other schools. I really wouldn't worry about it. Younger DC went in and took it having only read the website and somehow got a crazy high mark - high 70s. I don't know how the older DC did, as she didn't ask for the mark, but her GCSEs were better than her brother's so she could afford a lower score. I think DSs was quite a fluke tbh but the point is that he really didn't do more than whatever it is they suggest on the website. They also got one practice interview each at school, but it wasn't 'Oxford style', more like a general job interview.

Lincoln is beautiful and very highly regarded for History. How were her GCSEs? And is her school 'flagged'? To be honest she sounds in a strong position if her school sends that few to Oxbridge, given her obvious enthusiasm and excellent grades. Most colleges will give an extract at least but I know a couple which don't and two which give 20 to 30 pages to read which occupies an entire interview. DS's college never mentioned anything on his ps whereas DDs used an entire interview for it, having despatched the written work in about five mins! But as I say, I'd be very cautious - things change.

Health warning caveat but until very, very recently at least New and Merton were more conversational; Magdalen, Teddy Hall and Oriel gave short extracts; Queen's and Somerville gave out huge long tracts - enormous.

She did 11 GCSE's - five A and rest all A's (so no idea if this is considered enough, but her school seem to think so). History GCSE was an A. I'm not sure about the flagging system & whether her school is on it. The school have talked about her two AS's that were above 90% in the reference.

I'm glad she will be in a similar position to lots of candidates, as I was really worrying a lot about that HAT test (especially when I saw it online!) Well done to your ds - he did so well!

If she gets an interview, I'll tell her it could be about the PS or her written work or even talking about an extract they provide. Thanks for the warning.

Littleham this may help with choosing a college ousu.org/applying/undergraduate/alternative-prospectus/ I have no idea what Oxford look for in candidates but there seems to be more emphasis on the interview and the tutor wanting to teach you. They have fewer state school undergraduates than Cambridge.

There is always misinformation about Cambridge on mumsnet. Firstly as she has 85+ ums she'd be interviewed, the average of successful candidates is just an average and you get people accepted with a range of ums. The higher your average the more likely you are to get an offer. Even in the most competitive subjects like maths and medicine there are acceptances with similar ums to your daughter (there is published information for some subjects on the range of ums, didn't find any for history).

Secondly if you have far to travel you can usually stay at a Cambridge college before the interview. I checked a few popular colleges and all offered free accommodation.

Third if you are placed in the pool it is stressful but many successful applicants are offered places by their chosen college. Some people may be reinterviewed, others will be "fished" without another interview. The pool is a college's way of saying you are Cambridge standard but we don't have enough room.

Thanks alreadytaken. Very useful. I'm not sure she will get as far as the fish pool, but useful to understand the system.

Thank for the sympathy MrsBartlet DS has finished his Personal Statement now. His English teacher has seen it via email and its finally the right length. DS is applying to St Johns because he really liked when he did the English taster day there.

Littleham good luck to your DD she sounds on the ball!

Someone on here posted that it's more straightforward to apply for student finance with a valid passport, do we recently renewed ds1's, even though we're not lanning to go abroad until after A levels.

Thanks for the tip, all of our passports expired in July so I'll need to renew DS's even if we don't plan to go away

Deadline next week: has everyone submitted now?

DS hasn't submitted yet. He has to see the head of sixth form for a final check through everything and then it will go. So hopefully in the next few days.

Nope - it is sitting on a desk in school to be sent on Friday (hopefully).

Just to add my ten pennorth - have one DC at Cambridge, another DC at Durham, and a Durham graduate. Cambridge is wonderful, but an INSANE workload (DS is sciences) and is generally a very pressurised environment crammed into tight terms. Foe example, DS is NOT allowed to leave college for weekends at home during term time; has lectures, practicals and supervisions six days of the week, and the workload is unrelenting. That said he loves it, but it suits him. Durham is also collegiate, and in our experience the pastoral care is much better, and although the pressure is still there the atmosphere is a little less frenetic. DS1 graduated from Durham and went up against Cambridge graduates in all his interviews - generally speaking the Cambridge degree ceded no advantage at the interview stage in his field. (Maths/Investment related). Very important not to be seduced by the Oxbridge cachet, and match student to environment.

Agree BCBG. Did your two Durham DCs apply to Oxbridge and reject an Oxbridge offer over Durham, or did they not apply at all, or did they not get an offer? I tend to think my DS2 would have been best suited to Durham. I just hope he survives the Oxbridge pressure and manages to enjoy himself (only dropped him yesterday; I'm a bit wobbly).

Six days a week? I wasn't aware of that! I wonder if ds1 is.
I suppose they have so much to cram in, with such short terms.

Littleham - in terms if choosing a college it can be worth looking up which colleges take high numbers of students for history (although many will for history I guess). And also check tutors - and their standing within the college.

DH was an Oxford historian (I was sciences). I applied from a state school thinking I had no chance. I found being at a younger (in Oxford terms) ex-women's college more comfortable/easy going than a better known slightly terrifying central college (although that might be out of date now & that might just have been me).

In terms of rooms - we paid for 8 and a half weeks (date of return was somewhere mid noughth week) but only some buildings were used for conferences. I always chose rooma in non-conference buildings & could stay as long as I liked providing I coughed up the extra cash. My friend had a room in a conference building & could stay - but she had to move rooms (a pain).

Anyway just wanted to wish your dd good luck - I stumbled into
Oxford accidentally really & loved it.

My DD's application went in on the 6th Oct, she had an acknowledgement from 1 uni within 17 minutes (pretty impressed). More importantly she got an offer from Glasgow yesterday. So happy for her.

Brilliant to hear about such early offers :)

Not yet - there is still a full week to go!

DD is just finalising her personal statement by having it looked at by various people. I am working out how to enter the music qualifications. Head of year is drafting the reference and checking predicted grades.

Does anyone know how long the school reference has to be? Is it a similar dark art as the personal statement?

Molio, no, they both applied direct to Durham. There is a myth that Durham is full of Oxbridge rejects which is rubbish - it's crowded with those who might have made the grade but chose Durham instead. All three unit are wonderful, entrancing places, but the pressure on students (and cost) is greater than ever, and in my experience you need to be unbelievably resilient to thrive at Cambridge. To give just one example - at DS's College (and this is by no means unique), the exam grade of every undergraduate is printed in the College review, from Freshers onwards. If a student fails to get an overall 2.1 in his or her end of year exams they are automatically called for interview with the Master, and have to complete a form explaining their 'underperformance' and their strategy for improvement. They remain on a 'watch' list for the rest of that year, and woe betide them if someone on the 'watch ' list is caught misbehaving late at night!

That's a really useful tip about non-conference accommodation Jimjams. If ds1 gets in, I'll suggest that to him.

Randomfriend - ds1 got to view his reference. It was a similar length to his PS, but I don't know if it's subject to the same restrictions.

DS has finally finished his personal statement so is going in for a final check with his referee tomorrow and then it'll be submitted - eek! He's only put 3 other choices on the form but he can always add another later if for some reason he doesnt get any offers before January. He should hopefully at least get one! Keeping everything crossed

BCBG thanks for the reply but from what I know Durham is still, as it was in my day, wall to wall Oxbridge rejects. It's not rubbish for sure. That said, it's utterly beautiful and much better suited to many very clever students who don't want, need or aren't suited to the pressure of Oxford or Cambridge.

Your DS's college sounds mad. Surely the college authorities are aware of how competitive and how hard these students are on themselves. The policy is crazy; they should stop it at once. It doesn't happen at Oxford. The nearest thing is the ranking of medical students, but those rankings aren't made public, just known to the individual which is bad enough. Let's hope it doesn't take the suicide of a young talented student to wake these idiots up.

Roisin on a practical level it would be impossible to find out the info about conference rooms ahead of being at Oxford and if your DC tried to ask the question before even securing an interview it may not go down that great. Don't worry about it.

Some colleges require students to live out in second year, some colleges have vile accommodation especially for freshers , some colleges will have scaffolding due to go up for a major refurbish in 2015/16. None of this is within your DC's gift. I'd suggest just choosing a college he fancies - as jimjams says, preferably with a good number of students for the subject he intends to study - and then go with the flow. it's just not possible to navigate every eventuality and the main thing is the offer. I'd say mainline on that.

anyone who thinks Oxford is better should read this www.independent.co.uk/life-style/telling-tales-out-of-oxford-1252747.html

I'm aware of one Cambridge college that has slipped down the Tompkins table and seems to inflict unnecessary pressure on students, I'm assuming it's that one. Fortunately not all Cambridge colleges are the same, except possibly for maths students. All medical students are (privately) told their ranking because that is part of the allocation process for posts later on.

Unfortunately while there are some things that may help suggest if your child will cope at Oxbridge (how easy they found A levels, if they pick things up quickly, if they need to be busy, if they have coped well with disappointment/failure before) I don't think there is any way to be sure they will be OK until they graduate.

according to this Cambridge advice www.counselling.cam.ac.uk/staffcouns/leaflets/suiciderisk the rate of suicide at Cambridge is less than for young people generally. However I wouldn't place much faith in that as both universities have a reputation for rusticating students with mental health problems.

That's an old story. I graduated (from Oxford) just a few years earlier, and I have to say that I never felt any academic pressure. (As evidenced by my Desmond ) I think a lot of people who go there put a lot of pressure on themselves - I'm pretty sure the internal outweighs the external