Despite having the right grades, my child is not applying to Oxbridge because ....

[TalkinPeace]

• she wants to live in self catered accommodation
• she does not like the small sizes of the colleges / social units
• having to go back to college for lunch while doing a lab based degree does not make sense
• the whole gown and formal dinner stuff smacks of coat tails rather than standing on own feet
• she does not fancy fighting through hordes of tourists while moving between buildings
• having a tutor picked by which college they are based in rather than their research specialism seems very odd to her

Also, for what she wants to do, the course at Oxford is not that well balanced
and Cambridge, despite having a fab course was not a place that felt like home when she visited for 2 days.

So she will be putting other Universities on her form and taking a great deal of stress out of this house.

For what its worth, those of her friends I've chatted to are also ruling out Oxbridge in favour of other Unis because of the first four points.

What are other people's reasons for ruling out Oxbridge, despite having the grades?

Cherry
why she was allowed to do 13 GCSEs and then 5 AS Levels though?
Its nothing out of the ordinary
over 40 kids in her year at school - and at every other comp in the area - did the same
and at her college, 5 AS is nothing exceptional
the really bright kids have done 6 or 7 and got A in all of them

Haven't we discovered that the Op's DD has a relatively weak GCSE profile and 2Bs at AS?
The whole debate is irrelevant.the kid hasn't got the grades!!

Yeah, you are right, she's too thick with AS A grades in Maths and a pure science and B grades in Further Maths, another science and a non native MFL.

Good job you have a tough skin, Talkin, as so many other posters are absolutely determined to let you know that your daughter's excellent grades are still not quite high enough. Is this tall poppy syndrome? It is of course important to be realistic but we should also be clear that only a tiny minority of young people get AABBB at AS level. There are people, even on Mumsnet, who would think they had died and gone to heaven if their offspring got even one AS level, at any grade.

They are good grades.
But they are at the low end for Nat Sci at Cambridge.

No point pretending otherwise. That said, I have repeated msny times I would still think it worth a punt if the DD wanted to try. But she doesn't.

As for the prospectus. I figure they're like holiday brochures. Everyone knows they are marketing tools.

If you have any questions, you need to pick up the phone.

But there's nothing a university can do about someone who finds the city meh. We are not in charge of punts or tourists. We are not going to abandon altogether formal dinners etc because some don't like them ( because you don't have to partake ).

So what is it, we are meant to do? We can't be all things to all men.

Low end for Oxbridge, yes, with no mitigating circumstances. However, she's well on track to get mostly As at A level and if her college's predictions are on those lines she could get onto a Biology course at most research-intensive universities.

As for the taster sessions. What needs to change?

These aren't meant to be corporate level events. University frankly isn't like that. Not every academic will have slick presentation skills wherever you attend.

Don't you have to have all 3 sciences for natsci? Certainly all the natscis I knew had all 3.

No one has argued otherwise gasp.

But this thread is about a (non) application for Nat Sci at Cambridge.

FWIW DS2 did apply for Oxford, had an interview, & hated the whole set up so that was a waste of a choice really. (But then he was floundering around with no idea what he really wanted)

OP's DD sounds like a strong-minded individual who does know what she's after so good for her

uhtred
No. Maths is more important than an extra science.
www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/courses/natural-sciences

I think the absolute minimum is 2 science plus maths.

But the vast majority have 3 science plus maths and those with 2 will be at a disadvantage.

shegot
The taster days : what needs to change ?

• well, getting the right information out to students coming from all over the country would be a good start
• seriously, both days were utterly half arsed on their timings with staff turning up late and repeating themselves in contradictory ways
• the all areas passes were fun but no advice about where to get lunch (not provided) was not

great for those who have the faith - not much good for converting the nave IYSWIM

She, yes, I know that's what it's about, but I'm trying to put back a bit of perspective that Oxbridge really is not the be all and end all and good students can do well elsewhere. I know you know this and Talkin knows it and probably most of the rest of the posters here know it, but from the tone of some posts on this and similar threads I'm not sure that everybody knows it.

Just adding my two pence worth OP.

I went to a big research intensive London university and hated the 'bigness' of it all and feeling like a small fish in a very big pond.

The city has so much to offer that everyone buggered off after lectures and dispersed across the metropolis. Much harder to make friends in that context than my friends who went to provincial universities where bumping into people and hanging out was so much easier. (It took me 45 minutes on the tube just to get to my boyfriend's house.)

A later partner of mine had gone to Cambridge and conversely had a huge group of friends who are still his best mates / thick as thieves.

I'm really not sure that big = poorer experience. I'm my experience, it meant the complete opposite.

SheGotAllDaMoves 'But the vast majority have 3 sciences plus maths and those with 2 will be at a disadvantage'

I don't think this is true for students who are specifically interested in physical sciences. In that case Physics, Maths plus Further Maths and/or Chemistry are the more common/useful A-level choices.

Talkin - it does sound like you had a grim time. But possibly the problem lay with the particular faculty (or college?) rather than the Uni as a whole? The only reason I say that is the outreach day my DD1 went on was inspiring, it didn't have any of the problems you encountered (and lunch was provided. Although she spurned it but that's just her) and the academics and faculty staff who interacted with the attendees were apparently brilliant. The open day she went to in July was also pretty good, again none of the problems you encountered, again lunch was provided (and this time the veggie options were pretty decent). We also looked round several other colleges and the quality of the show and tell was definitely patchy. One college in particular was as far as I could see engaged in a campaign to put potential students off. But several of them were doing a decent job. DD1 only went on the outreach day on the Everest principle. At that point she had no ambitions to apply there but it was the first thing that had pinged up as ' a thing you might want to do' on the system that was aimed at her and the other kid wanting to study the same subject. She had definite plans A -C and Cambridge wasn't one of them. After the outreach day (and to be fair, probably influenced by the fair number of people who had suggested to her that maybe her plan A wasn't the best possible plan A she could have) Cambridge became if not plan A then certainly in the top 3. And I think it's only not plan A because it's such a punt and she doesn't feel like she is a lucky person. So she's very realistic about her chances but she is seriously considering applying because it's just one choice. And she doesn't feel she has a whole lot to lose by taking a punt.

So I guess what I'm saying in a rambling way is - it looks like not all the different outreach effort is equal. Some may be poor but some appears to be decent. FWIW the open day I went on back in 1984 was pretty shit. I still applied though. Just, not to the college that hadn't impressed me.

it depends a lot on what her ums are like. a deselection document (which I can't link to because I am on my phone) talks about the average ums of the three most relevant subjects being used to establish a cut off for interview.

It sounds like organisation was poor on your DD's experience day talkin but to be fair that's not a feature in any of your DD's issues in your OP.

And I recall that your DD had already decided against beforehand, following a visit with your DH when the tourists had been a problem.

Whilst disorganisation can be worked on, we can't do anything about tourists or punts . We can't make the colleges bigger.

Talkin - my DSS2 went to a taster day at Cambridge, 18 months ago. He signed up on the first possible day - sciences so places went very fast - and we bought tickets/organised our travel. 2 days beforehand the start/end times of the day were changed. Lunch (where the DC were "captive") was a tiny sandwich. Although DSS2 enjoyed the two talks he went to, the effort expended to attend was huge and, based on our experience, the "show" was not useful enough to merit the costly and time-consuming logistics.

dapoxen apologies, I was assuming we were talking about the DDs choice (bio).

It is very state school to do so many GCSEs. Why not enjoy life instead and do fewer?

I think some schools are quite cynical. Getting able students to take a lot of GCSEs bolsters departmental figures.

Poor advice to the pupils though. Quality over quantity.

That said, sometimes a fart of GCSEs can include all manner of short courses that are barely worth the effort .

Fart = raft .

Though fart probably sums up my view of this..

the bottom line is that it makes the op feel better if she can think her dd is rejecting Cambridge rather than they are rejecting her.