Oxford 'Open Application' or a specific college?

[doglover]

As the title suggests ........... is there any particular advantage in either method of application? Our dd has visited a few colleges and has no real preference - aspects of all of them appeal and none are a definite 'no' (her course is English). We're not sure how to advise her about this and welcome any advice .........

TIA

Most pupils I know have applied to a specific one but not necessarily ended up in that one. Has she looked at the admission statistics for her course - some colleges get more applicants than others.
If she is a state school pupil she may prefer somewhere that doesn't have a rep for being full of public schoolboys!

Yes, she's a state school girl! I'll tell her to look at admission numbers - good idea :)

If your dd applies to a specific college and get invited to interview, one of the interviews will be an open interview so that, if the college she applies to rejects her, she will still have a chance at another college. If she is lucky enough to receive an offer, the offer will be from the college that accepts her but, even at this stage, students can receive an open offer and not find out until after results day which college they have been allocated.

There are more experienced posters on here than me, but I would say it is worth putting down a preference (whilst not getting too wedded to it in case she is offered a place by a different college) My reasons are (and those more experienced do contradict where I am wrong)

1. Does she have a preference for more central , or further out where there may be e.g. larger grounds?
2. What are the accommodation options for the 3 years?
3. What are the typical meal / room costs ?
4. How many places for her course in total ( I would not think something mainstream like English would be a problem , but DS looked at his, and wanted to be somewhere where there was a decent amount of people in college studying his subject)

I may be naive but I do think that by and large you cannot game the system by applying to a less popular college, because they will take a stronger candidate who has applied to a different, more popular college over a weaker one who has applied to a less popular college. I think it is worth researching and applying to your preference, whilst , as I say , understanding that this may not work out.

A friend of DS applied to Balliol (old , famous , central , impressive buildings ) ended up at St Hugh's ( much newer , a bit further out , not quite as quintessentially "Morse" - but lovely gardens and nice accommodation. He loves it.

FWIW.