Oxbridge Applicants for 2017

[HamletsSister]

DS has done his exam (Oxford, History) and written his essay. Now, the waiting begins.......

Anyone else?

Hardcore

Just to say everyone at Cambridge loves their own college. It becomes your second family. The idea your DD might turn down the whole business of being at Cambridge and getting a Cambridge degree on her cv just because Churchill isn't pretty is making me feel quite anxious! And my kids are only 7 and 5 ...

Sorry I realize I am not being at all helpful.

FWIW Churchill would be a great college and down to earth.

Hamin sorry your DS is gutted. If he still has the dream he can work hard and apply next year. I did that successfully many moons ago as did loads and loads of other people.

Hardcore

Has your DD seen this page www.chu.cam.ac.uk/study-us/undergraduates/accommodation/

Rooms look five star!

I had rooms in Great Court, Trinity once. Lovely of course but tourists peering in your bedroom and walking OUT of your staircase and into the next to shower in your PJs? You can get fed up with it!

Hamin,

No one cares at all by the time you're about 25 or 28 where on earth you went to university in most cases, especially if you've got a good degree. And if you want to go into academia, you find a lot of the dons did their first degrees elsewhere. In some subjects, it's a bit like Harvard, go there to do your masters.

And I regret to say that some employers regard Oxbridge as for toffs, so you can have to live it down.

Also, if you get a good course and good teaching from a good university, you may do better than if you find yourself on the wrong course with an unsympathetic tutor in Oxbridge as has recently happened to the son of a friend.

Finally, and I don't want to rain on anyone's parade, but after the very very obvious top ten percent or fewer of candidates, it's so v heavily competed that it's hard to draw a line: it's not a lottery but there are truly huge numbers of excellent candidates out there, which just means that other top RG HEIs get them.

In fact, for the subject DS is hoping to read, quite a few of the academics in that subject think a particular non Oxbridge RG is better than Oxbridge.

Hope that helps. P M me if you want.

Haha, Bumps. It's making you cry?

I agree, I think she would like it, but she has to get to that decision on her own.

I fear I'm not going to be a very good parent of teens ... its bad enough when you can make all the choices!

Hardcore - hopefully she'll go to whatever offer holders thing the college does, she's nothing to lose by it. Mine has already decided she will do that (involves an overnight stay in the college sometime in March), meanwhile between us we'll find out more - we can't make their decisions but we can help with providing information. I'm (fortunately) quite relaxed about it because gen eng at Cambridge versus EEE at Southampton are both excellent opportunities but it's comparing apples and oranges to some extent, it's impossible to guess which would turn out better.

hardcore tell your DD that modern colleges are often the envy of the other students- DD has just been pooled to St Catz, oxford, and although it isn't as classic as the others, my DH (who went to Robinson) keeps telling her that although its lovely to live in 13th century quads, its much nicer to have running hot water and no damp when you're actually a student!

My friend's DS was pooled to a modern college at Cambridge and considered taking his Edinburgh offer instead based solely on the ugliness of the architecture. His father made a good point.....
Would you rather be in a modern room with a view of beauty or be in an old room with a view of ugly?
That DS is very happy in his modern Cambridge college.

My DD also says students get very tired of having tourists around all the time. You struggle to get to the entrance of Kings College Cambridge because it is always surrounded. My DD chose Trinity Hall which is pretty but ignored by tourists so that worked well. Having said that, she only spent her 1st year in the lovely old building and after that she was in Trinity Hall owned accommodation that was fine but not exactly pretty. It made no difference to her university experience.

Perhaps though, hardcores DD is ambivalent about Churchill more because its got an excess of males and I gather more engineers than most? It occurred to me that our DD's might like to swap but that maybe the pooling system is designed in part to help balance out the intake of each college a bit so that all the geeks don't tend to apply to and get accepted by a few colleges while all the artsy types go to others?

DD emailed admissions today as we still didn't get the letter and just texted me that she didn't get in. She had been saying she would be happy with a rejection as she really didn't get the 'I need to go here' feeling at the interview. Still waiting for offers from Edinburgh and St Andrews but sitting on offers from Exeter and Newcastle, any of which she would be to attend.

Good luck to all the others, wherever they go!

any of which she would be happy to attend

Churchill rooms are very comfy and warm... the gardens are v pretty too.

Well-placed for certain faculties. Loads of scientists but that won't hurt her, will it?

She should definitely visit, Hardcore!

www.merton.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/admissions-feedback

This is quite interesting.

Yes, Errol, that is her issue.

Churchill has loads of scientists, engineers and mathematicians, and it is often their first choice.

The arts students there all tend to be pooled, apparently.

She has visited on an open day (but she was in a bad mood, anyway - bit of a recurring theme?) and didn't really like it. Her impression was that it was very austere, and that there were lots of mature students.

The lovely Leedsmum has given me lots of information, as her DS is there. I understand that even though it's full of more sciency people, that doesn't mean they won't also be musical, for example.

Like your DD, she is also lucky to have other excellent options, so if she decides not to go with Cambridge, she'll be fine. But I do think she would love it there.

Mine seems to be quite enthusiastic now. Her school had a visit to medwards in yr 12 (she didn't go, hadn't decided to look at Cambridge till after AS results) so I think some of the staff know it and one of them told her she'd fit in there better than (apologies for this, probably grossly unfair) a college with lots of public schoolboys. She seems to be actively looking for positives rather than negatives now.

the merton feedback link is interesting. I don't recall seeing something like that at the time of DD and DS's applications...I've not read all the subjects more detailed feedback, but did look at the English comments. Interesting that two Merton applicants pooled to other colleges and one pooled to them from another college. On the working assumption that it would be simpler to take as many applicants who were up to the required standard who had applied to your college, I wonder why Merton would take someone pooled from another college having put two of its "own" candidates into the pool., maybe there are other factors at play - spread of sexes/schools/international?

History I meant, not English

I would have though to balance subjects mainly, With the tutorial system being college based, the number of places offered for a particular subject is presumably relates to the number of fellows for that subject a college has?

Yes, DS1 has an offer for maths (at Oxford). None of his current friends (or his girlfriend) are STEM students and he plays in the school swing band which is an interest I think he will probably continue when he starts at uni. She really shouldn't worry!

HamIn huge sympathies for your DS: it is hard when they have put so much into it and for most Oxbridge applicants it will be the first time they have ever failed at anything. I think he should be allowed to feel gutted for a bit to be honest without being forced to be cheered up!

But when you think he's ready - see my note earlier in this thread abut my eldest DS who did get into Oxbridge but actually friends who were rejected and went to Durham etc have beaten him to the top graduate job he had his heart set on. And in fact he also applied first to Oxford and didn't even get an interview...that was gutting at the time but for him, as for many, applying post A-levels was a successful path as he was so much more mature and had the time to prepare. Depending on your son's subject and other options this might be something to consider. HTH!

That's what I would have thought, Errol - and would explain the pooling of two candidates - strong but no room at Merton. But why/how then take someone pooled to them as the feedback says. Surely easier all round to have taken one of the original candidates?

Of course they know what they were doing....

Well, having sucked up the bad news I am so very proud of DD who has since Wednesday booked herself on the Manchester and Exeter offer holders days. It almost seems as though the regret has motivated her to focus on the future.

sometimes a college will take back one of the people they have pooled having looked at who is in the pool and decided that their candidates were the best. Pooling is one way of ensuring standards are similar across the colleges. The original candidate probably thought the candidates were borderline and hoped there would be better in the pool.

And of course mistakes are made when you have a lot of very able young people and there isnt a lot to choose between some of them.

Pleased to hear today from their mentor that this year's most able disadvantaged medical applicant decided to apply to Cambridge and was accepted by their choice of college.

sorry original college not candidate.

If people have been pooled to a different college - most people seem to end up liking their college. It's always worth looking at the alternative prospectus too e.g

mecsu.soc.srcf.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ME-Prospectus.pdf

jcr.chu.cam.ac.uk/bundles/jcrpages/pdf/Churchill_JCR_Alternative_Prospectus.pdf