Oxbridge applicants 2018

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I've hesitated before making this thread as I don't really like the whole making Oxbridge out as a special case when there are lots of amazing universities that are just as good for individual courses. However, it is a different application process with a lot happening by January should they get that far and irl I don't know anyone else's dc applying to talk to them about it. I expect most of us are in that situation. At the moment I rely on dd and the occasional foray into student room to learn what happens next.

So welcome all parents of Oxbridge candidates - a thread to chat over what's to come and to support if our kids find they have to steer in a different direction.

Application forms due in in a few weeks

I didn't say Durham etc picked up Oxbridge rejects at all - just that once Oxbridge offer holders have firmed those offers and chosen elsewhere as their insurance, that gives slack to offer to other applicants who didn't get the early offers.

I'm quite sure it must be utterly miserable to wait until March (and perplexing, if you're as strong as Needmoresleep's DC evidently were), but people do seem to magnify the number of late offers at Durham when the reality is that the overwhelming majority are given out several weeks before the offer holders' days in early March.

Stranger, I was quoting Kitten.

If academics refer to Oxbridge rejects, perhaps it is OK. I personally don't like it, especially as it suggests that Oxbridge is automatically the best choice for all strong applicants in all subjects. Something that is really not true, and which unhealthily enourages a sense it is Oxbridge or failure.

I am not sure if my DC such strong applicants. Presumably why they were left waiting so long. But like many of their peers, they feel they ended up in the right place. Who knows where you will come across the inspiring teacher, the speciality you love, or the friends for life.

Well said Needmore that echoes DD’s philosophy on the whole thing.
She wants to give it her best shot, but strongly believes she’ll end up where she’s supposed to be. So if Oxford doesn’t happen for her it will be because she’s meant to be somewhere else. (She would very much like to get an interview though at least!) xx

Sorry needmoresleep, I didn’t mean to be rude, I was clumsy in how I phrased things. As dd may well very end up not being accepted by Oxbridge I clearly wouldn’t want to to be upsetting people. Hence my original post at the start of this thread.

This is supposed to be a supportive thread, not an argumentative one. It’s a stressful process, let’s not start sniping at each other.

I did not mean to snipe. Oxbridge results day at school can be awful Even DD dreaded going in, and she had not even applied. For many the margins between acceptance or not will be very fine. To label someone, a reject, is quite severe, especially for kids who are used to academic success. I am shocked that this is a term used by academics at open days.

im totally with u, Rose!

Imperial is also DS' 2nd choice. Although he also reckons Imperial is a prestigious, ideal choice to have, especially for his course (actually Imperial ranks higher than Oxford in it), I guess at the back of his mind he is still hopeful on Oxford, at least for the interview. But as you said, he would probably end up with Imperial!

I agree it would be awful for academics to use it, it was a word I shouldn’t have used.

I’ve been wondering how dds college will cope with it. I hadn’t realised that both unis gave out their decisions on the same day til you referred to Oxbridge results day. It’s 10th January. shit. How horrible.Throughout the day at different times they will all be getting emails for the colleges that email rather than write. It sounds like an utterly appalling day given they will still have to carry on the day going to lessons.

ok, that’s looking ahead. We’ve first got to get them through the will they get interviewed or not bit.

will they hear if they’ve got Cambridge interviews by email next week then?

actually Imperial ranks higher than Oxford in it

There is no such thing as a definitive ranking. I think it is generally very unhelpful to try to rank courses, rather than group comparable level courses.

DN now at Trinity Cambridge, didn't get a straight slew of offers. She was turned down by LSE (her second favourite).

papaya, as far as I can gather it will be next week, or the week after. The courses where they have had to submit written work, or have pre interview tests take longer.

Not precious 'zzzzz'. Just don't think it is helpful to label 17 and 18 year olds rejects just because they may be unsuccessful in their application to a certain university. Successful applicants have the opportunity to accept or decline an offer. Rejection is not the opposite of acceptance and I do not believe UCAS refers to rejects.

Hubble the phrase 'Oxbridge rejects' has been around for decades. It's not an especially nice for those at the end of it but it makes more of the process to dwell on that sort of thing than to (try to) shrug it off.

Needmoresleep I'm curious, and of course I understand you might well not want to answer, but why did the DC feel the need to apply three times? Was there huge parental pressure? Did the DC feel he'd made avoidable mistakes on occasions one and two? That's a lot of time to devote to re-applying and the stakes presumably get higher each time. I'd be very concerned if a DC applied a third time. I'm also curious about the subject.... Interesting about the scholarship though, but I'm guessing from that that the circumstances of the first two rejections are fairly unusual.

Maybe so Goodbye but in this house my DS will never be a reject!

Time to move on from this. There is a bit of an 'edge' on this thread now which Kitten did not intend.

Stranger, a very intellectual DC who absolutely wanted to read a particular subject at Oxbridge, some specific circumstances and two very constructive gap years. But yes, an impressive level of single-mindedness, which paid off.

Which is sort of back to the "rejects". First it is derogatory, but my objection is the assumption that there is a clear hierarchy of Universities with Oxbridge clearly sitting at the top. And if you are rejected you go to Durham. When in fact from the anecdotes I hear, it is not unusual for someone to, say, get a place at Oxbridge and a rejection from LSE. DS was advised to apply to the top four courses in his subject in the hope of getting one, the assumption being that the one might be Cambridge. The same thing also happens with medicine.

Admissions are an inexact science, and both DC reported some real surprises (the majority of their year group applied to Oxbridge with almost half getting offers) both ways. Some very impressive applicants did not get places, whilst some less interesting ones did. As Risotto suggests many of the "rejects" were able to focus on the advantages offered by their second choices. Imperial, say, can offer earlier and more in-depth specialisation. Que sera...

Thanks Hubble, I honestly didn’t intend to upset people.

dd is still genuinely torn between Warwick and Cambridge. How do you choose, both excellent courses with superb reputations, but very different and offer different opportunities?

More interview dates going out on student room for Cambridge. Only for subjects without pre assessments though. I hope those waiting for interviews based on tests are doing ok.

dd is still genuinely torn between Warwick and Cambridge.

For her subject there is no direct comparison in terms of academics: the opportunities for one-to-two tuition via supervisions (hence personal differentiation) and the opportunities offered by Cambridge in terms of breadth of courses are not comparable to those on offer at Warwick.

Warwick does not cover the breadth of mathematical research that Cambridge does either. Warwick has, for example, not much presence in the fields of relativity and quantum theory, while the group of Stephen Hawking is (manifestly) world leading in relativity and Cambridge has a wide range of other mathematical physics too.

Now of course other issues apart from academics play a role too (campus feeling, location etc) but it is not an accident that most students holding Cambridge and Warwick maths offers firm Cambridge. (And it is not just the Oxbridge factor.)

I think it really is genuinely different for other subjects. LSE Economics and Cambridge Economics are different but it is less clear that one course is academically better than the other.

Thanks Needmoresleep, interesting. Yes at our school too there have been surprises both ways. The two biggest surprises for landing an offer in the past eight years both ended up graduated with Oxford Firsts, which was rather pleasing. One graduated top of his year in Maths as well, which was doubly pleasing. The main deficiency both students seemed to have is that they were rather laddish and sporty rather than studious so I think perhaps the tutors saw something intellectual there which the teachers and peers may have missed, due to the smokescreen of slightly wayward behaviour. Too often schools seem to assume that being good and prefect like is a pre-requisite or even indicator for Oxbridge, when it isn't really. Always sad when a 'dead cert' misses a place however, at interview or by bogging up the aptitude test.

I seem incapable of ever posting a post which doesn't have a typo in it. One day....

Would those of you with DCs that have had interviews at Imperial mind saying for which subject? DD has applied for Biochemistry but apart from a holding, acknowledgement email hasn’t heard any more. She’s very relaxed about it but I’m starting to get edgy!

I think User I will wait and see if dd gets an offer before I show her your post!

Yippee. DS applied to Imperial for physics with a year abroad. Interview was nearly 3 weeks ago so getting a bit despondent.