Oxbridge applicants 2018 part 2

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

Hopefully this is in time!

[RaindropsAndSparkles]

Our tree doesn't go up until Friday 15th but I bought the last few presents in Cambridge and wrote all my Christmas cards in its various coffee shops. It was a productive day albeit a nervous one x

[HesMyLobster]

I have been so surprised by how all-consuming the whole process has felt.
I Havent been able to focus on much beyond this week, so yes, operation Christmas is way behind in the lobster house!

DD's 3rd interview this afternoon went "just ok"
So that's one pretty bad, one pretty good and one OK.

No word yet on whether she'll have anything tomorrow.

[HingleMcCringleberry]

Dancing, Queens is an awesome college! High St colleges for the win. Good choice. I hope your DD has a good time getting acquainted with it!

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

well done Raindrops! I’m impressed.

It’s dragging out Lobster isnt it. I’m grateful it was one afternoon and done for dd.

[marmiteloversunite]

We are home! Yay! She seems to have had a mixed bag of experiences so I really don't know what the outcome will be. Just told her that she has had a good try at it and we are very proud of her. Especially as school tried to put her off applying. I feel like I have been in a weird Oxford bubble and need to get back to reality now otherwise Christmas won't be happening.
Also need to spend some time with my younger DD who is feeling a bit neglected!

[RaindropsAndSparkles]

Feel much the same. DS has just tried to rip all her intellectual arguments to pieces over dinner just as she was opening up. Am close to incandescent with rage and She's upset now.

[LadyMacnet]

DS has returned from the Fens and is happy with how things went. But we all know that means nothing! Today there were about 14 engineering applicants being interviewed by his selected college. If that’s the average for each day of the interview period it certainly puts things into perspective; around 140 applicants for about 8 places. Yesterday he had his driving theory test before departing for Cambridge - he got the 🙂 result for that immediately. If only things were as straightforward with Oxbridge!

[marmiteloversunite]

That's sad Raindrops. I am sorry her experience ended like that. I think they are extremely tired and maybe a bit more emotional than usual. My DD is appreciating the fact that she just has coursework to do and then mocks after Xmas. Rather than all of that AND interview prep/reading.

[goodbyestranger]

Dancing DS3 is a student helper at Queen's probably wise not to name the course! (Mine would have been v unhappy if I'd named the college and course at the time).

[Fifthtimelucky]

Marmitelover: I've been thinking of your daughter so was pleased to read your posts. My daughter had interviews at 4 colleges. She only had to play once, but each college's interview involved slightly different practical tests so it was quite a marathon, but obviously worth it in the end. She met up with some of the people she had first met at the choral scholarship auditions so when they subsequently turned up for some choir stuff the week before term started, she said they felt like old friends. Fingers crossed!

[Dancingdreamer]

Hingle - We looked at lots of colleges. She thought she knew which one she wanted before the summer open day and then hated it when she got there. So we ended up going back to the autumn open day with a long list of colleges she was interested in. She thought she had settled on another college then popped into Queens on the way back to the car and she fell in love with it. She really liked the students and the tutors there plus the architecture is stunning.

[Dancingdreamer]

Goodbyestranger - as I just said my DD loved the students she met at Queen's. Maybe she met your DS! What does your DS think of the college?

[itinerant]

Good luck to all the DC interviewing today - and their parents!

[HingleMcCringleberry]

Dancing, the main quad of Queen's is mighty impressive, isn't it? Sorry she hated the other college (I hope it wasn't Univ!) but glad she found the right one!

Raindrops, I'm sorry your son was being a dick to your DD. Brothers - we are officially the worst.

[marmiteloversunite]

Fifth time thank you. It was a long trip and I feel a little jet lagged today!
Whilst they were waiting to be released yesterday all of them were playing cards in the common room and had a ball. I think they had all relaxed by then. She said it was so nice to talk to others about their experiences and to talk to people about music who understood what she was on about. I get lost about 3 words in when she starts talking. Keeping fingers and toes crossed now. She will be very disappointed if it is a no, even though she has four other offers.

[LoniceraJaponica]

DD's friend arrived on Tuesday, and spent all day yesterday doing nothing because his interviews weren't until today and tomorrow. He says that all the other would be students there are from London and seem to know places and people in common. He is from t'north and feels a little bit out of it.

[Dancingdreamer]

Marmite - my friend's DD was told by her school not to apply to Oxford but went ahead anyway. They were even reluctant to allow her to join the Oxbridge prep classes which they were running for the handpicked group. She ended up getting a place when most of the others (including academic scholars) didn't! Schools don't always know everything. Good luck to your DC.

[Dancingdreamer]

Hingle - no it wasn't Univ! It was Christ Church. I think the scale just overawed her when she got there. She loved the people she met but just felt it was too big and that she would get lost there. Hence looking a smaller college like Queen's.

[goodbyestranger]

Dreaming he's very very happy at Queen's. In fact I'll be with him at Queen's in an hour or so to pick his end of term stuff up. It's very beautiful and very friendly and (as a prospective interviewee having a coffee next to me has just said), 'very reasonable' :) Very good luck to your DD, especially if school has been like that.

[goodbyestranger]

That was to Dancing!

[NumberEightyOne]

Can anyone tell me how the process works for students who make open applications?

[HingleMcCringleberry]

Dancing, Christ Church is definitely for a certain type, and not for everyone. It is ludicrously big. I had some tutorials there, so it was wonderful to visit, but I liked being in one of the more comfy colleges.

[Chaotica]

NumberEightyOne - I think the colleges are just allocated when the application is open. There are plenty who don't get enough applicants for all their courses, so they fill them up and spread the open applicants around the rest. The colleges/tutors have no idea who has made an open application or which colleges anyone applied to.

[NumberEightyOne]

Thanks Chaotica. So you make the application then a College would ask you for an interview at the same time as everybody else?
I only ask because so many people don't get the College they apply to and everybody says you end up loving your College. I also think that for an applicant with several fairly different aspects to their application (a specific learning difficulty, time spent as a young carer and very good at a sport that the University values very highly) that person may stand a better chance with an open application?

[anowlmostfoul]

So my DD had an interview (Biology) at Christ Church college yesterday which she felt wasn't great.

She's just had a much better interview at Wadham College and she says the college and people were much friendlier and seemed to make adjustments for her ASD which Christ Church didn't. She has a really good feeling about Wadham - but will she have less of a chance of an offer with them because she actually applied for Christ Church?

She feels it's a miracle she got an interview at all - we are a very low income family from a deprived area in the North West and she has significant social difficulties due to her ASD. It would mean so much for her to get a place at Oxford, but she is scared to get her hopes up.