Oxbridge Applicants 2019

[evenstrangerthings]

The 2018 Oxbridge Applicants Thread was started at the end of August last year, but with many students now sitting internal school exams rather than public AS exams, many will have Year 12 results in hand and some will be starting to prepare for applications to Oxford or Cambridge University.

Let's support each other in supporting our kids through this process, which may involve extra exams, multi-day interviews and extra application statements.

Do feel free to join the thread, even if your DC is on the fence about making an Oxbridge application. It would also be great to hear from those who have been through the Oxbridge process before!

To those people whose DC are applying this year, when did they start thinking about their application and preparing for it?

I’m sorry to hear about the illness coleoptera, sounds like an extremely stressful time for you.

I think if this had happened to DD, I’d be ‘crossing that bridge’ if it came to it i.e. seeing if she received an invitation to interview. Re DT1, and this is coming from someone with a DS that sounds similar (!) but is a year older, it’s ultimately got to come from them, frustrating as that fact might be. Perhaps a looming deadline might focus the mind?

LAR, DD didn’t decide to have a go at applying for Oxford until July, but starting researching re PS’s and drafting hers early August. She had a lot of background reading to do for other subjects which she wanted to factor in though too.

Coleoptera so sorry to hear about your DT2 - sounds horribly scary. Hope their recovery goes well.

Talking practicalities - if they were feeling well enough to travel, you'd hope that they wouldn't need the wound dressed daily by then, and you should be able to arrange it to be done at a GP surgery in Oxford if necessary.

Anyway, good luck to both your DTs x

LARLARLAND - ds didn't really think about it until he went to Cambridge for their open day in July. He hasn't done anything special to prepare for it.

Thank you for the replies. DS is only in Lower Sixth. He was on the list for Oxbridge candidates, then didn't respond to the email confirming he wanted to stay on the list and has now decided to put his name back on it! I am wondering if this level of indecision is normal!?

I’d say very normal! If he’s in Lower 6th, then compared to some applicants he’s way ahead of the curve if he’s already entertaining the idea. One bonus is that he can start reading some of the texts around his subject that make good fodder for personal statements. A bit harder in October to mention stuff you never really got round to reading, but now really have to if you get called up in December!

LARLAR - my DD's been at Cambridge a year - another who didn't really think she'd want to apply until after she went to their July open day, and she didn't start to seriously think about it until she got her AS results (that already shows her age!)

Preparation- other than doing things which show his engagement with the subject beyond schoolwork - go to the open day; start on PS during next summer hols; get whatever past papers are available for the relevant aptitude test. Not sure there's much else really.

Ds too didn't think about it until after his AS results. He didn't go on any open days. Being the idiot that he is he got the wrong end of the stick and thought you had to be on a low income/first in family to go to university etc etc to attend an open day!

Oxbridge potentials were not identified at school - you had to put yourself forward, and ds would have rather died than do that (chip off the old block). It was only when I stepped in that he thought he might have a go so only got his act into gear in the September.

Sometimes thinking about something for too long makes it a bit stressful - it was all a bit of a last-minute whirlwind for ds.

LARLARLAND my DC tended to think about it as being worth an application after they had their GCSE results, but I don't think that altered anything they did in any way. They just got on with stuff, went to the July Open Day with the school in Y12, and followed the usual time line of personal statement, aptitude tests etc. Really not any different from those not applying for Oxbridge other than making sure they were registered for the additional tests. There was never any hoo ha really.

He has some super curricular stuff under his belt already but that is more due to general interest rather than ticking boxes.

Good!

I suspect that those who set out to tick boxes may well not get very far in the application process. Perhaps I'm naive. Anyhow, mine never read anything or did anything for the sake of the application in itself. My advice would be not to start getting too 'into it', for what it's worth - life is much easier for both of you that way!

I really think that making a big hoo ha out of an application and telling all and sundry (grandparents, neighbours, everyone on FB) is a BIG MISTAKE. The poor candidate is bound to feel terrible pressure and embarrassment/a failure if they don't get in.

I remember this post from a few years back: (I won't link; i'll just cut & paste):

our family...put a team together drawing on every person in our local area (including our MP!) and network to help her. She ended up being very well supported and was offered a place.

The MP ?!!!!??!!

unless the student in question had some specific disadvantages, that's ridiculous.

There are so many things wrong with that statement that I don't even know where to begin.

The flaw in the logic there is the offer is assumed to be at least in part due to this absurd takeover by the family. The fact is that the unfortunate DC in question, with the massively overbearing Mama - and/ or Papa - no doubt got offered a place despite the team input, rather than because of it.

Some people are just plain bonkers.

Irma how awful for the candidate. Maybe I should write to Michael Gove and ask for his support for dd. I think she would melt into the ground with embarrassment.

When I went for interview I remember one of the third years saying to us candidates "How many people do you reckon your mum has told yet? Yes, milkman, just need to get the money, not sure how much milk I'll need because dc has GONE TO INTERVIEW AT OXFORD ".
The immediate response from several people was "she better not!"

I did tell the flower delivery guy why exactly dd was having flowers delivered to her on results day.

I can't echo or re-emphasis enough how important it is to try and keep quiet at this stage. If your dc go to school in an area where very few people get places it's astonishing how many people find out and then start asking, even if you only tell the people who directly ask where they are applying. It's utterly ridiculous.

I don't know what you are supposed to do in response to answering a direct question about where they are applying though.

OhYouBadBadKitten,

Son has just applied for maths at Cambridge. Do you have any advice on interview and STEP preparation?

I don't know what you are supposed to do in response to answering a direct question about where they are applying though.

I don't see anything wrong in answering honestly, maybe with a comment that we're lucky in this country to have so many good unis to choose from . It probably helps if your DC and you would be really happy with some of the other options.

I'm always asked and just say yes DC is applying to Oxford but actually really likes [another uni], which has so far always been true. I agree Errol about the importance of pointing out the merits of the alternatives to the DC, if they haven'y already taken those in. I'm pretty sure DD4 intends to apply and I'm already being asked even though she's only Y12 and hasn't yet decided which course out of about three. Still, people generally only mean well (possibly less so on MN :)).

Ahhh - Goodbye wish all the best to DD - pretty sure she will end up doing well wherever she goes & even though MN - I mean well - Am sure DS would have done well wherever & we have still to see. University is one more step. Not the last one. Not sure if I should do a post but yes University entrance felt like the most important thing ever - now he has got through that, more steps to go. BUT - you can only do one step at a time. I shall ( as I have said before now start writing re grandmothers eggs etc )