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!

Errol I do agree but just know DS knew one person who got an offer and didn't make it. On the whole most of his cohort who were offered places made the grades to get the place. That wasn't the worst bit. It was more the interview and aptitude tests ( but I speak of 4 years ago and Oxford) - most who got through those got the grades. I cannot speak of STEP because I have never done it nor had a DC who has done it. But yes it sounds scary

I would just say though , and seriously . Ds has friends at other universities and they love where they are. Of course, if your aspiration is Oxford or Cambridge , yes of course , but really really there are other universities which are just great ( No shit Sherlock) and they will do very well. Could you have told my DS that at the time of his Oxford application , I suspect not. I think now he is on the other side of it he has little more perspective.

But again Ds who I think has a wise head on young shoulders , said , the only way I won't get an place at Oxford is not to apply for a place at Oxford.

He is now doing a post graduate qualification and there are those from very many places . It's ( Oxbridge) one step on the road. I think it is an important one btw. But one. Great and really great to get it , but it doesn't ruin your life if you don't. Just give it your best shot & so many do well from other universities. What Would say is give 2 or 3rd choice consideration. So many good universities.

Is that too trite a comment ?

Yeah, you have to keep the doublethink going for a lot longer. All the best to your ds Little

I suppose I don't think an unconditional should be allowed to be a spanner. It's a lovely bonus if it's somewhere you want. I would be concerned that you'd end up adding to the drop-out stats if you went somewhere you weren't sure about. I think we're in agreement

One of my dd's applied but didn't get an offer. She was very happy where she went to university and ended up with her ideal job. She is now in the position to encourage kids from an under represented background to go to university so the whole experience was very useful.

Never wasted really.

Not trite Basilisk. I'm very glad that ds fell in love with Manchester before deciding to also apply to Cambridge.

Atia it's her third choice, and we haven't even visited it yet! The June open day clashed with her second choice, so we won't be going until later this month after the Oxbridge UCAS deadline. It was a bit of a risk really, but she wanted another RG and liked the sound of the course...we will see how it goes.

Well , Little there you go. Sometimes things just work out how they should.

Thanks Atia my BIL went to Manchester - in financial and other ways I reckon he has done as well as anyone. His daughter ( from abroad) has a very achievable offer from Exeter. I suspect she will do well.

I cannot pretend that my son did not want his place at Oxford , & it's lovely and he has loved it and it has helped , but had he gone to his 2nd choice , I suspect he would have done just as well and enjoyed it just as much. It's just quite intense in that application period. Some years on , it doesn't feel so important ( or at least going somewhere else would have been just fine )

We are fine with whatever stage of the process DD gets to. Or more importantly, DD is... this isn't a journey we imagined we would travel, so it all adds to experience. And to be honest, she's applying because of her experience at UNIQ, how much she loved that week, and she did all of that from her own initiative, I didn't even read her application statement etc, she just picked up on a forwarded email from the head of sixth form and did the rest herself. I feel if she's ultimately successful, it will be because she made that initial choice to have a go.

DD liked all her university choices, she'd get stuck in wherever she goes, shes's also has an offer (not unconditional, well done!).

Having said that, this is our first and only experience.

Dd knows the deadlines and type of work required for submission to the next stage, she may email DS (the grammar pedant) to check things over. I shall leave her to it I think. But she's the sort you can leave to it to be fair.

*experience for the Oxbridge application process, DS started Lancaster last week.

Brief sigh of relief here as DD got her UCAS form in. Her first choice is Oxford in the end, and after much pondering she's applied to my and DH's old college. I know it's a lottery and she is not the most dedicated student, to say the least...

I can type from the viewpoint of a parent of a dc who went through the STEP system. If I'm totally honest, it is horrid. So much work goes into those exams and waiting for dd to open those results the night before a levels was awful.

But I guess if you see them as good training to become a decent mathematician, then even if they don't pass, it will stand them in good stead. It's also I think much better to shoot for what you really want, than always wonder. There will be so many mathematicians who wish they had tried. I wonder how many cautious but excellent mathematicians cambridge miss out on.

There are pluses for going through the Oxbridge experience despite a negative outcome. For those who make the interview selection at Oxford, there is the experience of 2 to 3 nights free in a nice college. Generally that is a positive, sociable even if intense time and well deserved for getting to that stage.
I think that Oxbridge interviews themselves provide useful if not necessarily pleasant experience that stand in good stead for future intense interviews and oral exams. And of course although rejection can feel personal and often arbitrary there is always a gain from extra subject material learnt in preparation and testing resilience.

For those last minute deciders, I’d just like to put a plug in for St John’s Oxford. My husband studied there, my son, and now my daughter is.

It is a terrifically wealthy college, and so can afford to be very generous. Accommodation is nice, with some superb finalist rooms. Location wise, it is central for both sciences and arts, yet feels a tad more urban. It is set in around 15 acres; enormous gardens.

It has a high number of state school students, if that is a consideration.

Yes, it is rather academic, meaning that those who get in, tend to be slightly more intelligent/hard working than some other colleges. This year, St John’s finished 1st on the Norrington Table.

Any questions at all about St John’s are welcomed!

ktreplo I’n glad you mentioned St John’s is super academic - as last minute decisions go, while it’s not quite shooting the moon, it is definitely aiming high, rather than rolling the dice on an application. Not saying people shouldn’t go for it, at all, but if you’re only just considering Oxford now, I can only admire the confidence!

Ktreplo thank you for your insight about St John’s. We did like it but DD applied to Christ Church, which was her original first choice. I would really appreciate some more information on CC, if any one has any views. There seem to be many conflicting views in the forums on it.

But I guess if you see them as good training to become a decent mathematician, then even if they don't pass, it will stand them in good stead.

Yes - that is the way ds is approaching it. He is over the moon with his other offers anyway.

Ch Ch has the reputation of being terribly public school. When I was there I knew a lot of people there but almost none fitting that perception.
Dd1 was quite keen, and I did encourage her, but she decided elsewhere in the end.
The children did love the time we were in Oxford and I flashed my old matric card at the proctors there and we got waved through the gates. They were particularly smug at seeing the tourists behind being stopped. The proctors are really lovely and get to recognise the students. There was one who used to send me a Christmas card, and I took dd1 to see him when she was a baby and he was thrilled. (didn't go to Ch Ch but walked through a lot)

It's a lovely building (although can be overrun with tourists, especially French schools who think the ideal place to have their lunch is sitting next to the sign that says "Quiet please: Library" ,) offers all years accommodation-last year often is in the Liddell building down Iffley Road, which is nice, but the rest is on site.
However they have not yet been forgiven for pinching some of Corpus' grounds. The story goes it was gambling cards between the deans back in the 18th century. However I'll note that the president of the JCR refused to consider a return match in the 1990s. Disgraceful!

I didn't apply for St John's because I was told it was academic and assumed I wouldn't stand a chance. They are rich, and pass it on-things like the book grant was they paid for the first £30 and then half of the rest, whereas my (still generous college) it was you paid the first £30 and they'd pay half the rest.

FWIW (which may not be much!) My impression is that the Cambridge parallel to the oxford johns would be Trinity - very academic and super rich. OTOH DDs impression of the Cambridge johns is that it has somewhat more than its share of superior public schoolboys... don't know if that's accurate or fair, she may have encountered an unfortunate sample!

St John's (Oxford) isn't regarded as public school at all. Dh was there (came from comprehensive) and I can't think of any I came across that were public school.

Hello all - I would like to introduce myself and join this thread. My daughter has applied to Cambridge for HSPS. For many years her dream was to study Maths at Trinity, but since starting Sixth Form College and starting new A levels (she had done Maths A level early) she has become more interested in Politics and Social Sciences and stopped the Maths at AS Further Maths. This was a disappointment in a way to begin with as Maths had always been her ‘thing’, but I am very proud of her for changing course and actively researching Politics options. The HSPS course looks fantastic. Her second choice is Bath for Politics with Economics and she has had an offer from them so is very pleased with that. I have been looking at the Oxbridge 2018 thread with interest. It looked so supportive so I’m glad to find this. I think I remember @OhYouBadBadKitten from threads a few years back re daughters and Maths. I haven’t been on for a long time, but a car crash and lots of time of work has seen me spending more time on social media!!

Off work!!

Re Christ Church I have a DC there. It has beautiful architecture, excellent accommodation, decent food, generous assistance for students as well as having a very international student body. My impression is that the 'Brideshead' image is very much outdated.

The students seem to like to party - whether more than other colleges I'm not sure. The college seems very supportive of its students. I hope that helps.

Having just returned from a walk down near Ch Ch, I can confirm that the tourists ruin the place. I know some very smug people who went there, but of course, you get all sorts everywhere. It does seem to be a more divided mix of the brides head sort, and then clever state schoolers taken to balance things out. I've not noticed it to be quite so obvious elsewhere.

DD gets £350 a year book grant from St John's, in today's figures .

I have a couple of probably daft questions that some of you may have answers to...

Any DC going for maths at Cambridge are likely sitting the MAT for their other options too. It looks like there are different questions you should answer depending on what subject you're applying for (e.g. maths or maths with computer science). What should they do if they are applying for slightly different courses at the different unis?

The SAQ for Cambridge asks for extra info about topics covered within each A level but I don't think it is clear whether further maths topics should be listed separately from maths ones. There's another bit of the form where it says treat them as the same subject.

Thank you!

Thank you all very much for all the ChCh info. All sounds good to me. I doubt DD will be put off by public school presence or brideshead image, as she has experience with these and it does not bother her at all. My concern were the tourists, but she said she would not mind them. There is no guarantee she’ll get a place there anyway, so I advised her not to set her heart on it.

The SAQ for Cambridge asks for extra info about topics covered within each A level but I don't think it is clear whether further maths topics should be listed separately from maths ones. There's another bit of the form where it says treat them as the same subject.

Unless things have changed this year (is this the first year post-reforms for maths?), you don't know which of the non core modules is going to end up counting towards which - the exam boards divvy up the modules between the two after marking to maximise the grades. If (as is quite likely for would-be Cambridge students doing both) they're self teaching any extra modules, those should go in the list too, I assume. (my engineer DD did M3 herself and that ended up as one of the modules which counted towards FM with something else being discarded as it were).

So, I think that will be why it says to treat them as the same subject.