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!

Dd seems to be aware it would be her id pic - ex pupils now at Oxbridge visited earlier this term to pass on tips. If the photo uploaded, can we assume the size is ok? 

Possibly not quite the same but certainly for student ID etc Ds had a passport photo type thing taken and sent them off hard copy.

SAQ has gone in ....

SAQ prepped but unsure of category of A levels. I know England's have changed to linear but not sure if Wales ones have too.

She did all her AS's this summer, didn't she? I remember asking you about them. So is she just doing more stuff next year, or will she have exams on everything?

She must have the exam board details to check?

She did have AS results this summer, but then her head of sixth muddied the waters by declaring them not needed on her UCAS application, which made us wonder what was going on.

She has declared her results on her application after all, in case anyone was wondering.

She has been told that her AS results are worth 40% of her A level, so I'm pretty sure they aren't the linear qualification.

Update from me/us:

DD2's SAQ went in yesterday. Most of the trauma was trying to shrink the size of her photo, but good old Google sorted that. She now has to print off & sign something for her chosen college and send it back to them by 15th November, so hopes to do that this week (half term). We've planned a couple of treats for this week, but she wants to spend most of her time preparing for the NSAA.

DD has an interesting half term ahead.

The pre interview test on Hallowe'en.
And her driving test on 2nd Nov.

Dd too has yet to be asked for submitted work. She also doesn't pretest unless invited for interview, so at least we avoid next week's stress. One of her offers has invited her to interview for an unconditional place.

Coleoptera - I was clearing out some stuff Ds brought home after graduating ( Oxford ) - has to be done we have a small house and no loft. Anyway I came across a single sheet of A4 from the Oxford college where he had his interview. I have binned it now , but I do remember it said , we do not intend this interview to catch you out and if we ask you something you simply know nothing about , just say. It did also say they were looking for reading beyond the strict confines of 6th form syllabus, and intended it to be some approximation to the way they would conduct a tutorial. ( I may be wrong - others will say better ) Anyway , I am sure you know all this but just to say the note was nice. I suspect the entrance tests will not feature gunpowder treason and plot in any large degree Good luck

& also congratulations to those with offers already

Hello, I am not too active commenting here, but read you all with interest. My DD has applied for Biology at Oxford. She has no offers yet and is really anxious about this. I was wondering, have any of your DD heard from UCL or Imperial yet? Are there any other Biology applicants here? Do you have experience with UCL and ICL and do you think these unis might wait until Jan deadline before sending out offers?

Not biology but DS's UCL offer was after Oxford. I would not panic

Thanks Basilisk! That is what I thought too! I looked on Imperial’s site and they say that they will release the offers after 15th Jan so it is fair for all, which makes sense.

Exeter also late , King's early as I recall. No experience of Imperial but Ds got a short sharp "no" from LSE - I would not worry to much about waiting for decisions (easy to say I know when not your own DC's year)

She has also put down York but will probably not go for it! Has not heard from them either which is strange as some people from her school have offers ( different subjects though). It is such a stressful year! You just keep waiting and waiting and hope for the best in the end!

DD attended a Seren (Welsh MAT initiative to encourage more students into RG and higher profile universities) event tonight where Sandy Mills from Cambridge spoke to them about the interview process. He stressed, again, that they aren't aiming to catch the interviewees out, but instead to challenge their thinking. That it's ok to say you don't know, or to admit to changing your mind as long as they back it up with what you are thinking. And they watched a few interviews to analyse what made a good interview.

DD has heard from some of her uni choices.

York asked for 3 x As. Expected.
Nottingham asked for the same. She prefers York so that's Notts out of the equation if they ask for the same tarriff.
Bangor is her non RG, lower choice. They were impressive at open day and she liked their course, but she does hope to go to other places over them and they are her fifth choice. They have asked for 2 As, told her unconditional if firmed, then backed that up with the offer of a £3.5k bursary for the first year if she firms them and then gets her As.

Waiting on the University of Liverpool.
And Cambridge of course.

PuzzledMum DS4 got a UCL Biology offer before Christmas, but not this early.

Goodbyestranger - thanks, that is reassuring. Where did he go in the end, if you do not mind me asking and could you share how he likes the course?

Kings offered yesterday for my son (someone mentioned Kings being early). He applied for Maths. Offer was AAA or AAB (A and A must be maths and further maths). He already had an offer from Queen Mary's (Russel Group, but lowest ranked on his list) which was AAB. York have invited him to interview and said he is guaranteed an offer but they may lower it if he attends.

He is waiting on Cambridge (I think they offer interviews from November) and Imperial. He is sitting the MAT for Imperial next week and they only offer once those results are in. They do not interview for Maths - it is entirely down to how well he does on the MAT (plus his predicted grades which were all A*).

Wiifitmama - good luck to your son! My DD did not apply to Kings nor QMUL. I looked on ICL's website and there it specifically mentions that they will be giving out the offers after the deadline in Jan,in order to be fair to all applicants.

Well done with reference to the Kings offer.

Keble requested the additional information required to be submitted for her chosen course yesterday, which is exactly the date suggested on their admissions page.

All very clear regarding how to submit etc.

My son went to the Oxford Pathways event today.

When they were introducing themselves to the group, they were asked by the admissions tutors which pronoun they identified with!!!!!

Hi all, I’m a bit late joining this thread but it’s it has been interesting reading through the recent posts. I was wandering whether you all could give me some advice regarding my DD please?

My DD has applied to study Law at Oxford, but is having doubts about her choice and is considering substituting the choice for Warwick University. She is worried about the workload and pressures of Oxford, and whether she would gain an enjoyable University experience, as she has an idea of Oxford being purely about the academics, and a lack of time for social activities and extra-curriculars.

However, she realises what an opportunity it is to potentially be offered a place to study at Oxford, and is aware of everything else that come with a Law degree from Oxford. She does wish to go on to be a lawyer at a top firm in the future. She loved Oxford as a city and of course the gorgeous building and college system. The course and methods of assessments however she was not as keen on when compared to other universities.

Also she wasn’t sure whether the LNAT went well, and is already applying to Bristol so that’s two choices which use the LNAT, and already has offers for one other Russel group and two non-Russel group universities, so no other top choices really aside from Bristol/Oxford. She would most likely receive an offer from Warwick, a highly reputable uni for Law, or stick with Oxford and hope for the best. She doesn’t want to substitute any other of her choices.

Thanks for reading my long post- very confused DD (and me!) at the moment so any advice would be appreciated!

Welcome questioner123 - I cant speak to the ins and outs of swapping one uni for another in UCAS, except to say if she really wanted to go to Warwick, why not stick it on the UCAS the first time around?

Oxford is not purely about the academics, and there is plenty of time for social activities and extra-curriculars. You just have to manage your time. Lawyers have their prelims in the second term of first year, so that’s a bit brutal, but it means they have two summer terms without exams in Oxford, so that’s pretty awesome.

I can’t guarantee her an enjoyable experience at Oxford - but then neither could I do so for any other university. If she’s worried about workload, then yeah, it’s considerable, but certainly manageable: Oxford’s not full of people sitting in libraries for 18 hours a day on the brink of mental collapse. As for the pressure, it’s largely internal, and seeing how your peers are getting on.

My view would always be that if you’re capable, you should apply for Oxbridge. Clearly there are people who feel they would not benefit from the tutorial system, but absent any misgivings on that, I’d go for it. Worrying about the workload shouldn’t be one of the main concerns, as I feel you inevitably raise your game to cope.