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!

@BasiliskStare thanks! That’s useful info - I’ll pass it on to her! I am most worried about interview if they giver her one as she’s undx but most probably has aspergers and so can come across a bit abrupt. She’s predicted 4 A*s so she has the ability but I’m worried she’ll not interview well. Hopefully if she talks about an essay she’s really enjoyed writing that’ll help!!

DD has offers now from all her other choices. I'm marginally concerned she's sold herself a bit short on a couple of choices but she went into a lot of detail when researching the course specifics and these were the ones she felt were her best fit. Her call entirely.

Thank you all for your useful advice, it’s all very helpful as usual! I think she has decided to stick with her application to Oxford and hope for the best, as she prefers Oxford to Warwick.

Bristol have started sending out Law offers, so this would be the first indication of how she has done in the LNAT- fingers crossed.

All uni offers in apart from Cambridge now.

So it's either (hopefully)
Cambridge (A*, A, A) if they do offer a place, with York (A, A, A) as an insurance place.

Or (and more likely)
York as first choice, with the University of Liverpool (A, A, B) as an insurance.

DD most wants the first option.

I'm leaning towards the second because I don't want her to put such high pressure on herself!

I've obviously fully supported her application and it's entirely her choice.

We have no idea what her predicted grades are, as the sixth form college hasn't told her. Don't know if that's usual or not.

In terms of her AS levels, her UMS shows she was high A, A, B (with one aspect of it bringing her down a grade). She is able to resit the not great paper so can hopefully bring up her grades to get the A she needs. They may look at her UMS and discount her before then though.

She's also doing the Welsh Bacc (which prevented taking then dropping a 4th A level) and she should achieve an A grade in that, but I don't think Cambridge counts that in their grades for offers, whereas other universities do.

She is able to resit the not great paper so can hopefully bring up her grades to get the A she needs.

So she is doing modular AS/A levels?

We have no idea what her predicted grades are, as the sixth form college hasn't told her. Don't know if that's usual or not.

I'd have thought it was unusual - how are they supposed to know where is realistic to apply to if they don't have predicted grades? Though at least in your DDs case they've still got AS grades as a guide.

Yes, Aria, she is. :) We were confused when her head of sixth told her she didn't need to declare her AS results when everything is heard on here and read online said she had to. So wondered if it was something different. No. Just weird advice. That he still stands by. But which we ignored.

Her college know she's applying to Oxbridge abd didn't advise her not to which we thought was encouraging. And her AS results were ok. Not sure if the B means instant rejection. Plenty of people on here said not. Yet a sixth form teacher at a lot private school who is the friend of a friendly basically thinks she has no chance.

Atia not Aria

I don't see how anyone who doesn't know her can say she has no chance DrMadelineMaxwell so I wouldn't let that bother you! Dd2 wants ro put Liverpool down as either firm or insurance depending on Cambridge but hasn't got an offer yet!

They were the last to offer out of her choices.
I really liked it there.

She's just logged on to ucas and got an offer. AAB. Lovely accomadation just a bit pricey! She s really excited cos she liked the lecturers and loved the uni.

Dd's been being a bit wobbly with the MAT test coming up. She's pale as anything , but won't admit she's not well too.
She's also got huge amounts of other work-including heaps from single maths which she really doesn't need to practice (I've suggested she teaches dd2 to do it, but she's too conscientious for that!).

As far as I can tell it's about 50/50 whether she'll get an interview or not. She has some of the past MATS where she does really well, and others she does really badly. I suppose at least she won't have the so near yet so far feeling.

Thankfully she's not as set on Oxford as she was, so I think she'll be philosophic about it either way. We were laughing about if she doesn't get the offer then she'll be under less pressure at the result day as she may well accept Southampton which she's really taken with which is AAB which she will get easily. So she can see that advantage anyway.
She does still like Durham, but the distance isn't good, cost is stupidly high and is likely to be A A A offer, which will put a lot of pressure on her.

She says she knows a couple of people who are Cambridge or nothing, and she's a bit worried about them not getting in. More worried than she is about herself!

Good luck to your dd Witchend :)

Thanks, Kitten and thanks for the help you've given too.

You're welcome :)

Wichend, my son is also taking the MAT next week as he applied for Imperial. He has spent a lot of half term doing past papers and has been fairly moody. And we have it all to come again with STEP for Cambridge. Why they can’t all use the same test is beyond me!

wiifit - if it's any consolation, it turns out that STEP really is excellent preparation for a cambridge degree (even if it's awfully stressful)
Good luck to your ds.

Wiifi just to add to it dd is doing 2 different MAT tests because Oxford prefers one and the other places she's applied to prefer the other.
Juts to really add to it, they even are scheduled for the same time so she's got to be in isolation between the two.

So she doesn't know whether to focus on the Oxford one, which is less likely to produce results, or the other one and say if she gets through the Oxford one then it's a bonus.

Holy cow! I didn’t even realise there were two MAT tests. That really is hard. Good luck to her!

witchend - is the other paper the TMUA? I see that's on the same date. She should focus on MAT as long as she's tried a couple of TMUA papers. The TMUA will come naturally with the MAT skills. The TMUA is generally useful for lowering offers, rather than getting offers iyswim.

Yes I think so. She has been focusing on the MAT but was worried it might effect her in the other one. I will let her know what you say, hopefully it will reassure her.

Just catching up after a few days away during which dd had a request to submit work. Obviously not unexpected but the criteria specified mean that the essays she had in mind no longer meet them and she is struggling to find appropriate work to show the relevant skills in either Biology or Maths. She has tried emailling the Admissions office but not been given any flexibility so far. Any thoughts? Situation is not helped by an extended half term next week and a submission deadline the week after.

Hello all - I’m starting to feel nervous for DD about the admissions test on Wednesday! Hopefully DD is not. She has done the 3 practice papers. Trouble is she’s on a school trip until late Tues night which isn’t ideal as she’ll probably come back exhausted ....

I think she can only send in what she has LIZS .Dd didn't realise she needed college signature for extra time in her interview so we shall see if they let her have it despite her form going in late or not.

Thankyou for replying Errolthedragon... we had to decline it! eeK! turned out the interview is tomorrow. This DS has just had eye surgery, so we've all had time off work and school to deal with it.. on top of fact we couldn't be further away in the UK really, so it's a 2 day trip, we just couldn't do it. There was no box on the uni page to explain, just saying they MAY be in touch.. As you said, all his other options are same grades..so york was his insurance. He's predicted A,A A, A so hope to god it goes fine...what of the chances of them coming back with another date do we reckon?
Cambridge entrance on wednesday... hope everyone does well in their admissions tests this week. fingers crossed x