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!

What on earth are colleges "good for state school pupils"?! I think Oxbridge would have a fit if they thought that sort of "information" was being bandied about.

Don't take any notice of that. The only one ds actively avoided (but you can't anyway with pooling system) was St Edmund Hall which is a bit of a magnet apparently for hoorays with food fights and wotnot.

My DD has just finished her first year studying medicine at Catz Oxford, so I know how you and your DC are all feeling right now and am happy to help as best I can!

There are no colleges which pay less attention to A than others, how much they matter is simply subject dependent. Contextualisation and selection for interview using A is done centrally by the department before interview for the subjects that specify that A* are used for selection, and then the colleges pick based mostly on interview, and a bit on test scores

In terms of “state school colleges”, please don’t get your information on this from sources like mumsnet, which is usually anecdotal, based on opinions of their DC at interview. There are actual statistics on this, which puts Mansfield top for state school/ BME admissions, and Univ fairly low. Colleges don’t discriminate for or against private school applicants, and once your DC are at Oxbridge their educational background doesn’t matter at all.

DDs tutor has said that the time when they would “discriminate” would be for two completely identical applicants on paper and at interview, with one from a state school and one from a private school. In this instance, they would choose the state school applicant as they have had fewer privileges in education. However, this is completely anecdotal of course!

They don't need to be all rounders. If they really love their subject and they are very very good at it, then that stands them in good stead,

sorry, that was for coleoptera.

Thanks so much GfordMum101 really helpful!

So much to unpack here! AlwaysTeaTime I’m glad you were able to unearth some stats, because I’m a Univ alum, and God knows I love her dearly, but I would have never accused the place of being ‘pro-state achool’, or if it was, no one told admissions!

Univ is great because, with the best will in the world, it doesn’t have an overriding strong identity eg St Edmund Hall rugger buggers, or Balliol super leftie, or Jesus College Welsh. It’s just a very amiable place where people can get on without having to subscribe to any particular clique should they not wish to.

GfordMum101 I am sorry your DC didn’t gel with the interviewing tutor, but Magdalen is a kickass college (and is still one of the high street gang!) so things worked out.

Coleoptera, I don’t know how much has changed since I applied 17 years ago, but my GCSEs, were fairly indifferent (4 A, 4 A’s and a B) and I went to Tonbridge (by no means a leading public school academically, but still with high quality teaching) so if we’re talking context, I was pretty substandard compared to all the people on subject open days with 11, 12, 13 A at GCSE. I was still offered an interview, and awarded a place. Your DCs’ school’s position absolutely infuriates me - unless a student got all Bs, Cs, Ds at GCSE (and therefore is likely to struggle at higher levels), I don’t see why a school wouldn’t support them applying. ‘They’ll not get a look in’? Get to fuck.

On a related note, Oxbridge is not looking for all rounders. If you’ve not had a chance, look through the 2018 Oxbridge thread, as it’s brought up a few times. They are looking for people passionate about their subject. The English tutor does not care one iota about a student’s maths ability, or if they can speak foreign languages.

Hi my dd is only in year 11 but has been selected by her school as one of 10 to do an Oxford-based summer school for 3 days including a visit to it. She is trying out DT as a subject there, she seems consistently interested so we are thinking ?engineering. She is capable of getting 7s (lower As) in maths without much stress, and maybe better if she works hard, but doesn’t love maths, so hoping this will inspire her. She likes design aspects but really there’s no subjects that are calling to her for A level except French at the moment as just she got a Year award and badge and was really chuffed.

Anyway, hope you don’t mind me asking some stupid questions? What is HAT/MAT (assume it’s aptitude test) is it just for Oxbridge and how do you arrange to take it?

Good luck in your journey chaps and thanks for advice seasoned parents.!

One of DD's friends only achieved 1 A* at GCSE, but aced his HAT and interviews, and has an offer for Oxford. His enthusiasm for history clearly showed in his application.

Au79 here is a link to the Oxford engineering page: www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses-listing/engineering-science?wssl=1

A* needed for Maths and/or Physics. If you think she has the aptitude to get there for A Level, fabulous. Speaking for myself, it’s pretty tough to get good grades at stuff you don’t care so much about (necessity notwithstanding). If you think it’s just a case of applying herself, great, but would hate for her to have a two year uphill battle. As you say, hopefully the course gives her the boost she needs!

Their school has said that because of contextual offers working against them, they'll not get a look in but can give it a try if they want to. They're not all-rounders - just very good at and obsessed with the subjects they want to study.

The school is advising you badly.

Academic achievement remains central to all admissions decisions in Oxford and Cambridge. Contextual offers are applicable to a relatively small group of students.

Welcome @Au79 😊

The HAT is the History Aptitude Test
The MAT is the Maths Admissions Test

Engineering students would need to take the PAT which is the Physics Aptitude Test which has questions on maths and physics.

These exams are taken by all applicants, usually around winter half term, a few weeks after the UCAS application is submitted and can be applied for online and sat at school.

This link shows which tests are required (if any) for each subject www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/tests?wssl=1

@Atreus and all - I requested my previous posts to be removed, as re-reading them, there was some stuff there that was too personal, and I felt a bit twitched that my daughter could be identified. I probably should have replied by direct message. Also, a couple of my comments gave other posters cause for concern. MN kindly removed them overnight, but I am still here, and will answer any questions on Oxford Magdalen or BioMedical Sciences.

Just joining this thread. DD is planning on applying for English at Oxford. Official predicted grades don't come out until September, but she's just aced her end of Y12 exams with A/A* in all three subjects, so no worries there.

She was invited to the state schools' open day in the English Faculty back in February; hadn't even considered Oxford at that point, but totally fell in love. We went back on one of the June open days to look at more colleges and now she's torn between LMH, St Hugh's and Worcester - any help from anyone with knowledge of those three colleges would be greatly appreciated!

Her main issue is that she totally lacks confidence in herself, despite outstanding results, and has days where she's convinced she stands no chance of getting in. I just keep telling her that she's guaranteed not to get in if she doesn't apply, whereas if she does apply she stands as much chance as anyone else!

Thanks chaps!

I agree about needing to enjoy your subjects a lot, to make a top grade more attainable, but failing that I think some people are able to suck it up if they have a higher goal- dd1 just did that with Chemistry A level in order to get into Vet Med (awaiting results but was predicted A or A* in the end). Plus, she found some aspects of she DID like as it got more complex/interesting and built on previous work.

Dd2 though doesn’t have that sort of goal in mind, yet, though she is interested in going to a “top” uni such as Oxbridge. She likes Physics better than maths. I think now she is going to see what shakes out as she goes through her final GCSE year, and what final grades she gets. She is an all rounder so maybe would be better off somewhere else in the end. Or with a different subject- I told her, do what you enjoy and find doable, if possible at a top place for that subject(s), and you will be happier and better off in the long run. She is extremely good at English but not enjoying it recently, and enjoys RS and classical Greek, PE, finds biol and chem easy (we are all scientists in this house). Very good at doing essays and the DT teacher loves her, says she is great at planning and completing long term big projects. Is interested in taking Economics at A level as well.

I and DH want her to consider other sixth forms this autumn and was thinking of pitching IB to her if she still can’t happily narrow down her subjects more.

Any views on IB for Oxbridge entry? Thumbs up or down?

SpiralArchitect we have just been through a very gruelling process with DD1 not Oxbridge but Vet Med school which has interviews, very heavy work experience reqs etc so I feel like I know a little about heavy pressures on young shoulders. There have been a lot of ups and downs, mainly downs with blows to confidence, worries about not being up to scratch no matter what anyone says, etc. I think it may be more of a girl imposter syndrome thing, though I’m sure not exclusive to females.

I don’t know what to suggest other than try to keep busy and have some enjoyable life outside of studies. For us, music has been good and a sport. We have some tentative plans for a gap year, plan B, in hopes that if it comes to that, it won’t seem like utter doom at age 17! She’s not even 18 when she gets these life-changing results.

I can’t offer any help just commiseration

SpiralArchitect, Worcester has lovely grounds, a nice bar, is close to the train station, and is very near two of the main clubs in Oxford city centre. LMH I’m not very familiar with, except it’s a very striking red brick building, and is right next to the University Parks, which is handy. I had an interview at St Hugh’s, it’s very lovely, again it has some nice grounds, but, and this sounds ridiculous to say when looking at a map, it is relatively far out from the city centre, which can have a slight impact if you’ve got lectures in the Exam Schools.

Spiral - 3 lovely colleges. I suggest looking at application rates for the courses you are interested in for each college. Worcester is horribly oversubscribed for lots of subjects so you have a higher risk of being pooled to somewhere you like less. Whereas St Hugh’s is less popular so takes a lot of open applicants and pooled candidates and therefore you have more chance that the college will keep you if you are good enough. Also look at how many years accommodation they offer (I think these 3 offer accommodation for all 3 years but do check) as it is very expensive to find private accommodation in Oxford.

Au79 DD definitely has imposter syndrome - she is convinced, despite all evidence to the contrary, that she's not intelligent enough for Oxford and only gets good results because she works hard. We are working on that!

Hingle Thanks for the info. I'm pretty sure that all English lectures are in the department and it's about 15 mins walk from St Hugh's, so not too bad. DD was swayed a little by the English student who showed us round there saying that there are only four English single Hons students in his year and that St Hugh's English tutors are very chilled! But then the food at LMH (we went there for lunch) was AMAZING, and the grounds are gorgeous, and it's a lovely walk across the parks to the English Faculty...

Dancing I think Worcester is her least favourite of the three, but the other two are roughly equal. They all do offer accommodation for all three years. It's a big decision...

@Coleoptera The admissions stats for History at Oxford show GCSEs have a 30% weighting vs a 70% weighting for the HAT at the shortlisting stage and the average number of A stars was 7.96 for placed candidates:

https://www.merton.ox.ac.uk/sites/merton.ox.ac.uk/files/attachments/InformationforrHistoryApplicantss2017.pdf

That makes sense evenstrangerthings. DD's friend didn't even get an A in history at GCSE. He achieved 1 A (in English literature), a few As and a few Bs. But his A level predictiions are 3As, which I am confident he will achieve (he has grown up a lot since GCSEs). He is also very articulate and aced his interviews and HAT.

He is passionate about history though. I think he is so lucky to know what he wants to do, and will be studying his hobby at university.

DD, on the other hand, doesn't know what she wants to do and is taking a year out to decide, rather than get herself into debt on a course she is indifferent about.

Cambridge also seems to have 3 applicants per place and Oxford 4 applicants per place for History. (Maths (my DS's chosen course has 7 applicants per place at Oxford)

Your DC should definitely go for it unless there are 5 other university choices she'd much prefer.

Lies, damned lies and statistics.... You need to treat these admissions statistics with caution. For example, more people applying doesn't infer that it's harder to get in to a particular course. That depends entirely on the quality of applicant.

Some colleges are much keener on the A* as a cur off measure than others. I've often seen a conflation of subjects on these threads, so that entrance procedures are confused across disciplines (this is for Oxford), whereas in fact admissions vary hugely. There's also a large degree of discretion possessed by tutors in certain subjects and much less in others. So feedback from College A in a more fluid subject doesn't necessarily co-incide with the way things are decided at College B. I think the best rule is not to think too much about the ins and outs, provided you're clearly clever, and interested in your subject, and like the idea of tutorial teaching.