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!

Maybe try the department admissions email?
www.dur.ac.uk/english.studies/contact/

I'd steer clear of that Errol, a) because the chances are at Durham that the application hasn't yet been forwarded to the department (it takes ages to go through central admissions) so they wouldn't know anyway and b) it's fairly anonymous to e-mail or ring central admissions whereas going through to the department is a bit more pushy.

You're probably right, at this stage it's probably just admin wheels grinding slow and somewhat erratically.

Last year my dc (Cambridge) got offer via post. That's good to know, thank you .

Two years ago, DD didn't get an offer through the post on the relevant morning, so went to school downcast because that's how the Cambridge college she'd applied to sent them out at the time. But later in the day she got an offer by email from the college who'd fished her out of the pool.

Just checked with my DD her acknowledgment from Durham came from central admissions and came within 3 days of sending in her UCAS form. I’d say it was worth ringing centra admissions and checking that they’ve got it.

Cambridge interview date has come through (maths). Not sure if it was through UCAS or email.

Ooh exciting! First interview invitation! Well done

Did he do the senior maths challenge this week? What did he think? (Question also applies to the other maths candidates!)

Ds and I looked at 'his' college website a while ago, they send out offers and no thankyous from 15th I seem to recall.

He did the maths challenge. Was surprised by it - as in he did not know it was coming at all.

Said the questions were really good. I agree and have been through the paper with him. He didn't get them all right, probably 20+. Neither of us could do the last question.

Do you have an idea when the results get back?

Has he not done it before? Or done it before but forgotten about it?

I can never remember quite when the results come back, a couple of weeks I think - it's not long because the next round is on the 30th. If he got around 20 or so right he should get onto the Kangaroo round, possibly BMO1 depending on what the marks are like this year.

The last question was hard - ds literally ended up guessing it by measuring (estimating) lines with his pen, but he did write out a proper solution when he got home!

He got the one about which number is NOT a multiple of 5 wrong by reading it as which one IS a multiple of 5! And said he spent far too long wondering what the prime factors of 2018 might be 😂

It's amazing what stress does to brains.

Excellent Frendo :) are you happy to say which college?

Better not as numbers are so small. All to play for.

Well done to TheFrendo's son for getting the Cambridge offer for interview. We are waiting on maths for Cambridge too. However, it must be a different college as they have said they don't send them out until the 15-24th.

Understood Frendo, I'm the same with dds college. I'm always happy to talk via pm in case it's useful.

Well done to your DS @Thefrendo - I’m getting more anxious by the day for DD! She has her second driving test next week too!! Thank goodness this week is extra busy with parents evening for 4 of the other children and a parent lunch at Primary school!!

Does anyone know roughly what proportion of Cambridge maths applicants get offered an interview. I was under the impression it was quite high, like 3/4. Am I way off?

I don't know, but looking at the ratio of applicants per offer (about 3:1 last year, a bit higher in previous year) that sounds about right.

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

@TheFrendo I’ll ask DD when she comes home. She had loads of stats for all the different colleges at Cambs and Oxford. For her course (Theology & Religion at Oxford) they interview a high proportion - I think because they don’t sit an entrance exam.

I might be too early (or possibly too late!) to this thread, but lots of helpful information, thank you.

My daughter is currently doing her first year of A-levels. She received ten 9's at GCSE and one 8 and is the highest scorer in her college. She went to a state school and is in a very normal local college. but they are brilliant at pointing her in the right direction as I feel completely in the dark about the process of University application at her advanced level.

She is doing double maths, physics and computer science and is scoring well in her tests so far.

She wants to attend Cambridge to do a maths or computer science degree with a view towards working in cyber security.

She will be visiting Cambridge as part of an overnight stay and a special dinner to see how she enjoys it. This is aimed at State school pupils from lower socio economic backgrounds who have the potential to attend. She is very lucky to have been chosen for this trip as only 2 from each college get to attend each year.

Overall, I am a single parent who is a little overwhelmed by this. I want her to achieve the very best she can and to be fair to her, she is not fazed by it at all. I guess I am just looking for support from parents who are in the same boat and who can help me to keep up to date with what's expected as the months roll on.

rememberatime, if your dd is interested in cyber security has she looked at GCHQs opportunities? They run some scholarships and summer school type things I seem to recall.

I think cambridge maths interviews are at about 3/4 of applicants.

Yes, CyberFirst run loads of courses plus offer sponsorship through university etc - www.cyberfirst.ncsc.gov.uk

She could also look at UNIQ and the Sutton Trust Summer Schools.

Also, just keep reading here - I started reading the sixth form/uni stuff here (not all of it!) from about the summer of my eldest's GCSEs and it was really useful to just start to get a feel for what was available (all those three things listed above I heard about here, not through school), how finance worked, etc.

I second the GCHQ courses. My ds (who has applied for maths at Cambridge) did a number of them. They were excellent. And free! They are run through the Small Piece Trust (which incidentally does other cyber security courses too). GCHQ is ploughing money into training up the next generation of cyber security workers so there is a lot on offer.

This is a good place to start - www.joincyberdiscovery.com It has juts started so get in quick. It is a free online programme which a student works through. If they do well, they progress to the next stage. The top 1% over the school year get invited to a free weekend (Various locations) called Cyber Elite which is great fun according to my ds.

Small Piece courses are here: www.smallpeicetrust.org.uk but it is probably too early for the summer cyber security stuff.

As I understand it, Cambridge interview more people than Oxford as there's largely not the extra weeding out process of the admission tests?

Thank you for all the advice. I'll pass these on to my daughter.

My DD did a Smallpeice (it really is spelled that way!) summer school involving GCHQ and Qinetic, I think that was summer before yr 11 but they probably do things for various age groups. We joked at the time that these events are probably a combination of screening who they might want to hire and who they need to keep a careful eye on.