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!

Lonicers down in our neck of the woods students at the local comp very very rarely get A*/A so those results you quoted would be top end (depending on how many Bs were in the mix I guess).

Teachers will only ever submit work graded A* really, but all essays have to be (or rather are supposed to be) written as part of the normal A level course, so there's no room really for flights of fancy - just solid, ticking the box type of stuff. No doubt some schools bend the rules but ours doesn't and it's irritating if some do. I don't think the written work will ever do more than suggest an applicant is seriously solid. The purpose of it is more as a starter for ten at interview but I don't think any tutor will ever regard an A level piece as 'ace', simply because of the limited scope.

There seems to be a lot of different usages of 'contextual' which I think leads to a bit of confusion on these threads.

Sorry - Lonicera not Lonicers.

The school only ever has one or two successful Oxbridge applicants. They got four into Oxbridge one year, and it made front page of the local paper.

This year's A levels results were spectacularly good though, with 45% of students gaining A/A*. I think they had a particularly bright cohort.

You probably think I am over invested, but the BF spends so much time at our house it is almost like having 2 DC.

I don't think you're over invested in the least Lonicera. I've just spent a week with my own 'extra DC' (as well as my proper DC) in Florence :) Anyhow, I hope he's a bit cheerier now.

Without the benefit of AS now, is it worth taking a gap year and applying with A level results if GCSEs are not as good?

The plus side of applying post A level is that you do not spend ages faffing around with the Oxbridge application - perfecting PS, preparing written work, looking at aptitude tests and attending interviews etc and then weeks agonising about whether you have actually got the grades post exams.

The downside though is that if you apply pre A level and get an offer it will usually be AAA or AAA.Everyone I know who has been successful post A level has had at least AA*A or higher. So you basically need higher grades.

I'd have thought there was just as much faff post A level, with the single exception of getting the grades .

.....sorry, my point was that all that takes time away from your A level studies in a crucial term. Whereas if you do it post A level with your grades in the bag you are a. more mature and b it does not distract from your studies.

Difficult to say without knowing the full circumstances. But I think he would need to be realistic in his expectations.

As I understand it, Oxford look at your 8 best GCSE results against the school cohort. They are looking for the top performers in the school. So chances of getting an interview might be low - though exceptional written work and HAT together with a strong PS might tip the balance if the SLD were flagged in the references and fully explained the lower GCSE prformance..

But the standard offer for history is AAA. A contextual offer might be AAB - if admissions thought his circumstances qualified.
How likely is it that he will achieve 3 strong grades at A level if he did not do so at GCSE? Which additional A levels will he take?
Most high performing schools look for at least a 6 at GCSE to be able to take the A level course.

How confident would he be of keeping up with the rest of the group, managing the workload etc? Is he likely to enjoy the quite pressurised environment?

He has five choices - if he is confident of getting an offer from at least one other University he loses nothing by giving Oxford a punt. But I think he would need to recognise it is likely to be a long shot.

LARLARLAND the approach seems to be - and this is the case for Oxford too - that if his SpLD was identified prior to GCSEs and he had the appropriate support and extra time during exams, then he can't expect 'double mitigation'. This is addressed specifically in the admissions guidance for Durham, Bristol etc but Oxford made it quite clear over the telephone to school: one of my DC was discovered to have a raft of SpLDs after GCSEs and that explained his lower than predicted results (they were still all A/A but far fewer A than predicted). In those circumstances it was acceptable for the school to make a case but had he had extra time and/ or a computer, then no.

wurzel I don't understand what you mean by AAB as a contextual offer from Oxford, it's certainly not relevant if a DC is from a very good state school. Oxford might possibly accept him anyway if he misses the AAA standard offer with AAB but from a good state school he can only expect an AAA offer and frankly, AAA is low.

@ goodbye - actually they do occasionally offer AAB to students with special circumstances even if they are at a good state school. For example, many ex LAC students go to good state schools as they automatically get priority. But that does not compensate for other disdvantages and University admissions processes recognise that.

wurzel are you talking about Oxford specifically? Sadly, I wouldn't expect many looked after children get to even apply to Oxford do they - I should think the numbers are tiny. But anyhow, that's sui generis I'd have thought

LARLARLAND I should also have said that that mark in History is hugely impressive.

Thank you Couchpotato3, that's really helpful. More hopeful than I thought and a few options there. Good luck to your DS

Ds's prof told me that they never allow in anyone who hasn't made the offer. They can afford to run the course with fewer students. He said it was unfair to those who achieved the grades but had not received an offer in the first place. He said they'd had pleading and crying and he had been assaulted by a mother who had hit him and screamed that they'd lost £1m in donations.

Actually, wise people, could you advise as to the worth of the Extended Project and how Oxbridge (and, say, top five universities for Arts subjects) view this?

Dd is struggling to think up four A Levels she fancies, so I wondered about 3 + EP. I don't know anything about it. The school seems keen to plug it but my sceptical hat is pulled down firmly regarding any advice they give.

Irma that very definitely isn't a general rule across Oxford and Cambridge (although it may be for your DS's subject and college).

3 A levels is fine so 3 plus the EPQ would also, by definition, be fine.

He dodged a bullet with that mother - well worth a million quid.