Oxbridge applications 2019 (part two).

[Justanothermile]

New thread, I hope it's okay to start one.

Good luck today for those still waiting for interview news, which includes us.

Congratulations to those already with dates.

Durham to Leeds is dead easy on the train - lots of trains and direct.

An obvious Christmas present for the boy then - some clothes!

Oldandgold - yes, that might have been the case :)
Regarding your DD - if I may offer my view - from all I have read here, I think at this stage in her life it may be best for her to pursue her sport career, as the window for this is usually reasonably small. If she would like to combine this with a degree, then perhaps, she should choose the most flexible course available. By flexible I mean chosing the university, which will allow her time off for training and competitions, possibly extended deadlines for coursework or even altrernative exam dates. This may not be Oxford, but I am sure there are such flexible unis. I feel that you can always do a degree, but you are not always at the top of your physical fitness. That is just my view, without claiming to have any experience in sport competitions etc. My DD is musical, but I can completely appreciate how special a talent like your DD's is.

I correctly guessed the niche joint honours course (oldandgold messaged me to ask what I'd guessed), now musing about the sport :)

Re accepting or rejecting offers, DDs college had an offer holders event iirc in March - I think partly so that people who'd been pooled to it could see it before firming.

I'm really surprised at schools explicitly advising against going to open days - DD found them very useful, and not many required time off school. Websites certainly have a lot of useful information but I'm not sure you can tell from them what a place is really like.

Errol I was fine with the advice and it's not mandatory not to go, just that flogging off to multiple open days isn't rated as highly by the school as it appears to be on MN. Saved me a lot of trips to the station and fares anyhow. Also, from where we live, I can only think of two unis on my DCs' lists which would have been do-able within a day. So then you get into staying somewhere overnight below the age of 18, which can cause problems (lots of hotels won't allow it), and I also had to think of my other DC, so shooting off all over the country to see if my DC liked the vibe of a place wasn't really that practicable. They just went with general popularity/ reputation. It's worked out fine. I think perhaps MN posters may not quite always get that going all over the country to view unis is a luxury for some.

Oldandgold - sounds very good! I wish your DD the best of luck, whatever she decides to do. A gap year of the sort you are explaining sound great also!

Our schools very much encourage open day visits. From our experience DD and I got a really good feel for the Uni's we visited. Imperial fell off her list for example, as she just didn't like the set-up, and felt she didn't fit in with the other students applying for her course. She ended up at Oxford and it was a perfect fit for her, although, as you may have seen from previous posts, not at her originally applied college.

I think the shame for Oxbridge in particular, is that if you do get an offer, and turn it down, then that's a place lost for someone else. Of course places are lost if you don't make the grades either, but DD got very cross one year with a young lad who was just applying because he could, but had no intention of accepting his offer, he was doing it just for the bragging rights if you like. No-one joined her course that year.

Apologies, that's the second time that I have mixed up puzzled and oldandgold and I wish that I could say it will be the last!

Yes, I agree there's an onus to reject an offer early if you don't want it.

stranger - she'd take the place at Oxford if offered for sure, but is undecided for her second choice between two and the offer holder day for the one she hasn't seen is not until the end of March. It's also a place for which the travel aspect might influence choice, if that makes sense?

I think perhaps MN posters may not quite always get that going all over the country to view unis is a luxury for some.

Absolutely it is - takes time, money and effort. Having found open days of value ourselves, it bothers me that they're possibly a factor in inequalities in higher education, especially for kids who don't have good information (accurate and current) from family and/or school.

www.theguardian.com/education/2018/dec/18/what-stopped-you-applying-to-oxbridge?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

More work to do from Oxbridge to improve access. And they name checked the Access Project! So that was nice.

I think our school’s view is : do your research , go for the course more than anything else , and then go to open mornings when you have an offer .

A top sportswoman at our school combined very elite training with a London uni. Was very tough juggling it all apparently but managed.

"I think the shame for Oxbridge in particular, is that if you do get an offer, and turn it down, then that's a place lost for someone else".

Do they operate a reserve list so that if people reject it in, say, Feb, there's still time to offer the place to the student who was a near miss? (like some med schools, possibly). Obviously doesn't work if the student rejects it on the last possible day, of course.

Do many people turn down Oxbridge offers? I'd assumed it would be a very low proportion - more common for those who also get offers from Imperial, LSE, and US universities maybe? (Different question is how many people say they might before they get an offer.)

My guess (and I stress it's a guess) is that (a) they factor in a proportion of rejected offers based on previous years stats and (b) that they're part of how the 'summer pool' works. I do know someone who was on a reserve list for Cambridge >40 years ago, he got his offer a week into his first term at Durham.... hopefully they are better organised nowadays!

Well 30 years ago I was offered a place at Cambridge, an A and two Bs which I should have achieved, but didn’t (as I spent too much time bunking school with an unsuitable boyfriend!) I went to York. They must over offer and some who marginally miss their offer still get in.

oldandgold given the different standard grade requirements for Newcastle and Oxford, both now and in the recent cycles, I'm really surprised. Are you sure this girl didn't miss her grades for Oxford and then just say that she'd insured? It's a good story, just not especially credible.

Oxford medicine is fine for all sorts, not just research medics. It's a really good course with first class teaching.

oldandgold was a troll. She was outed on a different thread I was on and removed as a pbp so I reported her on here too.