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.

We are firmly in the camp of 'can't change anything now' so there's no point in worrying too much.

DD has surprised me with her philosophical attitude. She feels she did as good a job at interview as she could, and certainly enjoyed the experience. She also knows that there are circa 5/6 excellent applicants per place, so the statistics are against her - whether she's state, independent, north, south etc. So realistically it's a no, and she might as well go to school and crack on with weighing up her other top choices.

In terms of studying this Christmas, she had the first week pretty much off completely and has now decided to crack on with revision for mocks and school work.

This time next week we will know either way anyway.

Caveat is that the school isn't one where there are a high proportion of students awaiting an outcome, and this very fact might be beneficial at this stage in how she's feeling overall.

I’m really trying not to think about decision day at all yet. DD has mentioned it twice in past 2 days so she’s definitely beginning to think! Most of the family seem more concerned about her taking the academic scholarship she’s been shortlisted for by SOAS if she’s offered it than an offer from Oxford. We’re the opposite! DD still likes the course at KCL over SOAS & wouldn’t be able to put SOAS (with offer of scholarship) as her reserve if Oxford offer! E mail just says sometime in Jan for finding out re scholarship. Then there’s Durham to consider too! DD wants a lot of input from us re. decisions but we’re quite hands off and say it has to be hers and hers alone. Dd defo doesn’t want to be in sch finding out...she leaves at 7am to go to sch...as I’ve said before her cohort are the first to go through A levels and she’s the only Oxbridge candidate. Our DS is in the year below and currently none are looking to apply, although they definitely have a few who’ll be capable (DS included if he chose to actually ever do some work outside of lessons).

Not entirely sure when the Cambridge decisions are mailed - in the next couple of weeks I think - i’ll be at work and she’ll be at school - good luck to all

Hi Bengalcat. All decisions for Cambridge are given on 14th January. Best of luck to your DD.

I hope it is OK to ask here as we are just st the beginning of this process as dc in year 12. But looking at open days , it seems mad that the open days for Cambridge and Oxford are on the same day in July, or st least they overlap by a day . 3rd and 4th at Oxford and 4th and 5th st Cambridge and Durham is on the 6th or 1st . How did you manage if your dc wanted to do both ?

Durham does have open days in September as well. So the Durham / Oxbridge problem potentially has a solution? Your DC can also submit their UCAS form initially with just Oxford / Cambridge on (plus any others that they are absolutely certain about), then take their time - up to the January 15th deadline - to look at other places and add their final choices.

Thank you , yes that is obviously a solution . It’s just that time off from school in Sept of A levels is irritating .! It just seems almost as if they are making a point. We are located quite close to one which helps but I have visions of criss crossing the country , plus it means days off school .

One of the problems is that dc I think prefers the course at the one nearest but would prefer not to be so close to home so prefers the other place so I do feel it would be good to go to both .

I suppose what I am really asking is , if you did the two on consecutive days , how was that . Was your dc able to take it all in etc . They both sound d pretty overwhelming tbh and exhausting !

I would not do that. Look at the website and read course description carefully. Go for the course rather than for impressions on open days .

Peaseblossom - we are similar. We live in one so DS will definitely not want to go to that one!!! I would suggesr todo the basic open days possibly 2 days apart eg. Day 1 of one and day 2 of the other. Then to go back in summer hols to look at individual colleges as many will let you in to look around if potential students

My dd didn’t find it overwhelming or exhausting, so definitely a possibility to do consecutive days. Or, you could visit the universities in the Easter holidays to get a feel for the place and to pick a couple of colleges to look at in more detail and then just attend the subject specific talks and information and the couple of colleges you have picked on the open day itself to make it more manageable.

DD didn't bother with oxford but did a few other open days back to back e.g Cambridge followed by Newcastle... some combinations only logistically possible with a parent willing and able to chauffeur.

In your position I'd definitely be looking at the colleges of the nearer of the two 'casually' as and when. For the other, there's no way you can see it all, your DC should try to select maybe 3 colleges to look at but focus most on the department tour.

I'm not sure if the 'close to home' factor matters quite so much with Oxbridge because they have to live in college for a lot of the time ... leastwise that's the case in Cambridge.

I don’t think the close to home matters but it is bothering them which is why I think they need to visit both so that the penny can drop if you see what I mean .

Both Oxford and Cambridge offer 'Masterclasses' these give DC a day at the university studying a subject they're interested in.

Both of mine found these interesting, they provide additional study outside of the A level syllabus which could be mentioned on the personal statement and for DS, clearly showed which university he would prefer to study at.
If you look at each college there are plenty of Masterclass subjects on different days throughout the year.

Thank you hollybolly , dc has recently done one of these at Cambridge , Oxford seem to have fewer options . Also he is undecided on a subject ( being heavily pushed towards one at school) and sadly his alternative doesn’t seem to run the masterclass .

Peaseblossom22 We spent parts of half-term holidays travelling to visit different university cities to get a feel of the places. DD1 is now in her 2nd year at uni. She knew she wanted to study something along the lines of Physical NatSci so drew up a long list of places offering the course she liked. We then divided that list up and I did 2 road trips with her, visiting 11 different places. Slightly irritatingly, she refused to get out of the car at some telling me it was not the place for her blah blah. However, we did get a feel for the sort of city in which she felt comfortable.

I have posted this previously but with Cambridge, we stayed in a Premier Inn and caught the bus into the middle of the city then walked round as many colleges as we would during the summer holidays. Some had a great vibe, others did not. We then drove to look at more outlying ones. DD ended up applying to one where she had been on a pre-Uni course. She was interviewed by them but a different college made her an offer and of course she loves it there and can't imagine being anywhere else.

DD2 is in year 13. I went to one Cambridge Open Day last summer with her. We were very organised and had a list of colleges she wanted to visit, sadly not including DD1's, but there you go. The one she loved on paper was less nice when we visited for real. However, 2 others she had vaguely considered were lovely and we both really liked the same one, to which she subsequently applied. We also did a road trip starting in Durham and taking in York, Leeds, Manchester and Warwick. Budget hotels and indulgent grandparents were our friends here, but it meant shortlisting was more straightforward.

Thank you Malbec that’s really useful . We did similar with ds1 but that was 8 years ago now and he had a clear idea of cities . Others on the list with this ds are St Andrews, Edinburgh ,Glasgow ( Scottish theme as likes idea of more flexible approach) Durham, Bristol . Probably York . Encouraging him to look for some insurance level ones now, possibly Sussec or UEA.

We stayed in the Durham university castle, University college for a weekend with DS. He liked the feel of the place, went to open days then an offer holder's overnight stay and he decided to turn down the offer because it was too far! Still wonder why looking on a map wasn't enough to work that out!
Many universities let rooms at a reasonable rate during holidays. I've seen a lot more of the country since mine started the UCAS process.

Dh and I were both at Durham . Personally I think it would suit ds but he is unsure Ibthibk because we went there as did one of his godparents , my god daughter etc !

We had a look at Durham and DS felt it was too small a town for him. We also looked at Warwick which he liked but not the idea of living so far out in years 2 and 3. We will be looking at Exeter and Bristol in Summer and Oxford.

It is interesting to see what those the year ahead have done and how to approach things.

2nd masterclasses are useful. Personally, think a few offer holders days and a few open days are enough. The Oxbridge open day we did for specific subject in March was very useful even though she applied to the other one where she did a masterclass in related subject. Lots of info is duplicated as unis are not that different. Staying focused on A levels was more important here.

5 days to go....
DS is busying himself with his EPQ and organising a belated birthday party on Monday. I'm so sick of waiting.

... and 10 days for Cambridge!

Peaseblossom, I'm not a huge fan of open days generally: the impression you get from the "feel" of the place is so subjective and depends more (especially for teenagers) on the weather that day, traffic on your journey, the food you eat, the personality of the individual student who shows you around, etc. There is so much info available on the internet, I think you can make better choices by doing the majority of research that way.

Both my boys discovered that the subjects they were interested in had quite different courses at Oxford and Cambridge anyway and they had clear preferences, so certainly had no interest in two consecutive open days. Most of their UCAS shortlists they hadn't actually visited at all. But they got their first choice, so didn't matter anyway.

There can be some parental or Mumsnet pressure to spend vast resources of time (and money) in Lower Sixth on visiting dozens of universities, that would be far better spent on studying to achieve the highest possible grades.

Good luck to everyone on this thread awaiting Oxbridge offers in the next two weeks.

Thank you Roisin , having been through it once I tend to agree . I have said that if he is really interested in StAndrews we should visit because he needs to understand quite how far it is and how small.

Ds1 was put off York because it was a horrid day etc and the open day ( he went with friend) was overwhelmed by families and pushchairs (?) , in retrospect I think it would have been a good option for him.

More research is definitely needed and also tbh any offer from Oxbridge is a wild card and therefore the second choice really needs to be somewhere you would otherwise put top if you see what I mean.

Cambridge seems to offer a lot more flexibility than Oxford which he likes but anyway it’s early days and so don’t want to hijack the thread . Best of luck to all those waiting decisions