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Original poster

Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)

999 replies

windowframe · 09/01/2019 13:16

Today is a big day for many... time for a new thread too

OP posts:
Jano69 · 13/01/2019 09:17

PantTwizzler - sorry to hear your DD
Is disappointed.

When we viewed Oxford, we too fell in love with Merton and some of the other colleges just didn't compare so I understand where she's coming from.

No real advice here other than an appreciation that even with an offer, can come disappointment. They are so young and I guess your DD has visualised herself walking through the beautiful Merton grounds and now has to create a new picture in her mind. She should revisit the college as Hubbleisback suggests and I am confident her decision will evolve during the coming few weeks - it's still very early days...,,

DS is waiting for Cambridge news tomorrow so we won't have the same problem - It will be a Caius offer or no offer (he wasn't invited back for a pool interview). He also has his heart set on a certain college in Durham but no offer yet.

DrMadelineMaxwell · 13/01/2019 09:23

Jano.... Cambridge system is different to Oxford. They get their 2 interviews and that's it. One for their subject and one for their prefered college.

They then have a big meeting about it all probably last week.
If the college don't want or can't accommodate a student then they discuss it at the meeting. If the subject people were impressed they will make the case that they should be pooled and they sort it out in their meeting. Occasionally students are 're invited for interview early Jan but not often.

HingleMcCringleberry · 13/01/2019 09:26

Panttwizzler - I’m very sympathetic to your daughter. I applied for Classics at Univ, and was sent to interview up at St Hugh’s. I did not get a good vibe from student helpers, though I did thoroughly enjoy the interviews. I told my parents if I got an offer from St Hugh’s I’d have to seriously consider whether or not to take it.

I hope my parents would have given me space to come to a sensible conclusion, but equally I hope that in the end if I was swithering they would have pushed me to accept - it really would have been moronic of me not to accept. My experience would have been different I’m sure, but not in fundamentals - the academic rigour would have been the same, which is what I signed up for.

Durham is a great university, but Classics at Oxford is the ne plus ultra. Accept no substitutes!

Jano69 · 13/01/2019 09:32

Coleoptera I really feel for you - what an emotional rollercoaster. Many people on this forum only have one disappointed child to deal with but
your situation is off the scale. I can't imagine being in your shoes...

I do hope you find clarity when DT1 hears from Cambridge tomorrow.

Jano69 · 13/01/2019 09:53

DrMadelineMaxwell thank you for the enlightening article. I haven't seen it before and have shared it with the wider family.

DS wasn't invited to a pooling interview but we know of one girl who returned to Cambridge last week for one.

goodbyestranger · 13/01/2019 10:20

Good advice from Hingle. I'm sorry to hear that your DD is disappointed PantTwizzler. Of course you know Oxford first hand but for what it's worth, I think that several of my DC would opt for the distant ex women's college over Merton, even though they've all been to central and old. Merton is one of the very few colleges where they believe that the reputation is real (fun going to die). Each successive DC warns the next strongly away from it and cumulatively they know quite a few people who've gone to Merton and say yes - nerdy and not much fun and friends made outside the college rather than from within. On the other hand, several of their close friends have been pooled to the distant one you're probably talking about and had a really, really good time.

goodbyestranger · 13/01/2019 10:24

I should make that a bit clearer: these friends happen to have made friends outside Merton but obviously, if you're happy with the Merton vibe, plenty will make friends within. It's much more usual in Oxford to have a college based social life though, so it's quite instructive that a fair number of live wires seem not to.

SoupDragon · 13/01/2019 10:25

Just poking my head in here.... do the Cambridge "results" arrive by post or email tomorrow?

LIZS · 13/01/2019 10:27

Dd is expecting an email with letter to follow. Has decided to go into school and revise in the morning after all.

SoupDragon · 13/01/2019 10:28

I hope that's the case - I'm really hoping I won't be expected to open a letter and give DS the result when it arrives!

goodbyestranger · 13/01/2019 10:29

Coleoptera Durham has dropped the minimum number of A thing which it used to put on its History website. They've certainly made offers to DC with the same number of A as your DC in recent years - to my certain knowledge. It's early days yet.

Also, possibly worth saying that History students have a great deal of unstructured time in Oxford. From that point of view I'd say Durham History was at least as structured and arguably more so. Did your second twin ever get his acknowledgment? (sorry, forgotten which twin it was).

eingev · 13/01/2019 10:46

Hi, new poster here having been reading these threads with interest.

DS received an offer from St John’s, he actually applied to one of the far out female colleges! So this situation is a flip to the previous poster. He decided to apply to the newer college with school advice that it would be easier to get in. He’s been reading up online about the college and is worried that it is like Merton, very academic which he is not. He’s also worried about how posh the college is, although he said the people taking him to the extra interview there were nice. At interview with his applied to college, they were all discussing how rich St John’s was when he got an interview there and how hard it would be to get in

DrMadelineMaxwell · 13/01/2019 10:46

They can still pool without an additional interview.

Dd isn't holding out much hope despite feeling that her interview wasn't a disaster.

Baytreemum · 13/01/2019 10:52

I'm a bit confused about the Cambridge pooling - has it happened already? Can we assume that because my DD has not been called for a pool interview that she is either accepted or rejected? Thanks.

DrMadelineMaxwell · 13/01/2019 11:03

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/applying/decisions

DrMadelineMaxwell · 13/01/2019 11:05

Winter pool

Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)
DrMadelineMaxwell · 13/01/2019 11:06

Yes. It's happened behind the scenes.

Aurea · 13/01/2019 11:18

*Coleopatra
*
May I ask your DT2's GCSE results? I'm sorry, I'm sure you've said but the thread is rather long.

In my DS's Scottish state school, they only offer a max of 6 Nat 5s ( GCSE equivalent) but taken a year earlier. There are no A* available as well, as the highest grade possible is an A. My son has a conditional offer for law (8 January) at Durham with just 6As. Maybe they have taken the result within the context of the school? Don't give up....,.

Jano69 · 13/01/2019 11:33

DrMadeleineMaxwell thank you again for providing more information on pooling.

I wrongly concluded that because DS hadn't been called to a pooling interview, it would be a simple offer or rejection tomorrow.

I now fully understand that he could receive an offer from a different college... I'm clearly not a clued up Oxbridge applicant mum and am learning lots from this thread.

DS has three history interviews in December - all with Caius tutors on a 1:1 basis.

bengalcat · 13/01/2019 11:35

Jano69 it’s all in the Cambs uni website under decisions so 3 possibilities tomorrow rejection or a place at chosen college or a place at another . Good luck .

Jano69 · 13/01/2019 11:42

bengalcat - Beautifully summarised, thank you.

Hubbleisback · 13/01/2019 11:53

Coleoptera please take heed of what goodbye has said. Offers from Durham are more likely after the January deadline. Would your DTs go for the same college at Durham?

Malbecfan · 13/01/2019 11:56

Baytreemum DD1 was pooled unbeknown to her, 2 years ago. She applied and was interviewed at one college. The letter came (email was later) from a completely different one. Panttwizzler, she was a bit disorientated by it, to be honest. On the one hand, a Cambridge offer is amazing. On the other, it was a college we hadn't even heard of.

I suggested she look at the college website then in February half term, she and I would travel there and take a look. She found that someone from the year above her at school was there (also applied elsewhere) and got in touch with him. We booked a B&B and went to visit. Of course, it was a nice if cold day and the college looked beautiful. The porters were lovely and directed us to the admissions office for a chat there. We went for a coffee and because it was outside main meal-times, the kitchen manager came out to chat to us and told us what a wonderful college it was. We went to meet some friends then came back to meet the lad from the year above who showed us his room and answered our no doubt stupid questions. (I need to point out that I know his family, I taught him, and one of his sisters is now in my tutor group so he knew me quite well too.) By the end of that, DD's mood was soaring. Over dinner, she got really excited and said she wanted to firm the offer. She is there now.

Because her Director of Studies last year is now one of her supervisors (tutors), she has a new DoS this year who is one of the admissions tutors for her course. She went to see him at the end of last term for the obligatory how's it going/have a mince pie session and he told her that he picked her out of the pool and how pleased he is that they both made a good choice. She was so chuffed!

Sorry, this is getting a bit epic but one final comment about colleges. DD1 has lots of friends within her college, but several of her supervisions are with a student from another college. They have become friends and go to one another's formals every so often. DD was given some advice from yet another former school student about college choirs which was not to join your own college/chapel choir but a different one, then if commitments clashed, you were slightly harder to track down. DD enjoys her singing but her course commitments were too much last year and her college has quite an aspirational choir. This year, she plucked up the courage to seek out the Director of Music and after a couple of auditions, she is the newest member of the choir in the college up the road. It just so happens to be the college that DD2 has applied to. I am getting really nervous......

Hubbleisback · 13/01/2019 12:04

Lovely story Malbecfan. All the best to your DD for tomorrow.

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