Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)

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

Kismetjayn It’s really interesting to hear your experience and I’m very impressed with your strength and determination. Did you get your offer clarified or changed? Have you decided where and when to move?

Ds thought his Manchester interview had much harder questions, such as "why do you want to come to Manchester?"
(He also had some nice written feedback from that interview when he got his offer, saying that some programming he'd talked about, involving log phi (possibly ln phi, I don't remember!) and Fibonacci numbers, had sounded "quite interesting" which really made me laugh - damning with faint praise?)

DD had an interview at Manchester, which also pissed her off a bit because the interviewer seemed weirdly interested in her having German GCSE. She'd got a B, it was her least favourite subject and only taken because the school insisted on an MFL. We supposed that they were trying to gauge interest in their 'plus a language' type options. But she too had some nice written feedback, slightly oddly on a manc. Uni postcard rather than a letter or email.

@Lililili thank you :) that's very kind of you to say. The DoS got in touch yesterday evening with a revised offer, all I have to do is provide proof of completion of the additional courses now, which is good.

I still need to sort things out with 'D'P before I can make a final decision re moving but I'm contacting the accomodation centre tomorrow to ask about their private rental contacts. It's a lot to get to grips with! I'm taking DD with me to the offer holder day though, she liked it on the open day and I want her to feel comfortable and settled there. Then time to research primary schools etc...
This is 'D'Ps end of the line so he's obviously decided now is the time to get his act in gear but I don't see it lasting.

@Kismetjayn Great news about the revised conditions. Well done! How lovely to take your DD with you. I wonder if there will be other mothers with young children at your college. Good luck with it all. It must be tough. What an inspiration!

Good luck and congratulations Kismetjayn.

I don’t think my previous post was clear. The candidates were not selected on the basis of their extra-curricular activities. They were all excellent academically and all ticked the boxes for medical work experience. I just mentioned those two examples to give an idea of how immediately impressive some of those candidates were.

Dd wasn’t asked a single thing about her PS in any of her five interviews, incidentally.

Also — dd says that 9 people got into Cambridge from her school, and 5 to Oxford. They normally get around 40 in total!

Are we saying the unis will be half empty??

No.

So if lots of schools have fewer people with offers- who is going??

PantTwizzler how many students are there in your DD's Y13 cohort?

Just interested.

42 pupils at this school got offers. Substantially more than last year.

mobile.twitter.com/BramptonManor1

School has highly selective sixth form. Makes me feel a bit uneasy actually.

Onbridge hothouse.

*Oxbridge

I don’t know anything about it, but they are an example of a school which has an increase in offers when most schools on here have got fewer offers this year.

Yes they are supposedly increasing social mobility but I'm just mot sure of the method.

I’m absolutely horrified by some of the remarks upthread about DCs being ‘disadvantaged’ by going to a small private school. Anyone who thinks like this ought to a) take a long hard look at what ‘disadvantaged’ actually means, and b) remember that about 40 per cent of Oxbridge students went to private schools yet only 6 per cent of children overall are privately educated, It is clear, therefore, that the privately educated still have a massive advantage. Unfortunately that is sometimes combined with a sense of entitlement.

Some - but by no means all - colleges are taking steps to address the disparity. This means that they are widening the pool; it doesn’t mean that they are lowering the standard. The Norrington table results bear this out very clearly, with colleges such as St John’s that have a better record on state school offers maintaining their high place in the table.

In terms of all the puzzlement about very high-achieving students not winning a place - Oxbridge colleges are looking not only at past results but at future potential. It is the question of potential that is most likely to determine getting a place and it is not easily quantifiable to those outside the system.

The school in the article linked to by Abetes has a specific aim of increasing Oxbridge access for vulnerable and underprivileged children. Its phenomenal success shows what a criminal waste of academic potential there is in an unequal country such as ours. It’s heartbreaking to think how many children there are whose potential will never be realised because of their dire economic circumstances.

Your point absolutely stands, Cinnamon. My ds is at a non-flashy, non-selective private school and I wouldn't in any way describe any of his peers as disadvantaged. The ones like him with SEN, yes, but in a different way. However, a small point of correction. People always quote 6-7% of children at private schools versus 40% at Oxbridge, but at sixth form stage it's something like 18% in private education...so not as huge a disproportion at all.

Yes cinnamontoast and maybe it is necessary to do it this way. But it is a sad indictment of the state education available to most.

Dangling, I take your point but I do think it’s important to look at the overall figures though, not just sixth form. Because the children who haven’t gone on to sixth form are also ones who haven’t had the advantage of a private education to help them get to Oxbridge. Dropping out of education at 16 is not a real choice if it’s dictated by your economic circumstances.

Nobody can drop out at 16.