Oxbridge Applications 2019 (Part Three)

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

I mean this in the nicest possible way by the way and I do feel so sorry for the dc who are having to deal with their disappointment.

Coleoptera, as a fellow mother of an Aspie, I totally get what you mean about your DS’s fixation. I know this won’t help him right now but my DS, three years down the line, freely admits that actually he is much better off at the London university he now attends. My DD has just had an offer from Oxford but someone who is already there is not happy, despite it having been her life’s dream, and told me before the offer came through that it might actually be better if my DD went somewhere else. Obviously I’m delighted about her offer but this really gave me pause for thought. None of this will take away the sting for your DS right now. In my experience, though, Aspies take a long time to process things and have to work it out for themselves, but after they’ve gone through that process they are actually extremely strong.

Another extract from the Student Room’s Oxford thread:

‘For all those who have been rejected, here’s a Chinese proverb. There is a Chinese story of a farmer who used an old horse to till his fields. One day, the horse escaped into the hills and when the farmer's neighbors sympathized with the old man over his bad luck, the farmer replied, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?" A week later, the horse returned with a herd of horses from the hills and this time the neighbors congratulated the farmer on his good luck. His reply was, "Good luck? Bad luck? Who knows?"

Then, when the farmer's son was attempting to tame one of the wild horses, he fell off its back and broke his leg. Everyone thought this very bad luck. Not the farmer, whose only reaction was, "Bad luck? Good luck? Who knows?"

Some weeks later, the army marched into the village and conscripted every able-bodied youth they found there. When they saw the farmer's son with his broken leg, they let him off. Now was that good luck or bad luck?

Who knows?’

I’m getting ever so slightly hooked on the Student Room!

Dd often has guinea fowl at her oxford college- tastes like chicken!

I read that story as well. It's great isn't it.

Last year DD's boyfriend got an offer from Oxford, but slipped up on grades on two of his subjects, one being the subject he wanted to do at university. He was rejected from Oxford and his insurance choice. Quite frankly I don't understand why he chose a university that wanted the same grades as Oxford as his insurance, but heyho. He had a couple of days of wallowing in self pity then got a place at a Scottish university through clearing.

He is having a ball - partying nearly every night and loving it. I don't think Oxford would have suited him at all, and I agree with windowframe that he would have struggled with the volume of work and lack of downtime. He is quite lazy (his mum's words, and I agree) and it was reflected in his A level results.

Yes Errol when Oxbridge offer holders firm their choice Durham offers will begin to come through more rapidly.

Errol, not quite.

It is worth remembering that 75% of students at somewhere like the LSE are from outside the UK. It is quite possible that the proportion of applicants will be even higher, as overseas applicants often apply to Universities in a number of countries.

Quite a lot won’t apply to Oxbridge, partly because they may prefer London or the courses offered in London, but also because of the early Oxbridge deadline and the Oxbridge interview requirements. (LSE don’t interview.) They therefore don’t need to get applications in till early January, and the LSE is obliged to treat all EU applications equally. Once applications are in they need to get some: mature students with non traditional qualifications, those from countries whose educational systems don’t differentiate sufficiently etc, to sit an exam. Though strong applicants, or those applying to less competitive courses might hear earlier, a good number won’t hear till March. And it is by no means unusual for LSE to reject someone who was accepted by Oxbridge. Both are very sought after institutions, but they use slightly different recruitment criteria and methods.

I assume the same applies for quantitative courses at Imperial and UCL. Not so much for humanities as the proportion of overseas applicants will probably be lower.

It is also very common for London state school pupils, or those from conservative family backgrounds to prefer or to only consider London Universities. These too won’t need to apply before mid January. It is far from a given that strong applicants automatically apply to Oxbridge.

Perhaps she's at New College? I'm surprised at guinea fowl, never heard of it being dished up before. Sounds horrible anyway.

Now that it’s farmed, guinea fowl is essentially pretty much like chicken.

Errol I'm not convinced at all. Durham gives lots of pre Christmas offers for sciences and a number for Law, Economics etc and lots of Oxford offerees don't firm until much later if only because plenty will be waiting to see what grades Durham asks for as well as waiting for popular insurance choices/slow responders such as Edinburgh and St A. I think Durham just takes its time with humanities, but not because it's studying the UCAS stats.

cinnamontoast yes I looked it up. Never had it myself, ever. It really doesn't sound nice.

Yes Needmoresleepsome good points. Anecdotally however it did seem that those waiting for |Durham offers last year began to hear back soon after Oxbridge offers were made. It would appear that many who apply to Oxford also apply to Durham so it would make sense. I don't know about London universities as have no experience.

She’s at St.Johns

Hubble for any department which waits to make most of its offers from the gathered field then the closing UCAS date of Jan 15th simply coincides pretty much with the issue of Oxbridge offers. I don't think there's much more to it than that.

Hubble. Yes. Quite a lot who apply to Oxbridge seem to apply to Bristol or Durham. The crossover between Oxbridge and London seems less strong. For whatever reason, places like Imperial and LSE seem to enjoy strong international reputations which then make them first choice for students applying to the UK. A process that is strengthened as the network of graduates in their home countries grows.

Plus you get the mutually exclusive groups of those who won’t consider London, and those who want to stay in London. I understand that at our local high-performing, state school, leaving home to go to University is rarely considered, except by the white middle class. Even DD, who was keen to study away from home, is now plotting an intercalation year back home.

"It is far from a given that strong applicants automatically apply to Oxbridge."

Yes I agree with that except that I'd put it more emphatically - many strong applicants don't apply there! But of course the non Oxbridge universities won't know whether they have or not. So I had wondered whether waiting until late Feb/March makes it easier for Durham and St A to get the right numbers (as they do cap the number of offers they make, unlike many RG univs which now offer for some courses to anyone with the right predicted grades - as a general rule).

But it sounds from what other pp say as though that is not the case as it varies from subject to subject. Humanities offers seem to come later than others from Durham?

Needmoresleep from our neck of the woods, some way from London, almost every science applicant applying to Oxbridge also applies to Imperial and almost all the Oxbridge medics also apply to Imperial and/ or UCL. Plenty of Oxbridge law and economics applicants apply to LSE and lots and lots of lawyers, historians and English applicants dual apply to Oxbridge and UCL. I don't know about the international picture I'm simply talking in parochial terms.

That's right Iwantedthatname. Lots of science offers before Christmas from Durham.

A third group who seem to prefer London are BME students from across the UK. Places like the LSE and Imperial are seen as BME friendly. Or put simply - you wont stand out. This was certainly true of a friend of DS' who came from a small town in Wales. Indeed the first thing that struck DD and I about Bristol, certainly in comparison to LSE, or even her school, was how white it was. Oxbridge may LOOK a bit more diverse, but not that much.

My kids are at a London state school and from my experience those who applied to Oxbridge have not also applied to places like Durham and St Andrews. Their other choices are more likely to be London universities and very often Manchester. I have heard lots of talk about how provincial and small other places seem when you have grown up in London. Staying in London isn't daunting socially for them and they also have the option of saving money by living at home. Plus part time jobs are easy to come by so life does not have to be expensive for them.

Ds1 only applied to London universities other than Oxford and I would say that of his friends who received offers from Oxford most would have stayed in London had they not been successful. Otherwise they would have gone to bigger cities like Manchester, Edinburgh or Glasgow.

Yes Goodbye I get your point about the January deadline coinciding with Oxbridge offers.

We have the opposite. Hardly anyone applies to London.

Goodbye, yet Hubble is suggest her DC did not consider London. Something I suspect is not unusual. I went to a talk by the then Director of LSE about six years ago who suggested they had real problems recruiting state educated pupils from Northern comprensives. Essentially tgey were put off by the cost/size of London, and tended not to have enough maths. (LSE have since reduced FM requirements on certain courses and added new 4 year courses.) Perhaps southern Grammars are different. He also suggested that LSE is effectively an international University based in London. The proportion of their funding that came from the UK government was about the lowest of anyones.

All of which is a bit off track. Except to say that quite a lot of the discussion about state/private etc seems to be a bit irrelevant when it comes to top Universities. Even back in the days when dinasaurs roamed I was the only Brit on my LSE course (economics was divided up into a number of specialisations). Things have not changed much. (DS was the only Brit out of 39 on his Masters.)

I think the point I am making is that we are lucky to have a good number of top ranked Universities in the UK. This thread is for those anxious about Oxbridge applications. There will be an equally anxious thread on TSR in March for those waiting for other sought after places. The point is that though applications to Oxbridge and London were normal at your DCs schools, this is probably not true for many/most applicants. Given the application deadline is 15 January, given the applicant to place ratios (I think the LSE economics hovers around 11 applicants to a place), and given the need for equal consideration, Universities do pretty well to turn round applications by end March. Though this makes a long wait for those who applied for the October deadline.

Yes I think London is a big no no for some students. Just a purely parochial point as I say. For some reason there are lots of dual Oxbridge/ London applications from our school but as you say, the grammar school factor may well need to be taken into account. The school specifically promotes London as a good place to go.

Yes DS did not apply to London as he thought it was too close to home!! A relief to us cost wise.

The London issue is primarily financial for lots of people who don’t have family living in the Capital.