Oxford - too high pressured?

[AThanvi]

My highly academic DD is little poorly with allergies, eczema and gut issues. She has coped well so far and if anything is feeling much better. She is all 9's in GCSE's despite missing the school most of the year.
She always thought she would be going to Oxford to do PPE but now has changed to English mainly because she thought PPE will be too competitive and stressful...

She is now thinking of not applying to Oxford because she thinks it

1- Might be too stressful and that effects both her skin and gut, in return causes anxiety/sleeplessness and the vicious circle.

2- Isn't impressed with the English course offered at Oxford.

3- Thinks she won't have much fun there if everyone is too busy studying (she is very social but also likes to study and work hard)

at the same time is thinking should I go as she always thought that would be the place for her.

Other options are Birmingham, Kings college London where courses are better.

DH went to Birmingham and is dead against it lol

My Question is what can I do to help her make this decision.
She loves a good discussion and enjoys the quality of class banter, that's why I think she will actually be happier at Oxford.

Also more graduate employers are hiding the universities people attended on application in an attempt to create more social mobility. I do therefore question what the benefit of an Oxford degree is now unless you really want to go into academic research.

On the one hand, I think that is very commendable. Then, on the other hand, I don't know what the correlation of university to social mobility is, as my Google-fu is failing me.

As for the benefit of an Oxford degree, for me the benefit comes after the graduate role - recruiters (and employers) make lots of assumptions about people who have attended Oxford (like 'this person is educated, they'll be good at this role', which is clearly not a given.) This has benefited me a lot in my career. It's not fair, but it's proved helpful! The other benefit was the intensity - it helped me build my resilience, and adopt appropriate strategies for coping with stress. That has been good too.

It seems that Oxbridge is becoming more and more competitive whilst the the ‘benefit’ of the degree is falling.
Why not take an easier offer elsewhere and do less work but still have the same grad prospects?

What is the reasoning behind not favouriting Oxbridge students when recruiting? Oxbridge are far more egalitarian than they used to be on who they offer places to.

gotweman the various institutions which have gone 'blind' are apparently ending up with even more Oxbridge grads than before, which is quite funny.

You do not have the same grad prospects elsewhere necessarily. This is very much subject and university dependent. RG overall confers benefits regarding salary enhancement 5 years on as does subject.

The few Employers who hide university still want to see boxes ticked. Just not necessarily that one. They still might look for AAA at A level and that lets in nearly every Oxbridge grad. They then set tests and that doesn’t discriminate against Oxbridge either and indeed probably favours them. There are many employers, the vast majority, that do look at university as part of their selection process. It’s only a minority that publicly say they don’t. However it’s only part of the process and students need more than university attended, or not, to be successful.

various institutions which have gone 'blind' are apparently ending up with even more Oxbridge grads than before,
That seems logical to me since the selection critieria will share similar criteria including for picking up high achievers who also fit the ‘diversity’ factor.

What you still benefit from, for now anyway, is that many employers still post grad jobs on the job boards of Oxbridge. DD got her interview and grad job via this entry point. As I understand it, there are still a number of employers who actively recruit from Oxbridge.