Psychology A Level/Oxford

[Tesstheteddybear]

Hi my DS is applying to Oxford 2020 for Chemistry. He is a little concerned he may not receive an interview due to the fact he is studying Psychology, Chemistry, Maths not Further Maths, Biology, Physics etc for A' Level. GCSE's are very good.

Has anyone got any knowledge of this - thank you!

Oh for goodness sake: your

GoodbyeStranger your DD got a place at an Oxbridge summer school without even having to apply?? That is incredible! DS got turned down for one even though he did apply! (different subject, but still..!)

How did it come about that she got offered a place?

Goodbye- what made her settle on Classics?
I wish DD would settle on anything right now.

On a positive note she can tick the boxes for classics, ancient history and history simply because she has always been interested. She has been dragged half way around the world looking at museums and historical sites since she was about 2 because that was my idea of a holiday 😁

Quair no it's not incredible in the least - nothing to do with grades or anything like that, just that the unis are clearly trying to encourage pupils who don't have Classics offered at school to try it.

bpisok I think she's settled on Classics on the basis that she liked a number of different subjects equally and Classics seemed to combine all of them, although in a slightly unexplored way - so a bit of something new and a bit of what she knew she liked.

...makes sense. DD likes literature but she is interested in civilisations, sociology, politics, history, art, philosophy, artefacts and pretty much everything else! She is not very good at MFL but strangely very good at Latin (she says the rules are very clear and straightforward?)).
She also enjoys sciences. So she just wants to learn everything she can about everything that she encounters. Great attributes but rubbish for choosing a degree.

goodbyestranger That's quite a feat your daughter has accomplished - to have impressed Oxbridge tutors so much that they are wooing her to go to uni there. I wish my DS1 were as able! That's amazing that she was personally invited to a summer course when so many applied and were rejected. How did she do it? DS1 goes to the local state comp and we've never had that level of encouragement from Oxbridge at his school.

I did chemistry at Oxford (20 years ago). I had maths, chemistry and a language a-level (an obscure one at that). I wrote to (pre email) the tutor at the college I wanted to go to and asked if this was ok. They said yes. Your dc should ask them. I did struggle with the maths aspect of the course though, but still came out with a 2.1.
Appreciate it's all moved on now though.

242Mummy yor tone is quite clear. I'm obviously not going to say which week it is but it's an outreach thing and not in any way a reflection of my DD's ability or potential - as I've already said - but given that she's intending to apply for a subject not taught at her (state) school and given that she has no teacher support in that no teacher at school ever read that subject, she's very keen to spend a week trying it out. I can't see why any adult would resent a reasonably able and engaged student being given that chance. It's what outreach is about.

Your! (yor indeed :( ).

I think some DC are invited to summer schools if they take part (win or achieve high scores) in certain competitions.

Agree with sm40, worth an email to the tutor/college. I would tend to think that the mix of subjects may go in your DS's favour if he achieves high results in the entrance tests. It will draw more attention to his application.

oneteen I've already had to supply financial details! I'm certainly not going to supply DD's entire CV. I will say that she was e-mailed and missed the e-mail for a number of weeks but that neither of us take it to be any form of wooing whatsoever, much more of an attempt to spread the word about Classics to state school students who've shown an interest.

And in fact when I read posts about DC such as bpisok's DD I think my own DD will have every reason to feel dwarfed. That's a pretty impressive list bpisok! The number of sky high grades for Latin and Greek is off the scale and DD will be in direct competition with all of those, having only just stuck her toe in the water. Under no illusions here.

Sorry - I get confused with all these posts - from what I can see no one has asked you for any financial details or your daughter's CV. I think most people were miffed how your daughter has NOT had to apply for a summer course - most of the summer courses are either expensive £4000 plus to non-Unix qualifying students or you get invited by entering in certain competitions like Olympiads. There certainly seems to be an application process for most and these are aimed at disadvantaged students e.g. live in certain postcodes, attend certain schools, parents have not attended Uni.

Your DD attends a top super selective Grammar school...I would not say she is disadvantaged. There are lots of courses that are not taught at school for many Uni degrees but very few DC get given an opportunity to attend a summer school at Oxford without applying.

Larry wanted to know how come I was contemplating an independent sixth form oneteen.

Gosh that's a bit mean spirited. I haven't spent a penny on anything for any competition or uni application. £4000! Not a cat's chance. But mainly, it's not acceptable to have a go about a DC you don't know and whose personal circumstances you haven't got a clue about. Probably the conversation should stop here and revert to something of more general concern.

Just for the sake of clarity, I did say Oxbridge, not Oxford.

Just to add that clearly plenty of DC are e-mailed in the way my DD was. That's how outreach works. It may simply be that you haven't come across it before esp as your DD is at an independent, so think it's unusual, but as you say, competitions and various other indications of interest in a subject will mean that DC are picked up.

@goodbye - if you make a statement about your DC not applying for any summer course but given the opportunity to attend a course it will raise peoples eyebrows because there will be lots of parents on this forum you have applied and been turned down.

From your posts, it is apparent what Grammar school your DD attends - and I do believe this is their quote for the Sixth form: The Sunday Times in its Parent Power national league tables (2018), where we are ranked second mixed state school for the university destinations of our students. We are ranked top co-educational state school for admissions to Oxford and Cambridge, and sixth school nationally for admissions to Russell Group universities.

Numerous DC are NOT so lucky and attend schools that don't have such expertise in Oxbridge applications. In fact, I'd state that my DD's Indie school probably doesn't have the success rate that your DD's school has!

I hope your DD enjoys her summer school, I'm not mean spirited but I do feel for any DC at lesser-known schools who missed out on a place.

You really do need to read comments more carefully. We were discussing schools which routinely have hoards of top grades at GCSE as you were insistent that grade 9s were a pre-requisite for an Oxford offer. You brought up your finances as nobody else cares.

At my son's state school anyone getting into Oxbridge is so rare it generally makes the local paper!

Goodbye- I don't suppose that my DD would be too much competition for your DD (she has a few 7s in the mix😁). Interestingly she says that (Ancient?) Greek is the subject which would give a competitive advantage. She knows a lot about the Roman elements (it helps that my family is from an area rich in Roman ruins and museums - they still have a forum and amphitheater) but absolutely nothing about Greek (other than teen fiction inspired books and a couple of trips to Athens).
Either way, neither of us are hung-up on Oxbridge success - her view is that so long as she goes somewhere she can learn and follow her interests the she's happy.

As an aside, I think Oxbridge do invite some applicants to summer school if they have shown interest over a period of time. Has your DD had much interaction with Oxford?

Larry another poster suggested I was an independent school parent and you asked me to explain an apparent conflict, which I did (there was no real conflict). You appeared to care even if no-one else did and I was polite enough to help you out. I don't think I do need to read anything more carefully except perhaps my own comments - I'm afraid I just type (often badly) and post. That said, I did not say 9s were a pre-requisite. What I actually said was that those with a good number of 9s - since 9s were introduced within the A band to differentiate between the most able - that those applicants are likely to do better at aptitude tests and interview. I mean, it doesn't take the brains of an archbishop to work that one out. That's what happened in the early days of the A grade.

Either way, neither of us are hung-up on Oxbridge success - her view is that so long as she goes somewhere she can learn and follow her interests the she's happy.

Same with us bpisok. Always has been.

I don't think anyone has missed out oneteen. I suspect her chosen subject is a special case.

@Comefromaway - likewise! At my rubbish comp in the Midlands in the 90s when two people got into Oxford in one year it made not only the local but the county paper. If they'd been a whole family of Oxford successes they'd have been local superstars.

Like @Larrythelobster I couldn't give two figs about @goodbyestranger 's finances. It only came up when she said her DD had applied and been accepted for an independent school. It raised hackles given the disparaging comments made earlier in the thread about independent schools in the past (including my DS' school which was criticised for poor management by not shifting over to new GCSEs in Year 1).

I read these threads fof fun and I still harbour a dream that dd will apply to do philosophy at Cambridge (as advised by her GCSE RS teacher) but alas it is not to be as she has chosen to do just 2 A levels and a dance diploma instead!. (I wonder if the admissions process would give credence to the fact that one of her A levels is self-study though).

ONly joking she is following her dream (although she does also love academia) and thats what matters.

But I do think that the type of school a child attends makes a huge difference in perception. Two very good friends of mine are heads of departments in state secondaries in Devon. Unrealoistic house prices combined with a high cost of living and low family incomes mean the children at the schools they teach at can often barely afford the necessities in life never mind the luxuries. The differnece in aspirations and opportunities between them and the children who attend the highly regarded grammars are huge. One friend says that lots of families have to turn places down at such schools becasue they can't afford the transport and just generally feel they would be fish out of water. Often they don;t even bother entering their children for the exams because what would be the point in getting their hopes up. My one friend has to teach a subject to GCSE that she doesn;t even have an A level in herself. It must be so much harder to achieve well in that circumstance. We don't get that so much where I live as there is only one grammar and the main criteria to get in is to be Catholic. I am in favour of grammar schools in principal as I have a very clever child and can see how such schools would have benefitted her, but actually I do think they can just widen the gulf.

Not just local, the Torygraph & Daily Mail would have a field day