Second year Oxbridge (2019)

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

I guess our dc would be known as Sophomores in the States Slightly scary eh?

This is a place to chat about the slightly strange and somewhat intense world our dc now inhabit during term time. It follows on from www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3381401-Oxbridge-Freshers-2018

If parents of prospective oxbridge dc have any questions, we are happy to try our best to answer from our limited experience and perspective :)

Lovely. My DD is flying back and then has stacks of reading material to get through!!! But thankfully she has enjoyed a turbulent place and hopefully safely nearly home.

Nearly back to reality, DS is off on holiday next week then plans to come back to get on with reading and writing a review. Can you believe they are grown up second years now?!

i hope it was a good flight Sunndowne and that she's back safe and sound.
I know Bake it's ridiculous.

DD got the keys to her 2nd year house this week!
Unfortunately I had an appointment so couldn't go with her yesterday. So one of her housemate's mums had the joy of toilet scrubbing and fridge bleaching all on her own! (flowers have been sent to express our gratitude!)
I drove down with a carload of stuff today and even though I was expecting a "student house" I wasn't prepared for quite that level of "studentness"!
It's pretty filthy, with grimy curtains and stained carpets. Not to mention the shoddy falling apart furniture. And a fridge door that won't shut!
To be fair to them though the girls have worked hard to get it clean and now they've got beds made, fairy lights up, cushions and throws etc it was looking much better when I left!
I left them organising utility bills and getting WiFi set up.
They all seem very happy and excited, so I suppose it's all part of the experience.
I declined their offer to spend the night on the sofa though . . . !

to the decline of the sofa Lobster!!! I remember my Year 2 student accomodation was a bit grim but I remember it clean. Quite a job to have to clean up!
So my DD is back safely to tell the tale and being as sensible as she is missed any glimpse of trouble on her summer camp but other Oxbridge students experienced: one for tear gas, another a panic attack as they stumbled into a very hectic situation by doing a wrong turn on google maps - shop owners closed up and wouldn't let them in! And while my DD and her friends treated themselves to a massage, another group of the Oxbridge team took a taxi home but driver got lost and went full steam ahead through a demo- apparently scary! They were staying in a remote beach area so was a bit out of the way, a real haven most of the time.
You can guess where she's been!!!
However, now she's back into studies and catching up with a few home friends.
Hope all DC are still chill before term startsand mums too!

Yikes Sunndowne. That's a little over adventurous for some of them. Still, quite a life experience!

Lobster it sounds like an episode of the Young Ones. Before you know it one of them will be wandering around with a turkey on their head

Thank you Kitten for our new thread. I am grateful for all ongoing support as our DC return safely from their summer adventures and start gearing up for second year.
Lobster Is this a college-owned house? I am assuming that cleaning isn't included in the rent then?!

Gosh, I’m glad dd’s (fairly wealthy) College provides accommodation for the whole duration of the course - no worries about where to live, landlords, sharing etc! 😳

I wonder how grownup our new second year dcs will feel when they see the freshers looking lost. Bless. ☺️

It's not college owned, but is right next door to the 3 houses which are college owned, and has been basically passed from 2nd years to 2nd years for as long as anyone can remember and considered an honorary college building.
DD has the option of staying in college but was keen to have a go at slightly more independent living for this year at least. They're encouraged to move back to college for 3rd year (and 4th for her)
But no, no scouts so no cleaning service!

Ah, that sounds good. 👍 Dd’s room is literally across the lane from college. They do have scouts (who are lovely) but I was surprised at the amount of dust and dirt in dd’s room considering the Scout does a “full clean” once a week...might have to send her back with floor wipes!

Not sure when DS gets to move in to his new abode, I don’t think he’s giving it much thought as he’s off on holiday. His college have finalised all the freshers now so he’ll be a college Dad this time next week. We’re relaxing a bit now we have DD’s (amazing!) GCSE results as it was a bit of a stressful wait, I’m sure it was less stressful first time!

How have you seen room Jamie? They are not back yet are they? Glad you like the room.

Fab news about your DD Bake. So good when things go well. We've had family results this week which were also great. I have to say I don't miss school results days for my 2- they are stressful. Uni seems a bit more chill - can I say that? Supportig them on the phone during exam weeks has its stresses though!

Dd got to pick her room at the end of Trinity term @Sunndowne. She has a chronic illness so needs to be in or next to college as opposed to 20 mins walk away in the usual yr 2 accommodation. They have a ballot anyway so everyone finds out where their room is in Trinity so they can go and have a quick nose. 👍 It’s not perfect - no view and looks out onto 3 walls 😳 but is quiet, private, en suite and bit bigger than last year’s so 🤷🏻‍♀️

Funny to think they will now have children of their own @Bakeandyarn ☺️

HesMyLobster just intruding to ask if you/ your DD knows how many ab initio students there are in each cohort. DD has been told just 20 across the whole uni but that sounds terrifyingly small. The Ox Admissions Stats don't distinguish. Anyhow - way, way fewer students than either of us imagined, if that's correct. Also, can I ask, did your DD do Classical Civilisation or Ancient History at any stage as a taught course at school or was she in at the deep end? DD is slightly rattled - still very keen, but rattled.

Sympathies for the mother scrubbing the house incidentally. Standards seem incredibly low for march outs!

Hi @goodbyestranger Glad to hear your DD is still keen on Classics.
I'd say in DDs cohort from what she's told me there are less than 20 ab initio students, more like 10 or 12 I think (across the whole uni. She's the only one at her college)
She never did any classic civ or even ancient history - she did history A level but that course didn't get more ancient than last century!
She self taught Latin GCSE, and took the WJEC exam which ended up containing a fair bit of classical civ stuff so she ended up needing to learn quite a lot of that too.
I remember that being a huge stress at the time when she found out (in the April) that the exams officer had entered her for that exam board as the one she thought she was being entered for was purely language/grammar based, so that's worth checking.

I will check with her about the number of ab initio though when I see her as that does seem very few.

Lobster/Goodbye - I can't imagine many people apply. Course II is fairly well hidden (well, DD thinks so) - not deliberately.
I was wondering whether they have 120 ish place and then assess them all together (with or without Latin/Greek). They might then decide their top 120 and from that decide how many ab initio? i.e. they don't have a specific number of places for I and II?

I can't see anywhere that gives that info so that might explain the lack of stats. I would also be v interested.

Thanks very much indeed HesMyLobster. She's self teaching the course for WJEC - at least she knows it's that exam board! But my goodness - 10 - 12!!!!

www.ox.ac.uk/sites/files/oxford/Admissions%20Report%202019.pdf

bpisok this says that 238 applied from the state sector in the past three years, and I assume that most of those by definition will be for the ab initio course. CAAH too but the stats are hugely mashed together.

I know this is not 'our' thread He'sMyLobster - but just wanted to catch you. All info gratefully received!

It's interesting to hear about Classics.

Jamie - well done to your DD coping with an ongoing illness and the rigours of Oxbridge. I hear from DD so many students have all sorts of things to cope with as well as managing the intense workload. Glad she got a nice room. DD's room is quite nice but she's amongst friends which is most important to her.

Thanks Sunndowne. Her illness affects her physically and emotionally so I’ve been very pleasantly surprised by the care and adjustments shown by her College and the uni itself. 👏👏 I wish she could be in the same building as her best friends this year but it’s a 20 minute walk and she just wouldn’t manage it multiple times a day. I’m sure they will get together lots though - bonkers workload allowing!

@goodbyestranger just managed to grab DD to ask her the numbers. I was a little mistaken as I forgot they were separated into Latin and Greek. So there are 12 Latin ab initio in DD's year and then she thinks slightly less doing Greek, so if about 8 that would make your figure of 20 exactly right.

Interestingly though she has just had an email about potential college children for this year.
At her college in her cohort and every cohort above hers there have been 5 Classicists - 2 Latin, 2 Greek and 1 ab initio.
This year for the first time there are 2 ab initio students. (Her email about college parents/children was basically asking if she wanted both of them or would prefer just one) She's not sure yet if that means there are still 5 but the split is different, or if there are going to be more classicists altogether. It's an exciting enough development that her college mum (who is involved in outreach) has been excitedly on FaceTime with her this morning!

Sorry to others for the slight derail!

DD also said she'd be very happy for your DD to get in touch with any questions - about the WJEC course or anything Classics related.
Although with your DCs' experiences I imagine you probably already have plenty of contacts!
I'll pm you her email address anyway just in case.

Thanks so much to HesMyLobster and to HesMyLobster DD.

Well, not much to say except aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaargh . Those numbers are just horrible.

I'll push off back to 2020 now but cheers again.