Oxbridge Aspirants: Sep 2021

[funkysatsuma]

Not sure if it's too early to start this thread in Nov 2019 :)

DS would like Cambridge Economics as the first choice. Would like to know where can we get some help to prepare for the ECAA test - appreciate any pointers/links. Thanks in advance

And more: New College, Oxford, for example, has a historic relationship with both Eton and Winchester College, which sees New College representatives regularly invited to events at Eton, and New College electing two Winchester fellows.

At Cambridge, Peterhouse College’s director of studies is a governor at Winchester, where fees are £41,709 ($54,4480) a year. Three Winchester students have been accepted to study at Peterhouse over the past three years.

As DD is a girl & by default couldn't go to Eton or WinCol, she had to take a calculated risk whether to apply to a college with a higher than average proportion of boys who had been to top schools or whether to stick with her Leftie Liberal roots and apply to a Leftie Liberal college. I would strongly recommend just getting a deal for the range of colleges at an open day or visit, but be prepared for the unexpected as Sandy says upthread. One of her best friends holds an open offer, so she won't know until August which College she will be living in if she gets the grades.

Deal = feel for

77seven have a really good look at the websites for each college - different colleges will take different numbers of students so it might be an issue if your dc wants (like my ds) to be in a college that takes a higher proportion of students of a particular subject. So for example some Oxford colleges take only 1 or 2 students in a particular subject, other might take 8 per year. Both the official webpages and the alternative prospectus should be able to help. It's good to go and visit too, walk around see the colleges and get a feel. But ultimately they may be pooled or have an open offer so best to keep an open mind.

Thanks, HuaShan, I’ll do that.

Thise stats are very interesting, but I’m not sure they’re the whole picture tbh. For instance, there’s many schools in London that I know of with higher Oxbridge admissions than the schools mentioned there. Odd that there’s no mention of either if the Tiffin Grammars, for instance? No mention of Godolphin and Latymer, Latymer Upper, NLCS, CLBS, Hampton or Guildford High School? I wonder if only selective data has been released for these stats because just as many students go from these schools as the ones listed.

The top 8 include Eton, Peter Symonds, Hills Road, Westminster & St Paul's. The Sutton Trust report was all over the press last year. www.theweek.co.uk/98374/eight-schools-dominate-oxbridge-admissions

DS's school doesn't have special links with any college or feature in that article.
When selecting a college, he didn't look at any statistics about the demographic of the applicants. He went to a college open day last February and liked everything about it. In the summer he went to a residential summer school and stayed in another college for comparison (too far out) and while he was there he visited a couple of others (too big, too small). It could best be described as a Goldilocks approach.

@77seven I think Tiffin Boys (for instance) don't send big numbers compared to some of the schools listed in the Telegraph. Looking at their 2019 numbers they sent 22 to Oxbridge combined (15 Cambridge and 7 Oxford). Hampton 24 sent in 2019 and GHS sent 14 in 2018. Many of the schools mentioned on the list send 40+ to each year, or at least have historically. Things may be a bit different this year and in the future of course .

As there are 31 Cambridge colleges and 39 colleges Oxford colleges I think you'd be unlikely to see the 22 pupils reported on the Telegraph list as they'd have been spread around the colleges. I also think for Tiffin Boys a lot of the strongest candidates will be heading for medicine.

An crosse posted with @Hoghgyni - her link to the 'top 8' put the numbers in context.

If you would like the whole picture, go behind the Telegraph pay wall as it lists the schools which have received the most offers for each college. Here is the link to a more detailed report by school for Oxford for 2018 cycle.
public.tableau.com/views/UniversityofOxford-UCASApplyCentreApplications2018/UCASApplyCentre?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y&:showVizHome=no

Here's an easy list with stats
_
www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-46470838_

The Tiffin School you mentioned only got 9 in, Latymer 20, both below Symonds at 25.

@Hoghgyni - that's for Oxford, Tiffin Boys typically send more to Cambridge. Still not as many as the 8 listed by the Sutton Trust though.

I have an Oxford bias these days. My love affair with Cambridge stopped this time last year around the time that UNIQ places were released and I realised that Hugh Bonneville & I had no hope of bumping into each other again.

Me too. Funny that

We really should leave the aspirants thread and stick to our own 2020 thread don't you think?

Nooo - stay if you like

I’m surprised LEH is mentioned at not Hampton though, when the two schools are side by side and Hampton send more to Oxbridge nearly every year. Maybe it’s because they’re more dispersed between different colleges?

Also, I think the success rates for offers are possibly more telling as to the information and extra support the various schools offer. There is an increasing trend now for US uni applications and many of the London day schools are sending the same or more to Ivy League than Oxbridge. Imperial, UCL and LSE are also very popular and have higher numbers of applicants at the schools my DC attend. My DS has friends applying for medicine who are all likely to get 3xA* and got all 9s at GCSE and they’re all talking about Edinburgh. Is this suddenly the place to go for medicine?

I think the LEH/Hampton question is answered by clustering. Looking at the LEH figures a number went to Murray Edwards. I suspect Hampton boys scatter.

I wouldn't overstate the US numbers. They're significant but not huge. The costs are extortionate and certainly ruled it out for us and many SW London parents with DC in independent schools.

I agree the fees are extortionate. At the school mine go to, there is a whole advisory process for this though, which friends of DS have been involved in for some time already. Some have been doing various “summer programmes” at Yale, Harvard etc for a couple of years. Nothing about Oxbridge as yet, though there is a “uni applications launch” open evening in early March and a talk for anyone interested in this route. Last year, I think 20 went to US / Canada out of roughly 200 in the sixth form, so 10%; a similar proportion to Oxbridge. Liberal Arts is popular over there. Quite a few families have US connections or the patents studied there themselves.

That's huge! LEH sent one girl to the US last year. DS1's school sent about 10 last year - that's about a 1/4 of their Oxbridge numbers. And that's with a programme like you describe and plenty of parents with US connections.

This is Latymer Upper, sandy. You probably know it.

Just checked for Godolphin and Latymer where DD goes and they also offer IB. 108 girls. 18 to Oxbridge. 18 to US and a few more to Italy by the look of it (Boccoli)?

These schools are both Hammersmith and get a lot of central London parents which may have something to do with high percentages of overseas applicants.

I have no idea what you're all talking about as a non-London, bog standard non-selective state school parent, so I'm bowing out. My advice remains to not overthink anything as universities (not just Oxbridge) don't always play ball & can make some unexpected decisions.

Sorry @Hoghgyni - went down a SW London rabbit hole there.

I was chatting to DS1 this morning about what he thinks made the difference for his application and he said that he thinks the thing which really made the difference was his reading around the subject. He did all the things that are recommended as supra-curricular (competitions, courses and work experience) but thinks the huge amount of reading was the key. He did this because he loves his subject though, I don't think it's something a candidate would do if they didn't love their subject.

So for any Year 12s I'd suggest get reading now - and make a list of what you've read.

However, for DD's interviews for PPE no amount of reading around the subject would have helped. Her economics interview started with her being told that they expected her to have no technical knowledge whatsoever & wanted to understand her reasoning. Her other two interviews covered everything from the Kardashians to Star Trek & Dr Who based scenarios.

Yes. DD's Classics interviews encompassed a conversation about x-box games (so she has a lot to thank her brothers for :))

I think the reading may be helpful in the personal statement element though....

I must admit I’m feeling a bit out of my depth with some of this conversation. My son goes to a non selective state school in the midlands, but has hopes to do Physics at Oxford. I appreciate hearing that his genuine interest for the subject and all the reading might help but I do wonder when reading some of this, is he up against things and are there colleges he should just rule out completely. I don’t know! It’s all new to us.