Skip to main content
Skip to main navigation
Skip to talk navigation

Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Saved Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Flip

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 39 40

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Higher education

Oxbridge 2020 (6)

999 replies

Justneedatemporaryname · 06/12/2019 20:22

New thread ready for when the old one gets filled up!

OP posts:

Report

Morgan · 08/12/2019 21:26

DS is flying over on Tues morning with a friend so he’ll be there from Tues to Fri - others gone over today for English . I think I’m more nervous than he is. He had a chat with his old headmaster tonight for interview hints and tips. Good luck to everyone 😃

Hoghgyni · 08/12/2019 22:20

Dd met someone tonight who has flown in from Shanghai and seen a real live sheep for the first time ever en route from Heathrow. I suppose it could be the equivalent of seeing a panda for the first time on a visit to China.

Justneedatemporaryname · 08/12/2019 23:12

Dd met someone tonight who has flown in from Shanghai
Gosh, puts into perspective how much more effort some people have to put in to this process. We are so lucky to have the amount of wonderful universities we have on our doorstep. And for just 9 grand a year too! 😊

OP posts:

Plaintainchipss · 08/12/2019 23:46

9 grand, for some people, is still a lot of money to pay for university. I think it’s easy to forget the privilege some of us ( not all ) have.

Good luck to all those with interviews starting this Monday. I’m sure all the DD will absolutely smash it !

Justneedatemporaryname · 08/12/2019 23:51

Yeah but 9k is nowhere near the true cost of the education is what I'm getting at. Some people are paying 30k-65k a year for their Oxbridge fees

OP posts:

MarchingFrogs · 08/12/2019 23:51

9 grand, for some people, is still a lot of money to pay for university. I think it’s easy to forget the privilege some of us ( not all ) have.

But it's not the £9250 pa tuition fee bit upon which one's privilege or otherwise has a bearing - everyone, prince or pauper, gets to borrow that and on the same terms.

Plaintainchipss · 09/12/2019 00:40

I don’t really want to turn this into a discussion on the cost of higher education at all. My point was just that 9k is a lot of money to people from lower-income backgrounds. Even though, in the UK it is easy to get a loan from the government and pay it back in increments. For a lot of students even the prospect of borrowing more than 60 k (London) is really daunting and often off putting. I just wanted to highlight that.

hattymattie · 09/12/2019 06:30

I thought they had an interview centre in Asia. I do know somebody who had the choice of an interview in the US or coming to Cambs and they opted to come over because they wanted to see the place.

Hoghgyni · 09/12/2019 06:58

They have a choice of Skype interviews or visiting if they are from outside the UK or EU. I suppose some want to weigh up if they would enjoy life in the UK in the flesh.

ofteninaspin · 09/12/2019 11:51

Good luck to all DC at both places this week - and their support teams back home .

GinWorksForMe · 09/12/2019 13:28

Interviews are over!

DS texted me 'SO cool. Those guys are AMAZING. Some brilliant questions. Would love to go here'.

So it seems that the whole 'not bothered about Cambridge' thing may have been turned on its head... let's hope he will still be happy with the other first choice if there is no offer.

Good luck to everyone else

seedybird · 09/12/2019 13:47

DD's first interview is done - one more tomorrow. She seems happy, so that's good

DadDadDad · 09/12/2019 13:51

@seedybird - is that Oxford? which subject?

Vango · 09/12/2019 13:52

Mixed reviews here. First one good, second one he's not sure how it went. I'll be told about it over dinner later apparently.

seedybird · 09/12/2019 13:58

DadDadDad - Yes indeed, Oxford and I'd rather not say if that's okay, as I don't want to risk identifying her .

FingernailNibbler · 09/12/2019 14:02

Wow, GinWorksForMe
Sounds amazing. I'm sure they can sense him leaning in to the difficult questions. Fingers crossed for him.

TerfinUSA99 · 09/12/2019 14:38

Had a lovely email from DS (he copied it to DH and both grannies too!) having a nice time at Oxford. I obviously missed the memo about him having to have 3 interviews (PPE) anyway it's 2 today and 1 tomorrow, and he's made friends with the son of a Labour MP...and is in an old building overlooking a quad.

Cambridge applicants have beautiful weather here today!

Kop1 · 09/12/2019 15:10

Good luck to everyone's DC. Hang in there. It'll be over soon. This time last year I was also chewing my nails when DS had his Ox law interviews. His 1st interviews went terribly (he thought it was really difficult and was really confused by the case he was given). Lots of tears. 2nd interview was also hard but better. Then a lot of excruciating pointless waiting (while he avoided some over-confident types who were psyching him out with how well they supposedly did), before he was sent home. Finally only 2 people from his college got pooled for 3rd interviews at other colleges. He left feeling utterly dejected by this. Anyway fast forward to last week, he had a good laugh with his tutor (who interviewed him last year) about these interviews and his personal statement. Try to not read too much into who gets pooled or who says they thought it was really easy etc. Just do your best and be yourself.

DadDadDad · 09/12/2019 15:21

@seedybird - I completely understand. DS is in Oxford this week and I've not revealed his subject on these threads for the same reason.

ErrolTheDragon · 09/12/2019 15:24

It would be interesting to know how many of those overconfident types actually got an offer. Anecdata among MN parents suggests that how the kid reckons they've done has almost no (and possibly inverse) correlation with offers!

DadDadDad · 09/12/2019 15:35

Errol - there is the school of thought that it's a good sign to come out of an interview thinking you'd struggled, because if you are giving good answers they will keep pushing you until they reach the limits of what you can do.

I suspect there are some eighteen year-olds who have good self-awareness and also pick up on the clues (verbal and non-verbal) from their interlocutor so have a realistic assessment of how they were perceived, and those who just think that because they said a lot it must have gone well. (Just as much as there are thirty / forty / sixty year-olds who fall in either category ).

Aurea · 09/12/2019 15:51

One of my son's law interviews last year was quite difficult. He had a legal case to read beforehand and was asked to summarise and discuss it in the interview. He hadn't quite finished the reading and had to tell the tutors he hadn't managed to read it all. They guided him to the section he missed and then he said he had an 'epiphany' and got quite animated (excited).

His second interview was at 9am and he said he was falling asleep waiting to be called in first (no nerves then!). He said he found this interview quite easy and wondered whether he was missing something for this reason. He had to discuss a short statement given to him at the beginning of the interview. Something like, 'it is illegal to take a vehicle without permission'. He was asked if he recognised any ambiguity or uncertainty in this statement and took it from there. There was no mention of his PS or anything personal at all.

He is now home for the holidays having had a ball (quite literally!)

Hope this helps.

Good luck to all!

Don’t want to miss threads like this?

Weekly

Sign up to our weekly round up and get all the best threads sent straight to your inbox!

Email address

Log in to update your newsletter preferences.

You've subscribed!

aibutohavethisusername · 09/12/2019 17:09

I’m so nervous for DD going to Oxford this week. I don’t know how she is so calm. Last week she even thought it was the following week!

Pepermintea · 09/12/2019 17:12

Just wanted to say good luck to all those with DC who have interviews this week. Hopefully they all will feel they have shown what they have to offer and can feel proud of what they've done.

Thecazelets · 09/12/2019 17:29

Have been lurking.... DS had his Cambridge interviews today. So relieved it's all over for now. Good luck to everyone with it still to come!

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 ··· 39 40

Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.