Oxbridge 2020 (8th thread)

[DadDadDad]

A thread to continue discussing entry to Oxbridge in October 2020 (less than nine months away ). All welcome, although this obviously will be of most interest to those with DS or DD holding an offer, and wanting to find a bit of support.

All too soon, 13 August will come over the horizon. Until then, ask questions... share experiences... discuss news and stats... write a poem... (we did briefly have some poetry on a previous thread).

With huge thanks to @HugoSpritz and predecessors for previous threads.

I think not Pembroke.
Of course, there's loads of other green space in Cambridge- eg in summer DD sometimes has her lunch in Coo Fen, where apart from the eponymous 'coos' she watched a family of cygnets being reared last year.

Checking in - DD has a AAA offer for Fine Art @ Oxford. For the stats she was 8 days over.

She is in a happy place, her A level are all Art based so none of the rollercoaster super stress your babies are going through with mocks and exams. Having said that she has worked really hard to get her final pieces and extended essays done. Just the "exam" pieces which start in Feb to do.

FingernailNibbler - add Fitz to that list - so chill & cool and even has a hedgehog hotel!

Serious point - environment is so important - I studied at a beautiful college at the Other Place - not allowed to even breathe in the direction of the hallowed turf. In effect I had 3 years in a concrete-albeit-beautiful experience. Worth a thought x

Hi FingernailNibbler it was 2xA* and an A to do MML. She was pooled from Jesus to Churchill.

Nice to hear of the other ex-premmies here: hard almost to visualise those tiny pink scraps connected up to those pinging machines are about to enter the adult world and soon leave most of us behind in their intellectual achievements.

(Obviously, I mean those "once tiny pink scraps" - they've grown a bit since then and these days they're mostly connected to a different machine that pings, warbles, buzzes, etc. )

How funny Dad and others, DS was also a preemie (31 weeks).

@errolthedragon I looked up Coo Fen. That's lovely - and near the Sidgwick site. Looks fantastic.
@Jaguar67 hedgehogs sound sweet. I guess each college has advantages.
After DD's interview she walked in fellows' garden (and no one told her off). Going to google to see if undergrads allowed there or just the tutors etc.
@kaptainkaveman why does Churchill ask for higher results than standard? Is that typical if you're pulled you have extra hurdle?

Pooled, not pulled

Some colleges have several bits of grass. So there'll be the court the tourists see when they first walk through the gates (this is the one most likely to have hierarchical rules dictating who is allowed to step on it) but then there may also be additional gardens / lawns further back, which undergraduates can sprawl all over to their hearts content.

Hi name changed too! Dd A*AA for E&M at Oxford. Should be achievable. Hasn’t chosen Insurance yet.

Wait til a tabloid gets hold of this thread and publishes "overdue babies discriminated against by Oxbridge"
DS1 was induced 10 days late, DS2 induced a fortnight over. They're obvs far too lazy for Oxbridge
(18 years belatedly!) for all you prem parents

D1 born on her due date. (But has been late for everything ever since).

She has just realised that one of the people who interviewed her in her first interview was Selina Todd.

Hugo, sorry could I ask as a total novice, potentially at the start of this process with one in the lower sixth.... Are you saying that Cambridge make more provisional offers but with higher grade requirements - eg A*AA, knowing that some won’t make the grades, whereas Oxford might make less provisional offers but with lower grades eg AAA. It seems like there are quite a few Oxford offers for Humanities subjects or MFL with AAA? I’m surprised as AAA is lower than what lots of unis state on their websites for the same / similar courses.

Also, surely if you drop a grade for Cambridge you won’t get the place, so tied this mean Cambridge is harder to get into than Oxford (for Humanities at least)?

Or perhaps the AAA requirement is a contextual offer, but it would be A*AA or higher for independent school applicants?

Sorry for so many questions!

“Does” not “tied” - apologies

Thanks for explaining.

Do Oxford do pre-interview aptitude tests for all subjects? What about something like History or Geography?

Also, if the required grades for a course at Cambridge are A*AA, but in reality, everyone who is actually offered following A-level results day has exceeded that, does this mean some people might have the offer withdrawn, even though they made the conditional grades??

Do Oxford do pre-interview aptitude tests for all subjects? What about something like History or Geography?
www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/guide/admissions-tests

HAT and GAT, respectively.

if the required grades for a course at Cambridge are AAA, but in reality, everyone who is actually offered following A-level results day has exceeded that, does this mean some people might have the offer withdrawn, even though they made the conditional grades??*

If an applicant meets the terms of the offer then the university accepts them. It's similar to a contract. In an individual subject at an individual college, there might be some years when they end up with slightly more students than expected, but overall the numbers remain fairly stable. They have years of experience of knowing what proportion of offer holders meet their grades.

You're right, @HugoSpritz
Most people applying do have strings of 9s and A * predictions and some of these fail to get interviews or offers as witnessed generally and on this thread
Yes of course. In this case it was just people DD thought were dead Certs on TSR (lurking ) didn't get an MML offer. I think the thing is, a low percentage of applicants are on TSR, so you never know about the competition. There seemed some dead certs, but who knows about all the other great candidates who are busy studying or doing RL things instead of posting on TSR. And there's definitely an element of good fortune on the day and how your interview goes.