Oxbridge Aspirants 2021 - New Thread (2)

[Baaaahhhhh]

Sorry posted last message on the last thread:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/3757768-Oxbridge-Aspirants-Sep-2021

Here is the new one......

What about New College? When ds applied (four years ago) the college with the biggest private school reputation was St Edmund Hall. Ds and I were shown around another college by a very floppy-haired young man and he said that “Teddy Hall” was full of “poshos” !

Of course I understand that not all privately-educated kids are posh, and even if they are, so what? Does that mean they aren’t clever? It seems all wrong to have to worry that an applicant is going to be disadvantaged because of their schooling. On TSR there are no end of kids asking about how various “problems” bump them up. A couple have had the cheek to say their mental health has been affected by Covid - yeah, you and the entire population !

Twocustardtarts Oh please don't worry. Put it this way, if DD was offered there, she would go there regardless. It is a very good college, and very beautiful. It gets very busy in the summer with tourists. I think it's "reputation" is based on the number of public (as opposed to private) school DC's there, and has lots of very outgoing and confident types. That's just not a good fit for my DD as she is quiet and shy, and socially anxious. However, as I have said, if the offer came in, she would still accept.

IrmaFayLear DH just suggested New..... DD is NOT posh in that sense. I think we are very normal, albeit private school educated, with standard Surrey accent (perceived as posh maybe) with obvious spare money to pay for it. But we don't live a lavish lifestyle, and I would say we are pretty solidly middle class!

As for "problems" school are encouraging Cambridge applicants to fill out additional form with any and all life challenges they may have faced. This is not in the spirit of the additional information, which was meant to help DC's with real issues, but I assume everyone is at it, so that's what it has become.

Thanks Baaaahhhh! Dc is first child to leave home, I’m glad they’re going and happy for them but getting a little bit jittery as it gets closer.

Dc is state educated (grammar) but quite confident and probably looks even more confident to outsiders.

Good luck with your application!

IrmaFayLear Teddy Hall also known for good looking young men!!

So much of this college reputation is folklore and gossip amongst past and present students. The old adage still holds firm though, which is wherever you end up, you tend to love your college, and the unique experience that Oxbridge provides.

To be honest, we never even looked at Oxford. Not sure why, really. I do get the impression that the admissions process is more centralised at Oxford though - eg. If you are called for interview but aren’t directly successful at the first college, you might stay for a few days and get “passed around” for interview/s where there may be places at other colleges. At Cambridge, they tend to just have an interview at the college they apply to. Numbers of applicants v places do significantly vary between colleges for different courses, for whatever reason. So I suspect college choice matters more. They say the “pooling system” sufficiently moderates, but you only have to look at the interactive graphs in their website to see that some colleges are more successful in getting students pooled than others. I don’t know if this is because they push harder for them in the moderation process, or that they just get, on average, a slightly higher “standard of applicant” at some colleges than others?

DD has her Oxford choral scholarship audition time. Anyone else?

GreyBow That's exciting - is it over zoom, or live?

@Baaaahhhhh they need a pre recorded section for her chosen piece, and then it's over zoom for the folk song and sight reading.

I think this new normal is hard on everyone, but I am very impressed how people are coping with doing things differently.

Hello everyone

We are very late to this particular party, and I just have one quick question that I'm having trouble finding the answer to. My DS had considerable disruption in Y12 due to ill health. He had been considering making an application to Cambridge this year, but is now having a last-minute meltdown in thinking that Oxford might be more suitable for his subject. One quick question:

• we had already established that Cambridge have an Extenuating Circumstances form, supplied by a teacher or doctor, that you can supply them with shortly after they receive your UCAS if your grades are not as top-notch as they might require. This is DS's situation. We'd like to know if there is an equivalent system for Oxford??

Hope you can help - thanks.

There is something on the Oxford websote:

Other extenuating circumstances

We are sympathetic to the fact that sometimes candidates under-perform at school or college because of extenuating circumstances. If you feel that your performance has been affected in this way please let us know. Examples would include disruption caused by change of school or system, severe discontinuity of teachers, bereavement, and debilitating illness...

...You could include this information in your personal statement or your teacher could mention this in their reference. If for any reason this is not possible, then we would advise you to contact the college you applied to (or are assigned to if making an open application) once you have had confirmation that your application has been received...

www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/applying-to-oxford/guide/ucas-application

So more or less the same system as for other universities (other than Cambridge). The usual advice is that anything regarding extenuating circumstances is best explained by the referee, rather than by the applicant in their PS.

@kitnkaboodle

Hello everyone

We are very late to this particular party, and I just have one quick question that I'm having trouble finding the answer to. My DS had considerable disruption in Y12 due to ill health. He had been considering making an application to Cambridge this year, but is now having a last-minute meltdown in thinking that Oxford might be more suitable for his subject. One quick question:

• we had already established that Cambridge have an Extenuating Circumstances form, supplied by a teacher or doctor, that you can supply them with shortly after they receive your UCAS if your grades are not as top-notch as they might require. This is DS's situation. We'd like to know if there is an equivalent system for Oxford??

Hope you can help - thanks.

There is a form, but equally an email from your dc's school to the admissions tutor for that college would do the same thing. They are open to this kind of communication, I don't know how much weight they give it though.

@Millylovespuddles UCAS don't, but Oxford do. They allocate a college to every application. Any application reader or interviewer won't know if your dc applied directly or via the pool.

@MarchingFrogs @Ulelia Many thanks for that - it's invaluable info!

Any application reader or interviewer won't know if your dc applied directly or via the pool

Interesting.

Update for DD - she has opted to stick with Worcester despite school recommendations against. She looked at all the colleges AGAIN, and still came to the same conclusion. She likes it, there are relevant tutors there she can have a good interview with (if she is lucky and gets them!), and what the hell, if she did an open application she could be allocated the same college anyway!

Someone has to get into Worcester ! Looking at the statistics it is admittedly very popular, but application numbers alone don’t tell you how many of those were realistic and fell at the admission tests horse.

Someone has to get into Worcester

Exactly. You never know, perhaps everyone will avoid it next year!!

Are people still weighing up the relative merits of 2021 entry cf deferred application for 2022 entry given the potential knock on effect of this year's debacle?

DS applying for Cambridge 2021 entry but I'm having a wobble on his behalf. His PS has been approved by school and internal deadline is next Monday. It's decision time....

@Tenpastseven DD's is in the school system with everything approved. She's not deferring, but is fully aware that she may have to (or choose to) apply again next year.

She's trying to keep an open mind but on balance decided deferring wouldn't add anything.

@GreyBow yes it’s probably time to hold our nerve

DS’s school seem to be rushing through lots of assessments with little notice on new content. On the plus side It’ll get him used to working under pressure I suppose?

One confirmed case in his 6th form bubble already and approx 60 ‘close contacts’ have been sent home to self isolate. We are teetering on the edge....

DD is dead set on Worcester too, but is applying from a state school. Am i right i thinking it wont disadvantage her to apply to a popular college, as she will just get re- assigned if they think she is good enough but dont have space?
She picked Worcexter because of the grounds, but also because some first year rooms have access to kitchens, and she prefers to cook for herself as she is vegan.

If you are a credible candidate (ie make it to interview stage) then someone will be reassigned to somewhere else either before or after interview. This happens to masses of applicants, and why it is not a good idea to really set your heart on a particular college. I know people do spreadsheets and recce trips and comparisons... but it is good to drum into your aspirant that a place anywhere is a big win.

When ds applied, the assembled company of 40 for History were welcomed and told they'd all done very well to get there, but the college had only 8 places, and those 8 places would not necessarily go to those there. A bit of a downer but good to be realistic and made those not getting in (ds!) feel a lot better.

Dd is struggling a bit with picking her other 4 universities. She is applying for maths and philosophy, so not available everywhere. She also wants to avoid very big cities ( london, birmingham, manchester), and not Bristol because we live here. Current possibles are Warwick, Edinburgh, Southampton, Nottingham and Liverpool. Any experiences of those unis on here?

Tenpastseven - I believe Cambridge confirmed in a tweet that they have managed to accept all those who made their offers into the 2020 cohort.

If you are concerned though, ring admissions for the particular college and ask. This is what DS did

I also emailed Durham re- deferrals because DS couldn’t get through and was just holding for ages. Nobody answers the phone there, it seems. I asked if they had a high proportion of deferrals due to their initiative to offer bursary payments to those meeting offers who were prepared to defer. That was over two weeks ago - no answer.

Anyway, UCAS form into the school today, as per their procedure.

They had a week of formal exams last week, so only went in at exam times. It was past A-level papers. So this feels like their first week back in school really. Hope it doesn’t close by Friday!

@Greybow just catching up with this thread.

My daughter's got her choral audition on the Tuesday morning - and has sensibly turned over the problem of a school exam clash to her tutor to sort out, which I'm pleased about. She should be recording her piece in her lesson this morning. The live audition arrangements sound sensible - 10 minutes with someone to check all the technical stuff is working, and only then passed on for the actual audition bit. It seems the sight-singing will be presented on screen which sounds fun ....

Good luck to your daughter - and anyone else who has someone auditioning. Out of interest, does she sing sop or alto? I'm wondering if the audition times may be grouping candidates by voice type, or else by their college preferences.

It's not the university-prompted deferrals that worries me (although according to something I read, on TES I think, 13% of places have been filled that way), but the number of last year's yr 13s who are now having a bash with achieved grades. Lots have nothing to lose by putting Oxbridge as a choice as they were having a gap year anyway. Also a fair few are retaking in the Autumn ( and in summer 2021 it seems) to up their grades. It does seem as if last year's crew are having a very generous number of cracks of the whip.