Oxbridge Interviewees for 2021 Entry - The Journey Continues - Thread 5

[Baaaahhhhh]

New Thread from old one:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4088426-Oxbridge-Aspirants-2021-New-Thread-4

Every year on these threads you see the same remarks about Durham and their approach. I really think they do themselves no favours with their aloof and slightly tricksy attitude. People do keep applying but there must come a point at which it starts to put people off.

I agree that Durham does itself absolutely no favours in its approach to applications. But - the applications experience does seem to be separate to the actual student experience. I've been checking into the 'Durham University' thread from time to time, as my own personal (hugely positive - no negatives) experience of being a student there 27 years ago is not to be relied on. I also have several friends with DC who are there/have recently graduated, and their experiences have all been very positive too. I admit, hardly an empirical study, but just on anecdotal evidence, I'd be happy for my DD to go there.

@Summer15coming - I agree that the student experience at Durham seems good. DS1 had it as his insurance after Oxford and all his friends who have started this year have been very content.

I think students at college based universities have been quite fortunate this year because the colleges have provided a good 'hub' for socialising at a time when broader socialising hasn't been possible.

I'm not sure if dd has had any communication from Durham but I imagine she would ignore it anyway. It's very annoying though that they leave it so late to give out offers.

Going back to the subject of second interviews at a reallocated college - does anyone know for sure exactly what this means? I took it as meaning they are interested in you but don't have enough space in your first choice college. But a neighbour I was talking to yesterday said it doesn't necessarily mean that.

With History(I'm assuming your DD is History but I haven't scrolled back), it's overwhelmingly likely to mean your first choice college has decided not to take you but you're a good applicant and other colleges which haven't found applicants of the right quality in their own pool are on the look out for others to fill their gap.

Or you could be an outstanding applicant and it could be an interview for the purposes of moderation. This is what I suspect the friend of DD's was interviewing for, given that she had five tutors from three colleges doing her second interview.

Or possibly gaps. When DD1 was helping with interviews ChristChurch refused to take any of its first choice applicants for a particular subject and put out an urgent call to other colleges to get as many as possible of the decent applicants sent over asap!

Thank you @goodbyestranger yes it's History (Ancient and Modern), sounds like a good sign in any case.

I'm just worried that dd is still very hopeful of a place and isn't really considering the idea of not getting an offer. I don't want to rain on her parade but I want to prepare her for possible disappointment too.

DD just called me. She's fairly certain it's "Game Over" for her as far as Cambridge is concerned (and I'm inclined to agree based on the info).

First interview plagued by IT problems from start to finish. Content ok-ish apparently but didn't get a good feeling from the interviewers as they seemed frustrated by the IT issues which were all at her end (done at school).

Second interview was apparently bad. Sounds like she clearly had a panic at not knowing/recalling something basic and didn't recover from that, answering without thinking enough or talking through her thoughts.
Who knows if the issues over the first put her off her stride as the second was only a short time after, but then again they'd presumably prefer candidates who weren't easily unsettled like that.

It's a blow for her right now but she has shown great resilience at times during her school years to date so I'm hopeful that within days she''ll just be focussing on the other irons still in the fire.

It's her favourite food for dinner this evening (planned for whichever way she felt it had gone) and something arrived this morning that will definitely make her smile which is good timing.

Best of luck to all, particularly those yet to interview.

Totally with you on that @bendmeoverbackwards - Having satrted somewhat lukewarm on Oxford back in the summer DS is now very invested in getting a place and I worry about it being a bit of a blow to his confidence. But as others have said, redirection is not the end of the world and time will hopefully show them that here are other, equally exciting routes ahead.

I saw this video message from Michael Sheen (of all people) to Jesus College students recently and I really like what he says about it being a long game:

m.youtube.com/watch?v=H97O2z1LcJ0

Hope your DD is ok @SATSmadness - it is a lot for them to carry on very young shoulders isn't it. Sounds like she's doing her best to manage her own expectations.

I think the extra college /pooled interviews might be a bit easier to process in the years when they are done at Oxford over 3 or so days - do your applied college, watch the notice boards, into the next one etc. Rather than having a week off between them, in which to calm down, feel it is all over, break up from school, etc etc. Makes it feel more re-tread-ish and harder not to dwell on “if my last effort wasn’t quite enough, not sure what the point is” type of thoughts.

Having said which, I went to a different college than that to which I applied and several friends’ children have so (for subjects that don’t have two colleges take a look as the basic process) so clearly it can all have a happy ending.

Hey ho. Will all be done for our household tonight

Fingers crossed both for C and her other options @SATSmadness. Medicine truly is a slog

@BigWoollyJumpers

Doesn't Durham have a disproportionate number of Oxbridge applicants though? So, maybe their thinking is that there is no point in early offering as some 25% of those whose applied in the early cycle, will end up going to Oxbridge. I assume every year they have a huge number of applicants who then disappear to Oxbridge, so they somehow have to balance those applicants off against others who are more likely to put them as first choice. It must be quite tricky to balance the numbers.

It's likely they do have a high proportion of early offers however, they are still in the same position as other Uni's really.

Based on previous years data they should "know" how many Oxbridge candidates are likely to take a place with them.

Their "algorithm" might be different to factor in higher numbers but there is really no logic/need for the process to be different, nor for this "tactic" of spamming prospective students and asking them to market them on social media before getting an offer/rejection.

It just smacks of "admissions arrogance" especially at a time when they've been the recipients of some really quite damning press coverage re: inclusiveness.

I can't help feel they do think of themselves as a "cut above" and historically that may have been true but now there's a fair few excellent Uni's that are on par as an Oxbridge alternative (thinking of places like Warwick, Bristol, UCL, Exeter, Lancaster, LSE etc) and Durham's cachet isn't what it used to be.

That said it's still absolutely a great Uni and I'd agree with a PP about separating the admissions process from the student experience.

@SATSmadness sorry to hear that. The IT issues sound like a nightmare.

Still it's not over until she gets notified and ultimately you never really know.

DS has decided he's going to assume a rejection. He's getting excited about Lancaster and if he does by some miracle get a Cambridge offer then that's a bonus.

I met with a friend who is a careers counsellor at a local private school and she seemed to think Oxford candidates routinely have interviews in two different colleges. Because they have notification of both before the first one takes place so it wouldn't be based on performance at the first one

I don't know anyone who applied for Cambridge who has had interviews at more than one college

@chopc. It depends on the subject. It is a normal “first round” procedure for some subjects. Others just the one college in the first round.

Exactly. It’s subject dependent. The confusion creeps in when subjects are conflated. The procedure varies.

Very sorry to hear your DD had those IT issues SATSmadness, that’s such bad luck.

@SATSmadness sorry about your daughter's IT issues . The interviewers should take this into consideration. If they will is another matter

As your daughter has secured interviews in several places I am confident she is a stellar candidate for medicine and she will achieve her dream of becoming a doctor regardless of her university - which matters less in Medicine

@SATSmadness that so unfair. Hopefully it is not as bad as she thinks. The possibility of not getting a place because of IT issues while trying to interview during a pandemic must be harder to accept than if you just didn’t get an offer in a regular year.

[quote ChimneyPot]@SATSmadness that so unfair. Hopefully it is not as bad as she thinks. The possibility of not getting a place because of IT issues while trying to interview during a pandemic must be harder to accept than if you just didn’t get an offer in a regular year.[/quote]

Agree. She can't be the only candidate this happened to.

You'd think they'd reschedule if this happened wouldn't you?

DD's interview at her second college went much better - she had practiced more with the whiteboard and stylus and it worked better.
I think she had more idea what to expect second time round as well.
This is a subject with interviews at a second college as routine (both invites sent before the first interview) so I don't know whether the second one going better means she is more likely to get an offer from them than the first?
I guess it is just a case of waiting until 12th Jan now.

Oh I am sorry @SATSmadness .. I hope she’s isn’t too upset (and the fave meal and surprise help).
Its an awful lot of stress for them to deal with and it sounds like lots of our dc seemed to have resigned themselves to redirection but hey surely some of our dc on this thread will make it through!!
After disappointing interviews ..Dd has focussed on her other irons in the fire now. It has helped enormously. I can see her being happy at ANY of her choices.

Thanks everyone., It's the second interview that sounded as if it was a classic (nightmare) example of how not to do an Oxbridge interview, despite all the research and a bit of practice. I guess nerves get the better of a great many adults sometimes, let alone 17 year olds.

I think a bit of hospital/G.P. practice work experience might have helped with adding to her and basic general knowledge in the field but Covid intervened there although she did do online stuff to try and compensate.

Glove punch with everyone with an interview-battered dc!

I have it on good authority that this year for humanities subjects - or at least the biggies like History and English - an interview at a second college means that it’s a definite pass by the first college but they still think you might be worth a spot elsewhere. Other subjects do more calibrating or offer two colleges as standard.

I am not hopeful for dd given that her second interviews did not go well, and that by their very nature they will be tougher given that thesecond college knows that the first one did not rate you in their top 7/8/9/whatever.

Ds pointed out though that at least with a second college interview the air is let out of the balloon a bit, so come January you are (somewhat) prepared for a no.