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

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New Thread from old one:

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

[quote DeRigueurMortis]**@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.

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I agree @SATSmadness you hear of students getting offers after disastrous interviews. I hope your dd is feeling ok.

DD's first two Oxford interviews were scheduled, and it doesn't look as if the third has materialised (not humanities). She doesn't quite know what to make of that, but I imagine it means a decision has been made one way or another. Whichever way it goes, I'm glad she applied. She's fairly introverted by nature, and can sometimes be a little tongue-tied in unfamiliar company, but I could hear her voice during the interview she did at home, and she sounded perfectly composed and articulate. So at least she's learned she's capable of more than she'd feared in that respect.

The IT issues are awful. It's bad enough having to do the interviews over a screen, let alone deal with the stress when the IT doesn't behave. Surely the interviewers will take this into consideration?

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

@IrmaFayLear someone told dd that she could still get an offer from her first choice college, is that not true? If she's been interviewed at a second college, are her chances better than at first interview stage?

Surely a candidate sent to a second college could still get an open offer from the first @IrmaFayLear?

Pembroke Cambridge is offering some places without interview. When this came up in my Facebook feed from The Tab I couldn’t quite believe it, but it’s on the Pembroke website.

Well, I suppose it does happen, but I think in 90% of cases it’s a no from college no. 1.

I think that Pembroke thing is awful. Even the most fantastic applicant on paper can muck it up in the interview, or be bumptious etc (not suggesting that these people were). It seems grossly unfair to spurn a candidate after a lacklustre interview when some lucky people haven’t been subjected to the same grilling procedure.

This is why I never believed that there is a "process" and there will be a "method" for selecting people. All candidates who apply to Oxbridge will have great GCSE and AL predictions, PS and references. Obviously they must be teachable to have gotten that far unless genius. I wouldn't be convinced if the performance at the interview would swing things one way or the other unless the interviewers develop a strong dislike or like foe a candidate just because. Luck plays a bigger role than we think

In a way at least Pembroke were upfront about it

I think if others had sneaked in via the back door, as it were, it wouldn’t stay quiet for long. They would have to take a vow of silence. The Pembroke person posted on Twitter that they had received an offer without an interview, so Pembroke were forced to come clean. I don’t think other colleges have been offering under the table or else they would surely have had to admit it I case their offerees started spilling the beans on social media.

@IrmaFayLear what I meant was Pembroke knew they would make the offer irrespective of interview performance so they did. Other colleges may also have candidates they would offer to irrespective of interview performance but we will not know

But if Pembroke cut down on time interviewing dead certs, that means that they freed up more time to interview others, who were perhaps more borderline and thus giving more of an opportunity to more applicants? Swings and roundabouts maybe?

I think someone said here that each year there will be some candidates so outstanding that even if nothing was said at interview, they'd still be given a conditional offer. Or maybe it wasn't here, but I've read it somewhere.

At the risk of being a bit outing ...soz Puds!

I am not sure you can second guess how your babies did. DD put a really speculative application in because her BoyF was applying. She came out of her interview saying they asked her about her portfolio, and she had a practical test on the day which went badly. She submitted only a couple pieces of work for her portfolio where as others had submitted sketchbooks and journals and her 2 interviews were car crash. She was absolutely convinced it wasn't going to happen & she would have to do a foundation. She got in.

That’s amazing @Unescorted did she accept the place? And her boyfriend?

They both did, he also was so convinced that it was not going to happen .... he is so super bright, inquisitive and just lovely so that was unlikely. Going from their assessments of their performance on the day it had been a lovely couple of days, but time to start on plan B.

So enjoy your Christmas' there is nothing they can do to change the outcome and even if it doesn't happen plans B, C or D can be just as amazing. Your kids are already performing to a really high level just to not get laughed out of the park. So go give them a huge hug and celebrate how far they have come in a really shit time - they are amazing whatever the outcome.

Hi everyone. Just a question which will sound ridiculous but here it is anyway... DS was out with friends yesterday and they all decided to ring UCAS and request their school references . Anyway, the reference is great, however, the school have stated one of his GCSE grades as lower than it was (ie an 8 rather than a 9). Do you think this matters and do they even distinguish between 8s and 9s really? Will the admissions tutor or DoS be able to see the correct grades on the UCAS form?

@quest1on - irrespective of what it says on the reference were the GCSE grades not entered separately? Apparently for this cohort levels 8 and 9 are considered the same by Uni's but I wouldn't be happy if the correct information wasn't submitted

chopc - Yes I’m sure the GCSE grades and subjects must have been stated on the UCAS form, but does the DoS see the whole form, I wonder, or just the reference, PS and SAQ?

That I don't know I am afraid

My DS had to read the school's reference for this very reason. To check for mistakes. When we looked at the data the college had one of his A grade GCSE equivalent was about to be left off....

DD was asked to read her school's reference to check for errors/omissions.

She also found something that needed amending.

The only issue might be, that anyone at the university who does see and read the form in its entirety might wonder which version of the grade is the correct one. And if deciding that the referee's is more likely to be, wonder whether any of the other grades the applicant entered were not what they actually got. They may not be able to do anything now (or even look at their emails for a couple of weeks), but I would suggest that your DS at least emails the teacher who wrote the reference to say that he had asked to see his reference and noticed that there was a discrepancy.

Looking at the publicly accessible area of the UCAS 'Adviser' section, there is an option to indicate that the referee has fully checked the applicant's qualifications and the universities do see whether this box was ticked or not. If it was, then hopefully anyone seeing a lower grade mentioned in the body of the reference would assume a typo on the referee's part, not an attempt to deceive on the part of the applicant.
www.ucas.com/advisers/managing-applications/our-adviser-portal/references-and-predicted-grades#checking-qualifications-

If universities don't distinguish between 8 and 9 anyway(?) it would presumably be less of an issue than an applicant claiming, say, a required 4 in Maths and the reference mentioning them having got a 3.

Thanks Marching.
I’m not sure there is anything that can be done about this tbh, as school is now closed until the 6th, by which time decisions will probably have been made.

Basically, what happened was, one of his papers was remarked because it was only 1 mark off the 9 grade and it went up (by several marks ).

Surely, admissions tutors would want to see the actual subjects / balance of subjects taken at GCSE and the grades per subject would be evident that way? I hope so!

Did everyone (Oxford) receive an email saying "thanks for applying, have a happy xmas, we know the wait is long, but results on 12th Jan"? DD said she received one, and also an email from all her other offer universities with good wishes, and hope you are considering us, we are wonderful .

I know when my DD went for her Cambridge interview she noticed 10 A* written on the top of the interviewers notes. She had 8 x 9 and 2 x 8.

So I think they treat them the same. If your DC has been interviewed recently I am sure decision has already been made to offer or to pool by now.