Oxbridge Aspirants 2022

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Hi not too sure if there is another thread started as could not see one. May be waaaaaay too early but wondered if any other parents out there who have a child applying for next year?

Dd would like to apply to Cambridge to study History and Politics in 2022. She is at a state A-level college doing History, Politics and English Literature. I have never had to push her towards studying she is a very motivated child and wants to give Cambridge a shot (a very long shot as we know!). Her GCSE results were good but not top notch (9s in History, English Language and literature and the rest 7s and 6s) so not sure how much this will affect her. So far her A-level essays are coming out at As and A* and those are her predicted grades so if she continues on track that should meet the criteria.

She reads a lot of extra curricular stuff and has a genuine passion for politics, has joined the local Labour party youth group. She has applied for the summer programme at Cambridge & is part of an Oxbridge group that the college puts together.

It feels like a such a long shot and the stats of actually getting in are very low only 18% of applicants successful in 2019 so I am trying to tell her not to get her hopes up whilst actually supporting her!

She is my first born so I have never been through this before. Anybody else out there? Would be lovely to hear from you.

It's the same as going through the Oxbridge application process in the first term of the first year of 6th form in England. Except that you are telling the Oxbridge people that you'll be leaving 6th form at the end of the first year 6th, and that you are having half as many lessons as people in England get in your subjects.

Not an expert so might be wrong but if Scotland do 7 x primary and 6 x secondary, that's one less than England isn't it, 7 x primary (R-Y6) and 7 x secondary (Y7-Y13).

Not in my DC's case, but she moved from a different system. She started school at 4 though, and I don't think Scottish children start school at 3.
Anyway, it is what it is, but goes quite some way to explaining why there are very few Scottish students at Oxbridge (the free university fees in Scotland is another part of the explanation, as is the natural wish some students have to go to university near home).

You don't start school in Scotland until age 4.5 - 5.5 as there is no reception year. You go straight into primary 1 from nursery (which is just play). In primary 1 you are introduced to phonics, etc and not before so there is one year less of formal education.

Good luck to her. Lots of extracurricular study in her chosen field is the best way forward - podcasts, lectures, books, documentaries and chat with like minded people to develop her critical thinking.

It's a late decision, so luckily she's not invested. At least not yet.
Has anyone tried the "names out of a hat" way of selecting the college to apply to? DD has already excluded the colleges she feels don't suit her, but half the colleges are left!

I think this will be DN's approach too @Lateyetagain. He's left it very late in the day to focus on Oxford.

If your DC is Scottish state educated, have a look at this project.

www.clydesideproject.org/

That's a nice idea, Aurea, though 3 people getting offers isn't huge... Does show it's possible, though. I'll mention it to DD.

Oh yes, forgot reception. Whoops! I'm not sure Scots are the losers there tbh... starting school at just turned 4 should be outlawed!

Another Scot here....DD about to start 2nd year at O. She felt being Scottish was a positive in her interviews - all the tutors were very welcoming and interested in her Adv Higher subjects. She did say she was pretty sure they didn't really understand the exam system but I guess they can't possibly know about everywhere. She has said a couple of times that she felt AH were a good preparation for the amount of self-led study needed at O. The EPQ on top of those in S6 nearly finished her off!

I thought I would just post this here because it's the one thing I wished we had known at the time DD was applying last year (didn't ultimately make a difference but would have reduced stress at the time).
When you do an early application you do not have to put all 5 choices down - you can add others later in the process. (Maybe you all know this but we didn't!)
In retrospect, despite saying all the right things about knowing she wasn't likely to get an offer from C etc, DD was very interested in her C application and did not spend as much time focusing on her other choices. Two were definites for her but the other two were really "these kind of fit what I want; I'll just stick them down".
She got offers from them really quickly and then an offer from one of the definites. She then had a massive wobble about the other definite and decided it wasn't an option for her at all (they rejected her in the end anyway but it was very late). And then she had what she perceived as the worst interview ever and, over Christmas/January - which was crappy anyway because of lockdowns - she was in the position of thinking "I've only got one offer that I would want to take". Had she delayed with the last two I think that would have been a good time to look at other unis and maybe compromise on some of her thinking (eg she was adamantly opposed to campus uni) to get a better course eg at York.
In the end she did get her C offer and the other became her insurance, but I think it would have been a much better use of those weeks between interview and offer to have been getting interested and excited about another possible uni.
Hope that helps some people!

I second @Chilldonaldchill’s sage advice. DD was pretty sure on her top 3 and basically added another random 2 that “looked good”. When her 2nd/3rd choice Unis came in with higher offers than C it majorly added to her stress. She received an offer from C but was less than enthusiastic about her insurance.

That's really interesting. Have I understood that right, that you can apply for Cambridge/Oxford/med school in October then add other choices later?

DS is struggling to see beyond Oxford to consider his plan B - lots of other great choices but he doesn't have a good feel on what's right for him at all.

Re @Chilldonaldchill's very insightful post - may I offer my twopence? A strategy that worked for our DD who received an offer from O was to apply to her 2nd choice for two slightly different courses, one with standard offer same as O's in which case it would have been her firm had O rejected her, the other for a course with a standard offer that was one grade lower. She got offers from both courses for her second choice, which she was extremely enthusiastic about and she ultimately insured the lower offer. Took a lot of pressure off knowing she had two places she loved, but of course the insurance has to be for a course that a DC would be happy to study and for which the personal statement still makes sense. Don't gamble on being able to switch once you get there- for all that these top universities might trumpet about their being flexible, I don't know of anyone in our DD's cohort who actually managed it (unless it was a Cambridge tripos thing), and trying to switch once you get there to a course with a higher standard offer without the grades will obviously be a complete non-starter.

Yes @VikingNorthUtsire - our DD just couldnt get excited about a 5th choice and originally only put 4 down before the Oxbridge deadline. She applied in November for the one that ultimately became her insurance.

Following your Oxbridge thread last year was so useful. DD has already submitted 2 only for internal review/15 Oct deadline as a result, giving her thinking time for November onwards further 3. The 2nd was not for Durham, given their perceived apathy towards those students that submit early for Oxbridge. She’ll add Durham later; only just has circa 5 to choose from given that not all does the language combination she is looking for.

Thank you Chilldonaldchill and other posters.

@justaweebit

Another Scot here....DD about to start 2nd year at O. She felt being Scottish was a positive in her interviews - all the tutors were very welcoming and interested in her Adv Higher subjects. She did say she was pretty sure they didn't really understand the exam system but I guess they can't possibly know about everywhere. She has said a couple of times that she felt AH were a good preparation for the amount of self-led study needed at O. The EPQ on top of those in S6 nearly finished her off!

Hi fellow Scot. I didn't think the EPQ was available in Scotland? I looked it up and it said it wasn't. It's certainly not available at our school.

@ealingwestmum is this a recent thing with Durham? My knowledge is a bit out of date; there didn't seem to be any lack of enthusiasm for Oxbridge candidates on Durham's part when my DD applied (although they did typically offer after Oxbridge had made their decisions) but that was a few years ago now and I know how much the landscape has changed.

Oxfordsnotbrogues, I added in perceived purposely. I actually don’t know if they do in reality, just recent years of keeping some students hanging (and not just because of subject order of offers) has given me this anecdotal view. In addition to their pre admissions process and handling vs other unis. However I know that once in, student experience is positive and teaching rated highly, hence why it’s still on DD’s shortlist, not mine.

@Chilldonaldchill

I thought I would just post this here because it's the one thing I wished we had known at the time DD was applying last year (didn't ultimately make a difference but would have reduced stress at the time). When you do an early application you do not have to put all 5 choices down - you can add others later in the process. (Maybe you all know this but we didn't!) In retrospect, despite saying all the right things about knowing she wasn't likely to get an offer from C etc, DD was very interested in her C application and did not spend as much time focusing on her other choices. Two were definites for her but the other two were really "these kind of fit what I want; I'll just stick them down". She got offers from them really quickly and then an offer from one of the definites. She then had a massive wobble about the other definite and decided it wasn't an option for her at all (they rejected her in the end anyway but it was very late). And then she had what she perceived as the worst interview ever and, over Christmas/January - which was crappy anyway because of lockdowns - she was in the position of thinking "I've only got one offer that I would want to take". Had she delayed with the last two I think that would have been a good time to look at other unis and maybe compromise on some of her thinking (eg she was adamantly opposed to campus uni) to get a better course eg at York. In the end she did get her C offer and the other became her insurance, but I think it would have been a much better use of those weeks between interview and offer to have been getting interested and excited about another possible uni. Hope that helps some people!

Thank you @Chilldonaldchill that is so useful to know. My dd has been so fixated on Oxbridge it is very hard to decide the other 4 especially when in person open days are only just starting to happen.

@cosmiccat at the time I would have not said that DD was as invested (typo in my original post - invested not interested!) as I later realised her to be. She's very good at saying all the right things and it wasn't until after her interview that we realised quite how important this was to her.
I think, once she had got the application in and it was out of her hands, she would have made better choices about the other unis.
At least you know already how your DD is feeling and can help her through the process a bit sooner maybe than we could...

This tip is so helpful. Do you have to pay extra fees if you add additional choices before the main deadline?

I don't think there is much truth in the 'apathy to early applicants from Durham' suggestion. DS1 got his invitation to interview from Oxford yesterday on the same day as his Durham offer.

Not yesterday! On the same day as...!