Oxbridge Aspirants 2022

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

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.

[SandyBayley]

@Treeoutside - I have no idea what you're talking about. What is the snowflakes thread? Is this about Oxbridge or universities in general?

[goodbyestranger]

I've no ides what the Snowflakes thread is either SandyBayley, but the content of the quote sounds pretty fair.

[goodbyestranger]

Seems you're prone to overreaction Treeoutside!

[doubleshotcappuccino]

What's the form with teacher references .. do they do them
this week?

[Treeoutside]

It's about UK universities. Apparently there's a big influence from the US. There are a couple of lecturers on that thread - sounds like a really bad downward trend.

[goodbyestranger]

doubleshotcappucino most schools write the references over the summer so that can simply attach them once the student has completed the UCAS form and it's been checked and sent.

[doubleshotcappuccino]

@goodbyestranger fab thanks a million .

[Gizmo98765]

@doubleshotcappuccino I can’t speak for all schools. But I think at DS’s school the teachers were writing them over summer. DS finally submitted his UCAS form to school at the weekend and he thinks once they do this the teachers then attach the references to the form. Although this is my first DC at Uni and I haven’t seen the UCAS form as DS is currently isolating in his bedroom as he tested positive for covid last week but we are in regular contact over phone and FaceTime. Good luck to everyone applying.

[ealingwestmum]

Morning, a question for those with DC doing on online oxbridfe interviews last year: If applying for a course that required an at-interview assessment vs pre, did they get any advance heads up (say 20/30 mins for example) or was it all during the online time window?

Most of DD's peers are all in the pre-assessment camp, if invited to C interview it's likely she'll be required to have 2 x assessments across language depts so was just looking for an idea of how this would work with all online again this year.

[doubleshotcappuccino]

Thanks @Gizmo98765 good luck

[DahliaMacNamara]

DD's Oxford interview questions were all within the interview timeframe, with no advance preparation time. That was for a science-y course where both sets of interviewers pretty much exclusively asked her to talk through maths questions.

[ealingwestmum]

That’s great, thanks so much Dahlia

[pepperaunt]

Ditto DD’s Cambridge (science) interview questions

[ErrolTheDragon]

The second of DDs interviews for engineering a few years ago was preceded by a written test - the idea was to work through as much as possible and then carry on in the interview with the bits they'd got stuck on or not finished. She actually managed to complete it in the time (making up for the total train wreck of the first interview which turned into a staring match) so the interviewer came up with another fun question to work through.

This format was college-specific. I would guess that because of the difficulties of doing tests online they may have dropped it now.

[NiamCinnOir]

DD has just moved in to her college, has a huge room with a fireplace and bay window, so feels very lucky. Very friendly second years around too. Took longer to sort out her wi-fi than to unpack!

[NiamCinnOir]

Sorry, posted on wrong thread

[ealingwestmum]

Perfect, thanks Pepperaunt and Errol.

Great news NiamCinnOir, irrespective of what thread you intended to update

[NiamCinnOir]

Dd (O, MFL) wasn’t given any pre-reading time during her online interviews last year, but was given a poem and a piece of prose to comment on in two of them, both were short.

[Piggywaspushed]

Application gone off today!!

[doubleshotcappuccino]

@Piggywaspushed good luck ! We press send on Sunday !!

[SandyBayley]

DD's went yesterday 😊

[doubleshotcappuccino]

Good luck all - I'm hoping we can feel a sigh of relief when it's all in!

[Piggywaspushed]

DS has now already got the email about filling in the SAQ so that's the next task, I guess.

[Piggywaspushed]

I haven't looked at it yet ...DS just told me he had an email!

I thought it was pretty easy but there seem to be whole webinars about it!