Oxbridge Aspirants 2022...Part 2...applications submitted now the tense wait!

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

Thought I would start a new thread as part one is nearly full and found thread one to be of great support.

So its deadline week this week for our applicants then the nervous wait begins to find out of they have made it to interview. DD applying for HSPS at Cambridge. We know it is a long shot but got to be in it to win it and she is very keen to try. Looking at the admissions info it does not look as though she will need to sit a test prior but all the best to those who will have to.

Thanks so much esther and Viking

Two of DD's friends received interview invitations today to Jesus and Pembroke respectively for Law and HSPS FYI so they're just starting to trickle in...

Oooooo, when are the interviews?

@mrsfixit

It is obviously only right that if only 20% of students attend independent schools, then proportions if applicants / offers should reflect this. My point was that while this is already the case at some colleges, it is not true for all at Cambridge (no idea about Oxford as I haven’t looked at those stats).

It’s interesting to see, for different colleges, the proportions of applicants v offer ratios as these apply to the two sectors. It does seem that there are variations between colleges. Compare St John’s to say, Homerton over the last 5 years, for instance. It’s easy to see graphically and at a glance on the Cambridge admissions stats.

Where can you find that level of detail? I have looked at the Cambridge stats quite a bit but I've missed those bits. I'm interested because DD applied to a very-state-school heavy college which had a large influx of applicants her year. She was pooled to another college which interestingly only took a couple of its own applicants and pretty much everyone who they accepted was from the pool. She has got to know a good number of people but obviously way less than the whole year group (the college is on the larger side) but almost all of them are from London indies. She's met 3 people who aren't (and herself. So 4).
It would be good to see the stats for the whole college to see whether or not her experience is very skewed. I'm only asking out of nosiness really - she says everyone she's met is absolutely lovely and very accepting of everyone else... The point that someone made previously about colleges taking state school students from the pool could be true in her case (one of the others she knows is also doing her subject).

That seems v late. My son isn’t even doing Oxbridge but sent two weeks ago and has offers from all his unis already. Both at his school and mine the internal deadline is significantly earlier.

@Musmerian

That seems v late. My son isn’t even doing Oxbridge but sent two weeks ago and has offers from all his unis already. Both at his school and mine the internal deadline is significantly earlier.

What's late? Did I miss something

DC1 got in 2 years ago and DC2 is trying this year. It's a very different experience. DC1 went to private school whereas DC2 goes to a comprehensive. I had almost nothing to do with DC1's application as it was all done through school and DC1 had support from people there. I'm quite a bit more involved this time. DC1 was interviewed at the college, rather than online like this time. After A'level results there was a long period of not knowing the outcome, because DC1 failed to meet their offer, appealed the decision not to offer them a place (on the basis that the A'level results received were lower than the teacher predictions), was rejected again, and finally got the place after all because of the Government's decision to move to teacher predicted grades. Here's hoping that all that malarkey is avoided this year. It's actually pretty difficult to get into Oxbridge for DC1's subject without being at private school, and apparently everyone at the interview was from private school. DC1 moaned about meeting a really annoying applicant who was hugely self confident and had apparently aced the interview. They are now best mates and sharing accommodation!
DC1 is pretty self-confident - quite sure that they deserved to get into Oxbridge, etc. DC2 is much less self-confident. I don't know how much this is just different personalities and how much is due to the private / state thing.
Lots of people from DC1's private school applied, but only a small number got in. It's not a particularly academic school though. People rarely get in from DC2's state school.

I do think there is also something in the London thing,too. Whenever I take students on a school trip to London they are all rather intimidated/in awe of the London school children! Also, state schools in London have had a lot of funding pumped into them compared to outlying areas. I did indeed feel very incongruous at my own interview by virtue of accent and that was many many moons ago. I wish I could have words with my teenage self.

This is interesting - it looks at the figures if you take into account those who have been to private school up to 16 but not in 6th form (not counted as privately educated in the Cambridge statistics), and those who have at some stage attended grammar school. Apparently:
Only 48% of Cambridge applicants have not attended a private or grammar school at either L2 or L3

www.varsity.co.uk/news/19783

Well done @ealingwestmum DD!
Fabulous news!

Thank you Proggy.

Definitely more from different colleges for humanities coming through now…

Interview offer here for MML at Jesus. Happy DS!

Very exciting @ealingwestmum!

So very glad I joined this thread as I feel like doing a solo Mexican wave every time news comes through! Very exciting re interviews. In real life I daren't ask anyone much. Slightly awkwardly, ds's best friend is applying for same subject, same college. It's lovely but just a tiny extra worry. I think I'd be delighted if either made progress but kind of hope it's either both or neither...

Ds told me that for Compsci interview notices would be out 15-17th. I'm not actually sure if there's any other parents of compsci candidates on the thread.

The stats in that article are quite shocking @toadstoolstew - I showed it to DH who went to Cambridge, and he said it reflected what he found. Having been told that state school students were about 60-odd % , he was surprised to find there was only a handful of people who had been to comprehensive school as he had. That was 30 years ago.

Excellent petitebleu!

Well done @ealingwestmum and @petitebleu 's DC!

Congratulations @petitebleu - hope you get a mini celebration tonight 😊

Thank you! We are a tiny bit (very!) excited but trying not to get carried away.

@petitebleu

Interview offer here for MML at Jesus. Happy DS!

Wooohoooo fab news! Congrats to your DS xx

Thanks to this thread I prodded ds to look and see if he had an offer from Bristol - and he does! Delighted.

Well done to your DS PT! (You have a user name with 2 words I struggle to spell, I hope you don’t mind the abbreviation!

Congratulations on the interviews. It's an exciting time.

My DD was born & brought up in SW England but DH and I are northerners so her accent is hard to place. It's definitely not local and she has northern vowels. She has a number of friends in her college from London. They are lovely but struggle to believe that we don't have any public transport (ok there is one bus per hour 1.5 miles away on unlit roads without pavements). DD can drive and has a car which stays at home in term time; her London/Cambridge friends are stunned that she can drive, something which almost everyone does here as soon as they turn 17.

Don't worry about the statistics from other years or the nonsense that some people spout. The parents we met at DD's graduation were lovely, normal grounded people with clever, hard-working and great offspring. It was the right place for DD1 but not for DD2 who is doing brilliantly elsewhere. Enjoy the ride but keep one toe on the ground.

@PermanentTemporary well done to your DS!