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.

[Valleyofthedollymix]

No interview news for DS yet - I fear he may be in the 25% (not a stellar applicant but would do well in interview, I think).

[printmeanicephoto]

Do you think Oxbridge interview offers/rejections might come in over Saturday/Sunday or on a weekday only?

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

@Piggywaspushed

Bath have been quoted as saying no offers til January on some thread or the other.

Thank you, good to know.

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

@Valleyofthedollymix I feel the same about DD. Her predicted grades are good enough A A A but her GCSEs were not exceptional, a couple of 9s, one 8 and the rest 7 & 6. She did not need to submit any work so they will be going off grades and PS which I thought was really good but what the hell do I know?!

[SandyBayley]

@printmeanicephoto - I don't think emails are typically sent at weekends.

[SandyBayley]

@TangoWhiskyAlphaTango and @Valleyofthedollymix - keep the faith 😊

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

@printmeanicephoto I do not think so. I have lurking on TSR and there is somebody from Peterhouse admissions team who yesterday said the following

What time of day will I hear/will I hear over the weekend?

Most offices will work a relatively normal workday. They will usually finish between 5 and 6:30. They work Monday to Friday. If things are really urgent or time is tight, they might work in the evenings or over the weekend, but this is not standard practice, so please don't expect a reply to your email/an interview invitation outside reasonable working hours (UK time).

[goodbyestranger]

printmeanicephoto some of my DC got invites on a Saturday for Oxford.

[printmeanicephoto]

Thanks Tango - good to know.

[cosmiccat]

The admissions tutors on the Cambridge webinar suggested interviews could be given with not much notice because no travel is required. They also indicated that students would here one-way or another by the of the month so could still be another 2 weeks until all interview invites are out. A long time to have our fingers crossed!

[Puffalicious]

Huge congratulations to all the DC with interviews. That's absolutely amazing.

It's a tense, old wait for the rest of us. DS very chilled about it all. Since he has unconditional offers he'll be chuffed to drop a subject 😃. He's doing PE Higher to fill in some time and whilst he's very sporty he's seriously peed off with all the theory and needing to use very specific language! He's so funny- he'll always see a silver lining!

[pantjog]

Great news re the interviews -- well done to all those DC.

@SandyBayley I think the interview rate varies between subjects. For Classics, for example, I think they interview about 96% of applicants...

[SandyBayley]

It certainly does @pantjog ! For DS1 with Chemistry the odds were good. For DD with medicine less so. She has suggested to that he got in because he chose an easy course. That went down well. Siblings 😂

[pantjog]

I hesitate to weigh in on the state vs independent debate upthread but suffice to say that I think it's complicated. There are some highly ineffective private schools and some very good state schools so to divide the applicants into sheep and goats on that basis seems to lack nuance, to say the least. However, my DD (from a very good, London comp) went to a subject conference today at a local private school and came home absolutely astounded by how flash it was and how confident, well-prepared and "posh" the other pupils were.

OTOH I went to Oxford in the 1990s from a FSM background, and a parent with blue collar job and never felt anything other than completely at home there. But my DD1 (with neither of those disadvantages) does feel intimidated at times by the super-confident public school types at Oxford. Who knows...

[pantjog]

Ah I meant interview rate rather than offer rate @SandyBayley. But certainly the variation in offer rate is striking. I've just looked up the stats for DS's course and college combo in the year he applied and it's terrifying... over 150 applicants and approx 10% acceptance rate. This is not a stealth boast as he is absolutely struggling...

I will stop channeling my nerves into monopolising the thread. Sorry all!

[Genegenieee]

Congratulations to those who have had interview invites - exciting (nerve wracking) times!

DD finally has an offer - Warwick Maths and Physics. She was so glum last night and all smiles now as this is prob her insurance choice

[SandyBayley]

Don't worry @pantjog - post away. I'm hiding from DD who wants to practice medical school interview questions with me. I've just been told that they removed my wrong kidney...

[SandyBayley]

Congratulations @Genegenieee - Warwick is a great option 😊

[fishingeagle]

So DS got an email today from St A's saying it looks from his application as if he's eligible for a scholarship and inviting him to apply. He is hoping that means an offer from them might might hove into view some time soon but I doubt that the two are in any way related. In the absence of anything else in the way of an offer or an interview he is however clinging to it like a piece of the true cross. @SandyBayley your DD's interview question - just out of curiosity what might be the protocol when informing one's patient that they've just had a perfectly healthy organ removed? Is she being assessed on how to break bad news sensitively? Bless her.

[SandyBayley]

I'm not entirely sure. I'm afraid I found it hard to keep a straight face. She stormed off when DH started making helpful suggestions...

[ealingwestmum]

Great to have your input Pantjog. And hope your DS is not in the struggling zone for too long, I can imagine the waves of high workload are relentless.

[fishingeagle]

@SandyBayley .For some reason I'm reminded of the Peter Cook and Dudley Moore sketch about the one-legged actor auditioning for the role of Tarzan. 'I've got nothing against your right kidney, trouble is neither have you'. Probably not the response best calculated to secure an offer to med school.

[Flyonawalk]

@printmeanicephoto To confuse the issue over when interview news comes out, one of my DC got an invite by email on a Sunday night, about 9pm.

[goodbyestranger]

Percentage of applicants invited to interview varies dramatically at Oxford but once at interview the ratio across subjects is broadly the same.

Also, it's quite a weak argument to assume that if a subject attracts more applicants it's harder to secure a place. In one sense obviously, in another, not necessarily the case at all.

[NiamCinnOir]

Congratulations to all the dc with offers and interview invites! Exciting and nerve wracking times. DD received her invite to interview at O for MFL on 30 November last year, and her first interview was on 7 December. It went straight into her junk mail folder, so get your dc to check theirs. Online interviews worked well for my dd - although it would have been nice in some ways to visit O and stay in a college, she would have had to be away from home for 4-5 days in the old system of f2f interviews. With online interviews she was able to keep up with all the other things she was doing at school, including revising for mocks. She was also able to chat to a teacher or her friends after each interview (she had 4 in total) and not knowing who else was being interviewed probably worked in her favour. Of the three students doing her subject combination at her college, there is one who went to a grammar school, one a private school and dd who went to a large city comprehensive in a fairly diverse area. That seems to reflect the composition of her college quite well, and there are also lots of international students. She certainly feels completely at home there, although one of my fears was that she would be intimidated by the poshos, that hasn’t happened so far.