Oxbridge Aspirants 2022 part 3....Will they or won't they make it to interview? Our Mum nerves are in tatters!

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

New thread for us, lots of lovely support whilst we wait. Some of our lovely DC now have interview dates whilst the rest of us hold our breath and try not to hassle our teens into checking their SPAM folders at least several times per day .

@doubleshotcappuccino

Just when you think you have the only DC waiting or having to deal with rejection this thread thankfully demonstrates to our DCs they and we are not alone .. agree - thumbs up or down would be fine - no thumbs is agony

This is so true! Let's hope today brings news one way or the other to put our dc out of their misery / worry x

Cant believe people are being rejected with such high grades. The deciding factor on interviewing must be mainly based on the admission test. They must have so many candidates applying. Im just pleased that most of the other universities do not use such tests but maybe that will change.

@mich101 sorry to hear that. Your ds has brilliant grades and predictions, so I too suspect it must have been the Engaa. I'm sure he'll get other great options!

My ds is doing the same 4 A levels and also found the Engaa very difficult, so we're not very hopeful.

Good luck to your ds with his other options!

The deciding factor on interviewing must be mainly based on the admission test. They must have so many candidates applying.

Yes, especially as this year's cohort's GCSEs were predicted/inflated and even the predicted A level grades are higher than pre Covid.

With SO many applicants with brilliant grades they need a way to differentiate.

@mich101 I'm sorry to hear that. Similar story at my DS's school for engineering. Seems as if they are basically discounting awarded GCSEs and predicted A levels and going all-in on the Engaa, and of course the higher the academic profile of the school the higher the Engaa threshold to secure an interview. My DS has applied for a subject with no pre test with less than perfect GCSEs from a high achieving school so I think basically he's wasted an application. If he gets an interview I think he'd do well - he's a late developer and now top of his year in two of his subjects - but had I realised that C would be comparing his GCSE results against that of his school applicant cohort I would have advised him against applying. If he gets an interview I will be amazed. Just want it over for him now so he can concentrate on his mocks.

Hi - not posted yet, have just been watching, but @fisheagle just want to say that my dd has 6 to 8s at GCSE, (no 9s) at a high achieving grammar. Way down in her cohort and was offered an interview in a subject with no pre test. Am assuming they went on her PS and work she submitted. She has A* A A a level predictions so no where near some of the high achievers being rejected. Good luck to all dcs

@NovaNewt I'm so pleased to hear that your DD has an interview! Sorry for sounding grumpy (and possibly entitled) - just he went with C partly on the basis that they claim to care more about A levels than GCSEs and he has matured so much in the last 18 months or so. He wasn't at the level of most of his cohort at GCSE but he absolutely is now. I would just be sad if it were held against him, and multiple tales of rejections of kids with perfect grades is a bit disheartening. Ah well.

So sorry @mich101 a powerful reminder of how exceptionally hard it is to get into oxbridge. I find it shocking even with those grades to not get an interview.
Today I am feeling less confident about DD getting an interview as on TSR there is a same subject and college interview listed. I fear this not a good sign. I have told her to check her junk folder 😂

A friend has been invited to interview for music at O.

Novanewt & Fisheagle DD was in the last "normal" round of admissions. Her GSCEs and A levels would leave many wondering what on earth she's doing at Oxford. Don't rule your DC out just yet. Tutors know what they're looking for, whereas the rest of us don't!

It is so disheartening, esp when you know that your child would have got the grades they were predicted...my son took GCSE maths a year early and got a 9, and got all 9s in his mocks. My godson, at a very prestigious indie, got 6s, 7s and 8s in his mocks, but all 9s in his GCSEs.

Dinner party anecdata here this summer suggested that the children at a (very local to us and exceedingly well regarded) public school had teachers asking what grades their children needed for their uni courses which they were then 'awarded'..meanwhile the state school children I know were marked significantly more harshly with some missing out on courses they would probably have got onto if they had taken exams.

Hey ho, it is what it is....fingers and toes crossed for those of us still waiting and huge commiserations to those who haven't even had a chance to prove at interview that they are brilliant off paper, not just on it.

@fisheagle Yes I understand - my dd went with Cambridge on exactly the same thing! A levels have suited her much better than GCSE study. tbh it was "a bit of a long shot but you get 5 choices so why not". Especially if they say they don't worry too much about GCSEs.
Keeping my fingers crossed for good news for your ds

Thank you @NovaNewt! I would love him to get an offer from anywhere right now tbh! He has backed himself and gone with 5 very high-octane choices, all of whom offer late, which is not doing much for my nerves! C was always a stretch, just want to know one way or the other now.

We feel the same @fishingeagle. DS has definitely came into his own during his A levels. He had three prestigious choices on his UCAS form now with C gone I hope one of his other prestigious choices comes up trumps for him and I hope last nights news doesn’t affect him for long or affect how he sees himself or affect him in his mocks and A Levels.

Nothing for DS either yet but his lazy arse college doesn't seem to have made any interview offers yet!

DS is a private school and got lower in his final grades than some of his mocks because they also took into account the previous summer's exams. Seems a bit unfair since he was 14 when he took those and didn't have the exam allowances that he was only granted just before the lockdown (i.e. he never did a set of exams with the rest breaks he needs for a physical condition). In our experience, the local comprehensive with the dodgy admissions policy was the one that inflated the grades so I think it's a school by school thing rather than a sector vs sector thing.

Either way DS has not got a string of 9s. Not by a long shot. Hey ho. The lack of interview for such stellar candidates just emphasises my previous point that they don't take the 10,000 cleverest kids in Britain because it is so dependent on subject and college. Computer Science or medicine is a different order of competitive.

Oh and PP referred to me having said that in my experience, there were many mediocre students at Oxford. PP said she assumed they were all privately educated. Actually not, the least intellectually interesting of my history group was from a modest background/state school. She was exceptionally hard working and read every book on the reading list and regurgitated in her essays in a way that felt like a real-time reading. Barely left the library and came out with a 2.2. But I bet she was a great applicant as she was so diligent and I bet never got less than 100% at school.

@NinaProudman2022 you should be proud of your son taking a punt. I really think that's the way to look at an Oxbridge application - one of your five choices and give it a go. That's very much son's attitude. You only need one of your UCAS choices to come good after all and I'm sure he'll have more of a choice than that.

And crikey @mich101, your son is impressive!

Sorry to hear about the rejections and hope your DC find unis as good or better!

I have given up hope of Cambridge for DS- despite good GCSEs and A levels- because he did poorly in the ECAA. I really would like an offer from LSE or Warwick though.

BTW someone up thread referred to a tier 1 college. Is that a thing? I know some are more prestigious than others but is it official and does it make that much difference?

Thank you all for your kind words. I’m sure this will be a beneficial life lesson to him(at some point!) Not even getting an interview is the hardest part. Can only assume that for engineering they more or less discounted grades and went purely on Engaa… and son must have messed up 🤷🏼‍♀️ Frustrating … but obviously not meant to be. This year especially more than others will help those that do pull it out the bag for their pre-interview assessments but maybe don’t have the highest of academic profiles, and fair play to those that probably put way more practice time in than my ds 🤦‍♀️

@Valleyofthedollymix

BTW someone up thread referred to a tier 1 college. Is that a thing? I know some are more prestigious than others but is it official and does it make that much difference?

It is a thing I believe, but that way madness lies, and I am already as tiger mom as I want to be. :)

Ha Tomelette (love the username - I now can't say the phrase 'We're here for you' as it auto corrects in my head to 'we hear for you'), you're completely right. A friend last year did FOI requests on all manner of applicant data and I am going down that route.

Sorry that should have read I am NOT going down that route. I bloody hope!

I have a friend whose daughter-admittedly a genius- is aiming for only Trinity at Cambridge. Nothing else will do. Otherwise the Ivy league. She refuses to accept any other college at Cambridge, or indeed any other uni in the UK..

I do think that level of pressure is hard on DC and makes life hard for everybody. DS gets mad if I even ask him to check his mail ( tho am not stopping).

@NovaNewt

Hi - not posted yet, have just been watching, but *@fisheagle just want to say that my dd has 6 to 8s at GCSE, (no 9s) at a high achieving grammar. Way down in her cohort and was offered an interview in a subject with no pre test. Am assuming they went on her PS and work she submitted. She has A A A a level predictions so no where near some of the high achievers being rejected. Good luck to all dcs

May I ask what subject she's chosen please?

I am extremely proud of him for having a go Valleyofthedollymix I just feel deflated for him on here and with DH in private as thats how DS is feeling.