Oxbridge aspirants part 4......Hold onto your nerves interviews ahead....!

[TangoWhiskyAlphaTango]

Part 4 - A friendly supportive thread for those with DC applying to Oxbridge, its an arduous process to say the least. I suspect we will need some handholding and alcohol for the couple of weeks ahead as our dc have their interviews. For those still waiting to hear I hope news comes soon

Apologies @Geamhradh, that was for @TangoWhiskyAlphaTango.

Dd still hasn’t had a first interview email, only one from another college saying second interview. She contacted the college last week and they said they would be out shortly but still no sign at all.
I have no idea of the process, do you normally get a second interview with a different college ?

DD's finished her interview. She had 2 interviews and a meet with some students. All seemed to go ok. And now just the long wait to see if she gets an offer and STEP exam next Summer.
Cat was too busy sleeping to be a pest.

That's good news @cosmiccat but I don't envy her the dreaded STEP exams. They sound really tricky.

1 down, 2 to go for DD. Fingers crossed for all candidates this week.

Dd also phoned ucas to request a copy of her reference from school. I only discovered this was possible thanks to these threads. She’s got it and it’s given her a nice boost.

SirVix is that for Oxford? DS got an email from a second college on Thursday. The one from his first choice arrived today (interviews next Monday/Tuesday).

@SandyBayley

That's good news *@cosmiccat* but I don't envy her the dreaded STEP exams. They sound really tricky.

Definitely dreaded, I gather a lot of students with offers don't get the required STEP results and so fall at the final hurdle. By which stage DD will have rejected 3 of her UCAS offers. All too last minute for my liking!

does anyone know what 'subject' interview means? are there different kinds?

god that's horrific re STEP results. How stressful.

I'm so confused by the Oxford system re. first and second colleges. Wasn't like that in my day. Is it really centralised and random? So all careful consideration about which college might be for nothing? I'm also confused by Cambridge pooling. I get the principle but I don't understand how it can be that it makes no difference which college you apply for (as it says on the site), you've got an equal chance of getting in wherever you apply to. My son has applied to I think what's charmingly called a 'third tier' college i.e. one that takes rather than gives to the pool. Wouldn't the college look quite kindly upon him for applying direct or would they always want to fish for someone potentially better? If he is 'good enough' it feels like he's a better position than someone who's applying for a harder college and thereby in competition with others.

Also, is he the only person who not only has submitted no written work, not done and exam and only has one interview?

Yes the STEP thing is pretty harsh. Every year you see people who jumped through all the hoops to a Cambridge maths offer and get the A Level grades but miss out on a STEP grade.

DD is in her interview right now. I hope she comes home from school soon after because I'm desperate for news! School made her go for some fresh air between interviews which is a great idea. She hasn't said anything else though! Trying not to over analyse though. A long time till she'll hear I think.

Valley I am also confused by the Oxford system. DC has an interview with college applied for, but also with another college - I don't know why the second one are intervu, or does everyone get two chances effectively?

*interviewing

@Gottasinggottadance - when DS1 was interviewed (Oxford Chemistry) he applied to one college but got allocated to another. He'd applied to a very popular college and got shifted to a smaller one. We think it was just because the first one was oversubscribed.

He got interviewed by another college but got an offer from his first one. We think the 2nd interview was a 'standardisation' one - they were probably checking to see if different colleges were assessing in a broadly similar way.

My DS had two interviews today and before the first was offered two more at another college on Thursday. I wondered whether this might be for ‘standardisation’ as it seemed strange to offer him elsewhere before an interview. All very confusing!
@doubleshotcappuccino our neurotic rescue dog was apparently surprisingly well behaved (accompanied by an extremely laid back rescue dog) so I hope yours behaved and you conquered the ironing!

@VikingNorthUtsire

SirVix is that for Oxford? DS got an email from a second college on Thursday. The one from his first choice arrived today (interviews next Monday/Tuesday).

Yes , Oxford. The second college interview came through last Tuesday, but still nothing from the college she applied to.

DS had his engineering one today. He said he thinks it went fine. Not sure if it's just because it's STEM and just keen to get down to the nitty gritty but there was no general "getting to know you" type of questions at all. Not even a "how are you?" at the beginning, he said, so he didn't even have the chance to tell them he's got COVID! I mean, he's fine, he's back to school tomorrow, but I was surprised how much it sounded like they just got straight to the point. Litearlly just introducing themselves then saying immediately "we're going to do a couple of questions on X", then they moved onto a more complex problem etc etc. Nothing at all about his personal statement or why he wants to study the subject or at that college.

So I was quite surprised at that. DS said he prefers that. He's not too good with unstructured social chit chat, he doesnt' see the point in a uni interview situation and would rather just get straight to a task. He said to me "I mean, they know from my personal statement how motivated I am, I think, so they wouldn't want to waste time going over that when they just want to know if I can handle problem-solving at the level they need." He was happy enough with the way they did it.

I suppose we're used to job interviews where they're also trying to suss you out as a person, your qualities and how you fit into the current team etc. I guess with Oxbridge they just have to know if you can handle the difficulty level, and that's it!

Best of luck to all the other young people having interviews. I feel like I'm proud of them all!

@CurlyhairedAssassin- that kind of goes back to my earlier question-- saw someone refer to personal interviews and subject interviews- am wondering if there are different categories...one on personal statement and one on the nuts and bolts of the subject... would be good to know if there are different ones

My DS didn't get any chit chat either . He had practised the why do you want to do the subject answer but wasn't asked.

@Piggywaspushed did your DS invitation to interview specify a 'subject' interview? my DD's does....

[quote SandyBayley]@Gottasinggottadance - when DS1 was interviewed (Oxford Chemistry) he applied to one college but got allocated to another. He'd applied to a very popular college and got shifted to a smaller one. We think it was just because the first one was oversubscribed.

He got interviewed by another college but got an offer from his first one. We think the 2nd interview was a 'standardisation' one - they were probably checking to see if different colleges were assessing in a broadly similar way.[/quote]
Thank you. We had no idea what to expect - no-one in family have any Oxbridge experience.

Interesting to hear the interview feedback. I hope DC gets some chit chat because they are the kind of person who would feel more relaxed by this - as would I.

I just wanted to post an update as requested by a couple of people on Mumsnet. My DD hasn't been offered an interview at Worcester to study Computer Science and Maths. She seems to take it all in her stride, I'm so very proud of her attitude. Good Luck to all of our DS and DDs.

My DC had first interview today. First question was 'why Earth Sciences' followed by 'why at Oxford', which suited very well because DC is personable and likes a bit of chat. The rest was maths-based problem solving. Overall fairly happy although it's hard to tell really. Second interview tomorrow, expect it will be more science-based and maybe pick up on PS.

I think so badass. One was specifically on the reading task (and they apparently also had a bit about the PS) and the other one was about his submitted work. This was the one that was called subject, I think. But essentially, they both were. There wasn't one which was more 'getting to know you' ish.

Sorry to hear that chapter.