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

So this is something that you've observed as a teacher Aurea? (Cross post). Outrageous

I'm not currently a teacher (I was a language teacher many moons ago).

Since my DCs have been through secondary schooling (which in total is ten years), there have been no successful STEM applicants to Oxbridge from their Scottish state school. There will typically be four to seven applicants in total a year. The school does offer no help though.

My son (applying next year for comp sci) is a very similar academic profile to Puffalicious' son but we are now wise to the inadequacies of the Scottish maths curriculum and lack of assistance from the school and hope to seek help elsewhere.

Apologies, I had in the back of my mind that you were still practising Aurea.

This is so bad.

Thanks for the new thread. I am a poor contributor but do follow you all.

@Aurea

Sorry to hear your news Puffalicious.

I fear you may be right. Oxbridge applications for STEM subjects appear to be near unachievable from
Scotland.

My son's Scottish state school often has one successful applicant a year but all for law, PPE, E &M. There have not been any successful STEM applicants in recent years.

DS2 is hoping to apply for comp sci next year but we are taking precautions and he will have a few sessions with a tutor (from England) before his admissions test as there will be gaps in his knowledge due to differences in the Scottish maths curriculum.

I'm sure your DS will be very happy at his Scottish choices.

Wowsers, that's pretty damning! I had no idea the disconnect between syllabuses was so extreme.

I know what you mean goodbyestranger he is, indeed, outstanding academically and doesn't exactly stretch himself to be so, so I think would have coped with the jump in difficulty at Oxford. Very, very few applicants from his school each year, so no comparisons I can make. I do know friend's daughter has an interview (English) with lower results than DS, which seems strange, but it's a totally different kettle of fish.

Thanks for your concern goodbyestranger and Aurea crossing fingers for your DC. Good plan for best year Aurea if I'd known we would have gone down this route.

*next year

Puffalicious. - would he consider reapplying with grades in hand? This would enable him to work on the MAT in the summer after his exams. The English degree is a year shorter than in Scotland so he would graduate at the same time anyway. I'm sure he would still receive the same unconditional offers for his Scottish options.

My son will have the advantage of advanced higher maths in hand when he applies next year (as he is taking it a year early).

.

Definitely something I'll suggest to him. He's still contemplating a year out travelling, so might be an option. It's good to have choices . I think with his results he would be given deferral no bother elsewhere.

I wish his school had offered him the early route- his teacher did say he could have sat Higher in S3! - but in his school there wouldn't have been enough candidates. Great that your DS has been given that chance.

Thank you for your thoughts.

The early higher route was the first ever for his school. He sat in a Nat 5 class and worked on his own so it wasn't ideal but he ended up with an A1.

@Puffalicious your son sounds like such an impressive young man I am sure he will be successful wherever he ends up, clearly the other unis can see this and want to snap him up

@goodbyestranger

Yes but it's not ok Puffalicious. Your DS may be cool or coolish about it but he's clearly super bright so should at least have got an interview and there are or will be others who are not as cool. There's a mismatch between this and the declared push for more Scottish students. Some of the best brains historically have come from Scotland. Are the MAT setters even aware? I don't believe for a moment that tutors at Oxford are xenophobic so there needs to be an explanation.

All the best to your DS Puffalicious.

The Scottish Education system is not in a good state. Scotland used to have a great reputation for its education, but that's no longer the case - the Curriculum for Excellence has lowered standards. It's also relevant that there's a 1 year 6th form. Many (probably most?) children don't even take Advanced Highers, and a lot can't take the subjects they want at Advanced Highers, even in the core subjects, as lots of schools see Advanced Highers as an unnecessary extra (they're not needed to get into Scottish universities). There's a young man on The Student Room who wants to study French at Oxbridge, and was not able to take Advanced Higher French at his school or any nearby school. I think that getting into Oxbridge from Scotland is likely to require a lot of independent work.

@Puffalicious - I have a young family member who recently graduated in maths from Oxford. He's very nice. If you pm me I could probably put your son in touch with him if that would be helpful.

Storm that's so, so very kind of you. I'll definitely PM you in he's interested in applying next year.

I do agree with you about Curriculum for Excrement- it's been the death knell for our much admired education system. There's still much of merit, but not enough. Standards have definitely slipped. Fortunately DS is in Glasgow and many Adv Highers are offered at the Hub- at Uni 6 hours a week, although you need to apply for a place- or at a local school if your own school doesn't offer it. No kid should ever be denied the chance, that's awful.

heinztomatosoup that's an absolutely lovely thing to say and has made me quite teary. I'll slope off now, lick my wounds and wonder in the fabulousness of DS. Thankyou all

I don't think anyone has gone to Oxford or Cambridge from dd's school (Argyll&Bute) in years. Five applicants this year, two rejections, dd and one boy have interviews and one had still not heard yesterday evening. None of them applied for a STEM subject. One of dd's friends is applying for Physics but only to Scottish universities.
dd got an email with detailed instructions on how to join the interviews yesterday afternoon, we are told by dd that nobody is allowed in the house during the interviews, I'll go into work (and fret from afar), ds will be at school, dp is going to potter around the garden to be there for technical emergencies and for catching the postman at the garden gate.

Many European students are at a similar disadvantage to Scottish students for entrance tests like MAT, PAT Having an advanced curriculum covered whether at school or through single minded independent study can certainly trump innate ability and potential even at the interview stage
Puffalicious you know how bright your DS is, he does n”t need the Oxbridge stamp to validate this.

What subject is your DD applying for Igneococcus, and the other student with an invite?

Puffalicious what an excellent reaction by your son. Definitely their loss.

Just before freshers week last year DD was sent a map showing the geographical location of all the freshers in the college. It showed a single student north of the border.

History goodbuystranger and the other student for Psychology which I just realized is a STEM subject. The others are for law and two English applicants.
We as parents were completely taken by surprise by the whole thing. I mean, we realized dd is bright but we have no experience with the British school or university system, I had no idea how the application process worked until dd now went through it. She basically figured it all out herself, she got support from one or two teachers but they don't really have any experience with tutoring students through Oxbridge applications either (one of them is barely out of uni herself). So it''s all exciting but also a bit weird for us. She has two unconditional offers from universities she'd be perfectly happy with already, so whatever happens now it will be fine.

How did she go about choosing her college Igneococcus? If my DC were at home any of the history ones would I'm sure hop on a ferry to give her some interview help if she wanted it - we can't be far - not here at the moment though. Different colleges seem to have different approaches to interviews in terms of sources/ more general discussion etc. Good luck to her.

I can certainly see ferries and islands from my window :) goodbuystranger
I'm not sure how she went about choosing colleges, by the time she asked my opinion (her father was/is a lot more involved in the process than I was, he is a native English speaker which makes him the obvious choice for proofreading and things like that) she had whittled it down to three and at that point we looked even at things like how their accomodation looked, or "how pretty the college looks in the snow".

I'm sure @Puffalicious has wisely absented herself from here, but if you haven't, I'm really sorry to hear about your son, which seems most unjust. He sounds fabulous and very loved, which means most in the world.

The maths test does sound like an issue for Scottish applicants. However, I'd be wary of using the examples of kids getting in for other subjects and not STEM as proof of some sort of systemic bias. There are just so many more applicants per place than other subjects so a school's got throw a load more applicants the wall. Computer Science at Cambridge, 12 applicants per place. Classics/MML/music, 2 applicants per place. That is absolutely not to say that those subjects are 'easy', far from it, but statistically there will be many more children rejected for some courses than others.

@Igneococcus

I can certainly see ferries and islands from my window :) goodbuystranger I'm not sure how she went about choosing colleges, by the time she asked my opinion (her father was/is a lot more involved in the process than I was, he is a native English speaker which makes him the obvious choice for proofreading and things like that) she had whittled it down to three and at that point we looked even at things like how their accomodation looked, or "how pretty the college looks in the snow".

My dd was finally reduced to “This one has a much better crest than that one”

I chose my college because it offered a free lunch on open day.

1 husband and 5 children later… there’s no such thing as a free lunch 😬