Applying to Oxbridge for 2023 intake

[riverpebbles]

Not sure if there is already a thread on this? My son is hoping to apply to Cambridge for Computer Science for October 2023 start.

My DS is doing Music with the Sutton Trust at Cambridge but really wants to go to Oxford. We will be there on Thursday.

Thank you, and you.

See you there 🤣

DD back from Oxford. Not heard about the subject content yet as DD busy with other things today but the photographs and friendships she has made are so helpful for her (and me). Thanks everyone (don't know if there is anyone here she knows but glad they had a good time).

DS enjoyed his two days at Oxford, food was good at both colleges he ate at (all free!), he looked at 5 in total and compared the accommodation. He spoke to a couple of tutors, some students and attended a talk or two. He’s happy, chosen which college he’ll apply to and decided on his back up uni choice should he not get in. Just the summer ahead preparing for the PAT and a personal statement to write now!

May I ask if anyone knows if the maths part of the PAT is equal in difficulty to the MAT?

Thanks!

@AAurea I have spoken to DS who did PAT. Apparently MAT is harder maths and STEP is really hard.

So confused. Can anyone explain the data I’ve read on Unifrog that says c25% maths applicants get a place at Cambridge vs less than 10% at Oxford? Is the Oxford course better and therefore more popular? Or do Cambridge crunch their figures in a different way? Hope someone knowledgeable here can help.

Not an expert but isn't it that Cambridge make a lot more offers for maths and use step to weed them out. Whereas Oxford make fewer offers but students are more likely to be able to take up those places. So in the end the number of actual places taken up are similar?
Apologies if I'm not correct. Mine are not scientists/maths people!

Hi @CaptainCaveMum

I thought you might be interested to see these actual stats for Maths at Cambridge for the last 5 years. As you can see, the "offer rate" is much higher (at least double) compared to the actual "acceptance rate." This is because only about 50% of those made offers get the required grade in the STEP exams in the summer.

So basically for Maths at C, there is very roughly a 1 in 3 chance of a January offer, but the chance of actually fulfilling the offer conditions (following STEP) is more like 1 in 6.

Oxford use the MAT to 'weed out' (for want of a better term) before even interviews go out. So their Maths offers in January will be only need to be slightly higher than the actual acceptance rate (to mitigate against the fact that a few each year won't get the required A-level grades).

Unifrog stats are not always that accurate and can be quite misleading. Better to look at the actual statistics published each year by the universities.

Hope this helps!

The Oxford university Maths admission page says that the chance of success is 11%. Cambridge university Maths admission page says that there are 7 applications per place so chance of gaining a place is 14%.
Not much difference really - could be explained by Cambridge intake being higher (223 v 186) assuming applicants would otherwise like Oxford and Cambridge equally; or applicants being put off by having to take the Step papers at Cambridge. Either way, it doesn't seem to be a significant difference really.

Cambridge admissions tutors take the approach that some young people will develop significantly between interviews in December and taking their A-level exams, so it’s worth making more, but very high, offers and seeing who this applies to. Hence the difference between offer rates at Ox and Cam. If you think this might apply to you, it’s worth applying to Cambridge, but it’s lower stress to get that Oxford offer in the first place.

Thank you @spritzer7 @Scoobyblue and @CamFlan that’s really helpful. It sounds like my stress-prone DS might be better off looking at Oxford then and getting his MAT done and dusted before the A levels start.

Hi everyone. Joining too for my rather confused DS! Was set for ages on Law at Oxford...trips through access project etc etc....went to Cambridge open day last week and now wants to do Law at Jesus College I think. Thinks the course is arranged in a better way. Any thoughts?

It's your DS who will be doing the degree, so if he has now decided that the course at Cambridge is what he prefers, then that is where he should apply?

Or is it specifically the college he likes the look of? In which case, he needs to be aware that he may end up being pooled to a different one, so does need to be sure that it is the Cambridge course that he really wants, or is at least happy to take, rather than really preferring the Oxford one.

My elder DS is studying law at Oxford. He's home at the moment, so if you want me to ask him anything specific about the course, please let me know.

@MarchingFrogs Well obviously it's him doing not me and will support him either way....

It was more a case of anyone having knowledge or experience of both really to help give him any more facts from the inside before he finally settles. @Aurea I think he was finding Oxford has few and far between lectures, whereas Cambridge has some along with the smaller group sessions. Also seems exam structure is different eg either at end of each year or mostly towards the end. How did your son find the interview and personal statent phase? Thanks :)

@Purpleheadgirl
It’s a while ago now, but what I recall is:

He started his personal statement in a January and went through many drafts until he was happy with it.

He had managed to acquire quite a lot of super curricular to write about (pre covid): law essay competitions, a dissertation he wrote on the Scottish three verdict system (guilty, not guilty and not proven), a book he read (Hart’s the Concept of Law), his debating, his role as a Holocaust Educational Trust Ambassador and maybe a bit more.

He really enjoyed the interview. It was purely academic. One interview was based on a case study he had been given 30 mins beforehand to read, the other was around a statement he was given where he had to discuss implication, conjecture, etc.

NB: he attended a Scottish comp who gave him no help on his application. They have very few applying to Oxbridge. This actually may have done him some favours as he had to be totally committed to apply.

@Aurea That's great thank you, I will pass it on :) He's got legal based work experience this month so that will be another good thing to use

Two of my daughters read law at Oxford. The course is very differently organised from the course at Cambridge. The colleges differ in the content of their interviews; not all are 'purely academic'. My two both got a decent bit of chat in one of their two interviews (they had two each and only two as neither was pooled). Starting a ps in January Aurea! He's very well organised. Mine have all done a brief not especially well thought out draft in July as the school insisted one was handed in before the summer holidays but then only really got down to it properly at the start of September. There's something to be said for not overthinking the ps and not over re-working it, but I guess everyone has their preference (mine prefer to not be too labour intensive).

Both were asked about things on their ps, especially the Magdalen DD. But she said that no other interviewee seemed to be asked much about theirs at all (there's a tendency in the rather fevered atmosphere of interviews to compare notes once they're done).

The PS can be a launchpad for discussion, but every year on The Student Room I see people frothing that their interview barely touched on it when they had prepared so well. And that’s the crux of the matter: the interviewers are not interested in rehearsed answers and discussion of what you know already - they want to test out what you could learn.

Last year there was a person on TSR and on MN going completely potty that their interview hadn’t gone according to plan and were trying to demand a re-interview to show off what they knew. They (and their dm) were missing the point - if you can’t go off piste then you’ve had it.

Oh god, I remember them, Women (or possibly it was one person posting both as the daughter and the distraught mother).

It's worth remembering that most people don't get in; but also that no one gets in who didn't apply.

DD was one of those who did get quizzed about her PS at interview, but she had four interviews in total, and one section obviously caught the attention of one particular interviewer because it touched on their lecture course (and indeed she is planning to take that course module next year).

And that’s the crux of the matter: the interviewers are not interested in rehearsed answers and discussion of what you know already - they want to test out what you could learn

It's not really a question of the ps being a statement of what you know though. It's more that issues can be suggested by things in the ps and the interviewers then explore one of more of those, usually from an unexpected angle. The question will still require an interviewee to think and will show the interviewers the way that they think. No better or worse than a set question about a piece of legislation say, or a legal problem.

Demanding a re-interview?! Good luck with that.