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.

Does Cambridge have a single offers date like Oxford? If so, when is it (and how do you know?!).

I have a quick question. DS submitted his UCAS to school a few days ago and the website said 'submitted to school'. He now says school have submitted it today, but the website still says the same thing. Is that right? Has anyone seen the confirmation message change to something like 'submitted'? Does that make any sense?

DS had big yellow circle turn green and says it's sent and awaiting decisions....he sat with teacher to finalise it though so everything went off together

The circle is green! The text says 'Submitted to your college or school'. That just doesn't feel right...

he is going to chase it up with school tomorrow. Gah!

Good luck, hope it's sorted!

OnePlusOneEquals Durham can make offers ahead of Christmas. At least two of my DC had offers ahead of their Oxford interviews (both were Y13, not grades in hand). One science, one law. I think the others (law and history) got offers in Jan/ Feb. That still seems to be the trend - a bit unpredictable.

In fact a third DC also got an offer ahead of their Oxford interview now I come to think of it - that was classics, she was the most recent (2020).

Fantastic

Oops meant to say fantastic to hear of all these offers. Gives them all a confidence boost.

We’ll see how it goes @goodbyestranger i hope he does get them before Feb. If Oxford doesn’t work out then he’ll hopefully do offer holder days and take it from there.

😁

OnePlusOneEquals what is his subject?

So wonderful to read DC's already receiving offers! Congrats to all of you and your DC's!!!

DS re3ceived confirmation of receipt yesterday from several unis, so lets hope he too can get an early offer to calm his my nerves!😀

Both my DDs received offers ahead of C decisions and like goodbye's DC, applied in y13. DD1 (2016-7) had an interview at Imperial 2 weeks before C. They told her that they thought she was a really strong candidate and would be making a competitive offer as a result. Her offer was exactly the same as Cambridge's.

To redress the balance between O and C regarding pooling: DD1 was interviewed by her chosen college. On offer day, the letter (yes, it was a letter in 2017) came from a completely different college. DH & I took the line that an offer from C is an offer from C but DD was really unsure. So in February half term, she & I drove there & spent a couple of days there. We walked into the college and explained to the porters why she was there - we did not give them any notice. A lovely admissions lady appeared, gave us a map and told us to go and explore. She was apologetic that she couldn't show us a student room, but would see if she could find someone to let us see their room. Everyone was kind, welcoming and helpful and DD happily accepted the offer. She is still there and very happy. On graduation day, we met the Head of Admissions who told us what a good choice he made "picking DD out of the pool". Proud parents!

@Malbecfan that's a lovely heart warning story about Cambridge pooling for your DC ... for those picked out of the pool I'm sure 99/100 it works well as with your DD - so important for this years parents to have positive examples.

I was pooled at O 30 years ago and loved where I was 'picked out by'. In my third year my 'first' choice college told my tutor they regretted sending me on. I was naughtily quite chuffed the college where I'd not got in (and left the interview in tears) felt they'd missed out. I had no regrets.

(In case I wasn't clear both my DC were Year 13 applications - just for deferred offers)

Hi all,
My Dd is applying for Human Science to
Oxford
UCL
Exeter
Manchester
Durham
Not all teach Human Science some are similar degrees.
She is hoping for Oxford, but she would be happy with UCL too.
Good luck to everyone!!

@Juja that's fantastic! Even though DD has all but left home now, having an academic say that is heart-warming. She now works for him indirectly as she is onto her 2nd batch of supervisees, if that is a word.

DD got to know some of the people on her course who were at her 1st choice college and didn't get on with them very well. With the benefit of hindsight, it turned out to be a good decision by everyone. However, when you are in the thick of it, you don't always see or feel it.

Good luck to everyone's DC. The y13s I teach were stressing yesterday about the upcoming tests, so I get it.

Hello there, good luck!

Yes they do stress don't they?
Mock exams next week again...seems like endless testing sometimes...

I haven't got my head round the pooling thing, but there is so much useful info in this thread I will definitely be revisiting it.

@goodbyestranger Physics!

Are your schools giving help or advice for the pre entry tests? Dd has looked at the HAT test (history) and declared it impossible. School have given her one day study leave but no other assistance

Three of my DC did the HAT with no input at all from school (all got in. DD2 never asked for her test results, DS2 and DS3 were comfortably in the first class bracket despite going it alone. Perhaps going it alone was a help/ more authentic? Less formulaic?). It's changed slightly over the years that it's been going but it's not impossible at all for an applicant with potential. Your DD just needs to read the uni website/ do the past papers/ not panic. There's far more help on the website than there was in the early years of the test, so she can benefit from that. DD2 took it while it was in its infancy, so almost no past papers, just a shot in the dark.

OnePlusOneEquals the science departments at Durham are on the whole far more likely to give out offers ahead of Christmas than the humanities and social science departments are. That probably isn't a helpful thing to say to your DS, in case not getting an early offer spooks him. But that's been the pattern year on year for quite a few years. Good luck to him.

Only prep you can do for the HAT is to think critically about sources. So read stuff and think "what does this tell me about this event/period/person", but also think how much do I trust this narrative? How close is the author to the events described? What biases might they have & why? What is left out, and why might it have been? What power dynamics could be in operation? What other sources could provide a counter narrative? And read the description of the source at the start carefully as well. The 2021 intro for example tells you a lot about the oral tradition, and you can use that to think about how the source will have developed. They are looking for sparks of the type of things you study in the first year Historical Methods options - particularly Approaches www.history.ox.ac.uk/historical-methods#collapse622386