Is Oxbridge no longer worth applying to?

[Ericasdog]

I have been meandering around the uni threads and am coming to the conclusion that Oxbridge universities are no longer worth applying to. I would like to have a conversation about whether my observations are correct.

Getting in - The process seems random and obfuscated. People apply in good faith only to be told that, in fact, they were applying just for one place on their course after all. Applicants with perfect credentials don't get interviewed whereas applicants with lower credentials do. Socio-demographics are a huge factor but nobody knows how they work. The process requires a lot of investment on the applicant's part, yet, seems whimsical on the part of the institution.

Getting out - The drive for state school recruitment has coincided exactly with big corporates going 'university 'blind' why is there this correlation now and what does it say about 'elite' institutions, two of the three top careers for Oxbridge grads are teaching and healthcare, yet, the workload is huge I'd want a career that I couldnt get from any other uni for the efforts, and the slightly eyebrow raising associations with certain alumni, staff and initiatives.

Thoughts?

Interesting @BritBoxBangers

When DD1 was finishing her 1st year, we were contacted by a family friend who works in supporting the pharmaceutical industry. Her intern had left them in the lurch and she wondered if DD might be interested in some work. Normally the intern was about to enter their final year; DD was only 1 year in, but the friend said they would train DD up. DD popped in for an interview and got the job. After a few weeks, the friend emailed us to say how stunned they were. DD was already doing more than their previous interns had done, yet was on paper much less experienced. DD's Maths skills were superior and although not a Biologist or Pharmacy student, her knowledge & application of Chemistry was impressive.

When in her 2nd year, DD was given some names to apply to for relevant summer internships. She went to our local RG uni working with a research group. Apart from the fact that it took 6 months and the threat of court action for them to pay up what they promised her, she didn't enjoy it much. However, it probably looks good on her CV.

We will have to see. DS is about to go to Cambridge after 6 troublesome years in a village primary at one end of our village and 5 settled years of average village comp. at t'other end which resulted in going to an excellent grammar school 18 miles away as a day pupil. This is where he really blossomed for 2 years. We hope that it has sharpened his confidence so that he can make good use of his excellent capacity for hard work as well a greater awareness of the Oxbridge experience.

What I simply can’t get my head around is the drive for widening participation at Oxbridge, yet once there you are automatically labelled a floppy-haired toff(ess) and find that quite a few graduate schemes are closed to you. (I won’t name names but this is 100% true from experience with ds.) Also I suspect that HR is the home of the disgruntled UniversityofFoundedFiveMinutesAgo graduate with several bags of McCain oven chips on their shoulder.

Not easy to find companies who exclude Oxbridge applications publicly - how did your ds find out - was that their reason for rejecting him?