I watched consecutive cohorts at school go through this process for well over a decade. There were some quite unpleasant comments when a particular boy got into Oxford to read Maths. In fact a number of his peers were incredulous: he was laid back, brilliant at football, very sociable - not at all the stereotype of a top Maths student. We were all absolutely delighted when we heard that he'd graduated top of his year having had a great few years at Oxford :)
I remember another student at school who was always top of absolutely everything, the oldest of a large clever family, very beautiful, not wildly popular with other girls because she was too much of a Queen Bee. She was rejected after her Oxford interview, which sent shock waves through the sixth form block. To her great credit she took the rejection with extraordinary grace (and then got into Cambridge the following year for a different subject, NatSci). (The comment about beauty was a factor in her supreme confidence and Queen Beeness, before I get jumped on)