Oxbridge applications 2023 mutual support thread

[Riverpebble]

A new, friendly thread.

I know some other DCs have interviews next week also - wishing them the best.

After that it's waiting game for other Uni offers, Jan 10 for some of us and Jan 25? for the Cambridge hopefuls with Christmas in between

No it's definitely not a myth, it's part of the overall process.

Ds had his second interview this afternoon, unfortunately he was sick three times before it.

@Riverpebble was he poorly or was it anxiety related? Poor chap, either way is unpleasant but I hope the interview itself went well x

I think he was nervous as he was fine later, though he was in bed when I got home,

Thanks.

It’s so weird now it’s all done but feels such a long wait to know the outcome

DD ruminating a bit about the tough interview (1/3) as she feels it could have been marked as anything from great to truly awful as they gave zero indication whether her answers were ok. Just said ok interesting but what if…….over and over again. I think one potentially bad sign was that she had a definite moment of two that she felt she had no more at all to say which she felt quite panicked about although did answer of sorts. Tough when it was 30 mins on a subject she has never formally studied but they fired quite tricky theoretical concepts at her.
As someone said upthread the interviewers were the University heads of this subject and they were really quite fierce in their style. We thought it was meant to mimic a tutorial but this was entirely one way which doesn’t really reflect a teaching environment.

It does seem weird @Thedoglovesmemore . I feel I've lived a thousand life times the last few weeks.

I think it's made me aware of how calm the last few years were. It's similar to the panicky feeling in early primary - where does my child fit it, who will they become? Sporty? Academic? Theatrical? Shy?
How do they measure up against their peers.

Over the years I've heard many parents describe their children, boast about there achievements but I've often not seen the kid in the same way. And so I've always tried to not get ahead or over whelm my own children with a prophecy.

But OXFORD UNI! My kid has just had two interviews with Oxford Uni!!!

I'd just like to say a big fuckyouverymuch to all the cousins parents at family events talking about the G&T streams, the tutors needed to stretch their progeny and how the talent really needs those private school fees and deserves those inflated COVID results.
DD got this far by working moderately hard since year 5 in Ofsted average schools, in an underfunded part of the UK. She's amazing and I think she'll have a great time come September because she's chosen her path and an hour with a couple of lecturers has confirmed it's heading to the right field. Lots of great unis out there. It's going to be alright.

100% agree.
We have had the comments about how my son has grown up in a single parent family on the poverty line on free school meals and went to a high school who were in special measures.

Two interviews at Oxford here too.

We’ve had a bit of that- our closest friends’ kids and close cousins went private because they need to be stretched or various other reasons that state wasn’t good enough. Their covid grades were put together by evidence from everywhere. My ds has had to prove himself against the backdrop of his ‘target grade’ set by SATs when his attention and organisational skills were not great. Saying that one of our private school friends didn’t even get an interview for Oxford after her assessment and she’s absolutely text book - private school scholarship at 6th form, all 9s GCSEs, head girl, DofE gold, has been doing work experience in the field, extremely intelligent, lovely person but declined. I was so shocked.

@Riverpebble & @RabbitTastic
Same!!

Dd is autistic, free school meals, local school (no one has ever gone to oxbridge) lots of trauma with my abusive ex
And there she is excelling & being interviewed at Cambridge and has good friends, an amazing work ethic.

Not bad for the kid of a single mum air hostess

Sorry another question about second interviews. If they apply for a particular college and then get an invite from a different one could they still get an offer from the first or is it unlikely. What I am trying to understand is do other colleges get to see all applicants and so can pick from them too? Or do they only see them if the original college puts them in a pool?

I love your attitude @RabbitTastic and others who have recently commented. Whatever the results are in January, your DC have done amazingly well. I've been in both positions: DD1 received an offer, albeit from a "strange" college. DD2 was rejected after interview. DD2 is flying high in her non-RG uni (the shame lol!), having spent last term half way round the world at a prestigious uni, something I don't think Cambridge would have facilitated for a NatSci student. DD1 was put into the pool by the college she applied to. She knows the results of the students that were selected by that college in her subject and she did better! So, they don't always get it right.

Your comments about private school & tutoring remind me of when DD1 took the 11+. It is optional in this area. I work at the grammar school and having looked round with DH, DD1 wanted to do the 11+. So we bought some books from WHSmiths and DD worked at a couple of papers then did the test. A school gate mother called me "stupid" for not getting her tutored. Having worked there for several years, I knew very well that the tutored kids struggled once they got there. Of course DD passed and "stupid" comment's DC didn't. She wasted her money.

Good luck to anyone interviewing this week. For everyone else it's time to relax, take stock and don't think about offer day until it comes round, easier said than done.

@redtulip12 at Cambridge if they are out in the pool, essentially the original college is rejecting them, but they deem them worthy of a place elsewhere (as happened to my DD - see post above). No idea about Oxford, sorry.

Lots of inspiring kids here doing brilliantly.

Thanks @Malbecfan I should have put it's Oxford I would like to understand. Dd just received another interview invite

@redtulip12 I was sent out for an interview at a second college, but received an offer from my first choice. It can be for a several reasons:

1. Standardisation: they think you are a good candidate & the faculty will want to make sure that all tutors are applying the same standard.
2. Second opinion/resource: In my third year I was helping out at interviews, and as one of the two college history tutors was on sabbatical, they had a semi-formal arrangement with another college to share the interview load & make sure all candidates were seen by two tutors rather than one tutor plus post-grad assistant.
3. Borderline: Your first choice college likes you, but aren't sure if they'll have room, so want to give you a shot elsewhere/second college doesn't have as many good prospects as they'd like and are trying to pick up some people from elsewhere.
4. The borderline and space thing comes up more frequently for people applying for joint schools in my experience. Maybe the English tutor loves you, but the History ones aren't impressed. Or they both like you, but there's also an outstanding History and Politics candidate and they only take one joint honours student per year. If one of your joint subjects feels really strongly that they want you, they'll usually ask if you'd accept a single subject offer.

A second interview doesn't mean you'll definitely get an offer, but it does usually mean you aren't a direct no after the first interview.

Thank you so much @witheringrowan that's a really clear explanation. I will let her know to see it as a positive.

@Codfishermen - last year my DD was told the person sitting in on her second interview from a 'third' college was for standardisation. They didn't ask anything at all.

@redtulip12 definitely a good sign.

At Oxford the process does vary significantly from subject to subject and changes over time. So Geography in the last few years doesn't do interviews in second colleges but do redistribute candidates between colleges before interviews.

Modern languages seem to do lots of additional interviews and take a more departmental approach to assessing and selecting candidates.

Other subjects do interviews at second colleges almost as a matter of course.

So probably best not to read too much into it and simply for DC to build up the energy to do their best - yet again!

Dd is in O pool. What I don’t understand is was she sent blind to the college that is interviewing her now or did they pick her because she looked promising?

@ForeverbyJudyBlume what subject? It varies very much depending on subject.

English. To clarify, did the college that has passed on her say oh but we think she might be a good fit for X college and send her directly there or do X college look at all the pooled candidates and pick out the ones of interest to them or are they centrally allocated randomly to colleges with gaps?

Going back to last Yr my DD made an open application to O. She was assigned a college and had two interviews with them. She was then sent 2 further invites to interview at 2 separate colleges. Then when she got her offer it was for a completely different college to any that had interviewed her. She was offered her place under 'Opportunity Oxford' due to having multiple wider participation flags (managed 4xA* in her A'Levels though). How she got the offer at a completely different college to any that interviewed her I don't know. Unless she was seen as good enough and got offered a place where there was a shortfall. She's doing maths and absolutely loving it - however she got there!!

My experience at O with DNs and currently my DS is that a number of courses assess candidates at a faculty level. So they use the interviews at the first college to assess whether the candidate is Oxford material (both academically, but more crucially, from a teachability perspective). After those first college interviews, there may be interviews at second or even third colleges and it is difficult to accurately say why that is the case.

In my experience though, second college interviews are usually positive as the Professors and post docs do not have the time to interview people for no good reason. It is likely that your DD has been deemed “good enough” but that there is either no space at the original college or that another college is likely to be more aligned to her interests.

My DS has a second college interview on Tuesday and I’ve told him to simply embrace it as another opportunity to show them your passion and interest in the subject.

Good luck to you and your DD!

I don’t think Oxford colleges choose the best applicants and then send the “lesser” applicants to other colleges. I seem to remember reading something about them picking a mixture of A grade and B grade applicants, or something like that, and then sending a mixture of A and B out to other colleges so they all have a good mix. So being sent to another college other than the one you applied to doesn’t mean that they weren’t good enough for the original college they applied to.
For example, if the wheedled down the applicants to 20 for 8 places then they would have 10 A grade and 10 B grade to interview. Those A grades could have the highest marks in the exams, but the B grades could still be high but maybe come from schools that don’t normally send to Oxbridge…..the applicant could have suffered from illness…..or many other reasons.
Those with the highest results in the exams may not always be the best applicants.
In other words - there are many, many different reasons for being reallocated - and it’s not for bad reasons.

DD has a pair on her course who applied to one another's colleges, but when allocating places the colleges had switched them, so that student A wanted X college, student B wanted Y, but A was offered a place a Y and vice versa. Tiny numbers, so more or less a direct exchange. Who knows why? They don't. But it all seems to have worked out.