Oxbridge 2023 support; it's offer month. Good luck all.

[Riverpebble]

New thread for the start of the Oxbridge offers.

@BackToWhereItAllBegan Imperial say specifically on their website that they don't look at TMUA or MAT so maybe it's sort of unofficial? It's not logical though as STEP is much harder than either of the other 2 tests. DS is L6 and has been doing some TMUA and MAT and finds them pretty easy. So he might as well do both if it means avoiding the evil STEP!

@Amboseli Imperial still have MAT listed as a requirement for a BSc in Mathematics but I don't know if any courses other than that require it. DS was taking it anyway for Oxford so it was no extra effort for him to send the scores to Imperial too.
STEP sounds particularly harsh on top of doing A-levels so I'm very grateful that DS was able to avoid it!

We were only looking at straight maths degrees.

Ds did TMUA and, I agree, thought that was pretty straightforward, but STEP quite a bit harder!

Ds did whatever was asked for engineering (ENGAA?) at C. He didn't seem to worried about it. He bought and went through some A level maths revision crib cards and a few ENGAA past papers, not long spent on it and I think, for him, so much better than having to revise maths in summer for STEP exams alongside his A levels (not a typical C requirement for engineering I believe).

Money - anyone worked out how much they need to survive/thrive - I'm feeling very out of touch here. No idea how much 'a night out' costs, what a normal student lifestyle actually costs.

@OxCart if it helps, we give DS who is at Cambridge £2k a term - he gets the minimum maintenance loan (£4250?) so lives off that plus whatever he doesn't spend out of his £2k a term. He seems to manage ok and never asks for extra - but he doesn't really socialise (as) much (as we did when students) because he just doesn't have time - he goes to formal hall once a week, and maybe out one other night, but other than that he's either in a boat, or a library/lecture/supervision!

He doesn't eat in college every night because he found that a) it was poor value for money and b) he rarely got back from labs or lectures in time - so he 'self caters' which they aren't really supposed to/encouraged to do, but most of his STEM student friends do...so it may depend on the subject.

I should add, that it's been a bit of a shock doing the sums for DD who is going to uni this year but is not heading to O or C - the cost of accommodation seems much higher at other unis - and of course their terms are longer.

@Panicmode1 DD self-catered her way through most of 4 years at C. Her college is renowned for its brunch, so she did that on a Sunday and had a formal most weeks as a member of another college's chapel choir. She also shopped a lot at the market. Scientists out at West Cambridge are very close to a large Sainsbury's which helps.

@malbecfan I suspect DS will be mostly self catering...his college isn't 'that' far from the big Sainburys by bike, but he tends to go to Aldi...

We're aiming on £5040 plus accommodation per year with DS , that appears to be less than C said was average though 🤔.

Interesting what you said about timings for college meals @Panicmode1 . Does it worry him? Ds chose a college quite far out , I cannot see him self catering and the college meals seemed cheap (circa £3.50). I assumed he would get college meals and we could top up his college expenses card (cannot remember what they called it) if required. Now worried DS will waste away (though will probably find a Dominoes pizza!).

We are paying DD’s accommodation (£1,750per term, fees include gym, wifi, bills and washing machines). DD’s college have a fixed kitchen charge that gets lowered if you buy advance credit for the buttery. DD is going for the plan that costs £275 per term that includes kitchen access and four meals a week.

Then we will also pay for food outside of the meal plan, transport costs, formals, books (although college does give a book grant). We have also agreed to fund sportswear, her sport isn’t very common and for women especially the clothes aren’t cheap. We will also pay for £25 a week fun stuff, anything more will she will pay for out of holiday work. DD isn’t taking out the maintenance loan. We gave her the choice but this is what we agreed as a family and are fortunate to have that choice.

Thankyou@Panicmode1 DD has an offer from Christchurch Oxford. It's been interesting reading about 'battals' food plus various levies including £4 a year to look after the punts.

I think/hope DD might go for all evening meals in term one. Partly to make life easy, partly for social reasons to find her tribe.

So if we covered accomodation and evening food leaving her with the student loan c £4600 plus her holiday job savings for living would that be ok?
We've talked about talking to us if this is not working or working too well!

@yoyo1234 - I think he quite enjoys cooking and as he was on a corridor with mostly STEM students, they seemed to cook together..I was worried about him missing out on college life, but he doesn't seem to have done so far!

@oxcart it seems to work for DS. His college accommodation was about £200 a week last year, so he's managed well. He even paid for his Varsity Ski trip without asking us for help, so he manages to live fairly frugally! Next year rents have gone up 6% but he's dropping down 2 or 3 bands so it will be fine.

That all seems rather precise. We have must agreed to make sure she has equivalent of the the maximum maintenance allowance (can’t remember now but near £10k isn’t it) and then up to her to budget and spend as she wishes. We might pay for something special if it arises but basically down to her. My son is in year 2 in London at music college and similar approach although he has scholarship money and regulars paid gigs. We don’t want to get involved with the detail though. He has run out of money at the end of one term but only £200 and we covered that. Otherwise all has worked so far.

DD read a STEM subject and a lot of sports training so largely self catered at Oxford with regular formals.

DS mixes it up quite a bit at his Cambridge college. Someone mentioned sports kit; both DC blues kit provided for free and DS has a sports award at his college which covers a lot of his other expenses.

It's difficult isn't, getting the balance right here. They are adults and I want DD to budget, think about her priorities and where to be prudent but also to have a lot of fun and not worry about money. But I also don't want her to feel overwhelmed by juggling new friends, different work load and dealing with admin.
She looked horrified at the suggestion she took on her own phone contract but you got to start sometime.

Thanks for all your thoughts.

Funnily enough phone is the one thing we still pay for directly as was easier to just carry on. It is amusing when occasionally DS messages and asks for an extra £5 of data allowance to be added on when otherwise he is managing a budget of £15-18k on his own :)

We still pay for his phone too....we have all six of us on a family plan so it seemed easier to just carry on. But perhaps once his current phone is paid off and its just the data etc we are paying for, we will look again!

Had completely forgotten about DS phone contract. Entirely in our names so I think we'll just continue to pay for it. His college didn't mention "buttery" ability to get a package with e.g. 4 meals a week. Will need to look at more options.

Has anyone else received a reading list from their college? DD got hers today, a busy few weeks ahead! They called it essential reading that she’ll be examined on in week 0. All starting to feel very real now…

Examined!!! That is very scary. Dd hasn't got anything yet, but said she wouldn't do anything till after results day anyway because she won't allow herself to believe she's going! Can I ask which course this is for?

This is for English, so perhaps to be expected. We were thinking any work would come after results day but no way to get this done without more time. They suggest 6-8 hours of reading per day!