Oxbridge 2024 Entry

[Lightsabre]

Thought I'd start a thread for parents of dc considering Oxbridge applications for entry in Oct 2024 (I don't think there's a current one)? Past threads have been so informative and supportive and hopefully this thread will offer that too. Please feel free to add to the thread if your dc have recently had experience of the process, good, bad or ugly!

This is all very interesting. DD is anxious by nature and has had some significant MH issues in the past 2 years. She is mindful that the pressure of Oxbridge is something to be considered in light of her history. She is a perfectionist and does generally think quite negatively about herself and her achievements. For example if she got 95/100 in a test rather than thinking “wow I did really well in that test” she will think “I only got 95 when I should have got 100 and so-and-so did better then me.” I do worry that she is not robust enough for Oxbridge.

@ProggyMat like your DD she is also a party animal and part of her is worried that Oxbridge will just be all work and no play and she won’t get the “fun” uni experience she wants.

She will definitely be applying but I think she’s pragmatic that she won’t get an offer and even if she does is it the right environment for her.

With that in mind does anyone know the stats on students that get offers that don’t firm? Or is that unheard of?

@Rollergirl11 based on my DD’s experience (and that of others) plenty of scope to party. Lots of students have a “work hard, play hard” mentality and seem to cope.

I had similar concerns about DD1 re MH issues, but it has gone much, much better than I feared. She still has her wobbles, but as she has got older she has developed better strategies for dealing with them.

Re offers that don’t firm: yes, I think it does happen. My impression (I’m sure stats are available but haven’t looked for them) is that C tend to set more challenging offers than O, so that not making a C offer is more likely.

@Rollergirl11 DD was concerned that she ‘would be stuck with a load of folk with nowt else better to do than study’.
She a real wobble a couple of days before I took her down as she had convinced herself that she ‘wouldn’t fit in’
On moving in day at her Oxford college she couldn’t wait to get rid of me as she’d already met others and made plans for the afternoon!
As @InvestedButNotOverinvested says those with a ‘work hard play hard’ mentality do cope and there’s definitely lots of them there.
My DD sounds very similar to yours and she’s really enjoyed her first year- the ups and the downs of which they’d live through at most universities.

With that in mind does anyone know the stats on students that get offers that don’t firm? Or is that unheard of?

The Cambridge admissions graph thingy lets you see offers and 'acceptances' but I think the difference between the two numbers is both those who didn't accept the offer and those that didn't meet their offer.

I was curious enough to look for the stats. Both O and C publish reports which include number of offers and number of acceptances. As @ErrolTheDragon says, this will include those who choose not to go as opposed to not making the offer, but I’d expect that number to be very small compared with any other uni. For 2022, O’s offers to acceptances was c90%, C’s was 84% which is consistent with the relatively higher offers made by C.

It is PPE. I think the general wisdom is that you can do 2 things alongside your degree and cope. DD captained a sports team and learnt how to row, then she swapped the rowing for a boyfriend who rows enough for both if them! (She was injured). Trying to squeeze more in would have been a disaster for her, but there are always some who can juggle boat crews, multiple orchestras and win academic prizes.

We're 99% certain what her final result will be and I can honestly say that despite having GCSE and A level results which would bring some of you out in a cold sweat, the tutors spotted her potential at interview, took a chance on her and she has proved their faith in her.

Anecdotal evidence - a friend turned down a place last year to read music, accepting the Tonnmeister degree at Surry instead. Probably the right decision.

who I saw thriving

• the ones really into politics so running union, law socs etc
• the ones who’d been really well taught at school (surprisingly rare), Croydon Girls’, Wimbledon Girls’, some Kent & London grammars
• the ones whose high school had taught them to write a critical essay very well
• the ones as passionate about their subject as the dons (surprisingly rare)
• the ones at colleges that coached them a bit (tutors explained how to approach lectures, what was worthwhile/not, what to record)

Thanks pellicano, I'm not sure DD would tick many of those boxes unfortunately!

I guess to some extent you have to trust that the admissions tutors are able to predict whether someone will sink or swim in such an unfamiliar environment.

no, there are a million ways to benefit there, was just imho those I saw thrive, there are prob 1000s of others.

That's an interesting list @pellicano. How would prospective applicants know which colleges/depts are supportive? I guess the dc don't find out until they actually start. Re; well taught dc, I can see this would give a good grounding - they're used to working at pace.

Someone mentioned you can’t always find out about a college until you get there but just wanted to point out most colleges do offer holder days or half days at the college, also meet the director of studies either in person or online. Appreciate that is after a choice has been made or fished out of the pool by a college but it can make the transition less unknown.

In some ways it's easier for really small courses, which tend to cluster around certain colleges even if (in theory) other colleges offer them.

DD is doing 4 x A levels (at the moment at least) so maybe that would be good experience. I fell down a rabbit hole earlier watching Eve Bennett videos on YouTube, good "warts and all" vlogs about her time at Oxford.

There's a huge amount to be said for not over thinking all of this stuff.

The take in our house: throw your hat into the ring, see what happens, take it from there.

And cross bridges when you come to them. Life has a habit of throwing curve balls.

Understood but she needs to decide fairly soon whether to throw her hat in the ring or use that choice elsewhere.

Five choices for any student able to realistically consider Oxbridge are ample. Most of these students probably only need two choices: Oxbridge plus one other.

They definitely DO need five choices, quite a few dc in dd’s yr who applied to Oxbridge have ended up only getting an offer from their fifth choice. But if you’re rejected you can choose another uni to fill the gap so you’re not “losing” a slot by giving it a go. I’ve said on here before dd took rejection much harder than I anticipated (mainly because her bffs got in) and I think you have to be aware for tourvdc no matter how prepared you are mentally it still may come as a nasty blow, especially if they’re pooled, which is no fun with A levels on the horizon. However she’s well over it now and I’m relieved she won’t be going straight into more super-hard work and stress after years of working very hard at school

I wasn't very clear - I just mean that there isn't much point in applying somewhere that's not right for you, especially when extra effort is involved.

If you were to get an offer you'd have reduced your options to four for nothing. (Actually, that's also the case if you're rejected, isn't it? As far as I know you can't just replace a uni that rejects you with another one?)

I agree that even the cleverest need five choices if they are applying for a competitive course.

As far as I know you can't just replace a uni that rejects you with another one.

No, you can't- if you have used all five options and hold no offers, you can use UCAS Extra from late February to apply for one new course at a time.

(There is also the option to 'replace' universities applied to at a very early stage, iirc, as in similarlarity to the distance selling laws, but that is something different).

Thank you Marching, I thought there might be some Oxbridge rule that I didn't know about since the PP has been through it.

@LanadelSlay after your DD was rejected, did she replace O or C with another uni on the UCAS form then?

@goodbyestranger for popular subjects you do need all your 5 choices! For Maths only 1/11 get offers at Oxford and all the applicants will be doing further Maths, so all very good at Maths and all likely to be Astar predicted students. The top Universities for Maths all have very low offer rates. This means many students will only get 1 or 2 offers! There are other subjects like this eg medicine, Economics etc

Computer Science is another subject, my son's friend ended up with 5 rejections and ended up getting a place via Extra.

But @mushroom3 you can only apply for 4 medicine courses anyway. The 5th choice has to be different eg Biomedical Sciences