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Higher education

Talk to other parents whose children are preparing for university on our Higher Education forum.

Original poster

Oxbridge 2024 Entry

988 replies

Lightsabre · 28/02/2023 13:52

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!

OP posts:
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7
goodbyestranger · 07/09/2023 07:35

DD4 is at a college which is good/ takes in a reasonable number for Fine Art and is close friends with all the people doing it in her year. I personally wouldn’t agonise over stats too much. Far more important for your DD to read the OU website main subject page and the individual college subject pages and decide if she likes the sound of the course. Her grades will be completely fine - it’s the evidence of her talent which counts.

goodbyestranger · 07/09/2023 09:38

Also of the students studying FA in her year at her college, none had done a foundation year. They all graduated successfully or exceptionally successful (as in top of the year).

Hertsessex · 07/09/2023 10:10

That rate of acceptance is probably similar to a great many course at Oxford and Cambridge. It's the sad reality. DD2 told me her Cambridge course last time around was 11 accepted from 95 applicants I think.

Blodwen9 · 07/09/2023 14:45

mondaytosunday · 06/09/2023 13:37

It's Cambridge but will check out Just Park.

Cambridge park and ride was rammed on the last open day. Need to arrive (and leave) ahead of the masses if you're using. We tried to get a bus back to the car park at about 4. Long queue and then got stuck in the traffic....

goodbyestranger · 07/09/2023 16:49

I’ve nev

goodbyestranger · 07/09/2023 16:52

….er used a park and ride in Oxford and always been fine. But right from the start I’d drop off at whichever college and then park a little way out and walk back
in through the Parks or through ChristChurch Meadows. Then there isn’t all the fiddling around with two hour max stays etc. Much less stressful.

mondaytosunday · 07/09/2023 21:33

Thanks @Blodwen9 I mentioned upthread that I've booked a space at a nearby hotel through Just Park about a ten minute walk away from most of the colleges.
Off to Bristol Saturday and first session booked for 10.15! Very early start. I'm getting more and more inclined to just do offer holder days (other than Cambridge of course).

Blodwen9 · 08/09/2023 06:46

mondaytosunday · 07/09/2023 21:33

Thanks @Blodwen9 I mentioned upthread that I've booked a space at a nearby hotel through Just Park about a ten minute walk away from most of the colleges.
Off to Bristol Saturday and first session booked for 10.15! Very early start. I'm getting more and more inclined to just do offer holder days (other than Cambridge of course).

Yes - due to dis’s lack of organisation all we managed for him was offer holder days and it worked just fine. They were really focused days and generally just for his subject area so not the bunfight that general open days are.

Original poster
Lightsabre · 08/09/2023 08:53

Bit of a stressed household here, mostly due to school insisting everything has to be in by Monday. Cue late night last night adding courses on UCAS, music certificates etc. He had to add one short course GCSE manually as it didn't appear on the drop down list. We had a bit of a row when I pointed out he's had all summer to do this. Grrr.

Also ds has changed his mind and is now going for Chemistry at Oxford. He was struggling with the NSAA Natural Science test paper timings for the maths part. He liked both courses so that's ok but we haven't really looked at which college to choose for Ox. We saw a few but they all seem to have merged into one! More research tonight.

OP posts:
goodbyestranger · 08/09/2023 08:53

None of my DC went to any open days at any unis at all, other than the Oxford one which the school organised for the July days, when they stayed overnight. Indeed their school said a strict maximum of three days could be taken off for open days, including the Oxford days, so that limited choice. Not that they wanted to go to any anyhow - a few friends went here and there and they were expensive to travel to, massively busy, and didn’t seem to yield any info not readily available on the internet. By contrast the Oxford days were free (the school paid for the coach and the colleges didn't charge for accommodation or food) and were always good fun. Two consecutive summer days off school was a big incentive. Major win all round. I was delighted to avoid anything to do with other open days which given our location would have been almost inevitable.

At least five of my DC have helped on repeat occasions with the Oxford open days and interview weeks. The helpers and tutors really do notice the more excessive parents who try to dominate any session. They take a really dim view of it. These days are overwhelmingly for the prospective students to ask questions, not parents.

stoneysongs · 08/09/2023 09:57

DS didn't bother with open days, but his course was only available at a few places so he could narrow down his choices using basic info on the websites and a wander around a couple of cities.

DD has found them useful for ruling in or out various courses - partly from course talks revealing a particular emphasis or slant, partly from spending time in the uni environment with other prospective applicants.

She found the Oxford open day quite off-putting at first, until she realised that the students / prospective students were fine, just some of the parents she found annoying Smile

mondaytosunday · 08/09/2023 10:12

The open day at Cambridge is just the colleges, no subject sessions. As she decided only last month to change her degree subject she missed all the school planned trips (though did go to Bristol to walk around without even considering the university as they all had to go somewhere). All of our open days so far have been to art schools and my daughter has learned she needs to talk to a student on the actual course and grill them to get the inside scoop so to speak.
We are on the fence about going to Bristol tomorrow- not top of her list and it's supposed to be over 30 degrees! Plus we would have to leave before 7am. But we have found the other open days invaluable, even if coming away with a definite 'no'.

LanadelSlay · 08/09/2023 10:35

DD didn't make many open days because she didn't want to take too much time off school, also Covid restrictions meant they weren't all happening. I wish she'd gone to more ... I think it's hubristic in the extreme merely to go to the Oxbrige ones, it's very important to know what plan B, C AND D and E will be, as several people in her year with three A stars have ended up at D and E, some of whom hadn't bothered checking them out fully, thinking they wouldn't be needed

mondaytosunday · 08/09/2023 12:59

Exactly @LanadelSlay! Well aware Oxbridge is a long shot. Bath is on tomorrow too and we are trying to figure out if we could go to both, even though the subject talks were fully booked, we'd just like to see the campus and get a feel for it (we know Bath itself).
We have Exeter booked for October (same day as my sister flies in from the States of course). I'm think that's the end of Open days - I know another one she was considering is also on the same day at Exeter. She hadn't come up with a fifth uni to look at (HoS recommends Durham, which is on 15/16 this month, not sure we're up for that drive or four hour train and 40 minute walk having been to Cambridge the day before)!

DahliaMacNamara · 08/09/2023 13:21

DD guides and speaks at open days in her department, and would agree with @goodbyestranger 's DC on the subject of pushy parents trying to take over sessions, and probably embarrassing the hell out of their children into the bargain. She didn't go to open days herself because of Covid restrictions, but I remember the cringeworthy loud parents from going around various distant campuses with DS when he was in sixth form. I daresay they thought I was a bit casual, lurking at the back. I was.

Bovrilly · 08/09/2023 13:40

Can I ask you knowledgable people which if either of these sets of grades / predicteds looks 'better' from an admissions perspective?

DD has just done AS and has 4 x A which will go on her form.

Does it look better to have predicted A2 grades of ÅÅAB alongside the 4 x A, or to drop one and have predicted grades of ÅÅA?

(Leaving aside the advisability or otherwise of doing 4 A levels in the first place.)

goodbyestranger · 08/09/2023 23:01

Drop the subject with the predicted B for sure.

goodbyestranger · 08/09/2023 23:11

LanadelSlay I’m struggling to see how it was ‘hubristic’ of my DC to only go to the Oxford open day. They all used all of their choices on the UCAS form they just read websites rather than spending lots of money travelling long distances to possible options. As it was, school would have only allowed them one single day off for a second open day in any event. They just don’t seem that valuable.

Bovrilly · 09/09/2023 00:05

goodbyestranger · 08/09/2023 23:01

Drop the subject with the predicted B for sure.

👍
Thank you. Even as I pressed post I was thinking that too.

ErrolTheDragon · 09/09/2023 08:19

@Bovrilly - mine got 4As at AS, iirc her predictions were at least ÅÅAA but she dropped the extra subject anyway, on her school's advice - not because of how the predictions look on an application but to maximise the likelihood of actually achieving top grades in the remaining 3. (The 4th subject had a big project in yr 13)
There's no point getting the offer on 4 if the extra work means you may not meet it!

LanadelSlay · 09/09/2023 12:07

goodbyestranger · 08/09/2023 23:11

LanadelSlay I’m struggling to see how it was ‘hubristic’ of my DC to only go to the Oxford open day. They all used all of their choices on the UCAS form they just read websites rather than spending lots of money travelling long distances to possible options. As it was, school would have only allowed them one single day off for a second open day in any event. They just don’t seem that valuable.

Struggle away. Other people can make their own minds up if this is a sensible course of action. Hard relate to the person upthread saying not all advice on here is useful.

Livinghappy · 09/09/2023 12:13

@InvestedButNotOverinvested Is Nottingham an option as I think their offer is lower so more realistic for insurance.

TenSheds · 09/09/2023 12:57

@ErrolTheDragon Yes, same here, though in this case it was DD's choice and school put up a bit of a fight; 4th subject was more work than any of the others and not related to the degree so was dropped without a backward glance. Besides, we are in Wales, where Welsh Bacc is compulsory, so DD will still end up with four grades.

Bovrilly · 09/09/2023 13:15

Thanks for the insights - we are also in Wales but have an EPQ in the mix instead of Welsh Bacc (one of DD's reasons for choosing her college as she despises WB Blush)

goodbyestranger · 09/09/2023 13:31

This thread is supposed to be helpful and civil LanadelSlay, which your tone isn’t really.

I wasn’t struggling at all, obviously. I was just trying not to be rude.

Fortunately - and I hope this isn’t why you appear to be a bit confrontational with me - my DC didn’t actually need even plan B, so win win.