Current Oxford/Cambridge students support/chat continued (2)

[Panicmode1]

The other thread is nearly full so I took the liberty of starting a new one...

@HewasH2O massive congratulations to your DD! What a very very long wait for her final degree result. I'm really pleased she's had her final mark at last and well done to her. They're very luck to have her, where she is now! Hope she and you and all the family can celebrate - again.

Lovely news @HewasH2O - a wonderful finale.

@HewasH2O congratulations to your DD!

Congratulations to your DD H2O. Best wishes for the next step.

Congratulations @HewasH2O that's brilliant news.

D1 staying on in Oxford in a houseshare. I loved her graduation and it was so nice to meet some of her tutors afterwards. I'm now recovering from the outrageous cost of the official photos!

It was really strange not putting together a 4th week blues box for her. Just hoping she can get home for a couple of days over Christmas.

@JulesJules (I'm about to say something terrible). We picked a different photo for the 2 sets of grandparents on the grounds we will get them back within the next few years. That saved at least £60.

Ha! Good thinking @HewasH2O . We had foolishly offered to get photos for both grandpas and whatever D1 wanted...

We are going up to C to see DD this weekend to bring her some home cooked frozen food, plus some bits of bobs like her favourite biscuits. Weather doesn't look to be too nice for the weekend, but anyway, we will probably do a bit of shopping in the Grand Arcade. We've booked into the Oak Bistro for dinner, hopefully that will be nice. We would like to have Sunday roast lunch somewhere, any recommendations would be much appreciated.

We've had excellent Sunday lunches at the Red Lion in Grantchester and the Plough in Coton. Do book ahead - both are big but can be busy! (And the Oak was great too when we went there a couple of years ago!)

Congratulations to your DD @HewasH2O. Lovely news and best wishes for whatever she does next.

It's lovely and right by the canal.

Congratulations @HewasH2O , that's amazing news. Nothing new from me as I'm jet-lagged and now full of a cold. My DDs have done a wonderful job contacting my ancient father and WhatsApping me every day to update me as DF is too decrepit to do that for himself. I hope everyone has a great weekend.

Had a lovely chat with DD yesterday (3rd year NatSci C), the first in over 2 weeks. She’s busy with classes, sport and writing up her summer research project. That doesn’t make us miss her any less… going up to see her the weekend after Thanksgiving, with big containers of stuffing and pie.

DS came home for a flying visit on Sun to coincide with DD, who was back for a short reading week...it was SO lovely to have all 6 of us around the table for a big Sunday roast. Looking forward to the Christmas break now -DS is going on the Varsity ski trip so won't be back until Dec 9 or 10 I think. Poor DD won't be home until the 17th or so.

(And it's making me far more appreciative of the time I have left with DS3 and DS4, who are still at home, but I can hear the clock ticking to the empty nest....😭!)

Back in Scotland after seeing DS4 and DD4 in Oxford on the way to and from Zurich with DD1 to see DS2. DD3 and her bf (and their dog) also managed to get up to Oxford for supper which was lovely. Both cities were looking beautiful, Oxford especially so in the sunshine. A pic of the Parks on Monday, the swans roaring in to get bread

Hi

I hope you don’t mind me popping on here to ask a few questions. Congratulations to all your super shiny young people; they deserve every success.

DC is Yr 12. May I ask which grades your DCs achieved at GCSE and what was the decider to give them the confidence to apply to Oxbridge? And what would be the minimum number of 9s you would expect to have in order to apply as a serious candidate? I met an acquaintance today whose son is going to apply with a handful of 9s (no contextual offer likely) whereas I’d assumed that it would only be worth applying if your GCSEs were straight 10/11x9s.

Can I ask what your DCs scored at GCSE?

Hope this is OK. TIA.

Hi @rainbowglassbowl - I imagine it may depend on which uni/course/college, but my DS was in a cohort of 15 who got Oxbridge offers, and I don't think there were many 7s at GCSE - but they all applied for STEM/NatSci/Maths. (He had all 9s)

a) One of my DSs got 7A/ 4A and another got 5A/6A, both got accepted at the first attempt to read History at Oxford and both got Firsts.

b) Their History teacher was a star and strongly encouraged both to apply. Both would have been happy to go elsewhere however so they were pretty relaxed.

@Rainbowglassbowl DD got a a clutch of 9s, a couple of 8s, a 7 at Physics and 6 in Further maths. She is studying an arts subject where she got got top results and also did well in an Oxbridge essay comp. I don’t know what factor made her stand out. One of her friends who got all 9s st GCSE didn’t get in for maths.

The 2023 stats for her college for her subject show competition was fiercer than law (although the stats pages will tell you that the pool system should mean it doesn’t matter which college you apply to).

What made her think she was worthy of applying was a build up of factors as she was often a ‘I am never good enough type’. Firstly sixth form offer from Westminster and shortlisted for Queen’s scholar but didn’t get scholarship so despite offer of a place we couldn’t afford for her to go. She enjoyed the interview and exams for that application (all online at the time due to lockdown). Secondly she felt she ‘had’ to try to have the smaller tutorial / supervision experience as lockdown online learning she hated and didn’t want purely a large group and lecture type experience, Thirdly her teachers said such lovely things about how if she didn’t get a place they would be surprised. Every teacher she had told her she would get a place and if she didn’t no one else would (I don’t know how many they told that to and who didn’t!). The clincher was winning an Oxbridge essay completion, being invited to the award ceremony and believing she could thrive there. Sorry that was rather long but upshot is it a unique journey for each YP.

Ok so that was a boo boo: 7A stars and 5 A stars. To be fair neither were particularly studious, both preferred doing stuff with friends/ sport/ x box. But they liked their subject and were obviously good at it right the way through school.

Hi @Rainbowglassbowl, both my DC have all 9s at GCSE (sat in 2016 and 2018). It was their GCSE results that gave them the confidence to apply, encouraged by their school. We are not an Oxbridge family but neither DC found the application process overly daunting. This was Oxford for 2018 and Cambridge for 2020 so written tests and in person interviews - no online test issues.

The boys' five siblings who got offers for Law, History, Medicine did get a full sweep of top grades at GCSE though (pre CAGs) and especially with the older ones - agree here with ofteninaspin - that gave them the confidence to apply. Although they were fortunate to go to a school (state grammar) which strongly encouraged each of them to apply.

Dd's profile was similar to Pettswood's. She had some 9s, some 8s, some 7s, a 6 and failed further maths. She has just graduated in PPE.

Oxford is adamant that they simply expect the majority to be at grades 7 or above. However, it's all contextual. If she had gone to a selective school like some above, she wouldn't have had a look in. Instead she was taught in mixed ability classes with some getting grades 2 or 3. We live in an area where less than 30% were achieving 5 GCSEs inc. maths and English. She was the first to get a place at Oxbridge from her secondary school in at least 10 years. Very few made it to RG universities.

DD achieved all top grades and DS1 got all top grades except for one subject. But I think context is relevant here. Both went to schools where such results aren't unusual.

If your DC is attending a school where such grades would make them an outlier then they'd be a really strong candidate. Similarly less than stellar grades achieved in a school with historically weaker results coukd still be strong for an Oxford application.

@Rainbowglassbowl DS got all A stars at GCSE and DD got 7x9s and 2x8s.

Both got 4 A Stars at A Level Inc Further Maths for Physics and Earth Sciences.

However according to both that isn't everyone.