Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 4

[Lightsabre]

New thread as our dc start the rollercoaster ride of interviews.

Mine had 3 interviews at the same college on the same day, just the one notification. Waiting to see now if a second college interview is offered.

2nd interview seems to have gone better. Nothing more to be done now (assuming not pooled elsewhere 😭)

Good luck to those DC with interviews still to go 🤞🏻

First one done! She says she thinks it went ok, was a bit nonplussed that it was over in less than 20 minutes - wonders if she was not very interesting? I said don't read anything in to it. Very nice interviewers. She did say for the pre reading she was watched (not by the interviewers) and when she asked if she could print it (5 pages) they said only if the printer was in the room with her. Next one in a couple hours.

DD had a better one today too - still fully expecting a January rejection after yesterday but at least it's all done 😅

Good luck to those still in the throes or with interviews to come next week 🍀

Can I ask a possibly silly question?

Interviews for my daughter's subject (single subject) are being held next week. She had an email from her first choice college last week saying they want to interview her and would be in touch with date and time in line with the announced schedule. Since then she has heard from another college with an interview time and date on Monday, but nothing further from original college.

I've suggested it might be a good idea to message the original college, given it is now Wednesday afternoon.

She is telling me she doesn't need to and it's 'fine'.

Is it? :/

I would definitely email

@WutheringConniption i’d get the school to check. Looks better than your mum getting involved 😉

@WutheringConniption there are a few students in this position on the Oxford and Cambridge 2024 entry Student Room forum. I think the general consensus is to go along with the invite but I'd also email for clarification.

Does it say in the email when to email them if you haven't heard?
DD had exactly this, it was about a week between hearing she had an interview and finding out when it was. In the meantime another college had contacted her with a date and time. In the email from the first college it said to get in touch if you hadn't received a date / time four days before, which she did.

PS she received date / time on Friday for an interview today, just to give you an idea of the time frames. Some colleges are a bit more last minute than others.

My son was a Maths interview at C.
His friend had his interview earlier in the week and at the end was asked if he had any questions.
What's a good question to ask in this situation?

Thank you all to have replied - consensus seems to be in line with my thinking. I'll have a chat with her again when she gets back from school. For clarity, I was never going to email them myself 😂but was suggesting that she might want to do so.

Shellfish unless you have a genuine question, much better just to say no I don't have any questions thanks.

I think feedback is only provided to students (on request) if rejected after interview, not if rejected before the interview stage I’m afraid.

@witheringrowan Just out of interest, DD’s had both her Oxford interviews now and just about every single thing she put on her personal statement came up in one or the other (apart from her extracurricular stuff - seems they’re not very interested in her charity work lol)

@Rzim, they may give the test score after offers day. It's worth asking I guess.

DDs first interview done! Just one tomorrow morning now and then wait to see if any more at another college. She said it was "okay" but it was over before she knew it so isn't entirely sure of it all. Definitely wasn't horrific though so all good.

DSs interview done this afternoon for history at cambridge - he just had one long one so all done now. He felt it went well, and was happy with the questions. So whatever happens he knows he gave it a good go, which I think is all you can do. He wasn't watched while doing the pre-reading.

All 3 interviews done and dusted for my DD. She seems to be reasonably happy with how they went and said she couldn't have tried any harder so very proud of her for just getting this far and recognising her own effort. I really hope she won't have any more next week. 3 is quite enough! Well done to anyone who has been through it this week. They are all superstars for getting this far!

Agreed; interview advice DD received led her to believe she had to ask something and therefore asked what imo was a pretty lame/immature sounding question in her first two. Hoping they will gloss over this...

Reflecting on ds's interview yesterday at C. First one was defin the "stress" interview - picked up on one line of his personal statement and kept going at it from different angles. Felt like a couple of cats playing with a mouse apparently. Quite impressive how they seemed to immediately get to the heart of who he was/ belief/value system and really push that to the limit to see whether dogmatic or able to engage critically. There was apparently a thread then across the rest of the left field questions back to this one point. Second interview which was reviewing a passage felt v much easier! Absolutely exhausted on the way home and glad to have got it over with now.

Students will receive their MAT scores via email in January. This is sent to all applicants shortly after colleges have sent out offers.

The department will also release a brief report on the admissios process:
https://www.cs.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/admissions_statistics/home.html

We are relaxing watching Genie (I think it's funnier than my daughter does) with a Chinese takeaway. So glad it's over - agonising wait now! The second was also on the short side and not the grilling/challenge she was expecting. So no idea how it went - felt she couldn't showcase her knowledge/thought process enough. They did ask her quite a bit about her PS though.
Now needs to get her art term project finished by next week!

It is absolutely fine to say you have no questions!

In some cases you might be asked if you have any questions about the course or life in the college, other cases you might be told if you have any questions then you can email the admissions office later.

If you really want to ask something it could be about one of the courses in the tripos, or about how much choice you have in courses etc.

Do NOT ask a question about some obscure maths thing (perhaps in an effort to look clever), or about what the interviewers area of research...

Regarding questions my daughter wanted to ask one of the tutors where she got her Oscar Wilde desk organiser from (she saw it in her office on open day) and I said don't you dare 🤣 Luckily she didn't thank god.