Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 4

[Lightsabre]

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

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/publications/guide-winter-pool-2020

There is a useful pdf on this page which sets out the Cambridge system for 2024 entry

Yes exactly. My post was a reply to Silkiefloof and Oxford specific for subjects which don't interview at two colleges as standard.

@Rollergirl11 I don't think it's normal to have an interview at another college at Cambridge. These second college interviews are at Oxford - kind of it's version of the pool? And I don't think C does the pool til after all interviews are done - probably not til after the holidays. Only then another college MAY request an interview, but most often not. They either offer or don't. I'm sure I read somewhere about 20% of those taken from the pool are done so by their original college.

Thanks for the link @Wheaten, it is indeed very helpful.

Yes @mondaytosunday your understanding of the Cambridge process is pretty much echoed in the link that Wheaten provided. I must have got mixed up on the thread as I thought some posters were reporting further interviews for Cambridge as well as Oxford.

DS2 had 2 in person interviews at Cambridge this morning. He thinks they both went well. Just glad that they are over with. Good luck to everyone with interviews this week.

Re second interviews at Oxford, I put on another thread that, according to 2021 data, less than 20% of successful history candidates were interviewed by a second college. Might well be similar for other humanities.

So not getting a second interview doesn’t necessarily spell disaster by any means!

@InvestedButNotOverinvested I think the post interview scoring system is similar for Maths and Physics at Oxford. I’ve looked at various FOI responses and it looks like what you have said for Physics.

Ignorant parent question here. What does that mean - that suggests 80% of history candidates get places WITHOUT a second interview and 20% get thorough AFTER second interview right? Thanks.

It means at least 80% got in with just first round college interviews. We don’t know about the remaining 20% as they had second interviews but we don’t know which college took them, so the relevance or not of the second college interview is unknown.

I’ve looked at the chemistry FOI from
2021 and it is nearly impossible to draw conclusions. Odds of an offer after a second interview are about 29%, slightly lower than but probably not much different than the odds of about 33% before the second interview. The majority of second interviews were given to those with average interview scores and very rarely for those with very high or very low interview scores.

We’ve celebrated the process with DS, and whatever happens next will happen.

Yes it seems to be very hard to draw conclusions at Oxford and the system is less transparent than at Cambridge. Its just the economist in me wanting all the data (DD is like this too) though it won't give any conclusion anyway, so its more curiosity. I did see that for E&M (which takes 88ish each year) that central admissions allocate 3 per college (19 colleges offer E&M) for a second college interview and then each college can add to that. 57 is c.21% of total interviewed so at least 21% have second college interviews for E&M and sounded like its quite a bit more. Its the standard 1 in 3 get in initially once selected for interview.

DD was happy with both her interviews but its hard to tell in E&M and not knowing the interviewers or the other interviews.

And is the general consensus that this is the same for all arts subjects? Or is there no consensus :)

Its hard to know with the limited data but for E&M my guess would be first college top 1/4 are accepted, second 1/4 are put to second interview and c.30% of these will get an offer and lowest 1/2 are rejected after first interview. So if you've had one interview and not a second chances are 1 in 3, if you've had 2 colleges interview chances are 30% but broadly similar.

@cupoftea2022 It’s just History. Could not generalise to other arts or humanity subjects as they all seem to admit slightly differently.

The Oxford colleges do have admissions reports broken down by subject on their websites - it only gives snippets of information but you might find a bit more there though its largely we all have to wait until 9 January.

DS is done! First interview mucked up due to nerves, second and third he is happy with. I think scores from all three are used for Maths, so no idea whether DS is still on the running or not !

@Silkiefloof the admissions manual for E&m is available on line (well for 22 anyways) - someone got it from a FOI request. Outlines the second interview choice and process. There are ones for other subjects too.
https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/895594/response/2138702/attach/4/EM%20Manual%2022%2023%20Redacted.pdf?cookie_passthrough=1

DD also now finally done. Today’s interview did not go well - she said she was very slow in working one of the main problems out and needed help - felt she should have and could have got there a lot quicker. Quite possibly means a no for her given that the admissions reports say almost all those accepted for Physics have 3 good interviews. On the plus side, it’s done. She also now has offers from all her other uni choices (she didn’t apply to Durham or any of the London unis) so she really can now focus on her A levels.

After a long spell of no offers, DS now has St Andrews, Bath and UCL. we are away on holiday tomorrow, glad interviews are all out the way, now it's a waiting game!

@InvestedButNotOverinvested My DD definitely didn't have three good interviews for physics at Oxford, one was pretty bad, so tell her not to worry about that (easier said than done I know).

It's hard to work out what's what and how current DC who have just interviewed are doing when this thread is full of comments from PP who's DC are already or have been at Oxbridge and with Stats that are being referred or alluded to but not actually linked to and are definitely not on the relevant Oxbridge websites. Empirical Evidence is lacking.

Thanks Not Hope the second ones went OK.

Tiffin no-one can work out how any interviewee in the current cycle is doing until the offers are mailed out. It's just not possible. Far too many unknowns and frankly no point trying.

What evidence do you want? There is no way anybody knows anything about how they've done. Until the results come out it's all just speculation. Best to just forget about it as best you can.

My daughter currently at Cambridge (sorry Tiff) had an online supervision today with her DoS. All decisions made for her subject at her college. It is a bit ridiculous that it takes so long to finalise and communicate results.