Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 4

[Lightsabre]

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

It's useful broad brush though hunderground.

I don't think DD will be interested in feedback tbh, she will just assume she wasn't as good as other people and any detail on that will be salt to the wound 😂
I think she'll want to know how she did in the TSA though.

My info isn’t recent but DD (Oxford) had an offer email from college in the morning, before she left for school and a letter in the post on same day. DS (Cambridge) had an offer email from college mid morning. The actual grades he needed came in another email a day or two later.

It's so difficult to know Silkie. Your dd has a unique set of circumstances and perhaps that is why Oxford interviewed her? Also, if she was able to shine at interview and you think she also aced the test then she has a very good chance of an offer. There was an interesting Guardian article from a few years ago about how they choose and I would imagine contextualisation plays an even bigger part now.

I know you're not keen on another London uni but has she thought about Economics, Finance and Data Science at Imperial? I think the first cohort was last year but ds and I attended the open day talk (at a loose end between the talks we were there for) and it looked like a very exciting course. They are expecting a huge amount of applications however and the odds are also low. Apparently employers are lining up already to offer very well paying jobs once the first cohort graduate (and therefore it'll be easy to secure internships whilst on the course I would imagine).

Yes I think the TSA result will probably make it very obvious anyway.

Yes, I can see that could sting. I think k there was a poster last year whose dc wasn't offered but the feedback was fantastic - high test and interview scores.
I have to say, I don't think it's because the dc are not good enough. Once they get to interview I think all of them are considered of the right academic standard. I think it depends if you 'click' at interview with a topic you can run with. The margins are very tight. I would say ds is at the same standard as the others who have interviewed but some have had better interview experiences than others.

Yes Lightsabre We don't know until TSA is out why she was amongst the 18% chosen for interview, the GCSE part she would be enough for the 18% but she must have been offered an interview either due to very high TSA or due to exceptional circumstances with the criteria and the quantity applying with 4 A stars being rejected. Either scenario is possible but it may depend which it is whether she is in or out as interviews both went well but nothing exceptional. She came out of TSA very confident but also said she hadn't done a full practice paper. But said her school which sends quite a lot to Oxbridge each year she went to one TSA session and got top in the class so it's possible she scored really high on TSA. But also possible she didn't.

@goodbyestranger figures were from the Oxford Classics department publishing data re applications/interveiws/offers broken down by the various classics courses.

Cheers Scoobyblue.

Absolutely, please don't use it as fact....it's totally anecdata!!

(And none of them were for maths or STEM subjects, where reapplications are harder (according to DS who was told he couldn't defer for engineering as they found students lost their maths acuity)).

@mondaytosunday good idea (I hope ds agrees).I plan to WFH on the day. I don't think ds will ask for feedback as unlikely to reapply.

His application & interview was as good as he could have done so if no offer then he will accept he isn't right for the college. Je ne regrette rien.

DD will be home as no mock that day. She has always been v relaxed about it but has found herself more drawn in by the process. So is saving up a movie to watch that night that will give her an excuse for a good weep whichever way it goes, and then start to move on.

I wasn't using it as a fact Panicmode I am not an idiot.

@Lightsabre
I don't know which is worse - "your scores were bad so we don't want you" or "your scores were brilliant and we still don't want you" 😂

I'm pretty sure DD won't try again, so I expect she will just feel disappointed for a bit and then move on to thinking about her other options.

I'm not sure how useful the feedback is anyway - it's all relative to that bunch of applicants isn't it, and interview scores could be quite different at another college. I heard of someone reapplying this year, having had an interview but no offer last year, and then not getting an interview second time around. That must be pretty dispiriting 😕

That seems a bit harsh?

FWIW I'm really hoping DS does not start talking about reapplying. I've watched a few friends' go through this (unsuccessfully) and feel it wasn't very healthy for them - it made Oxbridge even more the be all and end all than it can be the first time. I'd rather he just took it on the chin (with all the caveats we've discussed in this thread - ie so many talented young people that beyond a certain point is more a lottery) and started focusing on what next.

I just think its sad the thread has been derailed from being a support thread for people with children applying this year. I will probably go back to the general thread which is supportive.

Oxford is definitely DD's first choice, but she has always been quite ambivalent about it, there are definitely pros and cons for her. When she was waiting to hear about interviews she said, "well if I don't get an interview, at least I won't have to prep, and I wouldn't have to go to Oxford" 😂

Do stay, I will leave. All I've tried to do is be supportive and offer help having been through it the year before last, with my DS, and having been rejected myself many moons ago.

As I have repeatedly said, I wish your offspring the best of luck, they are all brilliant for having had interviews but sadly, some will be disappointed - it may feel like the end of the world for some, especially if their friends get offers, but they will all do brilliantly where they end up, because if you are good enough to have had a shot at the moon, you are likely to end up in the stars.

I hope some of you will join the 'current students' thread when the time comes. I've found it invaluable and supportive....au revoir!

@Silkiefloof just following on from @Lightsabre totally agree - the session for EFDS at the Imperial open day was great - we were really impressed. Its a really cool course.

At least this time next week we'll know how the land lies with E&M!

I doubt my son will want feedback unless he changes his mind about reapplying - which is very unlikely. His application was strong, his HAA seemed to go well, but unfortunately the interviews didn’t play to his strengths.

I am not sure how much it adds for the very competitive courses. My sister works in a London comprehensive (not a high performing one) and everyone was shocked when one of her students didn’t get a law offer. Perfect results, lots of super-curricula, great reference, solid LNAT and with multiple contextual flags. Feedback had her as above average for everything - there just wasn’t enough space.

I must have missed when the thread became unsupportive, but I am firmly in the camp that beyond a few exceptional students, there is a a big element of luck as to who gets a place for those who get to interview stage and possibly who even those in a position to apply.

Please can the past parents not leave - their context and experience is so valuable. I have always found this group very supportive @Panicmode1

@Silkiefloof if your daughter does take a gap year (hopefully she won’t have to), would it. It be better for her to do Further Maths rather than Economics A level? I may have remembered incorrectly, but isn’t she really strong at maths, having always got to superb in UKMT challenges.

I second that.

DS had his first set of mocks wrapped around the MAT2 and doesn't have another set until February, but has spent the holidays catching up on coursework for 2 subjects (which got a bit neglected due to the Oxford interviews). He is doing an unusual mix of subjects for a Maths applicant. The 9th is his first day back. I don't expect that he will reapply if unsuccessful; I think they don't approve of people doing Maths taking a gap year due to perceived loss of knowledge. He is sitting on 4 offers so will have somewhere where he will be happy to go! I an pretty sure he will request his MAT scores, I am, however, uncertain whether he will request feedback. The usual interview level is 27-30% (with around 9% offers so better odds than E&M!) , but it may have been higher this year with the MAT mess.

I don’t think Dd would reapply to Oxford. Not sure what she’ll do if she doesn’t get an offer there in terms of whether she’d try and defer entry somewhere else as I feel she would like and could well benefit from some time off the hamster wheel of studying. But we shall wait and see.

She is still waiting on offers from Durham and Edinburgh although she says she doesn’t want to go to Durham anyway and doesn’t know why she included it!