Second interviews oxbridge

Rucruet · 2023-12-07T15:22:24+00:00

Has anyone at Oxford been asked back to interview for other colleges? do we know how many get asked to interview for other colleges? if they hear nothing I assume it means they are definitely in or definitely out? yikes

Biscofffan · 07/12/2023 15:36

Students are frequently interviewed by 2 colleges (and even occasionally 3!). All students are notified of the result early/mid January.

Fifthtimelucky · 07/12/2023 18:36

It's a few years ago now, but my daughter was interviewed by 5 colleges (and yes, she did get in)!

Lightsabre · 07/12/2023 18:38

@Rucruet we have an Oxbridge thread here if you'd like to join in. Discussion at the moment on further interviews.

Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 4 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/higher_education/4954922-oxbridge-2024-entry-part-4

BiancaBlank · 08/12/2023 00:27

Looking at the stats for history 2021, 40 out of the 236 successful candidates had interviews at a second college, so a bit less than 20%. The stats don’t show which college actually made the offer though. (Nor how many unsuccessful candidates had multiple interviews!)

Judging by what posters have said on the Oxbridge thread, those that have interviews at other colleges were generally notified of this before they’d even been seen by their college of choice, which I would have thought suggests they’re strong candidates. Getting another interview after your first college interview(s) on the other hand would probably imply that college didn’t want you but were good enough for a second chance? Hard to know.

Purely anecdotal, but in DD1’s cohort (2022), only one of the applicants had an interview at a second college but didn’t get an offer from either in the end. Most of the others didn’t get offers either of course, so not sure you can read much into that. Oxbridge is brutal!

JesusWeptLady · 08/12/2023 01:59

@BiancaBlank I posted this on another thread recently but not sure which one, sorry. I have a relative who was interviewed by 3 Oxford colleges. At the end of the process he was offered a spot at the first college who told him they had sent him on to other admissions people as a benchmark for what they should be looking for in terms of an excellent interviewee.

So probably less likely they'd bother passing a failed interviewee onto another college as it would possibly be a waste of time.

Original poster

Rucruet · 08/12/2023 07:13

Thanks all! Can’t second guess anything I suppose!!

OP posts:

CatherineStandish · 08/12/2023 10:04

DS has had his first set of interviews with his chosen college and will hear Monday if there are more next week. (We hope not, he’s burnt out with interviews and mocks this week)

He was told a second interview doesn’t mean he’s weak candidate because they often refer for benchmarking.

This interview was done by a Prof and a person from admissions- and the presence of the admissions officer makes me think the prof would have told this to all the interviewees.

cupoftea2022 · 08/12/2023 14:18

cupoftea2022 · 08/12/2023 14:19

BiancaBlank · 08/12/2023 00:27

Looking at the stats for history 2021, 40 out of the 236 successful candidates had interviews at a second college, so a bit less than 20%. The stats don’t show which college actually made the offer though. (Nor how many unsuccessful candidates had multiple interviews!)

Judging by what posters have said on the Oxbridge thread, those that have interviews at other colleges were generally notified of this before they’d even been seen by their college of choice, which I would have thought suggests they’re strong candidates. Getting another interview after your first college interview(s) on the other hand would probably imply that college didn’t want you but were good enough for a second chance? Hard to know.

Purely anecdotal, but in DD1’s cohort (2022), only one of the applicants had an interview at a second college but didn’t get an offer from either in the end. Most of the others didn’t get offers either of course, so not sure you can read much into that. Oxbridge is brutal!

Hello where do you look these particular statistics up please? I would like to check the position for another subject. Thanks.

BiancaBlank · 08/12/2023 15:10

@cupoftea2022 That particular table was posted on Mumsnet a while back; I believe it came from a FOI request, so it was just for that specific subject unfortunately. It’s a shame Oxford do not publish this level of detail in their Admissions Report!

Revengeofthepangolins · 08/12/2023 15:30

The admission feedback reports for the main subjects have this sort of detail. You can find them on the Merton college site, among other s

Lastexmouse · 08/12/2023 16:03

Last year my DD had one interview with the chosen college, then after that was done, heard about a second interview with a second college. 3 ppl were in the 1st interview and 4 in the second.
Quite stressful at the time !
She did get an offer.

londonmummy1966 · 08/12/2023 16:04

One of DDs friends had interviews with 7 different colleges last year - didn't get into their first choice but did get into one of the others. The first choice is a college well known for being good in that subject so it stands to reason that they might have an unusually strong field of applicants so they might not have room for an otherwise good candidate (and other colleges would be wise to this and probably on the look out for potentially good "rejects").