Oxbridge 2025

[SnowFairy2000]

Let's start the journey here !!!

Phew - dd has had an offer for Exeter. She feels like so much pressure is off - thank God!

congratulations to everyone with offers coming in

I don't know if they still do this or not, but make sure your DC scroll right down to the bottom of offers from Exeter. They would sometimes pop an extra award of up to £2k at the bottom if you met an extra condition such as putting them first or submitting an essay.

Is it normal to be offered a non compulsory interview to get a lower offer ?
Ds has been told he’s got an offer from York to read maths. Has to attend an interview to get the reduced offer. Not sure what either offer would be. It’s his only offer so far meanwhile all his friends are falling over them, admittedly in a different subject. He’s trying to keep optimistic but I suspect it’s getting to him a bit.

York is lovely and they would undoubtedly offer below Oxbridge standard offers in the circumstances. The standard York offer of A* AA was dropped to ABB for DD. Her other offers were all higher than Oxford and would never budge if they were an insurance place, so York filled the slot nicely.

Thanks for that. It probably would be his insurance place, other would be Edinburgh which I think is a being a tad optimistic !

Edinburgh turned DD down on her 18th birthday whilst we were in the gardens of her future Oxford college. We went to the Turf Tavern and she bought her first ever legal round of drinks.

Biased towards York as she's doing her masters there now.

Sounds a bit ridiculous of Edinburgh !

One thing I've learnt is that nobody is guaranteed an offer from anywhere. It would have been a nightmare if she had gone there. Oxford was closest to home.

Nothing else in the Exeter offer but interestingly is was contextual and much lower (DD goes to a state school, we know we are polar 4 but we live in a very mixed area. Dd had an EHCP, but they wouldn’t know that. She has a disability, they probably would know that as she mentioned it in UCAS).

That's good news

Have you heard about the HAT issues today? How awful for the affected students. Seems like every year there are problems with the entrance tests.

Anyone connected to York will know who this is 😢

Yes, my daughter had her offer for maths at York reduced to ABB (I think) last year after attending the offer day and very informal interview. I'm sure you're already aware but just to warn you, Edinburgh is one of the latest to offer. It was originally her first choice but she'd already given up on Edinburgh entirely and decided on Exeter long before the rejection finally came in at the end of April.

anyone got a DC taking the PhilAt today?

MLAT this morning - anyone else’s dcs take it? Some tech issues (again) but got started a little after 9

@Bluearrivabus Yes, DD did this morning, fortunately no issues and started just before 8. Friend's daughter didn't even get to do the history test yesterday, so things could be a lot worse. How did your dc find it?

What was even better was that she got an offer for Manchester (her second choice) last night, so that was a good confidence boost.

Said French was fine, spanish much harder. Looking at previous stats that seems to be a common theme. How did your dd get on? And well done on the Manchester offer - still none here.

Thanks for that ! Re Edinburgh offering late, yes, we are aware. He’s applied for Durham too so not expecting to hear anytime soon. He was warned 🙄

@Thekatzenjammerkid we were told to expect May for Durham.

Thank you ! I recall last years threads discussing how late they were tbh and people worrying about losing out on accommodation.

My DD got a Durham offer before her Oxford offer! Latest one for her was LSE

@Bluearrivabus She's only doing French (with Linguistics) and was very happy - just a couple of grammar questions she wasn't entirely sure about. Thought it was better than some previous years.

Hope an offer comes soon!

Has anyone been asked to submit written work yet to Cambridge - or know when this is likely to be requested. DS has applied for History and there is not a prior test this year at the college he has applied to.

DS got a detailed email covering written work requirements/dates for all subjects, plus a template cover sheet to attach. It came after the UCAS form and before the SAQ. This might depend on college but check junk mail or applications page of college website.