Oxbridge 2025

[SnowFairy2000]

Let's start the journey here !!!

Bit of a stressful evening here as ds (always inclined to be dramatic) has got frustrated with the HATs. He's latched on to a couple of bullet points on the higher level indicators that he says he would never have thought of/doesn't understand and has spiralled from there. He is now saying he won't bother with it, will get no support with interview practice as his school don't offer anything etc etc. To an extent he has a point in that he is at a state school that sends a couple of people every few years but does not attract any of the initiatives aimed at the most disadvantaged, rightly so. Same for us as a family.

At the moment I'm torn between telling him to recognise how privileged he is compared to so many others, and feeling a bit sorry for him. I also think maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing if he did decide not to apply as the extra pressure is perhaps too much, and it's only going to get worse from here. My worry is he's always been top of everything since starting school and this might end up being the first thing that he doesn't succeed at. While I know that'll be absolutely fine in the long run the thought of going through it does worry me, especially with a younger ds doing GCSEs this year as well. I don't know how I can support them both - no partner here. Sorry for such a negative Monday night post - it's been a bit full on here tonight and I do feel I don't know how best to advise him.

That’s actually nice. Which college is it in ? I’ve got a feeling post grads are in a different block (but might be wrong). My feeling was that £180 -£220 pw was quite expensive (obviously not compared to London !)..

@5starzz in addition to the excellent run down of choosing a college given by @Scoobyblue

i would add location of faculty and ability to park

DD doesn’t have too many faculty lectures and they are not obligatory but it is still handy she can roll out of bed and be at a lecture within a few minutes.

DD’s college is a seven minute walk into the centre and a three minutes walk from the park n ride bus drop off. I’ve never had a problem parking outside. It means no short drop offs the city centre colleges might have and instead a leisurely time. I’ve even been able to park overnight when staying over.

DD would also add library

Her college library has an excellent collection and sometimes she has found it is the only college library to have a book beyond the UL. They have excellent digital resources but not all is online and if studying English or History etc access to a text to flick through is a great alternative to get more screen time. She also likes to be away from her room sometimes but close enough to nip back and it is a lovely space to work.

This is all with the caveat that you can get pooled even with grades in hand so don’t get too focused on one college.

Thanks @PettsWoodParadise and @Scoobyblue - some very helpful pointers and suggestions.

"Ability to park" seems very much a parent benefit rather than a student one for 18 days of mild inconvenience vs three years of residence.

Yes it does depend on perspective but DD has loved it, it benefits the students as it gives more flexibility for going up and coming down. Some of her central college friends have specific days and short time slots, she can choose pretty much any time in a window of a week either side of term. Kings students for example also get booted out very early in Michaelmas term due to Christmas events at the college. Yes it does look lovely though. Also her ‘central’ friends often have lodgings further out than she is at the hill colleges as they don’t have the space for all years in the centre and have meals in town so lots of to-ing and fro-ing. As you can tell whatever college you end up you end up loving it and extolling its virtues!

For Cambridge, I believe Corpus, Emmanuel, G&C, Kings, Pembroke, Peterhouse, Selwyn and Trinity are running in person interviews.
Other colleges all online.

Corpus only in-person for Engineering. With Cauis, candidates can opt for either in-person or online. Emma, Selwyn, Pembroke, Peterhouse, Trinity, Kings are in-person for UK students except in "exceptional circumstances."

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/after/cambridge-interviews

Tell him to hang in there. It’s early days and plenty of time before the HAT. Wrt state school, bear in mind that the HAT results are
contextualised, along with the gcse scores, ie considered in the context of the school you come from. (Because yes, there are some schools providing a lot of help, but also plenty that are not). You just need to do well enough to meet the threshold for interview, and then how you do in the yhe interview will become much more important in terms of who gets an offer. Finally, wrt school not helping prepare for interview, there is lots of help online, plenty of video examples etc. It is tough, but ‘one step at a time’ is the way.

@coffeerevelsrule The HAT past papers can be very daunting to begin with. DS was also a state comprehensive student, and found that he had no real preparation for the kind of engagement with primary source material that the HAT is looking for. But he did keep at it and keep working through the past papers, and eventually started to get the hang of them. Later on, after he began his degree, DS commented that it was actually really valuable training for the kind of work he was expected to do.

The history faculty has also produced a really good video that helps explain what they are looking for when marking the HAT, as well as tips on how to avoid some of the pitfalls that candidates can slip into:

https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/history-admissions-test-hat-mark-scheme-explained

Anyone off to the Cambridge open day tomorrow - or have you all done it already? It seems quite unstructured - no subject talks just a nose around colleges. Dont think that there are any central events/talks planned?

Thank you very much for that @Literallynoplan and @LaundryFairy He's a lot calmer now - excited even and has decided to apply for history and French after all. I feel it's going to be a rollercoaster of a few months...

DS loved Cambridge yesterday. Planning to apply grades in hand - thinking of Downing for no particularly complex or passionate reason. He will have to relinquish his deferred place at Durham for 2025 and take the risk that they will reject him on reapplication. So could be in the position of not getting a place at either - so is looking for other realistic and attractive unis.

It's all starting to seem very real, isn't it? Exams (for some) and college choices. As a teacher I've seen various students ending up at colleges other than their first (only!) choice and they've all been fine. The re-allocation process is a little smoother at Oxford than Cambridge as it tends to happen "behind the scenes" and before offers are sent out.

DS has decided on Churchill (Cambridge). Good luck to everyone!

Has anyone done an Oxford open day and can suggest how many colleges you might fit in alongside the departmental talks? I don't know the city at all. I am thinking 3 or 4, does that sound doable?

@ColouringPencils, 3 or 4 definitely do-able. DD and I saw 8 at the summer open day. We chose to look round ourselves rather than be shown around or go to any of the meet the tutor sessions though. Access varied quite a bit - some you could see the bar/JCR/a few bedrooms etc and some you could just wander around the quads and gardens.

I'd try to look at a few different 'types' of college - go to one of the really grand ones (Christ Church, St John's, Magdalen etc), a lower key old central college (e.g. one of the Turl St colleges), and somewhere a bit further out (Keble, LMH, Somerville).

Also, the departmental talks were prospective students only, so you may find yourself with some extra time where you can gather additional info (or just wander round and get coffee!). I went round a few more colleges gathering info (and tote bags!) and got us some lunch to eat in the parks when the talks finished. The colleges were all happy to let me in as a prospective parent, even without DD there.

We did 4 with tours by students and a departmental talk (kids only)

We had lunch in another college

Doing MFL plus X, whilst needing more exams/interviews/people to please , does have the advantage of the potential for an extra nibble of two at the cherry in that if they do well in MFL but history don't pounce they might be offered an MFL alternative course, especially if willing to contemplate a quirky language ab initio. Don't know if that would be of any interest to your DC of course.

At the Open Day it’s possible to see more than 4 so long as you start early. But DC instead went with a friend on a random day during the half term holidays and said they found it more helpful to make decisions, less pressured and the Porters were fine to let DC in as a potential applicant.

Can anyone confirm if Oxford treats 9s and 8s at GCSE the same ?

There's this in the physics admission report which briefly describes how tje contextualised gcse score is used. It does list A*/9/8 as the same to get the score.

I don't know if this is the same for other subjects but you could look and see if there is something similar on the admission report for the subject your child wants to do.

I think for physics at least the cgcse score isn't as important as doing well in the pat (hoping this is the case rather).

Hopefully a bit clearer.

Thank you so much for the physics report, that is really useful.

8s and 9s are treated the same (A* equivalent) as some parts of UK still have letters

Ds was expected 4 a's for his a-levels but he found out today that one has been reduced to an a which is still amazing. Will this scupper him for Oxford? Are all Oxford successful applicants 4 a's?