Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 5

[YouOKHun]

Good Luck everyone whatever the outcome!

Have those whose kids sat the MAT exam, received their results yet?

We got TSA results yesterday.

Actually not all employers end up with more Oxbridge graduates than before. I work for one of the big three strategy consulting firms and Oxbridge graduate hires are now in the minority (looking across all our graduate hires), which is a change vs. when I joined. This is for two reasons. Firstly, Oxbridge's move over time to take more "academic" applicants has meant that a lot of the Oxbridge candidates we interview do not appear to have the team and client skills we look for (these skills are often built up by doing lots of extra curricular stuff). Secondly, when we moved to blind recruitment more recently, our graduate hires have included an even smaller proportion from Oxbridge. Just one data point though.

I’m not sure how blind recruitment works? For example, I’d worry if the NHS recruited doctors blind. I’d want to know anyone who treated me had been to a robust and internationally recognised medical school?

They look at the qualification you have, but can't see where you go it.

So, in the context of this thread, it may be that a 1st from Random university would be valued more highly than a 2:1 from Oxford.

And tbh the NHS is happy to have any suitably qualified doctors they can get. They don't care where you qualified.

Do they only look at degree qualifications or A level and GCSE’s too? I can see how blind recruitment could really benefit bright students who choose/ are forced to go to their local university to save costs.

DD appeared and said she knows why she didn’t get an offer. She got both HAT and MLAT results and MLAT for Spanish was very good and history was not (she said she wouldn’t say what it was but she’s OK about it). She’s surprising me how well so far she’s dealing with the rejection.

Consulting partner here - we only look at degree and it’s blind recruitment. Exams prior to
thats are pretty irrelevant once people have a degree. We def worry if we haven’t seen evidence of paid work at some stage during school or university. Internships are good but we expect people to have experience of holding a job of any sort applicants post-degree apprenticeships are rated very highly

Surely a degree classification is but a small part of what makes a suitable candidate? I don't recall even having any sort of classification from my degree (US). If there's certifications to go with the job requirements surely that's what counts, as well as any other non academic but related experience.
But considering how everyone bangs on about the intensity and rigour of getting a degree from Oxbridge surely that should count for something? It should not trump all else but it does give an indication that the applicant is intelligent and very hard working - it certainly shouldn't work against them? And I am amazed any university student goes through three/four years without any real work experience - what do they do all summer?

Oxford applicants should receive their MAT grades by now. According to the MAT feedback, around 100 scored more than 90 and half of them got the offer.

If anyone is interested Oxford admissions feedback is already on the Keble website (for Oxford overall) - has things like average scores for offer holders on tests etc. number of applicants per place by course etc

@mondaytosunday We do university-blind recruitment, but still end up with a lot of Oxbridge grads, alongside UCL/LSE/Warwick/Bristol. Our recruitment process involves written tests and an interview where we are looking to see how well candidates can absorb and assess information quickly, construct a narrative, and respond to being challenged on their views and analysis. Candidates who've been pushed to think in that way at university are likely to perform better than those who've been able to coast.
I know that other employers (e.g. the civil service) who have moved to university-blind recruitment have found that they end up with increased representation of the highest ranked universities because those are the institutions where the rigour of the course helps to develop the skills and capabilities that employers are looking for.

Do you have a link?

www.keble.ox.ac.uk/admissions/feedback/

Thanks Not DD was trying to get hold of TSA for people applying for that course and its in there. She was 73.9 overall.

DD got her MLAT score back; she must really have impressed in the interviews because it was markedly below those shortlisted, never mind offered! Might be one reason why she didn't make her first choice, which has a smaller intake.

Do we automatically get scores back? DS sat the PAT and as far as I'm aware hasn't been given his score (not that he wants to know). Now he's in he prefers not to know as felt he could have done better.
I wonder if Oxbridge does some correlation analysis of entry test scores and actual undergrad degrees outcomes (first, 2:1 etc) 3/4 years down the line to decide how much weight they put on these entry tests vs. other data (gcses, predicted, UCAS, reference etc). Would love to see the data if it exists. I wonder if I could get hold of it with a FOI request...

Scores for the MAT for mine was in the range of those offered a place. Interestingly none of the applicants from the same school to the particular college got an offer. All were at the top of top 3 of their subjects in the year. We’ve come to the conclusion that it was very probably the wrong choice of college.

Offer holder days booked for a couple of the other offers so ploughing on regardless. Am watching the first versus a 2:1 argument with interest. Food for thought! Focus now on mocks and planning a well-deserved 18th party.

Apologies HAT not MAT!

That link was so helpful thanks. For dd course (music) they only had one place available at the college as the other place was for an organ scholar who was allocated last year. Had no idea you could defer a year but there you go. One person went to another college. So prob similar across colleges with organ and choir scholarships in the mix too. So 2/6 got places. That’s tough odds.

Ditto (a different course but same point). DS taking it as a sign he had a great interview, bless him.

It is so hard to know how much college choice impacts and of course even harder to work out how to avoid hidden pitfalls - the post about music touches on another factor - How many places are actually available in a given year.

When I was truffling around to draw up a shortlist for DS2, I noticed that one college hadn't taken a single pupil for my son's subject from his sort of school for the 3 years I had data, so I crossed that one off, but with the smallish numbers involved it is hard to know if one has spotted a policy or just how the outcome fell out given the candidates.

But I understand your thought process

DD said her MLAT was very good but her HAT was below the range to get an interview so says she thinks they decided to take a chance on her. Am still surprised at how well she seems to be coping with it - maybe this reflects on me more and I should have more faith in her resilience!

DD’s college choice consisted of the place she liked the most out of the colleges we visited at open day backed up by a small amount of research (basically reading TSR/The Tab) that this college was fairly well regarded for her subject. She didn’t delve any further in to stats on offer rates, how many get interviewed, pooled, playing the numbers game etc etc. I’m glad she didn’t do that as then she would have become particularly invested and a rejection would have meant far more. As it is she is pragmatic about the 24th. What will be will be!

@MirandaWest it does reflect on you. You have turned out a well balanced young lady who takes whatever life throws at her in her stride and that is not to be sniffed at!