Oxbridge 2024 Entry Part 5

[YouOKHun]

Good Luck everyone whatever the outcome!

Not a fair comparison because the damage effect only shows aftermath (like in the 00s earliest)

@janecrookall45 I think you need to sit down and have a cup of tea or something.

Until fairly recently there was most definitely an old boys network, but it seems that everyone else is to blame for your DC not being offered a place. In the last page of posts it's been Boris Johnson, an implication about international fee students grabbing the place. The comparison to Nazi Germany is just unhinged.

It's so unhealthy to think like that. For your child's sake I hope you are focusing as much on the positives of their alternative offers which I am sure will be amazing opportunities for them.

@lifeturnsonadime That was not what I said - sorry! Perhaps you should read more carefully what we were discussing

Please explain what you meant by this then?

Were we still castigating the whole of Germany in 1985? because it reads to me like you are saying we are not blaming Germans 40 years after the holocaust but we are blaming public school children (by making it harder for them to be accepted into Oxford) 40 years after the admission of Boris Johnson to ?

If I misunderstood your point it was because it was unclear!

Well this thread has taken quite a turn since I was last here 😂

Hope the Oxford successes are feeling great and that the Cambridge applicants are not too nervous!

I think Jane is saying it’s unreasonable to blame Eton as it is now for the shortcomings of Boris as PM!

The schools with motto "manner makyth man" was not part of the reason for moulding the shortcoming of a few recent few recent controversial names? The shortcomings only manifest itself maybe from 10-15 years back and are persisting.

Precisely!

Ah! These threads can become confusing.

I agree with her there if that was what she was saying. It's all become a bit of a jumble and being an Oxbridge thread, the implication being that this results in too few being admitted from top schools as a result!

No system is perfect but hyper focusing on imperfections won't achieve anything.

I think the Oxford tutors are capable of not tarring all Eton applicants with the Boris brush.

jane did accuse them of blind prejudice however, so I wonder what exactly she thinks that prejudice is based on? I mean they bother to interview quite a number so mixed message there unless they are so contemptuous of the school that they merely want to humiliate the applicants.

Something not really adding up here (other than too many Etonians with insufficient merit sailing into Oxford without really being tested until recently, and an adjustment being made).

.

Nerves are starting to kick in now for next week's results. I'm sure DS2 will do well wherever he goes but I know he will be disappointed if he doesn't get offered a place. On paper he ticks all the boxes all 9's at gcse, predicted A stars for A levels and a really high score on the BMAT. On the other hand I'm thinking there are probably hundreds of other applicants who tick all the same boxes and there are only a limited number of places. He thinks the interview went well but you can never be sure what they are looking for.

My DC didn't get an Oxford offer post interview. Got good results for their entrance test and they felt interview 2 and 3 went well. The interviewer for Interview 1 is the main subject tutor in the college they applied to and threw my DC by giving a hostile interview (shouting in the first 2 minutes of the interview) which meant they were shell shocked throughout the interview (interviewer also kept butting in as DC was working through problems) I was working on my computer in the room next door and while I couldn't hear the actual interview and definitely wouldn't want to eavesdrop, by default heard the shouting and that's why I know it happened. I have been on this thread under a different user name and looking on-line this has happened a lot in the past in Oxbridge interviews. Did anyone else's DC experience this sort of event in an interview this year? My DC didn't want to report it at the time, but there is a form that can be used now within 28 days of the application outcome. I am trying to gauge if others think this is unacceptable behaviour and whether I /DC should report it. (I don't expect at this stage that it will impact on outcome).

Blimey it sounds like your DS has dodged a bullet there! It's the kind of thing that I think should be reported but in reality I probably wouldn't bother, better to just move on and be grateful for the lucky escape I reckon.

What sort of thing was he shouting, was it more along the lines of YES!! excited shouting as DS got something right or more FFS HURRY UP YOU IDIOT type of thing?

Sorry, DC not DS.

@poster2024 that sounds awful. I would be tempted to report it - hard to believe anyone thinks that’s the best way to see what candidates are about. From what she says I believe my DD’s interviewers were matter of fact rather than particularly warm and friendly (I suspect it’s a STEM thing!) but they certainly weren’t aggressive in any way.

DD3 thought the lead tutor in her first interview seemd quite impatient with her and ‘kept rolling her eyes’ but that may have just been her perception of course. Second interviewers were lovely.

Shouting at the candidates is definitely not OK! I really thought they’d moved away from this adversarial approach. I think I would give feedback about this if there was an opportunity, even though it’s not likely to change anything - it’s unlikely your DS was the only one.

@poster2024 - this is very strange. What was the tutor shouting about? Was there not another interviewer present?

My DC started to go down the wrong path with an answer (stem subject) and the tutor shouted NO several times.

Gosh some of these shouty interviewers sound awful. My DS had four people interviewing in total and was lucky that they were all pleasant.

I am not too nervous yet as the 24th still feels a way off and also DS has his driving text before then, which I am very nervous about as think he could have done with another couple of lessons before the test. Fingers crossed.

Shouting etc sounds very unprofessional, especially since I thought the interviews were supposed to (a) allow a candidate to show their best and (b) reflect what a tutorial might be like. Perfectly possible to have a challenging discussion civilly. Thankfully all 12(!) of DD's interviewers were courteous; one or two a bit sarcastic when she said something obvious or made a basic error but moved on and were encouraging for the remainder. I'd also be inclined to give feedback, given the opportunity.

main subject tutor in the college

Maybe bullet dodged as this could be the experience if they got an offer. Did they just shout ,"no" nothing else?

Whilst I can understand it was unnerving and there was definitely better ways to express that the candidate was on the wrong path, if they just raised their voice, saying No I don't know if that could be viewed as a hostile interview. The interviews I heard certainly were cold and formal (although they warmed up towards the end) however I can understand interviewers being fatigued after sitting through so many interviews.

@TenSheds 12 interviews?!!!! Wow your girl did amazingly well to cope with that and come out with a place. Absolutely deserved. No wonder she got a personal phone call.

I meant interviewers and not interviews, I appreciate it could have been multiple interviews in an interview. But still my sentiment remains.

@poster2024 In answer to your question..I know someone who had a very tough interview, not shouting but very stern and they were pushed hard until they had to say quite e emotionally "I don't know". They did however get an offer and the thinking is that the interviewers were testing how they could learn/be teachable.