Finding Uni admissions a nightmare!

[FiveFoxes]

DH and I both went to University in the 90s. My memory was choose 6 universities by looking at the UCAS book, fill in UCAS form and wait for offers. Accept a firm and insurance offer. Get A Level results. Apply for accommodation and start.

DS wants to do either Maths or Computer Science. He is getting high grades in his tests and did excellently at GCSE and therefore is looking at Oxbridge, Russell Group and similar.

Wow. Things are HARD these days and so complicated!

First off Open days where you have to register for each talk you want to go to and places are very limited so you have to get in early.

Secondly is all the admission tests. There are so many! And you have to pay for them it looks like? And some courses need them and some don't? Some might need more and interviews?!

And personal statements where they want you to have done other tests in the subject and attended conferences, entered competitions etc (all of which require you to know about and have the ability (not academic ability) to enter.

Not to mention Oxbridge colleges and how you choose that and (something I just read on MN) you can't apply to same ones as others from your 6th form..

And then there's student finance and accommodation and probably other things I haven't thought of.

Honestly it's as far away from an inclusive application process as I could imagine. It has been made as complicated and difficult as possible - it puts off those who don't go to proactive schools or have proactive parents. I feel overwhelmed by it all and I went to uni myself and am proactive! I don't know how other people manage.

Sorry I didn’t go to uni.

Parents had to contribute that much each year? I thought it was much, much less. Comparatively.

This - other than checking my son’s PS I did pretty much bugger all for his uni application

Because of inadequate funding from government, those overseas students are actually stopping many universities from going bankrupt. And many overseas qualifications are actually much more rigorous than A levels.

I went to Cambridge in the 90s.

I did lots of extra entrance tests - in those days Cambridge did steps (harder than a level papers) entrance exams for nearly all subjects.

I did English and general studies and economics steps and at the time a levels also offered extension papers so I did those as well.

(I liked doing exams).

As he is going for maths there is a lot of support available. I presume he is doing M and FM.

The millennium maths project have webinars and online courses for the step papers

maths.org/step/welcome

That's another thing! We don't have predicted grade yet- I think not until the autumn/winter, so it's all guess work at the moment. Based a bit on GCSEs and a bit on tests at 6th form. So it's all a bit of guessing work.

And I am not even sure when you apply because there seems to be many different deadlines!

The admission tests cost money for each one you sit which seems to be £75-£90. You can apply for help with this, but it's another discrimination/ something that will put people off.

If he is in year 12 you are getting a bit ahead of yourself.

The open days are usually spring/summer year 12.

The school will usually talk the students through the application process spring year 12.

Applications open autumn year 12 by which point you and he will have a clearer idea of predicted grades and which unis to be aiming for.

OP, it is your child who is applying, not you.

As you have found, there is information your child has that they have not shared with you. Are they finding it all confusing or is it just you?

I think you should back off. If your child is as bright as your are suggesting they will be able to cope with the application process (all information is readily available as PP has explained) and if they cannot then they may have trouble coping with studying a competitive subject in a competitive university.

I find it very odd how a lot of parents these days expect Universities to deal with them rather than with the actual applicant. I went to Uni in the 70s and did it totally on my own- I wouldn't have dreamed of taking a parent with me to interview etc and nor did I see any other candidate doing so.

Are Oxbridge charging for their tests now? That must be pretty new. And yet another thing that will put people off elite unis.

Oxford does not charge but I believe Cambridge does charge for some.

I don't mean to sound rude OP but the UK application process is a piece of piss compared to the US. A single PS for everything and a single fee (which some schools pay for applicants). There you need to write a separate essay and pay a separate fee for each.
Also, unlike the US you don't need a load of extracurricular AND supracurricular activities. The focus is only on academics. Anybody who says otherwise is lying. Explaining your thoughts coherently, mentioning some books/talks/news you've read/watched, which you can get in abundance for free online, is perfectly fine!

Oxbridge has a more complicated application process, but as PP said their guides are very detailed. If the student is intelligent enough to have a chance of getting in they're intelligent enough to research and prepare. There are also forums like TheStudentRoom with valuable advice. You can find free entrance exam samples online as well.

And as @Karolinska said Open Days don't give much value. Most universities will happily give prospective students a tour at any time of the year, you can visit the student cities any time. Even some Oxford colleges offer tours free for prospective applicants on an independent basis.

Cambridge TMUA costs £75. STEP costs £93. Not sure about others.

Oxford haven't got details up for 2025 yet.

Parents had to contribute that much each year? I thought it was much, much less. Comparatively.

Yes. Most people I was at uni with had parental income too high for any sort of grant (I got a full grant as the dd of a low paid single parent). Parents could claim tax relief on the amount they supported their offspring though.

Fees were free of course.

That is exactly why they have done so much outreach work. This demystifies the process. Once state school applicants realise that the majority of students are just like them, they are happier to give it a try.

I have to agree with @Kissatem The UK Uni application process, including Oxbridge, is a walk in the park compared with the US.
It takes literal years of building up sporting, charitable and extra curricular activities, on top of academics, in order to build a US university application.
Over his last 6 years of schooling, DS spent easily as much time, if not more, working on all the extras as he did in the classroom and that carried on full time over the summer holidays.
Each US university then charged up to $100 per application (fee waivers are available if needed) and then there were 5 or 6 essays for each individual school applied to!
UCAS is an absolute dream system in comparison and the UK universities are much transparent in what they are looking for.

The big difference of course now is the astronomical cost of uni accommodation and food, especially compared to wages. So it’s not really the same, at all.

Yeah the fact that fees were paid by the government is a huge difference. I went to Cambridge in 1992. My parents gave me 1000 a term to live on and I worked in the holidays and I left with basically no debt at all. I rented from college and it was something crazy like 25/week.

FiveFoxes: But it is off-putting when it appears you have to have secret knowledge to apply. There must be a lot of kids and parents who take a look at, for instance, Oxford admission tests and colleges and think 'I don't understand this!' and get put off

But where do you get this idea come from? It never occurred to my DC that they required 'secret knowledge', none of them ever used that phrase or anything like it. I've never heard of 'secret knowledge' being a thing. Even on MN, which can get pretty over the top about Oxbridge admissions. The websites are mercifully down to earth. The whole concept of 'secret knowledge' is just bizarre.

Kissatem you say even some Oxford colleges offer tours free for prospective applicants on an independent basis but I'm struggling to think of a single one which doesn't welcome prospective students to come in any old time to have a wander (Finals' time of year sometimes excluded).

I think it's more about attitude. You are making it more complicated than it needs to be. Many of us went to uni in the 90's and things have changed a bit, but not that much.

Our school was fab and explained at an open evening all the parts, all the dates. Plus with a lovely mn thread to guide me, that helped.

Five Foxes: *And I am not even sure when you apply because there seems to be many different deadlines!

The admission tests cost money for each one you sit which seems to be £75-£90. You can apply for help with this, but it's another discrimination/ something that will put people off*

Honestly FiveFoxes you do seem to be making an effort to seek out problems. Both unis offer financial support for those who would find any aspect of applying a burden. What more do you expect them to do?

The process is uber straighforward and for those in difficult financial circumstances there's help if you fill out a very basic form.

Jesus wept OP stop making such a fuss and leave your DC alone. My DS did all his applications in college and got offers from Russell Groups for Computer Science straightaway no fuss though appreciate its more involved for Oxbridge. Just take DC to open days etc if wanted and ffs don’t be one of those cringe parents posting pictures on facebook of yourself in front of the Uni entrance.

Even their website says 'most' colleges so it would be incorrect to assume that all of them are the same. I said some because I can only speak for the ones I visited fairly recently (within the last 3 years) as a prospective student. Wouldn't know a thing about the rest.

I have friends currently doing PhD's there but we never did college tours I've only gone down to visit them and have fun! 🤣

The points is really they're not something far away out of reach needing to be crammed into designated open days.

Also @Karolinska I do see some myths floating around r.e. strategic college and subject choices but IMO a lot of it is untrue and not applicable in the OP's son's case if he wants to do maths / comp sci.

@FiveFoxes I really hope that other year 12 parents don't read your posts and panic. You are being strikingly flaccid. "I'm not even sure when to apply... so many deadlines". There are two deadlines. Two. (One for Oxbridge, medicine, vet etc and one all the other subjects). The most basic bit of research will show this. It is one of the first things mentioned in any of the many many orientation articles on the internet. Go and read the ucas info pages, then the Oxford and Cambridge ones. They are very clear. There is a staggering amount of detail about offer rates by demographic, college, subject etc available for both on their websites. Other unis vary in how easy it is to access such info - it depends how much effort you want to put in and how pointful you think it is. Reading back on the uni application chats on MN is also informative especially about how candidates having more than tarrif predictions doesn't guarantee offers at topnunis esp for very competitive courses (like CS)

Open days are optional - look at the huge amount on online info and virtual open days and then book a few for the summer if and where it seems likely to be useful. There is far more info available nowadays than ever before. But you have to log on and read it.

I have 2 children at Oxford and nothing could be further from the truth!