Current Oxbridge students - continued again...!

[Panicmode1]

Think the other thread is full....!

@Daysnconfuddled We can ony add to PM 1's anecdote in respect of DS. He worked in hospitality his first summer, settled into hard work at home for the second having found the application process so demoralising. He has found something for the coming summer - something he had set his heart on in Y1. He wants to continue with a masters either at C or Imperial in any case so it will be a summer gig. Persistence with proper breaks is all we can share.

Can they get advice from the uni careers service ?

@bettbburg its just time isn’t it. Her schedule is so jam packed just to keep on top of the workload and deadlines. I don’t know how the career service could help. Having been to other open/offer holder days at other universities in previous years, I get the feeling that they are a lot more supportive, proactive and cultivating links with business, whereas at C you are on your own and you are (supposedly) trading on the brand more? But I can’t reconcile that with people out their saying there is a skills shortage or that Oxbridge always comes up tops on ranking tables for prospects.

O here not C but the careers service seem to offer help with applications for internships. Worth asking ?

DD had Halfway Hall last night. Where has the time gone???

I feel that @PettsWoodParadise! I'm relieved that ds has applied for a fourth year because I'm not ready for it to be over, never mind him... but I'm already planning pickup dates for March and it's his third year and it's all slipping away...

Totally agree @PettsWoodParadise and @PermanentTemporary

DS was doing a fourth year anyway, but it does seem as though time has accelerated massively in the past 6 months....! His GF has been successful in securing funding for her Masters as she graduates this summer, so it seems they will have their fourth year in C together which is nice. We were supposed to see DS next week on our way back south from visiting DD, but he's now got an all day lab so that's not going to happen :-(

Same story here: DS in 3rd year with an application for 4th Year Part 2 Mathematics with a side application for similar in London. Apart from that the offer of a second stage interview for an internship with a company he last contacted in Y2; but he has an internship with other for this summer already.

This is an interesting point and covers a few differences between Oxbridge and other universities. Good luck to your DC. A few observations that may or may not chime with others...

1. Oxbridge terms are very short and intense with a high work load plus lots of other music / sport / clubs commitments. Definitely it can be hard to find time to explore internships and future careers - bandwidth also varies so much by student. Can your DC use time in the long vacs to contact the careers service?
2. There is no need to panic - and lots of ways to get experience, not everyone does the intern and grad application route (milk round in my day). My DC1 at Oxford didn't have the bandwidth to apply for jobs pre graduation and waited till he'd finished finals then looked for a graduate job. He was looking in a niche area and his voluntary work in long vacs and dissertation was relevant so that helped. He did manual work the summer after graduation to earn money while applying for jobs and by early October was in a graduate role.
3. I agree that Oxford and Cambridge do not always provide the wrap around support - I see my DN having his year out in France all arranged by his RG Uni while DC2 has to be completely self starting as Oxford provide almost no help except a letter saying this person is studying MFL at Oxford - as you say you trade on the name.
4. It is competitive out there and recognising that can be a shock for some even when at a top Uni- DH mentors undergrads at a RG Uni and one student had given up after 2 applications for their sandwich year - I laughed and suggested student perhaps needed to realise that applying for 22 positions at least may be required.....

@Juja "it is competitive out there and recognising that can be a shock for some even when at a top Uni- DH mentors undergrads at a RG Uni and one student had given up after 2 applications for their sandwich year - I laughed and suggested student perhaps needed to realise that applying for 22 positions at least may be required....."

This, 100x. And each of the 22 or 222 applications needs to be precisely tailored to the position/company. Generic doesn't work.

Mostly for @Ironoaks but DD has an interview for the teaching associate post next week.

However, despite awarding her a Masters in 2021, seemingly they require proof of it, so DF and I are taking the scenic route via Cambridge from Manchester to Devon tomorrow to drop off her degree certificate. Neither of us has ever driven on the toll road, so as DF is paying, we are planning that tomorrow. Hoping to meet DD for lunch then heading back to the SW afterwards. Please pray that the M25 is clear,,,,

Good news about the interview @Malbecfan although you'd think there would be some joined-up thinking with verifying her MSci internally.

We visited DS at the weekend; he seems to have settled in well to his postgraduate studies and can also be glimpsed several times in the department's new promotional video, in what he described as a "non-speaking part." 😂

Good luck Malbecfan

It was lovely to see DD1. We met at her house so I could drop off the wretched Masters certificate then we drove to Stir in Chesterton for lunch. DF was delighted to see her and she spent a while trying (and failing) to explain what she would be required to teach. I think the failure was the fact that my science knowledge is crap and DF who worked in a technical post is too old to take it all in. However, it was great to see her. The PhD thesis already stands at >44k words so she thinks it will be finished, all being well etc. in the next month or so. However, she wants to plan for this interview, so it may take a back seat for a week.

DD is having support from 2 of her housemates who both passed their ECT (new name for NQT) and are fully-fledged teachers in a local secondary school. One did the same UG and Masters modules as she did so DD appreciates being able to bounce ideas off them.

M6 toll road was expensive, boring and quick. A14 was fine. M25 was ok. M3 had roadworks for miles. We had a cuppa at Fleet Services then did the last stint in one go. It started raining in Somerset and was foggy and dark in Devon, which was miserable. If I hadn't been nearly home, I would have given up. It's now raining at home but I'm heading to bed having driven 400 miles today!

Good luck to DD @Malbecfan and great progress on the thesis. (DD is currently wrestling with what the title will be for her rather more modest undergrad dissertation - 15k words!)

I suspect we may have been in convoy for a bit - we saw DS in Cambridge on Tuesday for a quick coffee which was really lovely, and then whizzed to Notts to see DD, turning round and heading back past Cambridge and home via the M25 on Wednesday.

Next trip down the dreaded M25/M3/A303 to 'home' is for Easter - now I'm working FT, I have to brave the bank holiday roads - usually I do anything to avoid that drive at weekends or BHs!

I feel the pain of traffic @Malbecfan and @Panicmode1 . I was in Cambridge last weekend for DD's birthday I usually take the train if mid-term and on my own but DH doesn't like trains so we drove, spent overnight in Cambridge (a mixed joy of staying in a hotel rather than on a blow up mattress in DD's room, comfort a plus, the bill not so much!) and after we brought her home for a couple of nights which meant I drove DD back on the Sunday due to rail engineering works (when are the trains going to stop terminating at Royston on a Sunday, it has been going on all the time DD has been at Cambridge???) on the way home the Dartford crossing was closed for a few hours and I sat stuck in traffic for ages. I am heading again this weekend to see a show she has written but by train so it will be more relaxed.

Could your DD not reserve you a room in college? We have always stayed in college in Cambridge as do all members of our wider family when visiting their student children. Some of the guest rooms are gorgeous (Jesus), some not so much (John's).

@Ceramiq good idea however I haven't explored if there are rooms at DD's college during term time for visitors, as on my own her room is roomy enough and the blow up mattress isn't bad, DH has been for a cup of tea to her room but knows he feels a bit uncomfortable in an all women's college in the residential parts. DD has had her boyfriend stay overnight (cue the memes about fire drills and how many men are present...) but think that even in guest specific accomodation if it exists may be a step too far for DH who is very open minded but also very respectful.

@PettsWoodParadise if I'm staying in Cambridge, I go cheap and cheerful at Orchard Park. We normally stay in the Premier Inn but if that's full, Travelodge is ok. For DD's MA upgrade graduation last year, we spent just over £100 for 3 nights in the Premier Inn. Parking is free and undercover. As DH said, what we save on the hotel, we can spend on taxis, and even with them it was less than £20. We do use the bus or drive to a park and ride. When DD lived in college, it was an 11 minute drive. Now it's 8.

@Panicmode1 you'll have to PM me with where you are based. In all the time driving to Cambridge from Devon, I found the best time to do the A303 is leaving at 6am so you pass Stonehenge at 7:30 - 8. It's fine on a Saturday or Sunday morning. We've also gone M5, M42, M6, A14 which sounds bizarre but isn't much further. If the weather forecast is dodgy as it was in DD's 1st year where we had snow flurries in Cambridge, it's less likely to be problematic.

@PettsWoodParadise taking the train costs triple the amount of fuel and there are no convenient stations round here. I'd have to go through London too. My dad wouldn't be able to cope - he just about managed with his blue badge and me driving him to the door. The thought of lugging that bloody framed degree certificate on a train does not fill me with joy. DH has promised/threatened to fly us there as he has a PPL and access to a club aircraft. However, routing around some very busy airspace (Bristol, Heathrow, Luton) is an other issue. Car it is!

@Malbecfan completely agree, train doesn't work everytime or for everyone. DH is also a blue badge holder and can't walk far so another reason he doesn't take the train much even though he has a disabled travel pass. I now have visions of you with a framed certificate on a wheely trolley or some other contraption if you hadn't been in a car and none of the visions works out well!

@PettsWoodParadise a wheely contraption is indeed what it needed. The Tesco bag for life was wholly inadequate. To be fair, it was in a Ryder and Amies bag at home but her BA certificate was in there too and she didn't need that. Maybe I should have taken the bag. Anyway, she has the thing and it's her problem now how she gets it to the department. I thought Cambridge graduates were meant to be good at problem-solving...!

I take my hat off to DPs who have to perform such logistical somersaults to get to their DC at C at various times. We are clearly very fortunate to be 25 miles from the nearest park & ride.

Does anyone know anything about Regents Park College in Oxford? Grateful for any info about what life there is like - is it very different from the bigger Oxford colleges? DC knows how lucky they are to have a place at all but going to uni is not all about academics for them. Thanks for any help!

I've spent most of my life going up and down the M3/A303 @Malbecfan - my brother was born in Cornwall, we moved to Dorset and I went to prep school there and then up the A303 in Wiltshire for secondary school. Both sets of grandparents were at the top of the M3/M25 in Hampshire (Fleet) and East Sussex respectively - and then my parents moved to and still live in Somerset (on the Levels - ish). I went to Exeter Uni, worked in London and currently living in Kent, so still have to brave the M25/M3/A303 journey when I want to go home to the West Country. I want to move back there as soon as we can, but DH wants to move abroad once we aren't tied to schools, so who knows...!

Usually I lurk on here but to allay your dc’s fears - not sure why they think a particular college will affect their whole uni experience. RP is small, it’s bang in the middle of the city two mins from the bus station, five minutes from the shops, about 7 minutes from the Bodleian, 10 mins to the station. It has a cosy atmosphere. Your dc can enjoy everything about Oxford they could if they were at another college - sport, drama, academics, politics, clubbing etc. You can message me about any more specific qs but if your dc thinks Regents isn’t for them then probably Oxford isn’t for them either