Worth applying to Oxford without the predicted grades?

[redblonde]

I think I know the answer to this but thought I'd double check. My daughter is keen on Chrmistry at Oxford which has entry grades of A star A star A. Her predicted grade is currently hovering around A star AA, with possibility of A star A star A - school still deciding. If if does come down to one A star is it even with applying? I'm guessing not?

Well obviously not an option for Oxford for 2025 entry and she's got an interview and great predicted grades so she's not going to have any problem getting onto an excellent chemistry course.

That's not to say materials science isn't a very interesting field with a lot of very important research going on in it but probably not too relevant for the OPs DD at this stage of the admissions process.

Slightly worrying listening to an Oxford PHD in Chemistry talking about being unable to get a job on radio 5 this morning. Ditto another MChem grad. They didn’t want to teach in a school I assume but felt spat out by employers. They could get a job if they wanted to but not the job they wanted. I was surprised.

Some PhDs are pretty niche, and some jobs may require attributes apart from their academic achievements. I don't listen to r5, when was this?

The academic job market is terrible at the moment with the financial pressure on the HE sector; but there has been a decades-long reliance in academia (in both humanities and STEM, in fact even more so in STEM subjects) on short term and soft money temporary contracts. Many young science academics can be on successive short term contracts for a decade or more before getting a permanent job (if then). The valorisation of STEM is something of an obsession of the education system, governments and parents at the moment, and the reality is that there aren’t actually as many jobs in STEM as there are STEM graduates - most go on to unrelated careers. It’s a very mistaken idea to assume that a STEM degree or PhD is a ticket to a good job, or even a job in science at all.

This is going to get worse and worse, imo. There will still be very good jobs at the absolute top.of the market but I fear for eg. the majority of the huge number of new computer scientists after the other computer scientists have automated their jobs out of existence.

Of course, money isn't everything re post-grad education but... https://www.economist.com/international/2024/11/18/is-your-masters-degree-useless

@tortoise18 I was just reading this in the Economist ten mins ago. DN is currently applying for super expensive Masters at UCL and LES. Costs are eye watering £24,000 and £33,000 respectively in Public Administration. Seems a lot of money for a course straight after undergraduate - surely better to do after a few years proper work.....

Some PhDs are pretty niche
and depending on the speciality, chemistry jobs may be restricted to the specific UK locations where there are chemistry plants and development.

Stem grads going into other fields may not be a bad thing if it helps redress the serious problems caused by too many supposedly educated people in positions of power being scientifically and technically illiterate.

Not so much as chem eng, but of course some are. It was fortunate when DHs job moved from Teesside to Pennsylvania to Lancashire that I had a chemistry job I could do from home and an employer company who wanted to keep me, to be sure!

But then again there's other sorts of jobs where you really have to be in London or a big city <shudders>

Well done to your DD and good luck at interview.