Continuation of Oxbridge 2025

[BananasAllofIt]

I for one still have a kid waiting to hear about interviews. Thought I'd carry it over...

DD has been invited to an offer holder day (Oxford college). Letter specifies that it is for the offer holder only, not parents. Sounds like there is quite a lot of variation.

Daughter for Oxford only offer holder no parents. We taking her and going to spend the day going around Oxford having lunch etc

@TheBestChild2 Same!!!

Ours(Oxford) is 1 parent. It’s a college she hasn’t visited so she’s keen to go!

Hi all,

I've just found out that Exeter Maths School is running some in person sessions for year 13 students who have a STEP offer. Details are here: https://exetermathematicsschool.ac.uk/for-students/secondary-maths/#1737563193066-3802f8b0-2575

(Nothing to do with me or the STEP Support Programme!)

i think colleges that have recruited heavily from the pool have offer days as many of the students won't have seen the college.

Anyone know whether Magdalene (Cambridge) do offer holders days?

@GavlarShmavlar DS didn't have an open day but there were college drinks in London before their first term where he met several people who have become close friends..he did go up and chat to the porters in the summer hols and they let him have a quick nosey tho so that's always an option?

@Panicmode1 many thanks for this. We're pondering a visit down with offer letter in hand in the hope of being allowed in by a porter! Do you think it's worth it? We live a long way away so don't want a wasted trip!

Your DC should give the college a ring. Many have student ambassadors who will give you a tour. I've never heard of an college turning away an offer holder

@HewasH2O brilliant and thanks

BTW student ambassador roles for open days, offer holder days and school tours are an excellent way to top up their funds once your DC start.

With regards to offer holder days, if a parent possibly can attend, then I would say it's worth it. My daughter (Oxford) had the option to nominate one person to accompany her to the offer holder day, but the guest place was not guaranteed, just on a space-allowing basis.

I did end up going with her, and it was vastly different from the open day. It was basically a mini induction day to that college.

My daughter had an 'open offer' and the offer holder day was to the college she applied to and who had underwritten the offer and where she ultimately ended up going. It was hard at the offer holder day to keep a distance and to think that other colleges do things differently.

In short - offer holder days are worthwhile and if you can go too, then I think you should.

I’m sure you would not get turned away, but to put your mind at rest pick up the phone call them and tell them roughly when you’re coming

I would echo the others and call - we aren't a million miles away so it wasn't a big issue if his offchance try hadn't come off, but if you are making a trip especially, I would call in advance. As @HewasH2O said, I've never heard of an offer holder being refused a tour, but it may be worth checking in case there is a college event on the day that you plan to go, which would mean you couldn't have a full tour....

DC rang the college and it hasn't been decided yet whether offer holder day will be in person or online. I think we'll hold off visiting independently till we know, but good to hear that a DIY approach should be feasible

When DS2 had his offer we went during the summer holiday before he started to look around and went to the college on the off-chance. The porters were absolutely lovely - showed him his pigeon hole (which already had SU bumpf in it - very exciting) and said he was free to wander around because this was his college now. It was interesting (and appropriate) that they very much talked to him, not to me. It really made it all concrete for him and dispelled some of the imposter syndrome.

Out of anticipatory interest, how do they arrange drop-off in cars for central colleges when several hundred students are decanting on the same day? (Even more so for other terms where it's all years)

At DD’s college, in a narrow city-centre lane (O), you have to book a half-hour arrival slot between 8am and 7pm. Then you get a form from the porter’s lodge to put in the windscreen so you don’t get a ticket! And the first years arrive on a different day from the other years the first term.

Yeah, there is quite a lot of chaos at city centre drop-offs in Oxford and there seems to be a general ‘just deal with it’ attitude from the colleges — not in an unpleasant sense, but there’s not a lot they can do. They can’t magic up temporary multi-storey car parks. It’s a tiny medieval centre with narrow lanes, and you have hundreds of cars (many of them HUGE) all converging at the same time. You just have to take a zen approach and trust that it will somehow work out alright, which it usually does.

The parking wardens definitely seem to quietly disappear for the day. Me and another harassed woman blocked an entire taxi rank on Broad Street for nearly half an hour before Christmas and nobody batted an eyelid.

As you’re crawling along just keep doing a 360-check for bikes and pedestrians, who tend to assume they have right of way over cars in all circumstances (not unreasonably).

Top tip from my personal experience: go late, not early. Everyone goes early.

Oh, and be aware of the Zero Emissions Zone if you’re heading to the very centre of town - about a fiver if you pay in advance, but painful if you get the fine in the post afterwards! www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/transport-and-travel/oxford-zero-emission-zone-zez/view-map-zez

Does anyone know about maths pools for Cambridge? DS didn't get in to Emma - he said he was asked about topics he hadn't studied during the interview (we have a different syllabus in NI and he had indicated in advance what topics he hadn't covered). He has good offers from Bath but I know he is disappointed. Apparently if he does exceptionally well in the STEP there is potential to still get an offer at C from another college. Is this correct?

Oh this wonderful to hear! DH & I didn't go to university so the very thought of Cambridge makes us anxious. We're trying to be cool about it all for DDs sake. Love all the sharing of previous experience from Oxbridge mums!

@Marylou2 please don't feel anxious!

As a fat northern scruffy P/T state school teacher with a DH who had been made redundant from a RG uni then a defence company & was self-employed on minimum wage, we thought that everyone would be looking down on us. Not a bit of it! DD qualified for a Cambridge bursary and everyone was just lovely to us.

When the October half term came, I took my DF to see DD's college. He is disabled. We met DD and she asked if we could pop to the supermarket so I could drive some heavy stuff back. The Master of her college was in there, doing his shopping. He smiled and said hello to her then asked if we were visiting. He asked how she was getting on. I asked if he knew anything about disabled parking in Kings Parade (he didn't) but he said we were welcome to use the college's Fellows' parking and he would let the porters know that we had his permission. He carried on being lovely all the way through. They often have tea and cakes for parents at the start of the academic year. DD is very sceptical about it as she thinks it's a way of getting donations from parents, which it is partly. However, they seem to do their homework because whilst other parents were being asked to consider monthly donations, the Master told us how good DD was at running her department's student Twitter feed with no mention of cash at all.

Embrace it - it's a whole different world, but it's such a privilege to be a small part of it.

"Embrace it - it's a whole different world, but it's such a privilege to be a small part of it".

This. I love our rare glimpses into DS's world when we visit - formal hall by candlelight and evensong are so special. I've met some lovely parents at these events - all absolutely lovely and not stuffy or 'establishment' at all. And it's staggering how fast it goes - I feel as though he's only just started but he's in his third year already!

@NigellaAwesome - was your son pooled after interview? I think if they are put in the winter pool but weren't offered a place, and are now eligible for the summer reconsideration pool, he would have been informed of this in the decision email the colleges sent out last week...

If this doesn't apply, I don't think it's the case that they can do the STEP exam and be reconsidered for this year. The only way would be to re-apply with A-level grades in hand for entry a year later (ie 2026).