Oxford open day next week :how are we supposed to fit it all in? How do we know which colleges to look at

[Opendaymaddnes]

Hello I'm trying to get my head around the open day and distances. The subject talk is quite early but it looks like we could spend all day at the subject talk area meeting tutors but we need to look at accommodation options also and colleges.

I've googled the best colleges for her subject and I hope to visit three? Does this sound like a plan? Is this what uther people do?

Sorry if this has already been said (haven’t read full thread), but about a third of offers are for a college the candidate didn’t apply to - this is stated on the Oxford website. Some students make open applications and others end up being interviewed by more than one college. So college choice is less important than you might think.
Faculty talks and visiting 3 colleges sounds like a good plan. If lucky enough to be offered a place at a college, many people visit after they get an offer. In my experience, most people end up enjoying the college they are allocated. Every one has pros and cons.

@Opendaymaddnes I was the person with a couple of family members who went to Oxford (and a DD who will hopefully going subject to meeting her offer).
Sister and I went to Oxford from a state comp and neither of my parents went to university. (That statement is true, but misleading in a way - I grew up in a pretty aspirational family and the school was a good one that routinely sent a few people a year to Oxbridge.) I was smart for school, average or slightly below in my cohort at Oxford.
My DD who has the offer I think may be genuinely exceptional - she's an incredibly high achiever, super smart, great memory but also real drive, focus and resilience. Her dad is/was also exceptional academically, even in an Oxford cohort. But I wasn't. I was just bright and keen and gave it a go. I had the predicted grades and I sat a test and did an interview and got in. I really think there is no reason anyone with the predicted grades and a keen interest in their subject who likes the idea of it shouldn't give it a go and no reason to think they wouldn't stand a chance.
I hope you enjoy the open day and if your daughter likes it, she is just as worthy of being considered as an applicant as anyone else.

Oh gosh, have I been in the equivalent of the shower scene in Dallas and I'm about to wake to find DD's time at Oxford was all a dream?

I find it so frustrating that every year posters ask if their DC's GCSE results are good enough because they include some 6 and 7s. Or they ask if there is any point applying without grade 8 cello, a national sporting profile and 4 A stars.

If people continue to spout those myths, talented & deserving students who "don't think Oxbridge is for the likes of them" will still not take a risk with one place on their UCAS form, despite having the potential both universities are looking for.

I really don't know why posters on MN are so keen to persuade people that they are wasting their time when they should be encouraging young people who have the predicted grades, the majority of grades 7 - 9 and a genuine interest in their subject to have a go and apply. They have more chance of getting an offer than if they don't take a chance & try.

Sorry!!! Long thread. It was @TizerorFizz .
It was stats on all applicants - not offer holders - hence my post.
The pool of all applicants has a very different profile to the successful applicants. And that further differs by subject. With the offer holders for the most competitive subject’s having higher number of A-level grades.
It is common sense - not sure why anyone needs to argue with that.

@Opendaymaddnes as to how some families end up with multiple kids at Oxbridge - it’s like with a lot of things - combination of nature, nurture, opportunity, luck, privilege.

Good luck to your daughter!

Forgot to mention - hard work by the child, of course! Nature and nurture + only get you some way there…

How are you coming to Oxford St Hildas is not far from the city centre .

as to how some families end up with multiple kids at Oxbridge - it’s like with a lot of things - combination of nature, nurture, opportunity, luck, privilege

Kind of not sure you should include privilege in that list, if by that you mean affluence.

You're making assumptions I think, unfairly.

I would say overwhelmingly nature and opportunity in the case of my own DC. Mine triumphed over nurture if anything.

@josuk

It was offers in the right hand column! That’s what “success rate” means. It was also in response to the 90% have 4 A star grades. They don’t. As @Dearover says, have a go.

Also @Opendaymaddnes Experimental Psychology applicants are interviewed by 2 colleges. Don’t get hung up on random choices. Look at the ones that offed it. Look at the numbers they take, how big the whole college is and whether it seems a good fit when you read what they say about themselves. You can always go again and view more. Overs though it’s not a big deal. Open days are always ultra busy and a rush. Trying to do too much is difficult and frustrating.

@Sevillian you don’t think privilege plays a role? Particularly access to a good education, whether private, state, or largely home driven? I think it has to. Admissions decisions can strip out some of the effects of better schooling, but there is a limit to how far that can go. With the best will in the world, someone who might have done extremely well academically if they’d had decent schooling all their lives, may as a result of their actual school experience be completely unable to cope at a University like Oxford. Universities cannot make up for total failures of the school system.

Some (a few) kids may cope well more or less wherever. But many more will be led astray and never find their way back.

I did qualify my comment re privilege, with the caveat about affluence.

My DC were certainly privileged with the good fortune they had to live close to an outstanding state school. I don’t think it’s good simply to chuck
in the word privilege though - the general
reading of privilege equates to financial privilege.

Does it? I'm not sure. Even if it does, financial privilege and access to a good standard of education are pretty highly correlated.

@pinkspeakers Dynasties go to Oxbridge don’t they? How many times do read that a parent or both parents went? It’s hard wired. They would go from an average comp because the parents know the ropes. It’s a well trodden path. For others it’s a massively steep learning curve often ending up in poor prep for the interview. It’s a very fine line between getting a place and not. So being the sort of family that expects to go is a huge advantage. I’ve come across that time and time again in schools and amongst people I know.

@TizerorFizz
I was not having a go. It is simply factual to say that - while on average, about 50% of Oxford offerees have all A stars predicted - for the most competitive courses that number js far far higher. Certainly is for Maths and Physics - the courses my DC looked at/applied for.
It is the same at Imperial for the same subjects, btw. It’s not a secret.

The reason why these courses have such low admission rates - 10-12% is precisely because people look at the stats the way you do - and kids with 1 A star think - i like maths, I should apply to apply to Oxford, why not.

Personally, ai think it’s silly and demotivating to apply to those highly competitive courses if you dont really have much chancr

What a defeatist attitude.

DD's tutors told her cohort on their first day that their background & grades were irrelevant, as each and everyone of them had been selected for their potential and had exactly the same chance of getting a good degree. That's a far better attitude.

My tutorial partner’s grandfather had been the main donor for the renovation of the college library. My grandad was a bin man.😀

Well I think that’s my point. That they don’t necessarily follow so the implication which is there shouldn’t be.

I grew up in the days when bin men had to heave the bins onto their backs to take them
to the truck. Literally back breaking work. I’m glad to say that my dad at least wrapped every bit of our rubbish in newspaper so that on collection day our two bins were full of what looked like dozens of fish and chip parcels from the local chippie. Much less noxious for the bin men.

Ignore the nasties. I took DS - it’s a long drive so we stayed overnight, and DH took DD. Most were there with parents.

DS was looking at a massive course with possibly 200 places whereas DD’s course was very small.

DS had a selection of colleges with a good proportion of state pupils. We looked round about 6 colleges, all had pluses and negatives so in the end he made an open application.

DD had fewer colleges to look at and opted with the one with the most pupils from her course.

Both loved their colleges.

I agree with others that the subject talk and look round the department is important but so is talking to the current students showing you around. They can give you a true picture of the workload, time for a social life etc.

@josuk i think you are overstating the importance of predicted grades. Schools routinely overpredict, but some more than others, so they have limited credibility. Therefore provided a candidate is predicted to get at least the standard offer, other factors become more important (contextualised GCSEs achieved, test scores, interviews). Just because a course has a low offer rate, doesn’t mean that candidates only predicted to achieve the standard offer won’t be offered places. Yes it’s less likely, but it’s far from impossible. And the socio-economic context matters too.

It's just over the river from Magdalen College. A 10-15min walk from The Sheldonian.

@OpendaymaddnesI think Oxbridge interviews are thought to be hard because they aren’t like exams that you can revise for as such. From our experience the interview was about how you approach problems rather than why you want to study that subject or why Oxford.

They want to explore your passion for the subject so may discuss relevant reading that you have done. DS and DD did STEM subjects so they started with a problem to see how they approached it. It wasn’t something that they would have seen before. If they struggled they were given more information or asked what else they would need to know. The interviews are similar to the tutorials which are often 2:1 or occasionally 1:1 so they need to know if the Oxbridge teaching method would suit. It really isn’t for everyone. The terms are short so the workload is heavy, and there is nowhere to hide in tutorials. (I would have hated it!).

A couple of DC’s friends opted not to apply after the open days and have done brilliantly elsewhere.

@GluttonousHag My great grandfather signed his name with en X. Education is a great thing. However you don’t have to look very hard to see Oxbridge runs through some families. This gives them less fear, reasonable knowledge of what to expect and how to navigate what’s required. You only have to look at the Oxbridge thread to see this and in real life too.

Well genes may play a part Tizer.

If Oxbridge wants to play its part in social mobility it would be of fairly limited appeal if it penalized subsequent generations on the basis of an applicant having an Oxbridge educated parent.

Then again the shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves thing probably gets rid of some of the chaff as generations cycle through.

@Dearover - likewise about shower scene. Every year there’s some poster who trumpets that it’s perfectly possible to get in with duff grades. Yes, it is possible - but I expect they have some pretty decent mitigating circumstances, aced the entrance exam (or had no entrance exam) and looked pretty promising at interview.

When my dcs were applying I haunted The Student Room for tips (no Oxbridge heritage here!). No help from school, in fact DD’s tutor said she was a snob for not applying to the local (ex-HE place) university . I think as a clueless applicant it’s important to look at how to write an Oxbridge personal statement and how to handle an Oxbridge interview. It’s all about being a Boy Scout “Be prepared” !! (Never been near the Scouts but like the motto!)