Oxbridge applicants 2026??

[Justlurkingmostly]

Is there a thread for this year’s applicants - I can’t seem to find with a search. Thanks for signposting 🙏

Well done to your DC 👏

Lol, she didn't mention that! MUCH easier that way 😄

Today is Manchester interview day so that distracts from Oxford waiting - sent him off on a train this morning
I believe in terms of grade requirements they are fairly equivalent for physics & he likes both courses an awful lot so would be happy with either uni. Let’s hope they feel the same about him. 🤞

Sorry I'm going back to my earlier point about college choice - on which no one agrees with me! I agree that the colleges are important and a USP but I don't see how that is enhanced by forcing pupils to apply to a particular one. The college uniqueness and life would be exactly the same if they were allocated and it would save any angst for those who aren't as familiar with the system. It would also prevent colleges becoming a bit silo-ed or associated with a 'type'.

I also saw a tiktoker who was going around asking people which were the worst Cambridge colleges (he's at an old big prestigious one) and it was all, chortle, chortle, modern college women's college modern college ex-women's college. And I thought, really? Does Cambridge need any more snobbery? If ALL allocations were random it would get rid of this nonsense too.

It just smacks of yet more we're so special and not like the other universities - like if Imperial suddenly said you can't apply to both us and UCL and you have to let us know where you'll be living before you even put in your application.

[I went to one of the two and grew up in the other city; my husband did the reverse. So it's not that I'm unfamiliar with the system, but I deal with a lot of pupils who are not and it all feels like more obfuscation to them].

You can make an open application to Cambridge now, if you don't know which college to choose or are happy to be allocated to any.

https://www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/how/ucas-application

@ClaireBlunderwood I definitely see your point. I went to one of the two back in the day as well (this was pre-internet and I was totally clueless so picked a college at random) and I do remember that at the time it was just another thing that made me think that everyone else knew much more about it all than I did. I imagine it has the same effect today for people who are totally unfamiliar with it all. As another PP said, I think you can submit an open application but nonetheless...

I also think that all the additional hoops that students have to jump through in many subjects just in order to apply are a barrier to accessibility. As I said upthread, DD had to submit 5 or 6 different things in different formats and the logistics of that were a real challenge. She's at a good (non-selective, state) school with a supportive uni admissions department who offered to help but even then it was a mission. That was before she even knew if she'd be offered an interview (she has been thankfully). So, students without good support are at a huge disadvantage (in lots of ways of course but especially when you put extra hurdles in place).

Saying that, the admissions department at the college DD applied to were v approachable and kind when she got in touch to clarify some of the details. So that's something.

I really liked the Durham application system where you can put your colleges in order of preference. I know the college system there is v different to Cambridge, but it’s a nicer approach than the Cambridge all or nothing “direct application to one college, or open application to any college at all”. My son did apply and has an interview with his college in a week and a half, but he would have preferred to do an “order of preference” open application - there are some he really didn’t want to apply to, and quite a lot he liked equally.

And this is with me knowing Cambridge really well, I studied there, I have other relatives who studied there and lived there for years, we used to go there all the time to stay when I was a child. I spent a weekend with him going around and sticking our noses into several colleges, seeing what they’re like, walking around and getting a sense of the place. So I’m v well able to help and support him and I know the system well. I know it would be a huge challenge to move to a more generally open application system, as it’s so intrinsically a place built of multiple separate entities, with their own finance and governance (to some extent anyway?). But I do think a ranked choice open application would be way better than fully open.

eta - fwiw I picked my college because it had a free laundry service, ducks, and you could sit on the grass, plus other college students said it was nice and friendly. So I did explain that it doesn’t matter a great deal which you pick - mostly. But it does make it more stressful.

Yes that's a good alternative @Talipesmum - makes it feel less high stakes. Putting in an open application when everyone else isn't just means you'll get allocated an unpopular one so there's little incentive and doesn/t prevent certain colleges getting a reputation. I know, for example, a couple of Oxford colleges have the reputation for being very pro state school, which is great, but then it just means that the spread is made more uneven.

@deathbyprocrastination that's exactly what I mean, it's another thing that makes some students feel like outsiders and that other people understand it more than them. And yes too re. the different hoops. One of mine is applying post qualification and trying to rustle up some written work was a challenge. She very obediently made sure it had been done as part of her A levels and marked (so it's not particularly legible and the only work she could find was timed essays). We've subsequently found out that others have rewritten work and got it re-marked. We've got a scanner and could merge the pages easily, but not everyone can access this easily at home or at school.

@ClaireBlunderwood Yeah, my DD was very obedient about submitting marked school work, saying how long it had taken etc but found out late in the process that it's definitely not that way across the board! V frustrating. You just have to hope the admissions folk take things with a bit of a pinch of salt and that, for those who get through to the next stage, the interview process is an effective way of assessing who really is right for the uni and vice versa.

@ClaireBlunderwood I totally agree with you that the college system is a distraction and increases the mystery around the process. I hear the idea of copying Durham, but the truth is there people rank colleges and often don't get any of them and are gutted, so not sure that system works as well in theory as in practice. Better just to let a lottery decide imo.

Oxford is further along than C in this respect. Without being too outing my dc's quite small department effectively does randomise applications and tells applicants they should put in an open application because they're wasting their time musing over the choices. DC got a college they wouldn't have picked - they love it.

Good luck all - I have a dc loving Oxford and a dc loving elsewhere, who narrowly didn't get into Oxford after being pooled. Either way it all works out but it's a stressful process

To add, it's not true that an open application means you're automatically assigned a less popular college, that's a common and understandable misconception. The open applications are randomly assigned to ALL colleges, so you are just as likely to get one of the popular ones as unpopular - however, the popular one may be totally oversubscribed, look at your application and think you're good but not in the top - say - six they want to interview and still reallocate you to another undersubscribed college. Who in turn may pool you. Which is why it's as well not to get hung up on college choices.

May I join please?

DS has an interview for Oxford, so am guessing he did reasonably well in TSA, or maybe it doesn't matter?

Any advice for interviews? He had a mock interview with Uniq last week which DS really enjoyed.

No, this is not correct. Open applications are assigned to less popular colleges. See here: https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/colleges/do-you-choose-a-college

The relevant bit of the page states "Then you are welcome to choose an open application on your UCAS form. This will mean that your application will be assigned to a college or hall that has relatively fewer applications for your course in the year you apply."

I stand corrected! Maybe it's just for dc's subject they randomly allocate then as that is definitely the case there ... Even more of a reason to centrally allocate as there's no way a clued-up Old Etonian will go for a random application.

@Angelicart but why is it a bad thing if an Old Etonian won't go for a random application? The idea of open applications is not to give an advantage to certain groups, it's to let people opt out of having to make a college choice. It also slightly expedites the reallocation process which happens anyway before interview in most subjects nowadays, which means that by the time people are interviewed, most colleges have the same ratio of applicants to place.

(I agree, by the way, that an Etonian won't do an open application on the whole. This isn't because they are clued up, but because top private schools are institutionally invested in selling the idea that they know a lot about Oxbridge. It's rather like private companies who charge you money to offer advice on which college you should apply to, which I'm equally dubious about. I'm not disputing that people from Eton get a lot of help and support with applications compared to people from a normal state school, but college choice is not an area where that help and support makes any difference.)

In practice all colleges are 'popular' and none are 'unpopular' in the sense that all are over subscribed, so it's just a question of how over-subscribed. There isn't a back door in by choosing the right college, just as you aren't making your chances worse by happening to choose the most over-subscribed one, because at some point in the process the system will even things out, whether through open applications, reallocation, or second round interviews. Old Etonians certainly do end up at a range of colleges, whether or not they originally applied to them.

Also the less over-subscribed colleges are in no way lesser options or rubbish colleges. They are usually just slightly further out of the city centre, so don't get as much footfall on open days. When people actually arrive as students, the location doesn't really matter as Oxford centre is tiny and everywhere is bikeable in 5-10 minutes, and there are advantages to being somewhere with a bigger main site and not having tourists try to barge into your room all the time!

Finally, it isn't straightforward for Oxford and Cambridge to 'copy Durham'. The legal set up of the colleges is totally different. Whether or not one likes it (and it's entirely fair not to), the colleges are self-governing and legally independent institutions and it is they who have the right to admit undergraduate students, not the university. At Durham the colleges don't have any independent legal status.

I also think allowing people the choice of where to apply respects their freedom to have normal human preferences. Some may prefer the vibe of one college or another, or may be attracted to the work of a particular tutor. Some may want to go to a college with particular facilities or a specific location. My DS, for example, applied to a particular college because of their choir. Just because some people find the set-up obscure doesn’t mean that everyone should be deprived of this choice.

I went to Oxford as a FSM recipient and the first of my family to go to any university. There was no internet of course so I relied on whatever printed info I could get my hands on, plus the open day. It’s so much easier to research things nowadays. I really can’t relate to the assertion on the thread that if you don’t understand something, it should be changed.

However, I do think that going back to the days of putting three colleges in order of preference would be better. The system can certainly be tweaked. But it’s bonkers iconoclasm, IMO, to suggest scrapping it altogether.

I don't really get the angst about college choices - I don't know much about Oxford at all. Maybe it was easier as only 5 colleges offer the course, but we looked online, compared the key features like accommodation, location etc, then looked round a few on open day and she went for the one she liked the feel of the most.

Anyone still waiting for Oxford interview invitations I have just seen this which gives an indication of when contact will be made, it’s from Corpus Christi but the subjects out to date seem to match other colleges

https://www.ccc.ox.ac.uk/information-current-applicants

Which subject is he interviewing for @ilovemydogandmrobama2 ?

My DS loves to cook - so he based his Cam college choice on which college was closest to Sainsbury's. He is in his final year there now! We couldn't visit any colleges due to Covid but his rationale worked for him!

Agree. My DD loved learning about the various colleges with their different traditions, quirks and vibes before finally settling on the one she wanted to apply to. And with most people having access to the internet, researching Colleges and the whole Oxbridge application process has never been easier, surely?

No its A A A for As( its highest for As which is different to predicted A level and equivalent to A star is for predicted A level) and 9 subjects with grade 9 gcse and a 1 subject with grade 7. I dont know much about As, my daughter school does predicted A level.

I think the misunderstanding has arisen because @Greenleave is talking about AS-levels but the typing makes it look like she’s talking about grades rather than qualifications.

it’s a shame for the YP in question but every year there’s a controversy about who does and doesn’t get in. Does anyone remember Laura Spence? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laura_Spence_affair

Hi, Has everyone heard for PPE at Oxford? My daughter still hasn't heard anything. She is applying to New College.

Hello after a slow start my DD has three offers including UCL and Edinburgh so that’s a relief. Still waiting to hear about Oxford. Some of her school mates have been given interviews and some have already found out they don’t have an interview. I feel like it will be any day now.