Oxbridge applicants 2026 - thread 2

[ArchitectureMum]

Someone has to be the OP and I have no fate to tempt now in this journey.

Congratulations to all the Oxford offer holders. Some lovely stories yesterday afternoon.

Comiserations to those who had different news yesterday. I hope your DC are doing ok and beginning to look positively towards their other options.

Good luck to everyone waiting for news from Cambridge on 28th January.

And hello to all the Oxbridge observers - alumni, parents of past and future applicants. It is always a thread of highs and lows and it was a privilege to be a small part of it for this cycle.

Thank you for the new thread.

It was lovely yesterday to hear news both of successful applicants but also of the amazing way so many young people were able to deal with their disappointment and look to their future which will be equally bright.

Still a waiting game here for DS until 28th. He’s getting a little nervous now. He’d be happy with either Cambridge or Durham but no news from either has him a little stressed!

Well done to those people with offers and commiserations to those without.
DS made a half arsed application a few years ago and was delighted to get an interview and was genuinely unbothered there was no offer. It was lucky that he’s made this way because I have another relative who was incredibly unlucky not to get an offer and who was quite badly affected by it. They have a stellar career now so the university they attended didn’t have any impact on the job they were able to get afterwards.
Having some experience of Cambridge it is really not for everyone. Lots of young people love it, others not so much. I would say try to rein in any emotions about it you have as a parent because walking around it’s the parents who are in raptures most of the time compared to the students!
DS is really happy where he is, which is a not too shabby place full of super clever kids who are doing great and having fun too.
Remember too that if your dc really wants to fulfill that ambition of an Oxbridge education they have the option of postgraduate studies. Work hard, get that first and apply again in a few years time.
Good luck everyone x

Thanks for the new thread!

Well done to those with offers and I’m sorry to those that were unsuccessful, it was such an emotional day.

DS received good news yesterday and has been offered a place at Queens College. Obviously he now needs to get the grades but it does feel after admission tests and interviews that the hardest part of the whole process is done. The offer is lower than some of his other uni choices and should be achievable.

@IDontFeelLikeCooking funnily enough Durham was the last option we were waiting for and they came through last night, so hopefully you’ll hear back from them soon.

Good luck to the Cambridge applicants, it’ll soon be here!

Thanks so much for starting this new one as I now have to go through it a second time with the Cambridge applicant daughter. I must say after yesterday's Oxford disappointment I feel quite jaded and ambivalent about the whole thing. The Cambridge one wants it more and feels generally more 'unlucky' in life than her sister but the Oxford one would have coped with the pressure better.

I hate the way that the application system makes it all so freighted. I've always said to my kids that there's no harm in trying, but the whole series of jeopardies means that even if you go into pragmatically, you get sucked in. Will you get an interview? Will you get an offer? Will you get the grades? Everyone talking about offer day at school, friends and family getting invested, the whole sobriquet 'Oxbridge reject'.

@Lobbygobbler you're so right with your advice about reining it in as parents. I've told DD that I'm incredibly proud of her and nothing will dent that. One of her school friends rung his mother with his bad news and his mother told him he was a failure. I don't even know the boy but my eyes welled up. Can you imagine?

I can’t imagine why a mother would say that to her child. It’s horrific. That poor boy. Some people don’t deserve to be parents.

That poor young man. Awful.

Yes, the process really does suck you in and you have to be so invested in order to make the application. Everyone knows it’s offer day and it’s probably asking how you got on. It’s really tough. I’m determined not to think of labelling DD as a ‘Cambridge reject’. Yes, she applied but there are four other applications on the go she has a career in mind and it was just one of five options to take her forward with that career.

Yet, here I am starting the Oxbridge continuation thread! There is something special about it and I remember reading something on Mumsnet, probably about this time last year, about how there is a sadness that comes with not being part of the special Oxbridge group anymore. Really nothing to do with the reality of which university and course but a loss of being part of a community that you were a part of until suddenly you are not.

Congratulations to your son. Good luck for his exams next.

I really hope Durham comes through soon. The reality is I think my DS is far more suited to Durham and would be much happier there long term. I am not convinced that he loves learning enough to enjoy Cambridge - he’d much rather be playing sport - but school have swept him along and here we find ourselves. Whatever happens he will be fine. The process is painful though.

This really rings true!

I’m feeling a bit battered by the whole experience too and very sad this morning. I’m also very aware that a lot of this is my own issue and I need to get over myself - I could just absolutely see him thriving in the Oxford tutorial setting talking about obscure old English texts and really making the most of it.
I think I’ve imagined him going there for a really long time and I’m now having to let go of a whole future (or at least the next few years’ plan) that I’d imagined for him. I wish I could be more laid back about these things!

DS seems great though and I’m obviously not letting him see my disappointment. I’m hugely proud of how he’s dealing with it. We’ve agreed that it just closes off one opportunity but that there are SO many fantastic possibilities ahead. He has 4 good offers and will take a gap year now that he’s not going to Oxford so that’s something exciting to focus on. None of his options feel like they totally line up at the moment but perhaps that will change - but a gap year also gives him time to think about maybe other universities that he hadn’t considered (it all felt a bit of a rush in the end) and possibly even reapply if he feels he wants to. He might be completely set on a new path by the autumn though and that’s great!

There’s been a ‘redirected from Oxbridge’ thread in previous years and I wondered if anyone would feel like starting one? I’m not a very regular poster but it might be nice to have as our young people move forward.

Congratulations to all of the offer holders and again, good luck to those waiting for Cambridge - I remember how annoying it was waiting when friends DCs already had their news!

And huge commiserations to those who didn't get the news hoped for...my brother and I were both Oxbridge rejects - although he got an offer so got a stage further than I did - and he's a surgeon and I'm doing OK in another profession - and both of had a brilliant time at our respective places of study. It hurt like hell at the time, but it doesn't define your DCs and they will thrive at whichever institution is lucky enough to have them study there.

As foreigners we dont set eyes so much on Oxbridge as many of my friends’ kid go to many other amazing Universities in the world in Asia, America, Europe. For us, the journey still goes on as the US application just submitted over the Christmas. There is an interview for one of the Univs this week.

Even for our Oxford offer, its condition on A maths, A FM and another A(although she does 4 A levels) so results will only confirmed by end of August(which we will be travelling so hopefully could log in and check rather than receiving it from the school). The letter via post yesterday was saying that it is a 4 years course(Maths and Phil with Magdalen college) so 4 years studying. Among my daughter friends, there are few who were not got an offer and knowing them, they are just as equally as good as the ones who have so it isnt define them. Mine would have moved on and not re-applied and would be happy with her other offers.

We wanted to know about MAT results(she missed 4 marks and could have got others wrong) and TMUA will be in 2 weeks(which she sat last Thursday and said it went okie, managed to finish it but there could be marks lost). She is much better with problem solving/ long worded sort of questions rather than multiple choice so both MAT and TMUA were not her strength.

Have started a thread for those whose DC didn't get an offer
www.mumsnet.com/talk/higher_education/5475557-redirected-from-oxford?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share

A star, A star, A, I dont know why the A star signs dropped

Thanks so much @ArchitectureMum for starting the new thread. It's been such a supportive group and I've really appreciated being part of it. I haven't shared news of DD's offer much in RL because (a) it's her news to share (b) don't want to seem braggy (c) most people in RL aren't invested. So it was nice to be able to share the news on here yesterday when I was at work and getting 2nd hand updates via DH. Now very aware that she'll have to get the grades, which is a long way from being a given!

Sending big virtual hugs for those parents and DC who were disappointed yesterday and are feeling bruised. However hard you try not to, it's just very difficult not to get sucked in and envisage yourself / your child in that setting doing 'that' course. And they have all worked so hard to get this far, it's gutting to get a rejection. I hope those with DC in that boat found something nice to do yesterday to soften the blow.

And very best of luck to the Cambridge crowd for offers day.

Traditionally a second thread pops up as everyone on the Oxbridge threads is still invested in all these wonderful applicants.

My ds got an AAA offer from St Anne's College for Law. We are delighted! At the moment I'm more excited about it than him - he is at home with a really horrible flu bug and can barely get out of bed. He definitely went into it not even expecting to get an interview - he is doing all STEM subjects and didn't really prepare for the LNAT as much as he should have done. Sincere sympathies to all those who missed out - I'm sure they will find a uni they'll love!

We are also on tender hooks waiting for the Cambridge Steps offer (as my DD says - ‘Not an offer, but an offer to do the Steps test!’).

I just feel for the students that have put so much pressure on themselves to do well and get in. My DD wants to study maths in Cambridge, but I told her she would have a much better time in Manchester (Come on - ‘Curry Mile’ and great social life).

She has her heart set on Cambridge though, and it makes me anxious the closer we get to the 28th.

Oh well, fingers crossed everyone waiting.

Bit of a tangent but DD went to visit Manchester recently and really loved the city / thought it would be a brilliant place to be a student

We have a strong family history of studying there - My father and my husband studied at the universities, and I grew up (and partied) there as a teenager. I love that you can randomly talk to people, and say ‘hi’ without the suspicious looks and it is easy to make friends.

I know this thread is for undergraduates but does anyone have experience of studying a Masters at Cambridge? My DD has an interview on Friday and I wondered if there were any hints and tips?

Thanks to everyone who's shared Oxford offer updates. Lots of wise and sensible words have been posted and I hope whatever decision my DD gets from Cambridge in a few weeks it will be treated with the response it ultimately warrants - because either way, it's not life or death!

Best of luck to everyone with the next stage!

I can't help on the Cambridge interview, but make sure he gets as much info on funding as possible if he doesn't have a bottomless supply of £.

Postgrad loans cover both fees & maintenance and the SLC give you around £12k. Cambridge masters fees are likely to be in the region of £17k, so it doesn't add up if you don't get a fully funded offer. There is no separate maintenance loan. Postgrad loans are repaid alongside undergraduate loans, so you get two deductions each month when you hit the salary level for repayments to start.

So I’ve been lurking here a few weeks, as I did last year when DS applied pre-A Levels to Cambridge but didn’t make it beyond interview. I’ve had some thoughts about STEM applicants from v ordinary non-pushy schools & perhaps our happy-ending story might prove salutary to other comp educated kids, brainy but not prodigies, aspiring to do STEM at Oxbridge.
DC realised other offers last year weren’t optimal either for his ambitions- he’d had to choose at just 17 (v young in year) without much guidance from anyone.
So he focussed on maxing out his A levels so as to reapply and, yay, achieved his predicteds!
Switched to Oxford this time thinking taking PAT as well as ESAT again (for Imperial) would give him a second chance should he mess up one of them . .
But in that brief year his ESAT score improved massively.
PAT score must have been alright too cos here we are - a place at the prestigious Oxford college of his choice.
He did it working by himself at home, just went back into his old school last month for the online interviews.
It’s clear to me the extra year has made all the difference, in both competence and maturity. It must be a very exceptional pre A level ordinary comprehensive-school student who could get close to the required level in the ESAT at that early stage.
But most kids at his school could not have taken a gamble on an extra year the way he has.
Which is why at his school, the couple of pre A level Oxbridge offers they get every year are all arts/humanities, in which I’ve a suspicion that their ‘interesting’ backgrounds (which they all have there, typical inner London) might work in their favour.
Not STEM, until now, despite the fact that Maths/Science teaching is good and popular. They simply cannot reach the required standard by the end of Y12.
It takes an extra year and a lot of A level swotting.
So in summary - go for it, STEM kids, if you are pre A level & have the focus and determination but didn’t quite make it this time, and are not entirely happy with your alternatives.
Your first task - max out those A levels!
Very best of luck to everyone here, whatever your outcomes & whatever you decide.

Well done to your DS @marytudagreat that it paid off for him. Small detail and I may be dim, but what do you mean by ‘interesting’ backgrounds?