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.

I agree 86 is an excellent mark. For context my DS got 61 and has received an offer from his first choice (very popular) college. He is disappointed with his score but had multiple very rigorous interviews so they must be confident he will manage. @Greenleave is your talented DC an international applicant? I have heard the top scores are quite dominated by international applicants (not sure what that says about the UK education system!) My DS is UK and ‘bog-standard comprehensive’ educated. I am very proud of him, as I’m sure you are of yours 😀

Well done to your son too @MugShout , after seeing the stats, I feel more grateful that she must have also done well with the interviews. Mine boards in private but we are British and live in UK. She is known for maths competitions and ukmt camps so MAT result was a disappointment for her.

@Greenleave wow she’s obviously very talented! Hope she is able to reflect and give herself a pat on the back in due course x

Are you not able to interpret the stats that @SparrowTweets posted? Your daughter did objectively exceptionally well. Sure, if her interviews went badly, she could still have missed out but not because her MAT score was poor.

Her daughter has an offer so the handwringing over a few marks dropped is both incredibly silly and a bit tone deaf on a thread where many have not got offers.

I consider myself as international because I didnt study here however my daughter was born and raised in the UK, she isnt international. I do understand the stats, reading into it then the interview must have been mattered including competing within UK pool vs international pool. And thats when I said we were very lucky with the interviews because it could have been a no(there are many all 9s gcse kids, all 4 A stars predicted, high MAT and werent offered).

Yes, it’s either faux naïf bragging or she is genuinely never satisfied with her poor daughter’s amazing achievements. Let’s hope it's the former.

These sort of comments made me regret ever posting and sharing on here.

@Greenleave please don't disappear from posting. Everyone realises that exceptionally bright students such as your DD can get upset at losing some points even if it seems a bit silly to others for whom 86 would be a dream. Well done to your DD! For instance my DS was upset to not get clean 9's at GCSE when he got 9 x 9s and 2 x 8s at GCSE. For most that would have been an amazing trawl! His headmaster realised but we wouldn't have dreamed of saying anything to anyone. DS was then pretty upset not to get a first at Oxford even though his revision technique was so unconventional so I wasn't that surprised! My DD was probably the only GCSE student who was upset GCSEs were cancelled in Covid as she her mock GCSE exams were straight 9s and she was upset she hadn't got real 9s just allocated grades! So I'm used to bright kids being upset. I, in contrast, was the kid at school who was delighted to get a B+ while others were upset to get an A-. And that was fine - I understood why they were upset too. It is like PBs in Park Run!

I think perhaps what some posters are saying is that just now it's a super sensitive time for Oxbridge applicants as many very bright candidates didn't get offers and are still feeling very raw. So sometimes caveating posts with "I know this sounds a bit silly but..." helps. Mumsnet is anonymous which enables us to share things we wouldn't in real life but all posters are real people...

And once a student has an offer their MAT score is not so relevant. As you and others say the MAT is only one element of the Oxford decision making as to who gets offers.

I hope your DD has a brilliant time. Now your DD has an offer why not join the Current Oxbridge Students thread?

You need to contact the College directly and get their permission to drop 1. Make sure the reponse is in writing too.
In my experience, post offer, Oxford allowed the drop of an A level but Cambridge didn't, but each college runs their own admissions.
In theory all offers are based on the info on the UCAS form and any changes without consent would void all your offers......

@Nothernwannabe Thanks so much, this was my first thought and said the same thing, then wanted to get another opinion, that it’s just not me over thinking.
I also not sure of contacting college about these kind of silly questions( if it’s a “what do you think?” Qn for anyone else who reads). I will get DD to email them, if she still thinks it’s needed. Though irrelevant and the subject she least likes, she spent time learning it, meaning end up with good marks. I think if working a little more on this than other is her only concern and if there is a chance of Astar in this than other subjects, she should continue.
Thanks again, I will pass on this information to DD and leave her to decide

@Panicmode1 and @marblefire I just these post as the notification didn’t open in App, instead went to random page on browser.
Thank you, yes she has 4 and fourth paper is something she doesn’t naturally like. So for this reason she did AS and got an A in it( I think it’s on UCAS) like you said @marblefire I felt the same, buffer is something I would do. I think she just asked and I sent her few screenshots from entirely different scenario, but Cam responded to their query about why didn’t he failed after interview, they said they are surprised that there is only 3 A Le les. Even though they only say in offer Astar, Astar A.

My DC got almost full marks and got rejected 😆

Reassuring to hear. DS is at t'other end of his undergraduate course at C and had applied to St. Catz to do a PhD as he thought was lovely. He changed his mind after discussing his PhD ambitions with his DoS and has elected to stay where he is (a little further north along the Cam). Apparently his DoS has got a fight on his hands to keep him at his College. At least It is good to know that he will probably be fine at St. C. Anyway, anxiously awaiting outcomes at various times of year just goes on and on with DC at this time. Disappointments too; a year a ago he looked like shot deer when he didn't pass direct vetting for an internship at GCHQ. Tough after you've got through the job interview with a panel of three formidable maths specialists. Press on, and the best of luck to those who did not receive offers at O and C. I was one of those nearly 6 decades ago and still thank my lucky stars I missed out on what, in my view. was a horrendous Tripos at Jesus. My housemaster (different times) picked it, the deranged tosser. I went to Manchester, Portsmouth and Newcastle instead and enjoyed them all.

@Panicmode1and @marblefire, just wanted to say, DD decided to email each uni and now asked the teacher in school as well, finally decided to take off the 4th paper. Unis are all happy for her to do, well the 4 offers she has. Only saving the time of one lab book, three exams and the revision she was supposed to do this month! But she thinks it’s totally worth it. So I am going along with it. Exam timetable actually looks crazy with 3 in one week and 4 in other. Would have been chaos with 4th paper added in!
thanks so much for your suggestions. I wouldn’t even have thought about emailing uni’s otherwise.
did any one attend OHD yet?
we did go last week and it’s all getting real. DD still grieving the college she attended interview, but there we are. Met a lot of young and bright people who just can’t wait to join the college !!
I was wondering if anyone start applying for loans? Is that after firming UCAS? Also looking to buy DD a phone, but not sure how do we know where they are going? And what kind of network works 🤪 silliest of the stuff to be worried about, but here we are

DS going to OHD after Easter. Hope other would-be students are in jeans as that is all he has except a suit but the trousers are now too short. No new clothes til autumn when I hope he will has stopped growing

DD went to Cambridge OHD in jeans and sweatshirt. I definitely don't think a suit is called for.

Totally. They want the brain, not the clothes.

I went (albeit a long time ago) to my interview in a goth skirt with tassles and a velvet jacket. They gave me an offer.

They've given these kids offers because they rate them as people and thinkers. What they wear is immaterial, best to go in what they feel comfortable in so they can relax a bit and enjoy it.