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.

This is getting a bit ahead of myself, but DC was looking at the accomodation options for her offered college, and it mentions no furniture can be brought in. Does anyone know if they make a medical exception for mini-fridges? She is a T1 diabetic and needs to refrigerate her insulin. It looks like there are shared kitchens equipped with communal fridges, but I don't love the idea of everyone in halls have access to her injectable meds. Even if they wouldn't actually mess with it, they may move it around so it doesn't stay at the correct temperatures, etc.

Found you all at last! Saw last thread full and didn’t look in the right place for thread2 until now. Wanted to congratulate all with Oxford offers yesterday, particularly those twins! I was quite honestly in the doldrums yesterday morning ( definitely over invested) but put to shame when my DS returned from school absolutely fine and with a much better perspective than me; he is so proud he applied and proud of how he handled the interviews too, so no regrets and ready to focus on all his other options. I am in awe of my amazing son! He’s also genuinely pleased for his best friend who did get an offer. Anyway, this will be my last post on this thread, although no doubt I’ll lurk! I’ve found the “redirected” thread too - what a sweet name for it ☺️. So thanks to all for the support while riding the Oxbridge rollercoaster, but it’s time for me and DS to get on a different but hopefully equally exciting ride. Wishing your fabulous DCs all the best on their journey x

That wouldn't be an issue. She would simply need to ask her college for one. DD had a fridge provided by her college for all 3 years ranging from mini to full size.

Just worth mentioning thst many colleges automatically allocate accommodation. Unlike other universities the students will be given a room & all the fuss of room sizes, en-suite etc is taken out of the students hands. Some are allocated by ballot, some have reverse ballots the following year (to give you a beautiful room if yours was iffy in the first year), some have tiered pricing, some have flat rates. DD was told which room she had on arrival & had only been told what would be in it by her college parents. (Students in the year above allocated to look after the freshers).

Yes, this seems to be the case, re: allocation. We checked the college accomodation page and it says that all first years are just automatically assigned a room. There is some variety in building style, but it looks like all first year accommodation is of a similar standard (study bedroom with shared bathroom and kitchen or kitchenette.)

Good to know regarding the fridge! We won't worry about it at all now.

Also some colleges will have offer holders days, some won't. There will be lots of info on each college website, including guides to the terminology your DC will quickly get used to, reading lists in the summer, meals, accommodation, sub fusc (gowns) etc.

Thank you for this thread. Couldn’t believe when DD got an A star , AA offer yesterday. It it’s “open offer” to her chosen college or any other college. We come from a different country and did not have much exposure to the system in UK. Is open offer a common thing for Oxford ? TIA.

Hi @ladybird2014 - many congratulations to you DC on their offer! My DC had an open offer last year. I don't think there are stats as to how many of these offers are made.

For reassurance (in case that's needed), these are not reserve offers, or lesser offers, just flexible ones. Chances are your DC will end up at their underwriting college, but if there are big discrepancies with numbers on results day - ie everyone at College A met their offer, but 4 people at College B did not, they may move your DC over to College B instead.

If it's of interest my DC ended up at their underwriting college, which was the college she originally applied to, and which she later found out had moved some people to other colleges both pre and post interview for her subject.

Thank you so much @TheTurn0fTheScrew!DD chose a college but isn’t particular , in fact 2 out 3 of her interviews were done by different college panel so we are completely open to all possibilities but the assurance helped a lot. We did wonder if open offers are concrete or not. Thanks again.

It's a guaranteed place if she gets her grades. Fabulous news & everyone loves their eventual college

Thanks @pinkdelight I guess I mean culturally unusual in Oxbridge terms, 1st or 2nd generation not-wealthy immigrant as virtually every child in our school is. Not unusual in inner London.
It is just a suspicion, but that might work in their favour as arts/humanities applicants - not just for ‘contextual/DEI’ reasons. As arts grad/arty type myself I know that of course your personal background massively influences your interests and creative output so it can make sense to prioritise the unusual.
Whereas for STEM it has to be top scores or else. They can’t afford much ‘contextual’ leeway, otherwise they won’t keep up.
I’m not claiming humanities applicants aren’t also brainy, of course they are. It was just noticeable that last year despite the school having the biggest bunch of Further Maths A star predictions in the school’s history, not one of them made it to Oxbridge (they all applied).
While 2 or 3 of the Humanities applicants made it (don’t know how many applied).
This year, two of those former FM A star ‘rejects’ are in (DC included).
The others are happily (afaik) already studying at LSE Warwick UCL etc.

I've applied for DPhil at Oxford, I'll hear in March-April... I remember getting accepted for a Mts degree at Oxford as one of the highlights of my life, five years ago. Going for more now - very, very mature (old) student here😉Just sharing to show it's always possible, and there's always time to reapply if necessary -especially for young people.

Ds got an offer for economics and management, he is delighted and rightly very proud of himself but is really not at all sure it’s the place for him. Thankfully his college has an offer holder day so he can make a more informed decision ,(offer was not from the college he applied to).
Anyone else’s child feeling uncertain?

@Treviarpelli a couple of years ago my daughter wasn’t sure about accepting her Oxford offer, like your DC she had been transferred to a different college. She went on the offer holders day and absolutely loved the college and accepted the offer thereafter. She has had a brilliant couple of years there.. Many congratulations to your DS, economics and management is incredibly competitive course so he’s done brilliantly.

Keeble college produce a report on admissions for physics each year and say that of the top 100 scores in the PAT last year and as an ongoing trend only a small fraction had secondary teaching in the UK. My daughter put in a lot of hours practice for her PAT and did well enough to get interviews and then an offer but she found it really challenging in the time given.

V interesting @Haywire.
DC found the PAT ok, marginally better than the ESAT which he’s done twice now.
But to reach the required level in either, pre A level, I think would require focused training (for non-geniuses obvs) over years, which is not available at standard British comps, even good ones like ours.
The same would apply to the specialised Maths entry exams.
The two sixth formers we know who did reasonably well pre A level in the ESAT and TMUA (one of whom has now got into Oxford with the PAT) were both previously educated in their (Asian) country of origin.
Unlike DC who has been at the comp since Y7.
Which anecdotally backs up that Keble report finding.

https://www.keble.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/Physics-Feedback-2025-Department.pdf

& thanks for that really interesting link @Haywirefrom Keble Physics dept.
And I forgot to say v well done to your DD on her offer. Perhaps our kids will meet at next October’s Freshers Fair!

Another one here with an offer at Queens College for DC 👋.
Well done to all who received offers, and commiserations to those who missed out. Great to have this thread, thank you!

Oooh yes they may well do. Well done to your son too, such a massive achievement that takes some proper grit to go through once, let alone twice!

@temperedolive just tell College about the medical need for a mini fridge- I'd lay money on this being allowed. It might also provide grounds to live in for all three years, if this is something your daughter would welcome.

Good god this is deeply incorrect (and pathetic!) No Oxford does not contextually privilege humanities applicants any more than STEM ones, and humanities applicants are still graded numerically out of 9 on written work and interviews (2 pieces of written work for HENG, for example). Such a derivative way to speak about people's backgrounds

Hello I am new to the thread and have never posted before. We are so happy that our son received an offer to read Geography at Oxford Uni. I had prepared him for disappointment as the days dragged up to the 13th, but thanks to a wonderful 6th form head and the teacher of Geography from a nearby public school who gave him some help (he had a practise interview and a pep talk!) Now he just needs stellar grades!! Congratulations to everyone else and I hope people who have not been successful, will find great courses elsewhere.🙌

Hello ! Also new to the thread - waiting for Cambridge for my YP - lots of second guessing and what ifs going on here !

Good luck to them @Montypig must be hard for Cambridge applicants having to hear the Oxford people going through their offer day highs and lows and then to have to wait another couple of weeks.

DS got an offer today from the uni that is ranked 1st in the country for his course (not Cambridge) and he is thrills and is going to firm it with the 2nd placed uni as his insurance (also not Cambridge) so next week is no longer a big deal for him. Glad our wait is over. Good luck to you all