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.

Hope all drop offs at Oxford today went smoothly. DD seems happy and has found some people doing her course to hang out with. Her room is lovely.

Well there was no full length mirror in dd's room, only the tiny bathroom one above the smallest sink I have ever seen. Oddly there is a full length mirror in the hallway (?) so I can picture her popping out there to have a look and locking herself out!

Drop off went well, friendly porters and lovely Year 2s helped out, including 1 from her old school, so that was nice. Her room has a dreadful view, no dreaming spires in sight, but it's a good size and she's thrilled to have an ensuite. Crossing my fingers she will not feel too homesick, she has a tendency for that....

DD has a full-length mirror inside her wardrobe. So that was lucky as we definitely couldn't have fitted one in our car!

We did drop-off yesterday in Cambridge. The good news is that the roadworks on the Doncaster Bypass have finally finished! (My DD was at Cambridge School of Art, part of ARU, and they added 30 mins to an already long journey every single time.) DS is happily settled in a lovely room and seems to have got stuck into things already, but he has already lived away from home on his gap-year so we're not too worried.

The college had a small car-park which was VERY over capacity, and it took us about 15 mins and a zillion attempts to manoeuvre past the car that was blocking us in (which I suppose is still a net gain with the roadworks...!)

Love this story - better outcome than my DS who forgot he'd come by bike to rowing one day and then when he remembered went back the next day and it had already been stolen even with a super duper lock. Occupational Hazard....

How’s it going now term is underway?.
We have one DT with room-envy and the other DT has food-envy. Since they are identical twins, perhaps they could get away with swapping colleges for a term if it gets too bad!

All seems to be going well here! DD has had some lectures and enjoyed them. She's doing lots of reading.

DS has two lectures a morning, six days a week... plus two afternoons of labs, and four supervisions! But he seems to be loving it and has also auditioned for two bands, been to something at the Union, and signed up for a sports team. I suspect it will all catch up with him at some point, but I envy his energy!

DD has also been to some auditions for plays and had some callbacks so she's very pleased about that. She also went to some live music at the Union. And her staircase are all ill apparently, apart from her and one other girl!

My DD is one of the sick ones. She says everyone is ill. At least she was prepared, and took loads of Lemsip. I’ve had a photo of the inside of the bod and another of her washing. Only took her 6 days to put a wash on. Our utility bills should be a lot less scary while she’s away!

I sent DD with medicine too. She now says she has a tickly throat so may not have staved off being ill for that long!

Dd is sick as a dog - no surprise given the number of messages I had that were sent at 3am or later last week 😩. Other than that she’s enjoying it and has met some lovely people. I’m visiting tomorrow, armed with more meds and her favourite cereal.

DS appears to be in rude health and enthusiasm. He has now decided to take up rowing in addition to tennis: as much for fitness as a motivation to get up earlier. His PhD supervisor is putting the fear of God into him so he does need to be sharper earlier. He seems to have aptitude for it based on ergo trials in previous years but was never keen on early starts. His GF is a former C college team cox who has encouraged him to try it for real but she is now pursuing a doctorate in Scotland. We'll see.

Hope all the poorly people get well soon!

Oxford Martin School webcam on Broad Street shows matriculation students milling around if anyone is interested.

And they are off.

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