Oxford open offer question & languages ab initio

[LegitimateExcuse]

Wonder if someone with experience of this can help.

My DD was delighted to learn she’s got an open offer. She has 3 A* and is on her gap year. The offer is for a language. She has since decided she’d like to add another language ab initio but the underwritten college doesn’t offer this.

Could she ask to be considered for a college that offers the second language ab initio, at risk of losing the underwritten (her preferred) college?

Can she refuse another college if it’s not one she wants to be at?

She can refuse a college in the sense that she can turn down the place after results day but she would then have to go via clearing and hope that another uni she wanted would accept her. She can’t say “I don’t want that college, but I still want an Oxford place.”

She can of course contact the admissions officer at the languages faculty and explain the situation and see what they say. There is no guarantee that this will get her what she is hoping for. It would only be viable if on results day one of the spaces available turned out to be at a college that offered the new language and they also had teaching capacity in that language and the underwriting college was also happy with this. But there is no harm her politely asking to be on their radar in the hope that if there are several places to fill, she might get passed onto college A (who offer her language) instead of college B (who don’t)

Well worth while asking the question especially as she has an open offer. Often there is some flex. My DD is doing joint languages at Oxford, one from A level one ab initio and loving it.

My DD two months before starting while on a gap year (deferred place) asked to do a completely different course - Oxford quite reasonably said no - but it didn't affect her offer. Now she is loving her course.

My understanding is that those holding open offers are expected to go to whichever college(s) has any spare places (or, if none, to the underwriting college).

I think in practice there’s very little choice for students holding open offers. They basically take what they are given (or turn down the offer altogether).

My daughter applied to college A and was made an open offer underwritten by college B. There was a particular reason she had gone for college A, which didn’t apply to college B. She asked that if more than one place became available on results day, she could be offered a place at a college with the same feature as college A, but was basically told no. Her reason had nothing to do with the course though. They might be more flexible where it does.

As it turned out, she was offered a place at college C and was very happy there.

Thanks @foxglovetree. She doesn’t want to refuse the place, obviously, but wants to add the second language - as long as it means not forfeiting such a “good” (in her eyes) college. But she doesn’t have any guarantees that she’d get that college anyway.

I suggested she contact the admissions officer in college. Would there be one in the languages faculty?

@Juja That’s encouraging. Do you know who your DD spoke to about doing the different course?

Glad your daughter is enjoying this! It’s hard to understand how flexible they are. She loves this college - but it’s not guaranteed they will give her a place.

@Fifthtimelucky

Interesting about your DD’s situation. Who did your DD ask about if a place became available? Was it the admissions tutor?

Here, College A doesn’t offer the added language but if Colleges B, C, D did, is it worth risking College A? I imagine there are a few students who’ve thought it over since their interviews and who now want to add another language. I wish we knew how flexible is “flexible”, and also who she should speak to.

Thank you all, this is a helpful start.

The way she needs to understand the open offer is that College A is just underwriting. She doesn't have a place at College A that she can 'forfeit' - she has a place at Oxford with a college tbc, and because you can't have a place without a college, College A is a placeholder for her.

It's slightly more likely that she'll end up at College A than at any specific other college (because they have first dibs on her if anyone misses a place) but it's probably slightly less likely she'll end up at College A than not, because the chances of someone missing their grades at College A are less high than the chances of someone missing their grades at every other college combined.

So it's important she doesn't get too attached to College A because it is completely unknown where she'll end up, and it would be sad if she felt disappointed on results day.

Changing course at Oxford is not nearly as flexible as elsewhere. This is the price of the tutorial system, because with such small group teaching you can't just squeeze some more people into a class. It's obviously possible to request to change course, and sometimes that request can be granted, but there are logistical barriers. (Even if she had applied to College B, they still might not let her add a language at this point because they already be full to capacity for teaching for that language.)

To be honest I don’t know and as it’s a few years ago she probably won’t remember either!

Admissions officer sounds like the best bet though - but perhaps the relevant department might help too
It definitely sounds like your daughter has more of a case than mine did - and also of course her offer is unconditional. I’d assume that the college/department is more likely to go to a bit of trouble for a guaranteed student than for one (like mine) who might not get their grades!