Oxbridge applications 2027 entry

[Justlurkingmostly]

Starting up a new thread for anyone whose YP might be applying this autumn for entry next year!

Mine is applying for PPE at Oxford. Been to two open days and loves it!

Maths has to do two VERY hard core exams, on top of a levels, and the exams have to be paid for too, so uploading some essays and comments sounds like a dream 😁😁

DS is driving me demented. He's had a two-week half term to get all this sorted. I went through an essay plan with him at the weekend. Last night he said he'd changed his mind about the subject matter. This morning is saying he's not sure whether he's going to do it at all. I did suggest that maybe getting his sh!t together before now might have been wise, particularly as he also has English coursework to finish and the composition to do for St John. And we're away Thursday to Sunday. Received eye-rolls.

Gnnnn.....

I think we can all probably conclude that the process for Oxbridge applications is tough and time consuming regardless of what subject you apply for. My DD spent her summer preparing for the ESAT which didn’t go well on the day. She hates writing essays but would take that opportunity to show what she is genuinely capable of vs an online time pressured test any day. STEP, however - yeah you can keep that one. Sounds horrific!

And then there's the horror of interviews, if they get that far!

It's more the having to pay for two additional exams! 😲

@BumpyaDaisyevnaDS has the information from Jesus History now, two essays which can be submitted marked or unmarked, but they prefer marked?! (Confusing)

It must have been written for the History A level, can be from an exam or just a regular essay.
But, it specifies that it shouldn’t have been written especially for this process.
There’s a cover page where you have to sign in agreement with the parameters given and you have to give your History teacher’s name and email address so they can contact them for any questions about the submitted work.

There are bursaries available for the ESAT and TMUA. Not sure about other entrance exams. I think you need to apply before booking the tests though.
Last year we paid for the TMUA but the MAT was free.

Man alive. It's so confusing!

Then there's all the admissions tutors on Insta telling them yet more stuff.

Warwick offer has arrived! DD was very excited, and we were relieved as that's where she really wants if she doesn’t get a Cambridge offer.

@herbaceous what sort of thing do the admission tutors posts cover? I'm not on insta.

Thankfully for DD no additional submissions required so has spent half term mainly mixing relaxing and revising for November mocks.

Well done @CannotThinkOfUserNames , would you mind sharing which faculty as we're waiting on Warwick too.

Thanks @CreamBeforeJamOnScones it's a niche humanities course. I saw upthread someone also already received an Eng Lit offer from Warwick.
What faculty are you waiting for?

We don't qualify for burseries, but nearly £200 is a lot when we're literally saving extra spare penny for university at the moment!

Ooh that is a lot more than I realised @justteanbiscuits I had no idea it was so expensive to sit the exams.

Off top of head, it's £75 for TMUA and £105 for STEP

We're waiting on Engineering @CannotThinkOfUserNames

In terms of the written work submission, has anyone NOT had an email with instructions to submit? Do any colleges just expect you to submit because all the details are there on their applications page or do they direct you?

@PrincessOfPreschoolwe didn’t get an email from Jesus college.

So I emailed the admissions and asked what was going on. Apparently they had emailed him 2 weeks ago but he didn’t receive the email. We checked in junk etc and it wasn’t there.

So I’m glad I chased them. We now know what we are supposed to be doing with work submissions etc…

I think my Dd got one from Pembroke. Second the below - email admissions. I think the 4 November deadline for submission of essays is a uni-wide one.

Thank you. I was going to email admissions today in case things weren't getting through. She got an email reminder today to submit but it's the first thing she's received directly. All her work is in school so she can't do much anyway.

In other news DS got his first offer today from Warwick today for MChem (1 year in industry), AAA. 🧪

I'm mildly vexed at how random it all seems, how different colleges want different things, how the same college can say different things, etc. Almost like it's setting traps for candidates to fall into.

We had a specific email from the Oxford college in Q

Long-time lurker, first time poster here!

My DS is in Y13 applying for Engineering at Oxford. He did the admissions test last month and has been stressing non-stop about interviews coming up in December.

His school did their best, but their "mock" was really just his teacher asking a couple of textbook questions over lunch. DS came away feeling completely out of his depth because he knows Oxford tutors push you on strange problems you've never encountered before to see how you react.

We looked at some of the big tutoring companies, but they felt very impersonal and generic. Fortunately, through a contact we found an independent Oxford graduate who finished top of the whole engineering cohort. DS had a 90-minute session with him over the weekend on a digital whiteboard.

Honestly, the difference in DS is night and day. He put him right on the spot with unfamiliar mechanics, taught him how to talk through his reasoning out loud instead of freezing up, and emailed us a really detailed written breakdown of his blind spots the next morning. DS said it was tough, but easily the most useful prep he’s had.

I know how awful this November waiting period is for everyone, so happy to pass his details along by PM if anyone’s DC is in the same boat.
Good luck to everyone's DC over the next few weeks! xx

Bizarrely DS is looking forward to the interview, should he get that far.