Oxbridge applications 2027 entry

[Justlurkingmostly]

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

I only found out about it today and thought it was helpful seeing which unis hadn't done any responses yet and which seemed to have done a lot, as well as the sort of courses covered.

Pleased that DD got her first offer, , it's their standard offer and it's one I'm really happy with but it will be her insurance if she gets an aspirational offer to firm.

But if the aspirational application results in a rejection, this first offer will be her firm acceptance.

There are other unis she'd then be happy to insure and attend but their entrance requirements/lowest accepted offer aren't lower. So they aren't suitable as insurance options.

Another poster was struggling with similar. What to do???

Declaring an interest: I run an admissions coaching service and I'm a Cambridge Economics graduate, so weigh this accordingly. Mine is economics, not STEM, but the interview habits are the same.

For anyone whose DC hasn't practised yet, here is what takes the least time:

1. Have them talk through problems out loud to someone, even a parent who doesn't know the subject. Most students have only ever thought silently and then written the answer down, so the first spoken attempt shouldn't happen in the interview.
2. On an unfamiliar question, say what they'd try first and then try it. A wrong first step that gets corrected is fine. Going quiet is what goes badly.
3. Take the hints. Tutors give them to see whether the student can use new information.
4. Be able to talk for five minutes about anything on the personal statement, including a view of their own on each book.

Short sessions, a few times a week, are easy to fit around mocks.

Congratulations to your DD on her first offer! Hopefully many more to come. One thing to keep in mind is that an AAA offer from Oxford isn't the same as an AAA offer from Exeter, some universities are much more lenient on results day than others. My eldest has friends who got in after missing their grades and it seems to be very university dependent. The uniscout website mentioned above has a nice chart for each course showing the distribution of achieved UCAS points for enrolled students. I would use this as a rough guide for which universities are kind to near misses, if they're a lot of students below the advertised offer, but things change year-to-year so it will always be a gamble.

Hi all…

Does anyone understand Cambridge’s school contextual flags? They flag schools with below-median GCSE performance (based on best 8 gcse score of the school… this has no weighting for maths and English, and treats 9’s and 8’s as scoring 8)

if the school’s “best eight” GCSE score is below 40 there seems to be some sort of flag to the application.

(This differs from Attainment 8 due to the double weighting, so attainment 8 is max score 90 whereas best 8 is max score 64)

Cambridge’s published 2019 data, but I can’t find newer figures or establish which year they use?

…anyone know about this?

sorry I know not Oxbridge but think I’ve read of a few early applicants with Bristol offers so far on here? Can I ask if any of those are non contextual (as I know contextual often given out earlier)?

@Chameleon65 This website is very useful, although right now the data is very much skewed towards early applicants with very high predicted grades.

https://uniscout.uk/offers/bristol

Bristol offers being posted - some contextual and some not. You can see most engineering applications are being put on hold.

DD had a non contextual offer - she’s at a state school but not on the Bristol list of aspiring schools

DS and his gf both have non-contextual offers from Bristol, both humanities subjects.
Someone in his class got a STEM offer (either Maths or Engineering, can't remember which) very quickly back in September, but that person does have a contextual postcode.

Son got a non contextual offer for Maths back from Loughborough pretty quickly.

DC has an offer from Bristol and Manchester for English Lit. Non contextual.

DD got a standard offer from Bristol within about 10 days of sending in UCAS application. She now has one from Warwick too, so with her York offer that's all for now (Durham being the 4th).

School are now organising interview prep, which will involve online practice interview with one or two other local schools.

Another vexation. St John's sent their baffling email about further info, with a deadline of 4 November (as seems standard).

Then DS got another email, end of last week, saying the longer he delays and the nearer the deadline he submits stuff the worse it will be for him, or words to that effect. What's the point of a deadline, if in fact 'earlier is better'? Not that he could have done much more as school was shut for two weeks for half term. Like many.

Shifting goalposts, once again.

@herbaceousgoodness me that’s so unfair?

We have only finally submitted the work this evening after getting the marked essays from school today.
…..was a lot of stress getting everything the way they wanted it with the file names, cover pages etc. I really hope his application has not been negatively affected by doing it the day before the deadline?

Onec finally uploading it to the portal, nothing happened and there is no confirmation email to say it’s gone through?!

@namechanged221DD also did it after school today after only starting back today and able to get her books back from teachers. She said it was a right nightmare turning everything into pdf and then the electronic signature was the final straw! She did at all herself though, which is big for her.
@herbaceousShe said the college had sent several emails chasing her for the work submission. She finally replied to them 🙈 and said she was on half term and couldn't get her books. They seemed quite nice about it, I don't think there was a sense it would harm her application - she's quite sensitive but hasn't mentioned that. I haven't seen any correspondence myself.

Hi all. On 15/10 within a week of submitting, DS received a conditional offer from Bristol in engineering, non contextual. Now waiting for ESAT result as others - three universities of his application demand it, did not think of adding more universities later after ESAT results:) :(. School will usually offer one relevant teacher for a mock interview upon interview invite.

Just had a message from dd saying hers is in now- so not exactly early either.
i dont think they chased her though. They shouldn’t be penalising anyone who gets it in by the deadline.

Man alive. He’s still trying to merge PDFs.

@herbaceoushave you managed to get it submitted?
DS had to print and rescan all of it to put it into one pdf including the cover sheet, last straw and he’s got so much work on with his other subjects too.
I’m glad we finally got it uploaded.

Now we wait to see if it disappears from the portal? How do we know it’s gone through?

It seems a ridiculous hurdle.

DP’s boss in Canada (!) is currently merging the PDFs. Madness.

And it's gone.

Had to do a lot of jiggery pokery with Word to make the cover sheet fit, and the only way to merge the PDFs was via the paid version of Acrobat.

Strikes me as not being terribly inclusive of those who don't have access to IT, either at home or at school, let alone tame parent bosses in Canada!

That sounds like a nightmare @herbaceous what was it he had to send? I’m now worrying that DS has missed doing something, though he tells me he has been checking his emails.

@herbaceousI don't think DD used any paid versions. I know she used pictures as they were timed exams - but then converted to pdf. Not sure if she did it properly but hopefully they'll be in touch if she didn't.

My Dd hasn’t sent hers in yet although she does now know which bits of work she’s sending. Hopefully no last minute technical hitches today ..

Absolutely sitting on my hands rather than texting DD going 'DID YOU MERGE YOUR PDFs???'.

Can you tell I'm not really a natural boarding school parent? I would have been much happier if she'd done all this at home.

Good luck @BumpyaDaisyevna and well done all who got them in!