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Secondary education

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Original poster

Oxbridge - worth trying again?

26 replies

susie4 · 14/04/2009 13:31

My son dodn't get into Oxford last December. Hei is currently considering offers he has from Durham and UCL. Is it worth having another try next year. Does anyone know the success rate for doing this?

OP posts:
luvaduck · 14/04/2009 13:36

If he has all As then he prob has a good chance.
I know several people who got in second time round. Might be worth considering Cambridge though just so he's not reapplying to same place. Should be diff college at least.

Good luck to him.He'll have a wonderful time!

Lilymaid · 14/04/2009 13:43

The most recent admissions statistics for Cambridge. I've known of a couple of students who have reapplied successfully in recent years. DH got a place (an exhibition) at Oxford on his second attempt in the year dot when 3rd year sixth entry was the norm, but I think that it isn't so common now.

jumpjockey · 14/04/2009 13:48

Can't help re the likelihood, but can give my experience. I was turned down pre-A-level by Cambridge after first round and pool interviews (despite being predicted 5 A's). Got the grades, was encouraged to try again if I really felt it was the right course for me, so spent a few weeks working out what to do. In the end I decided that yes, the course was what I really wanted, so took a chance and applied again and got an unconditional offer from a different college. It did mean an unplanned gap year where I spent the first three months in utterly rubbish temp jobs, but that also gave me time to find a good thing to do with the rest of the year.

He needs to consider why he wants to go to Oxford (or Cambridge), is it the course or just the name? A year out to 'grow up' was really good for me and I'm very glad it worked out that way in the end.

Chaotica · 14/04/2009 13:56

What does he want to study?

Does he know why he didn't get in? (ie has he asked for any feedback, and has he got it?) If there are clear reasons given, then he might be able to make a difference; but he might just have performed more poorly than others (and might do so again). Durham and UCL are both very good universities (better than oxbridge for some subjects).

If he does take a year out, he'd be better to do something constructive which will improve his chances with the subject he wants to do.

senua · 14/04/2009 13:59

What is Plan B: if Oxbridge decline again, will Durham / UCL still offer on the second time round?

Next year's applicants will be able to offer the A* Grade, whereas your DS won't. Not sure if that is a plus or a minus!

mrsgboring · 14/04/2009 14:09

Agree with all the other posters. If he has his heart totally set on a particular course then yes, reapply. Or if he was sort of thinking of doing a gap year anyway and can throw himself into it - plus doesn't mind the uncertainty of doing the gap year with no offers in hand, then yes, possibly. But as senua points out, it's a gamble and there's no guarantee he'll get into Oxbridge, London or Durham next time round, so what would you do then?

If neither of these apply then honestly I'd go to Durham and UCL for visits with an open/positive frame of mind and pick one.

Original poster
susie4 · 14/04/2009 15:12

He applied to do Classics. We waited for the feedback only to find out 3 months later that not all the colleges provide this now and that included the one he applied to (St johns). Does anyone know how universities will compare the current A grade with the new A*

OP posts:
bagsforlife · 14/04/2009 16:06

Re comparing the A grade with the A, I expect they will look at the individual module results he got in every subject. He may well have got the equivalent to an A in his results anyway. Did he get top marks in his A2s?

mrsturnip · 14/04/2009 16:10

Apply to a different college next time. There were quite a few people in my year who had reapplied (surprised me as it would never had occurred to me). This was 20 years ago but I doubt it's changed.

snorkle · 14/04/2009 16:48

St Johns is about the most competative to get into College in Oxford, so I second the advice to try a less prestigeous one if he does decide to have another go. I really don't think not having A*s will disadvantage him as long as he has good results, as the universities will know they weren't available last year.

Has his school had anything useful to say about possible reasons for not being accepted? If it's a school where they have at least one or two Oxbridge candidates most years or more they may well have some insight as to what wasn't up to scratch even though the college isn't giving feedback.

Original poster
susie4 · 14/04/2009 19:03

No the school hasn't given any feedback. Before he went for the interview his teachers thought he had a good chance of getting in. The only comment made by the school since was that no student was accepted by Oxford for any arts subjects.
I think the randomness of Oxbridge applications is so frustrating. At my son's school there were students who I would have considered 'dead certs' to get in and didn't and others who more suprisingly did.

OP posts:
mrsturnip · 14/04/2009 20:03

I think it's always been like that though. Certainly there were some dead certs in my year at school who didn't get in and some surprises who did (like me ).

Choice of college worth thinking about. I applied to a less well known college - some of the dead certs who didn't get in did apply to very well known colleges (eg Merton for Maths- eek!). Then I think it's just important to demonstrate reading around the subject. They'll look for that more than A level results in amy cases (after all everyone will have pretty good A level results).

TotalChaos · 14/04/2009 20:18

back in the day when I was at Oxford I recall some of the classic students had attended Bryanston Summer School, so going to something like that might be good for showing commitment and providing topics of discussion for open-ended interview questions.

www.jact.org/events/summerschools.htm

I agree with Snorkel that St. Johns is one of the most prestigious colleges, so harder to get into.

Original poster
susie4 · 15/04/2009 16:35

Thanks for all your comments. It will be a hard decision to make.

OP posts:
hellywobs · 16/04/2009 13:44

Go to Durham - it will be just as good and cheaper living!

lazymumofteenagesons · 16/04/2009 18:50

I don't know what sort of school your sons at, but St. Johns takes a one of the highest proportions of state school pupils at oxford. If he is at private school try another college.

Original poster
susie4 · 17/04/2009 14:22

He is at a private school but so were all the other candidates they interviewed. 5 were interviewed and 1 offered a place.

OP posts:
DaughterOfTime · 27/04/2009 09:17

susie4: news story here
The article doesn't make it clear that the increase in applications is not only driven by the recession - the current Y13 is an unusually large year, which is part of the reason why they had planned to have extra places anyway. Thus competition was fierce this year.

It may be worth trying again next year, against a slightly smaller cohort (but also with added life experiences under his belt).

CoffeeCrazedMama · 27/04/2009 17:48

Can anyone tell me, on the subject of some colleges being harder to get into than others, how dd should go about identifying her best bet - or is it wise to do an open application? This is all a mystery to me (grew up abroad with much more straightforward system) and dd so keen to go to Oxford. She is frightened that she might lose her chance of a place by inadvertently going for wrong choice of college. Hardly needs to be said she is at a comp that talks a good fight but actually does very little for students who have high aspirations.

margotfonteyn · 27/04/2009 19:43

If you go on the Oxford website and look up all the individual colleges they give a lot of information, it is very helpful.

CoffeeCrazedMama · 28/04/2009 08:46

And do they give indicators of how hard the competition is for each college? This is dd's point of view - she doesn't want to do as op's ds and go for a very popular college and not get in. She's looking for the best odds!

SomeGuy · 28/04/2009 10:25

I was rejected from Oxford, reapplied to Cambridge the next year, got in. I did get offers from every other university I applied to, so that was always a backup. I had all As but fluffed the Oxford interview.

Spent the year in between working as computer programmer.

Bumpsadaisie · 28/04/2009 11:23

It was back in the early 90s but I applied to Oxford in the upper sixth and didn't get in - looking back, I don't think I was mature enough to handle the interview. Durham was my second choice and was holding an offer from them too.

Got my A levels and then applied to Cambridge the year after and applied to Durham as second choice again. Got unconditional offer from Durham but didn't need it as got into Cambridge anyway.

The extra year really helped me gain confidence etc.

I just really really wanted to go to Oxbridge and I didn't feel I had done myself justice first time round.

If he's got great A levels then no harm in reapplying. He should apply to different college next time round though, or even perhaps apply to Cambridge rather than Oxford. Is he clued up on which colleges are most competitive for which subject etc? I know Cambridge produce extensive stats on this and guess Oxford do too.

lazymumofteenagesons · 28/04/2009 11:58

CCM - look at the Oxford Gazette website. Shows admissions stats for courses/colleges etc split between gender, type of school etc. Lookup the colleges on the oxford website that do your chosen course, try one which takes the middle amount of students ie.not the most and not the least. Also find one with 'ugly modern' buildings' that is far from the academic buildings she will be using. I haven't put this into practice but know a couple of successful applicants who have.

CoffeeCrazedMama · 28/04/2009 15:42

Many thanks Lazymum (which I know you can't be if you have teenage sons! That's really useful. Just the info we need. (And the buildings at her school are sixties brutalist in style, so that wouldn't be a shock to her!)

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