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Post Here if You're Procrastinating - The Oxford Chat Thread Mk2

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Original post by Bezzler
Yeah, I know how you feel, I do just want to yell at some of these posters sometimes. I just rest assured in the knowledge that, even with our kind advice, most of them won't get in anyway.

The thing that's annoying me more at the moment is the Merton incoming freshers group on facebook; some of them are really really weird and ask the most stupid, pointless questions (for example, "Should I bring a lamp?", "How much will I have to pay for transport to lectures?", "How far is Merton from the shops? Could someone post a map here?")


:laugh::laugh: have they been to oxford before?? merton to exam schools... really??? i thought i fretted unnecessarily before i came up but wow...
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
I've just come back from an OxFizz interview training day. My plans of being an Oxford interviewer are coming true... without having to do the PhD or go back there :woo: :colone: :woo:

How was it? I've got one tomorrow...
Original post by dinkymints
How was it? I've got one tomorrow...


It was good! Bit self-explanatory on the dos and don'ts and how to interview, but doing mock interviews on fellow Oxbridgers was a fun experience! :biggrin:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
It was good! Bit self-explanatory on the dos and don'ts and how to interview, but doing mock interviews on fellow Oxbridgers was a fun experience! :biggrin:


Have you done any actual interviews yet?

I'm having a few doubts about the whole thing. My motivation to do it is access-y/giving something back/levelling the playing field etc etc, and I know that each interview you do for a paying student apparently funds a free one for an applicant on EMA... but it doesn't even say anything about that on their website (unlike e.g. Oxbridge Applications) so how do these people even know? And the fees are huge... so sort of having a crisis of conscience (oh, and that's from someone who went to a public school in the strictest sense... lol)

What's your view? Anyone else done this? Also, anyone know whether you can get involved in Target Schools/other such things as a recent grad?
Original post by dinkymints
Have you done any actual interviews yet?

I'm having a few doubts about the whole thing. My motivation to do it is access-y/giving something back/levelling the playing field etc etc, and I know that each interview you do for a paying student apparently funds a free one for an applicant on EMA... but it doesn't even say anything about that on their website (unlike e.g. Oxbridge Applications) so how do these people even know? And the fees are huge... so sort of having a crisis of conscience (oh, and that's from someone who went to a public school in the strictest sense... lol)

What's your view? Anyone else done this? Also, anyone know whether you can get involved in Target Schools/other such things as a recent grad?


I haven't done any actual interviews yet. The first day I'm doing is 29th October in London. I was signed up for another one earlier but apparently everyone's in one big hall, which will play havoc with my hearing :frown:

I didn't realise that nothing about the fees is mentioned on the website. I thought it was, though I haven't looked in proper depth recently. As for the fees being huge, I think it goes to good causes and like the Robin Hood-ness of it all. Presumably these people wouldn't be charged so much or wouldn't pay that much if they couldn't afford it, or if their school wasn't subsidising it :smile:

I don't know if we can get involved in Target Schools stuff. It would be nice if we could. I never investigated it :nah:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
I haven't done any actual interviews yet. The first day I'm doing is 29th October in London. I was signed up for another one earlier but apparently everyone's in one big hall, which will play havoc with my hearing :frown:

I didn't realise that nothing about the fees is mentioned on the website. I thought it was, though I haven't looked in proper depth recently. As for the fees being huge, I think it goes to good causes and like the Robin Hood-ness of it all. Presumably these people wouldn't be charged so much or wouldn't pay that much if they couldn't afford it, or if their school wasn't subsidising it :smile:

I don't know if we can get involved in Target Schools stuff. It would be nice if we could. I never investigated it :nah:


Hmm although it's sort of Robin Hood it's still kind of paying to get an advantage specifically to get into Oxbridge, and anyone who can afford £225 just for one of the types of interviews (£1,000 odd for everything) is probably already getting a lot of help from their (private) school - or they can't really afford it but their parents are trying to give their kids the best possible chance (in which case Oxford run access mock interviews don't they? that's more the sort of thing I'd like to do... but those are with actual tutors I think). I can't see anything about how you can get a free interview... I don't know whether the unis put them in touch with those people or something. (OK I'm sure there are exceptions but surely this is the general pattern?)
Original post by dinkymints
Hmm although it's sort of Robin Hood it's still kind of paying to get an advantage specifically to get into Oxbridge, and anyone who can afford £225 just for one of the types of interviews (£1,000 odd for everything) is probably already getting a lot of help from their (private) school - or they can't really afford it but their parents are trying to give their kids the best possible chance (in which case Oxford run access mock interviews don't they? that's more the sort of thing I'd like to do... but those are with actual tutors I think). I can't see anything about how you can get a free interview... I don't know whether the unis put them in touch with those people or something. (OK I'm sure there are exceptions but surely this is the general pattern?)


Oh wow. I didn't realise it was that much for an interview :eek: I'm not sure Oxford does mock interviews anymore. I had one in Year 12 or Year 13 but that was when it was still the Oxford Access Scheme and was being run by students rather than the university. I never heard of mock interviews being done once I turned up for real and it was Target Schools, otherwise I'd have got involved :yes:

I guess it is paying to try and get an advantage but if they're daft enough to pay that much money for it, then why not let them? :dontknow: At the training day it was emphasised that we're there to provide feedback and not to coach them. So we're not supposed to give our top tips or tell them interview questions or about the different tutors' interviewing styles or anything :nah:
Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd
Oh wow. I didn't realise it was that much for an interview :eek: I'm not sure Oxford does mock interviews anymore. I had one in Year 12 or Year 13 but that was when it was still the Oxford Access Scheme and was being run by students rather than the university. I never heard of mock interviews being done once I turned up for real and it was Target Schools, otherwise I'd have got involved :yes:

I guess it is paying to try and get an advantage but if they're daft enough to pay that much money for it, then why not let them? :dontknow: At the training day it was emphasised that we're there to provide feedback and not to coach them. So we're not supposed to give our top tips or tell them interview questions or about the different tutors' interviewing styles or anything :nah:


Wellll I'm not even really sure whether I'd feel worse if it really helped them and gave them the edge over another candidate who hadn't paid, or if I felt like they'd paid loads of money and I wasn't giving them all the help I could... I'm so torn!
Original post by dinkymints
Wellll I'm not even really sure whether I'd feel worse if it really helped them and gave them the edge over another candidate who hadn't paid, or if I felt like they'd paid loads of money and I wasn't giving them all the help I could... I'm so torn!


You know though that the tutors interviewing can see past those who have had preparation and that they can distinguish those who are shy from those who have nothing to say though. Otherwise people like me wouldn't get anywhere near Oxford :nah:

I agree though that I'd rather do free stuff though. I did initially say I wanted to only do the free interviews but they ask you to do both. So I'm doing an Eton day at the start of November, just for jokes :biggrin:
I wondered whether you all could help me out. I was wondering what your views are on Oxford RAG? In particular, have any of you done any RAG raids during your time in oxford or seen them publicised? I'm trying to figure out what the rest of the uni think about the society and the events, and how we can make them more appealing or whether it's a losing battle.. Some unis have a huge street collecting culture where they raise hundreds of thousands, but we seem to struggle.
on the oxfizz thing: i genuinely think it's really sketchy. they sent an email round my departmental mailing list (i'm a dphil student) asking if there was anyone who was willing to work for two weeks, for free, basically on a coaching camp where rich kids' parents pay thousands. i had a look in their finances and on the charity commission website and so on, and it's ambiguous how much money actually ends up going to charities - it's very easy to say "for every kid who pays we support a poor kid to get a free interview", but given that it would have been me, doing the interviews, for nothing, it's ambiguous where the rest of the money goes.
i got the distinct feeling that this has been set up by some random oxbridge grads who want to take advantage of people's goodwill, having seen the number of people who volunteer for access schemes and target schools and so on. there's nothing to stop the three directors (or whatever they call themselves) paying themselves an enormous salary, stating that it's a company expense, and giving away the remaining pittance to whatever charities.
sorry for pissing on everyone's chips a bit here, but it's the kind of thing that makes me feel genuinely uncomfortable, and the tokenistic "oh well it's cool we let some poor kids have some free interview practice" doesn't seem like it's sufficient to make up for the problematic side of it. if anything, i feel like it undermines the work of the access scheme a bit - they put so much work into saying "honestly guys you don't need coaching we can identify your real potential", only for a bunch of people to say "oh no wait really you do need coaching, do it with us so we can make our cv look awesome"
I was told at the training day that the money from the private school students is split equally: a third going towards covering admin costs, a third going to the charity of the interviewer's choice and a third going towards funding the free interview for the state school students.

I see what you're saying about it potentially undermining the access work done at Oxford but we were very firmly told it's not interview coaching, but merely giving them a practice interview with an Oxbridge graduate :yes:
that just raises more questions for me. what "admin costs"? and why does funding the free interview for state school students cost so much, if they're not paying their students?

while i'm sure they do tell their staff (and presumably their clients as well) that it's not interview coaching, i don't see why anyone would pay for it if that's not what they thought what it was.
Original post by probably not
that just raises more questions for me. what "admin costs"? and why does funding the free interview for state school students cost so much, if they're not paying their students?

while i'm sure they do tell their staff (and presumably their clients as well) that it's not interview coaching, i don't see why anyone would pay for it if that's not what they thought what it was.


I'm presuming things like venue hire, advertising costs, things like that. I don't really know :dontknow:

I see what you mean about it being potentially misleading advertising though :yes:
Cannot decide whether to do a thesis or not!

PPE-ists out there - anyone doing one?

Failing that, anyone done the Plato to Rousseau political theory paper?
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BJack
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You've changed! :eek3:
Original post by BJack
You've changed! :eek3:

Yep. There's been a recent spate of PS helpers with very recognisable names going incognito, and I've been thinking of doing it for about a year. It does make me sad (and unfortunately could well make me harder for Oxford applicants to find unless I can get Athena to change the current students announcement) but it was just too easy to be recognised :sadface:. I'd much rather be able to give my real opinion about depression or about the shortcomings of the Bristol biology course without it being immediately chased back to me than to have my cool name :p:
Original post by Athena
My old school are hopeless, I offered to go in and talk to the sixth form about Oxbridge back in August, got a really enthusiastic reply, and since then... nothing. Total radio silence, despite two emails to them. And there's no point phoning, because you can never get hold of the teacher you want. Offering to help should not be a chore!


I've had the same. It's even worse, because the teacher who helped me through my application has left, so there's literally no-one to help anymore. Not like they care.
I don't know if this is a university-wide thing or a Queen's thing, but how much can you claim back from the cost of your textbooks usually? Bit annoyed with myself for not claiming back for certain books and then losing the receipts, but found a few order confirmations for more expensive textbooks in my Amazon account.
Original post by mobyfan101
I don't know if this is a university-wide thing or a Queen's thing, but how much can you claim back from the cost of your textbooks usually? Bit annoyed with myself for not claiming back for certain books and then losing the receipts, but found a few order confirmations for more expensive textbooks in my Amazon account.


At Woosta, it's up to £100 over the duration of your course. It's a well-kept secret though, so I don't think many people use it :nah:

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