Has anyone ever rejected Oxbridge?

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Reply 20

Joshc93

Original post by Platostolemysocks

What was your offer?

How can you be sure you weren't going to make it?

A*AA

Due to my January results it was mathematically impossible that I could get an A*

Reply 21

Joshc93

Original post by etothepii

Why didn't you firm them and put a lower offer as your insurance instead?

Because I really wanted to go to bristol but that offer was AAA so I was worried I might miss that and go into clearing too. I didn't want to put a lower offer than bristol as my insurance as I would be gutted if I ended up there if I could have got into bristol

Reply 22

chinaberry

A girl in the year above me last year rejected Oxford (and UCL, etc etc) for Maastricht in Holland.

Reply 23

Platostolemysocks

Original post by Joshc93

A*AA

Due to my January results it was mathematically impossible that I could get an A*

Could you have not retaken? Fair enough though. Well done for getting in to such amazing universities anyway! Bristol is great in its own right and so is York!

Reply 24

North Irelandman

Heard of Oxbridge rejects for engineering at Imperial and law / econ at LSE. A girl in my school year actually rejected Cambridge Law in favour of Queen's Belfast Law because her interviewers were rude to her and she decided she wouldn't enjoy it!

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Reply 25

Joshc93

Original post by Platostolemysocks

Could you have not retaken? Fair enough though. Well done for getting in to such amazing universities anyway! Bristol is great in its own right and so is York!

I guess but I put a lot of effort into revising for January and I just didn't I could improve that much. If I'm being honest I think I would have really struggled at Oxford. And Thank you :smile:

Reply 26

Rarrgh

A friend of mine was going to do medicine at Cambridge, got the offer but then decided he wanted to take a gap year and do physics instead so declined the offer.

Reply 27

TitchTheAntiHero

Original post by py0alb

Yes, people do. More often though, people simply decide not to apply to Oxbridge because another UK university offers a course that suits their requirements better. Hundreds of people do this every year, despite easily having the grades to get in.

this,
I mean I'm not sure I'd have the grades to get in (probably not because of my AS grades) but I decided against Oxford cause the course wasn't what I wanted,

also someone was in my local paper cause they turned down Oxford

Reply 28

I'mBadAtMaths

Original post by Fazackerberry

I was just wondering if anyone, for any reason, has ever rejected, is going to reject, or wishes they had rejected a place at Oxbridge?

Someone on my course rejected Cambridge natural sciences (biological).

Reply 29

alexsasg

Yes. A girl in my class turned down Oxford for English and is going to Kings instead.

People should go wherever they are happiest, regardless of whether or not it is Oxford/Cambridge.

Did Prince William?

Last year a guy from the year above rejected Cambrige (medicine) for Imperial :redface:

And a couple of years before that a guy rejected Oxford (some arts course) for Harvard :zomg:

Reply 32

North Irelandman

Original post by GottaLovePhysics! :)

I flunked the interview becase I didnt want to go and my parents would not have let me turn down an offer/not apply to Camb. Was pretty fun doing it.
Although thats not to say I would have got in!! I just had to make sure I didnt get in.

And before anyone asks, no I do not have Asian parents! :P

SO much happier to be going to UCL...

This made me chuckle, must have been a lot of fun knowing there was no pressure on you. Would have been an interesting turn of events if your laid back attitude had actually got you the offer... London is the place to be though :wink:

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Reply 33

alexsasg

Original post by barnetlad

Did Prince William?

No, he didn't reject Oxbridge.

Reply 34

ClawlessRaver

Original post by alexsasg

Yes. A girl in my class turned down Oxford for English and is going to Kings instead.

People should go wherever they are happiest, regardless of whether or not it is Oxford/Cambridge.

^ This.

And a girl in my English literature class applied to Oxford, but rejected them for Exeter, as she thought they were too elitist... weirdly enough she doesn't like Exeter, and is applying for Oxford again to get there for the next academic year :s-smilie:

Reply 35

Kidneyjean

Someone I know declined an offer for for History (this may have been postgrad, I can't remember...) at Cambridge- she then got a letter from the college, which pretty much said "how dare you reject us, don't ever apply here for anything again".

I'm meaning to Oxbridge-bash at all; there's no denying that they're fantastic universities, but in that instance, was it really that hard for them to accept that somewhere else could've offered her a more suitable course? :s-smilie:

Reply 36

North Irelandman

Original post by Kidneyjean

Seriously? I've never heard of that happening before but it is pretty unacceptable for a university to respond negatively to a rejected offer. Do you know what the letter said exactly?

Reply 37

swbp

People on TSR have the assumption that if you're very intelligent, you have to go to Oxbridge; this is far from the truth.

One of my best friends did 7 AS levels, getting A grades in english literature, history, philosophy, biology, psychology, french and spanish. She got 100% in 3, and wants to apply for english and history. However she isn't applying to Oxbridge; she hates their elitist principles and wants to go to either York or Edinburgh. People need to understand that Cambridge and Oxford do have their downfalls - they work you into the floor and quite often don't allow you to have a typical student experience due to the workload.

Reply 38

0404343m

Original post by North Irelandman

Seriously? I've never heard of that happening before but it is pretty unacceptable for a university to respond negatively to a rejected offer. Do you know what the letter said exactly?

It could well be postgraduate, and they may well have been offered a scholarship or funding. If it's UK government funding (i.e AHRC) and the student confirms their nomination by the university (i.e. the university say they're putting you forward for one of their 12 fully funded places) and they later decline, which they're allowed to do, the university loses that scholarship and cannot allocate it to anyone else. This has happened once at Glasgow and Oxford before in my experience, and in both cases they were fizzing mad about it, as they had a long queue of people who would have jumped at, and they had one fewer government funded researcher on their books as a result.

Reply 39

POWCATTY

Original post by kka25

Would you mind if I asked what's the environment that you don't like there?

Must be a bit difficult for the guy to tell his parents though :s-smilie:

mostly the wealth of the area, and of the people i met. i know it sounds stupid, but i didnt feel comfortable amongst so many people comparing their incomes and new gadgets. one of the professors i spoke to was talking about how his company made roughly £185 million in the previous year. i was like really? you really feel that you need to boast about that with prospective students?? it just seemed a bit elitist... they were talking about the wealth of the college, and how hes going to have his portrait put on the wall next to loads of other famous people. when i visit a uni im more interested in what it has to offer me in terms of education and events etc.
i didnt really get along with the other students that i met either (i met only one other from a state school) - but i do actually have friends that go to cambridge and they really enjoy it and have great friends, so i think my experience was particularly bad.
personally, i dont care about the wealth of a person, it only becomes an issue when they feel it should be a competition.
i just felt that if i did go there it would be a massive effort to adapt to an environment im not overly fond of

and i really didnt fancy wearing gowns and going to formal dinners lol!!!

funny story to lighten the mood...my friend set her hair alight at a formal dinner and got all the drinks in the vicinity chucked at her. she had a big tuft of hair randomly on top of her haid for ages, where it had been burnt so short.

im not sure about his parents...i know mine didnt mind that i didnt like it. hes going to another uni now though, so he didnt just completely drop out altogether so i guess they would be ok about it..?

:smile:

(edited 11 years ago)