Oxbridge FAQ!

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Acaila

There were 169 in my year at the start of 5th year. I think there were 182 when I was in S1. And we were the smallest year for a while :biggrin:

(Current 3rd year is about 225 I think)

Theres 350 in my whole (former) school!

Reply 41

Acaila

There's about 1100-1200 in my school I think.

Reply 42

InterCity125

deianra

I was just curious as to why St John's (Oxford) gets so many state school applications? Anyone?

Not a problem :smile:

I've read it enough times to know more of less exactly where it was. Ahem *coughs*

You're so lucky, going off to Merton...*sigh* :frown:

Felicitations on your offer by the way, though doubtless you're sick of hearing that by now :tongue:

But ho hum, evil post count number?

Thanks. The only down side of an offer is that I have to make it now. More revision is the order of the day, sadly.
Btw, where are you off to then?

Reply 43

BazTheMoney

deianra

Can you believe that St John's only has one place for it? Pah! ... 2nd, actually :tongue:

E+M is a very small course; they only offer 100 places a year, so lots of colleges may only have 2/3 places.

And St John's is very strong for PPE, which mean it's going to be strong for E+M. From what's I've heard it's very good for Management too.

Reply 44

DC_1234

Acaila

Hear hear! x a big number

Nobody does 3 AHs at my school. I'm the only person I know of in my entire year. I also know somebody who got conditional entry into second year at Aberdeen on getting AB at advanced higher (and she practically had the A already in geography).

Most people that did the maths AH got to skip parts of their first year maths courses ( the three-subject system meant that everyone who taking engineering, physics, electronics, economics or... unsurprisingly... maths would fall into this category ) and in fact that tends to be the main selling point of Advanced Highers; that because they are regarded as the equivalent of first year uni work you should be able to lessen your work load in your first year by taking them in your sixth ( hmmmm... on re-reading this, that wouldn't make sense to anyone that isn't Scottish. Oh well! ).

Some schools DO treat advanced highers like A-Levels but they are by far the minority, At the end of the day the oxbridge admissions tutors need evidence of good to excellent academic performance and drive; saying Standard Grades = GCSEs, AS Levels = Highers, A-Levels = Advanced Highers is largely uninformative as it doesn't really take into account HOW these different examinations are treated by the different educational bodies.

Reply 45

DC_1234

calumc

Theres 350 in my whole (former) school!

Youch!

I think we were sitting at 1300 which should be about average for a city school simply because of the way the education board tries to make things work. In my year there was registry classes of thirty or so up to the letter J so there should have been around 330 when we first started ( which would make sense with the school total ).

Going from my yearbook when we left sixth year there was around 80 people in sixth year. Of them I'd say thirty to at most forty were taking at least one advanced higher and three were taking three.

Reply 46

Acaila

Faboba

You get UCAS points for standard grades and not for GCSEs :biggrin:

yay!
Faboba, you really do talk sense sometimes you know that?

Reply 47

BazTheMoney

deianra

Rather 2/3 places than merely one. Who do you cry out to when you get stuck?

I can ramble on for quite a long time about how great every part of St John's is (at least the impression I got upon visiting), but truth is, I'm frightened off by the statistics (mostly).

Thus, happy with decision of Merton. I like Merton, it's pretty :smile:

Management at Merton is meant to be strong too, no? Or at least I've been told.

Oh and just out of interest Baz, what stereotypical type of Economist (another thread some time ago - slacker, workaholic, humanitarian) do the ones at Merton fit into? They can't all be workaholics.

The application ratio is very high, I wouldn't be suprised if they introduce more places soon.

Management is run by the SBS (Business School, miles and miles away over by the station), so it isn't that important how good the individual colleges are. But from what I've heard, Merton's pretty good for Mangagment. The Economics tutors are outstanding - even if a little scary.

They work very hard, but they still have fun. Dedicated is probable the correct term - I haven't came upon to many slackers though.

Reply 48

pedy1986

Could some people pass opinion on this for me please!

I will be applying for PPE next year...I didn't do AS Maths, although I got an A at GCSE, is it really going to benefit my application to a huge extent if I did AS Maths next year in addition to my other A levels, I do like having free periods...

Reply 49

DC_1234

Acaila

You get UCAS points for standard grades and not for GCSEs :biggrin:

yay!
Faboba, you really do talk sense sometimes you know that?

I learned all I know from Polonius.

You do, but only for grade 1s and 2s. Proof, as if 'twere needed that standard grades are better! :biggrin:

On a more interesting note, while Advanced Highers cancel out Highers as A-Levels do for AS, there is no cancellation effect for standard grades. This means that all those prats you hear about in the papers "I got five As at Higher and 5 As at Advanced Highers and Oxbridge rejected me because I have the charisma of an eyeless fish" have lower UCAS points than freaks like me that did far too many subjects for their own good at Higher :biggrin:

Mawahahaha!

Reply 50

BazTheMoney

corey

In a word... YES

Reply 51

pedy1986

BazTheMoney

In a word... YES

Ok thank you.

Reply 52

Kalypso

corey

I'd imagine it would benefit your application, and even if they would consider you without it, it would be of enormous benefit to your sanity in the first few terms as otherwise you will only have to catch up on probably the entire of maths and futher maths a level in 8 weeks or so.

Reply 53

BazTheMoney

corey

Ok thank you.

Sorry, I should expand.

A at GCSE is really the absolute minimum needed/required. You don't need A-Level or AS to apply, and people have got in without doing it; but if you have any intension of carrying Economics on after the first year, it's vital that you have A-Level. Even in the first year you will have a Maths question in your exam, study Maths and Stats for Economics, and possible have a Maths tutorial and class. In short, Maths is more than "helpful" for PPE.

Reply 54

pedy1986

BazTheMoney

Ok, much appericated. I think I will do the AS in Maths (will have to do it independently though), and hopefully in my gap year manage to improve my maths also prior to getting to whatever university to save my sanity as grey faerie said!

Reply 55

BazTheMoney

corey

She's right. PPE is work hard anyway, without Maths it's even more. The advantage of having a sound knowledge of Maths prior to going to Oxford is massive - if you can do P1, P2 and S1 for the AS; keep away from mechanics. And even with that, when you get here you'll be behind most people.

Reply 56

leda swanson

i think you need to include the fact that if you are applying from a crap state comprehensive in the middle of nowhere, then you have a much reduced chance of getting in compared to a person of equal intelligence from a good school, and so if you don't get in it doesn't necessarily mean that you are not up to standard, just that you haven't been educated as well as other people, and have failed to educate yourself as other people who do get in in your situation have.

Reply 57

Acaila

From general forum opinion that's not true. If two people have the same grades, one from a state school one from a public school, it seems the state school pupil is more likely to get in as they have achieved their grades against the odds and haven't been nurtured to the same extent and haven't had the same opportunities. Plus Cambridge, not sure about Oxford, have an access scheme for people who come from poorer schools and backgrounds to encourage them to apply and as a result they often give out lower offers to such people.

Reply 58

H&E

leda swanson

I don't think we need to include it, because it's not true. You'll be pleased to discover public schools actually think that if you're from a famous school, it's considerably harder to get in. Basically, it's very hard to get in any you can't be complacent. School is irrelevant.

And Acaila, Oxford has an access scheme. In fact, I think the are several. I believe Babyballerina participated in one of them in some capacity.

Reply 59

leda swanson

H&E

!!!!

i assume you didn't go to a crap school? or maybe you did, that would explain your naive argument.

school is obviously not irrelevant. obviously if you go to a good school and are surrounded by other people who are intelligent and hard-working, then you have a much higher chance of getting into oxbridge, because you will be more confident, well-read and will come accross better at interview.

if on the other hand you have gone to a crap school, and unfortunately most schools in this country are crap, then you will have badly-educated teachers, unmotivated classmates, completely unchallenging work, no extra-curriculars, no money for tutoring / music classes etc., and no person telling you you are capable of getting into oxbridge because eg in my school very few people have gone to oxbridge before so nobody knows what the standard is, so how can people advise you to apply? the overall effect of going to a crap school will therefore be being extremely underconfident, gauche, and you won't communicate your 'innate' abilities very well at interview.

i for example only got into cambridge because my parents are rich (well, actually poor, but rich in comparison with most of the people in my class) and were able to afford music lessons and tutoring.

i didn't say anything in my interview that i had learnt at school, everything i learnt i had taught myself, and most people in crap schools don't bother to educate themselves.

you can't deny this. wake up and smell the coffee. most people are idiots. wake up and smell the UKIP