State school Oxbridge applicants..

Especially AS students, if you have plans or even a desire to apply for Oxbridge I'm interested in knowing how you're all getting on and how your 6th form / fe college is helping you.

Secondly I think it'd be beneficial for us all to establish some sort of support network where we can help each other acheive growth and success in our aim. The odds are if you're studying at one of these colleges, you're unlikely to be surrounded by too many Oxbridge hopefuls so this might be a top opportunity to bring together some like minds and give/receive a bit of a push from similarly positioned people :smile:

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Reply 1

didgeridoo12uk

as a state schooler who's at oxbridge.... feel free to throw any questions my way.

Reply 2

The_Lonely_Goatherd

(Though obviously I've left :biggrin:

)

Reply 3

Joe909

Prejudice Private school Prick for the earlier comment.

I'm at state school aswell, My schools setting up extra awards I can get etc, Its not a lot but its really good help !

Reply 4

Sir Jonathan

we arent getting much support. not that I know of. question: cambridge special access scheme? and do you need tonnes of A and A* grades at gcse. I only have an A in french and an A in Religious Ed. the rest are B grades and 2 C grades. oh and an E. but that werent my fault. quality of teaching in history.

EDIT: What exactly was the neg rep for. If you are going to be a neg nazi at least stop and ask yourself whether or not I may choose to subscribe. Something to think about

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 5

Kroll

Original post by didgeridoo12uk

as a state schooler who's at oxbridge.... feel free to throw any questions my way.

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

(Though obviously I've left :biggrin:

)

Thanks - If anything, just interested in knowing if your school was one of those that's focussed on its Oxbridge alumni count. And if not how did you cope with it/ prepare?

Reply 6

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by Kroll

Thanks - If anything, just interested in knowing if your school was one of those that's focussed on its Oxbridge alumni count. And if not how did you cope with it/ prepare?

My school doesn't really have an Oxbridge alumni count... which meant they were terribly keen on getting people in so that they'd have people to brag about, etc. I wouldn't say there was any direct pressure put on me by anyone (the opposite in fact: the Oxbridge application coordinator told me I was wasting my time. Then of course acted as if everything had been rosy from the start when I was the only one to get an offer :rolleyes:

) but the headteacher and sixth form staff got into a huge tizz when I missed my grades, coz I was the only person to get an Oxbridge offer in about 4 years.

Sorry, you've lost me slightly (not your fault, just me being daft): cope with/prepare for what exactly? The interviews? The application in general? My rather inept careers advice? :p:

Reply 7

didgeridoo12uk

Original post by Kroll

Thanks - If anything, just interested in knowing if your school was one of those that's focussed on its Oxbridge alumni count. And if not how did you cope with it/ prepare?

seeing as i was the first person from my school to go to cambridge.... no

in regards to preparing i assume you mean for interview?

i had a couple of interviews with family friends who are relatively high up in businesses, one of them was actually a uni lecturer. and well i basically did a tonne of going over maths and physics. doing some oxford maths entrance exams to try and stretch me, and just trying to be **** hot with all my knowledge and just general mathematical skill

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 8

Kroll

Original post by Joe909

I'm at state school aswell, My schools setting up extra awards I can get etc, Its not a lot but its really good help !

Original post by Sir Jonathan

Joe, what kinds of awards? You should consider yourself quite lucky, mine are barely teaching let alone hosting competitions..

Jonathan, from what I hear the admissions tutors may take into account the general quality of your college when reviewing your application. Besides, try not to sweat the GCSE grades too much. As helpful as a string of A*s is, strong AS grades will hold in you in better stead!

Reply 9

dnumberwang

I go to a state school (grammar school though) and there are quite a few Oxbridge applicants every year, some of whom get in, but being in Year 12 at the moment I'm not really doing anything?

(edited 13 years ago)

Reply 10

mespannerhanz

I'm year 12 and hoping to apply to Geography at Cambridge. As of yet nobody has mentioned anything about university, let alone Oxbridge. Should I be starting to do some stuff, or is it a bit early?

Reply 11

Kroll

Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd

Sorry, you've lost me slightly (not your fault, just me being daft): cope with/prepare for what exactly? The interviews? The application in general? My rather inept careers advice? :p:

This in particular gave me good lollage because I've had 1st hand experience of it - the careers service at my college is rotten! Why did you apps coordinator take that stance and what happened when you missed your offer?? :frown:

Original post by didgeridoo12uk

To both of you, I meant coping with preparing for interviews. I'm assuming you were both applying alone (I mean minus peers)? Didgeridoo, lame question but how did you go about generally getting yourself to a competitive standard for the Oxbridge admissions cycle (over the course of your AS levels)?

Reply 12

Gryffindor

Original post by Mr. Orange

State school and Oxbridge don't belong together sorry

I go to state school and in my school hall there's about 5 boards full of names of Oxbridge students from my school... just sayin

Reply 13

juliewho

i'll be applying next year through CSAS, fingers crossed! My new school is massive and they had two to cambridge last year, but for three years before that noone at all.. and my old school has had none in recent enough years (or ever?) to count :L

Reply 14

The_Lonely_Goatherd

Original post by Kroll

Her reasoning was that I didn't have straight As at AS (aaac) and that Oxford wouldn't bother with me. She was particularly focused on that because I was the only one applying without straight As (I think about 6-7 of us tried Oxford and 2 Cambridge, I was just the only one to get an offer). I didn't pay much attention and applied anyway. When she asked whether I'd got a place and I said yes, I said "not bad for 3 As and a C, is it?", she pretended she hadn't heard :biggrin:

So yeah, there were other people applying with me and because there were quite a few of us, my school subsidised for us all to go on some Oxbridge interview course thing that would give us a 50% chance of getting in or some **** like that. Except I didn't hand in the form on time and didn't go. Yet was the only one to get in. I always found that rather amusing too :p:

There was some women doing mock interviews but she was ill for mine. Good thing too: she was absolutely ****e.

My school was under the Oxford Access Scheme, so I went to Oxford and had a mock interview with a then-current Music student. Also went on a personal statement day and had my statement looked at by a then-current student. Plus I went on the Sutton Trust summer school and got advice from there.

Actually now that I think of it, I was the only one from my school to do any of those three activities...

God my school was **** :facepalm:

Reply 15

M Loy is God

Mr Orange, get your head out of your arse.

My sixth form has the most people getting into Oxbridge in relation to it's sixth form size compared to the whole of england for a state school.

Obviously can't beat Eton they have some sort of incestual relationship going on.

Reply 16

lorry:)

my school has boards lining the staircase of every pupil's name that ever went to oxbridge. i feel intimidated and depressed everytime i walk down it :frown:

i really really want to go to cambridge for medicine but have a feeling my UMS may not get up to scratch.

Reply 17

awais590

Original post by didgeridoo12uk

as a state schooler who's at oxbridge.... feel free to throw any questions my way.

I achieved 11A*s at GCSE, if I gained decent A levels do you think I would get in to study Medicine, regardless of being from a state school or not?
And what could I do to show that I, being from state school am just as good as these posh boys? Thanks. :colondollar:

Reply 18

tripleeagle

Brilliant idea :smile:

I'm at a decent Sixth Form where they send a good amount of their students to top Unis but apparently not enough go to Oxbridge.

I'm hoping to apply for Economics & Management at Oxford (2012 entry) :smile:

Reply 19

TheatreLovely

I want to study languages at Oxford so badly. No one from my (actually quite rubbish really) state grammar school has got in for five years, and where languages are concerned I don't think anyone ever has, which for a language specialist school is so bad!

So far I have been reading literature, doing lots of hard grammar and trying to arrange a trip to France/Germany in the summer, just so I become more fluent. It's hard, because I really don't know what to expect. The hardest thing is being among other pupils who haven't even thought about university yet and don't even do their homework.