Rejection - why?

Also, the LSE is subpar for PPE? The LSE is not subpar for ANYTHING. I cannot believe you even got in there; you do not deserve it.

The interview, written work and additional testing all certainly play a significant part in the decisions we come to. Given that, typically, candidates will be amongst the very best in their school, and/or will present outstanding public examination results, these additional factors help us to make more informed decisions, sensitive to the particular aptitudes of each candidate. It’s not true, though, that the interview is always the most important single factor. It may be for some candidates that their performance at interview marks them out, and silences any doubts that may have been present due to perceived weaknesses noted elsewhere. On the other hand, candidates may have bad interviews – perhaps due to nerves – and on the strength of their excellence in other aspects of assessment they may still be offered a place. Overseas candidates may still be assessed without interview of any sort, though with improved telephone facilities it’s now quite rare for this to be the case. We take all factors (including proven examination performance) into account.

In joint degrees – and at Oxford all degrees involving philosophy are joint degrees – there will need to be agreement between the different branches of the degree. Someone may look like a talented philosopher, but if his or her ability at the chosen modern language is not good enough the candidate will not get a place. A strong performance in physics will be required from a physics and philosophy applicant. In PPE, or in Literae Humaniores, which cover a wide range of subjects and types of study, the rule of thumb is probably that successful candidates will show excellence somewhere, and no obvious weaknesses anywhere. It would be very rare for a PPE applicant to look outstandingly strong in all of philosophy, politics and economics; but they must be strong enough in all three to pass the first year, and strong enough in two to be likely to do well in the final examinations.

http://www.philosophy.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/undergraduate_faqs

Information for you OP.

oh and it seems as if 'oxford_destiny' has disappeared now... coinciding with people realising he isn't for real...

they both coincidentally got rejected? who knows, maybe they both went to the same interview preparation course...

Very constructive. Can I assume you did NOT get an offer from LSE? You are clearly very bitter.

1. what a RUBBISH excuse. in fact, its not even an excuse, its absolutely ridiculous and i cant believe you put that on your application
2. GET OVER IT - you're not the only one and you were never guaranteed a place
3. that's pathetic

in my eyes, you dont deserve a spot there anyway. get over it

yea, looks like it

which makes it even more obvious he was a fake

The family holiday got in the way of revision...why is that not an excuse. We couldn't cancel or we'd lose the deposit so we were thinking of getting me a tutor while we were there, but we couldn't find any. Consequently I had a valid reason why I missed 3 weeks of revision.

There's always self-study during the vacation - if you're the "perfect" Oxford candidate, you would be driven enough to think of that!

*insert long "duuuuuuuuuuuuur" here*

The family holiday got in the way of revision...why is that not an excuse. We couldn't cancel or we'd lose the deposit so we were thinking of getting me a tutor while we were there, but we couldn't find any. Consequently I had a valid reason why I missed 3 weeks of revision.

To all the underachievers spewing out nonsense in this thread, please remember that I had A*A*A*A and was declined.

ok.. but that's still not a valid excuse. your family decided to go on holiday during a time when you should have been revising. its YOUR fault and is not an excuse.

a death in the family or suffering sevre personal injuries meaning you were confined to a hospital bed for 3 weeks are valid exuses; not "sorry, i was enjoying time abroad".

The exact same situation for me. It appears that the rumours that Oxford is seeking to take less intelligent undergraduates to appear less "elitist" is true. Ever since I was 8 years old i knew i was destined for a position high in the world and I only applied to Oxford as a backup (For Harvard and Dartmouth, proper universities), so to see a rejection was laughable. With my A*A*A*A predicted grades they must have either declined me accidentally or, as mentioned earlier, seen me as too intelligent for the new breed of .... average students.

SO many people are faultless on people.

That's why they have interviews/admission tests.



My God.

(In fact just because you have perfect qualifications it doesn't make you the perfect student).

I'm pretty sure there was an administrative error for you there too.

Hello all, this is my first post here so I will try to be as concise as possible to ensure I do not overcomplicate matters.

My name is Martin, and after much deliberation I decided that Oxford would be the university best suited to my planned study of PPE (philosophy, politics and economics in case you didn't know). Naturally, my school supported this decision and the head of sixth form contacted the college to let them know of my intentions to apply (school policy to ensure high acceptance rate).

So the time came to apply and I filled in my UCAS (7A*'s at GCSE, A* A* A predicted grades. Would have been more but my revision suffered due to a skiing holiday, so i put this on the form). As expected I was invited to interview pretty quickly unlike some of my peers who did not even get interviewed.

The interview went swimmingly, the interviewer even dropped heavy hints that I would be chosen, so, naturally, we planned for me to live in oxford and I began studying all the major historical happenings and we even bought a romper suit with the oxford university logo embossed in the lapel (straying off topic here).

I logged into UCAS on the 24th to find an 'unsuccessful' stamp on my application to oxford. Reeling with shock I immediately telephoned the college to have my say but I was told no-one would be there to answer my calls until after christmas, which, i'm sure you'll agree, is outrageous. The verbal contract me and the interviewer held has been shattered and i'm beginning to think oxbridge in general is as rubbish as people say. I wasn't sure I wanted to go there in the first place and having put trust in a university which has a reputation for apparently being 'the best' (...) but being turned down is ludicrous.

Could someone please explain why I might have been rejected considering the interviewer guaranteed me that I would be accepted (firm handshake, smiling etc)? I have spoken to my head of sixth form already and he has written a letter of complaint to the college that they have acted with misleading conduct. He said there's a chance I might get in if we prove that I have been misled. As it stands at the moment I have to hear back from York and I have an offer from LSE but both of these are subpar for the course I want to study so I feel lost and confused.

Thanks alot,

Martin

EDIT; I have come under fierce criticism and the point of the topic has been lost. Please stay on track and provide possible reasons why the interviewer would blatantly lie to my face and then not offer me a place. I am also interested in discussing the issue with a current PPE student at Cambridge as I'm considering applying there next year.