Has anyone ever rejected an Oxbridge offer?

Bull**** reason to apply for Oxbridge. You apply for the course structure, the tutorial/supervision system, the collegiate nature etc.

If I said that to a candidate on the Oxbridge forum, i.e. "apply to see you can be successful", do you think that is appropriate?

What about those kinds of parents who force their children to apply for Oxbridge to see if they could be successful, even if the child doesn't particularly want to go there?

Think twice before you speak. You don't apply "to see if you can be successful", you apply because you want to study there.

What's the point of applying for course "to see if you can be successful", only to reject it due to accommodation costs? (Should've done the necessary research beforehand).

Your arguments are somewhat badly thought out, as far as I see it.

Firstly, I would reject the idea that it is unfair to apply just for the challenge, because the method of interviewing and making offers (at least as advertised) should make this argument more-or-less incorrect. Since the universities can make offers for colleges other than the first choice, or even pooled offers with the college to be allocated later, it is probably unlikely (but not impossible) that an applicant who is impressive enough at interview would be rejected because someone else applied to their college just for the challenge.

Secondly, it should hopefully come through in the interview that the student is not so interested in studying there, although that might not work because the interviews are heavily focused on academic ability, and as far as assessing motivation goes, I imagine (from my experience) they would ask "Why do you want to study this subject?" rather than "Why do you want to study this subject at this university?".

Thirdly, your apparent obsession suggests that if you were to apply it would be for an equally 'bad' reason. Referring repeatedly and exclusively to the two institutions as a group - "Oxbridge" - despite the fact that there are differences between the two in terms of atmosphere and course content and structure, suggests that you disregard these issues, and that your interest is drawn purely from the prestige of the 'Oxbridge brand'. On top of that, I doubt you would be bothered if anyone put any other university on their UCAS application just to fill up space and to see if they would get an offer.

"Think twice before you speak." Wow, the arrogant attitude of some people on here is astonishing. I'd tone that down at interview if I were you, assuming you're not actually a current or former student trolling everyone for your own amusement. Reading The Student Room certainly fosters cynicism.

It's surprising the number of people who know people who've been phoned up and begged to go to Oxford/Cambridge. Unbelievable, some might say

Cambridge refused my mum for her degree stating that she wasn't up to their academic standards so she went else where got a first in English lit and her tutor put her forwards for a place at Cambridge. Cambridge offered her an a place she told them to go **** themselves as they weren't prepared to take a punt on her as a mature student and wouldn't want to go to a department that outright refused her for not being good enough.

Yes, Oxbridge isn't necessarily for everyone. They teach a lot differently from other universities and they have colleges (usually I guess these are positives but some like less structure and more freedom etc.)

My friend in the year above me turned down Cambridge for History of Art to go to the Courtauld Insitiute of Art. The courses are more or less equal and Oxbridge has the better reputation but in the world of Art History (so I have been told) Courtauld actually has the better reputation even though a lot of people haven't even heard of it....

Just out of curiosity, does anyone on TSR know of someone who put Oxbridge as their insurance or just rejected the offer outright? And why did they do it? I know Oxbridge doesn't appeal to everyone (Someone in my family decided to leave Cambridge after a year and ended up at UCL), but I've never heard of someone rejecting an Oxbridge offer.

A friend of mine rejected oxford for imperial to study medicine. The reason was because his dad was a lecturer at oxford, he got the offer at oxford because he kept talking about his dad(a wise thing to do at the interview?), he felt imperial's offer was solely due to himself

The point is s/he doesn't know anyone who rejected the original offer, since the person s/he's talking about studied for a year then left.