Oxford 2011 Freshers Chat Thread

My offer is 39 with 7 in HL Economics. I think its quite reasonable compared to the Cambridge IB offers I saw which included an offer asking for a flat 45.

WHAT?! An offer of 36 with 776 is a godsend! Those are the two lowest offers I've ever heard of. They're out of Oxford's standard offer range, which is 38-40. I don't see how 39 is a high offer - it's pretty reasonable.

Of course you may, I'm thinking of starting a franchise anyway.
"The solitary stick snaps easily, the bundle, not quite so."

My offer letter just says I'll receive more information "in due course." I assume that means in the Summer now.
Thanks



I hope you don't mean mental as in insane
But yes, it would be wise to begin packing mentally as soon as possible, or as I would say in October:

"The prepared honey bee generates the sweetest nectar."

"The International Baccalaureate is highly regarded by Admissions Tutors at Cambridge University for entry to all subjects. Candidates should expect to reach an overall score in the range of 36-40 to stand a realistic chance of acceptance, normally with 6s and 7s in the Higher Level subjects. Applicants for some subjects, particularly Sciences, may have 7s specified in Higher Level subjects where appropriate. "

There

"The prepared honey bee generates the sweetest nectar."

It is reasonable to ask for 39- but it is wholly unreasonable to then ask for just AAA.

As long as you don't speak totally in analogies, riddles and abstraction

You have to speak like this all the time. Who needs 'friends' anyway

Anyway, has anyone recieved anything from their college acknowledging their acceptance of the offer at all?
I firmed Unconditionally in the first week of January but haven't received anything.

I got something from UCAS but nothing from the college

Agreed - their IB offers are high, but they should be, and their A level offers are low in relative terms. As an IB student I felt that way when I was applying. But note that Oxford is introducing the A* in many of its offers for next year's applicants (only science subjects, though). If life were fair then they'd be asking A level students to achieve 2-3 A* at A level alongside their 40 point offers at IB (Cambridge seems to do this sometimes).

A lot of the ex-A-level students I've talked to at Oxford have said that they were not pressured or stressed about achieving their offer, partly due to the modular format of A level exams, which meant that often they only needed to get a C in their final exam to get an A overall. IB students, on the other hand, were stressed because their offers were not only difficult to achieve, but were also based on a single set of exams in May. There was nothing for us to fall back on if we had a bad day during exams.

Same, a confirmation letter and nothing more.

I guess they send out all the literature at the same time, and that means a bit of a wait.

We can open student accounts though if we want

EDIT: Awesome quote in the sig regarding barbecues.

We can open student accounts though if we want

Yeah, I expect it'll be at least until after the deadline for choosing firms and insurances before we hear from the colleges.

Thanks! Been there over a year probably, and you're the first to comment on it
I first heard it in a song (The Day-To-Daily by Jesse Dangerously) - Listenable on spotify (if you have it)
Or failing that, on youtube (with bonus Audiosurf sound effects! )

What's that sorry?

I've been on the thread and it pretty much goes like this

'my UMS is only 87%- help guys!!' and of course this is TSR but you didn't see that on the Oxford applicant thread.

ALSO Cambridge have an automatic pool for people with UMS over 92% in their top 3 AS subjects- Oxford doesn't even see them.

Plus check out the offers thread: Cam ask for A*AA, sometimes A*AAA and EVEN A*A*AA - and although Oxford are going to ask for A*AA next year, that's only in sciences and maths.

Clearly Cam cares more about grade also Oxford gave 2 people I know with ABBC as AS interviews, and 1 an offer!!!

Of course, the examples are garnered from my own experience (rather of people I know and go to school with) but I honestly would encourage anyone with not the best grades to pick Oxford- although it is true that Cambridge interview more people . (Sorry i didn't know law didn't ask for essays- I'm an english offer holder)

The gist of my advice was very much: Oxford do it on potential- and judging from facts (and my experience) Cambridge does place more emphasis on grades-
please do disagree or add, but don't discredit my advice, as all advice of this nature (ie one where there is no definite source or answer) is inevitably subjective!

I really like that song, hadn't heard it before, might download that, thanks

You're right, speaking from my own experience having gone through the Cambridge pooling system, I reckon (in retrospect) it may have been better had I applied to Oxford. Also, I was wondering - at Oxford are the tests (and any essays you have to submit etc) for any given subject standardised across the colleges?

Because at Cambridge, for PPS (which I applied for) it's hugely inconsistent - one college may well ask for TSA, 3 submitted essays, and a text-based interview, whilst another college could solely ask for one submitted essay alone, and so some people may have far more written evidence etc. in their favour when pooled.

I believe for PPE they are.

And with regard to your point about people having more written evidence, I don't see how it has to work like that. It could well be the case that tutors think "They weren't offered a place even after they'd done X number of tests, they can't have shown that much promise.

You have a place at LSE anyway I see, played good Madam

I really like that song, hadn't heard it before, might download that, thanks




Student accounts?
They're accounts with 0% overdraft for up to 1 year after you graduate, with added benefits on some (such as free rail cards with Natwest.)

Haha, the correction of gender is much appreciated
Well, a lot of pooled candidates may have performed relatively strongly in the X number of tests, they may still not get a place (for whatever reason, e.g. in some colleges the number of places varies a lot from year to year for a subject) . In addition, they have more submitted school essays in their favour, bearing in mind these will probably be of a high calibre given the time to select them, to go in their favour during pooling. Anyway, regardless of the pooling system, surely it would make more sense for Cambridge to have consistent criteria for submission of written work and any tests to be sat, just to ensure candidates are assessed equally (even prior to the pooling stage).

Thanks bro', and congratulations on (presumably?) receiving an offer from Oxford