Is it worth taking a gap year to reapply to Oxford?

My younger cousin has offers from KCL and Queen Mary to do Management. She likes London (we're from Nottingham so she wanted a change of scenery and wants to work in London after she graduates) but she had her heart set on Oxford just because it was Oxford and seemed that much above all the other unis. She visited it on an open day and absolutely fell in love with the place and the fact Oxford students seem that much more serious about their studies (even at my uni - Warwick - not everyone takes their degrees entirely seriously). She's thinking of taking a gap year and reapplying to Oxford to do Economics and Management (she applied this year then got pooled and rejected).

What should I advise her? I'm a medic so don't really know if the difference is all that major.

Has anyone reapplied to Oxford before, and were they successful? I think she wants to take a gap year anyway. She loves London though so surprised she's thinking of turning down her offer.

I thought Oxford didnt encourage gap years unless you are planning on doing an engineering subject where a year out in industry before your course. Although if you have A-level results much higher than their offer maybe they would but when I spoke to the admissions woman earlier this year she strongly discouraged it.

My younger cousin has offers from KCL and Queen Mary to do Management. She likes London (we're from Nottingham so she wanted a change of scenery and wants to work in London after she graduates) but she had her heart set on Oxford just because it was Oxford and seemed that much above all the other unis. She visited it on an open day and absolutely fell in love with the place and the fact Oxford students seem that much more serious about their studies (even at my uni - Warwick - not everyone takes their degrees entirely seriously). She's thinking of taking a gap year and reapplying to Oxford to do Economics and Management (she applied this year then got pooled and rejected).

What should I advise her? I'm a medic so don't really know if the difference is all that major.

Has anyone reapplied to Oxford before, and were they successful? I think she wants to take a gap year anyway. She loves London though so surprised she's thinking of turning down her offer.

It would be grades dependant. She would need to have A*'s at A2. Also it depends if she can find something meaningful to do for a year, from what i've been told they don't look particularly kindly on people who just wait around in gap years.

From what I've heard she wants to try travelling/voluntourism and set up her own business. What do they usually see as "meaningful?"

Her AS level grades are OK (AAAB), but she didn't really "get" the interview, apparently.

Why do Oxford discourage gap years? Would she be looked down upon as a reapplying student planning to take a gap year?

Anything other than staying at home waiting to re-apply That sounds really good!

Yes, They said they only accept students that have taken gap years in "exceptional circumstances". I'm not sure what that means but they said that a year out can dramatically affect your ability in subjects like Maths and Sciences etc. They said they rarely accept students from gap years, what's scary is that she said they only accepted two last year that went on a gap year and they both had 4 A*. I think gap years are a great thing to do though, if i was her i would go to one of those other universities and to take a year out since you only live once!

Yes, They said they only accept students that have taken gap years in "exceptional circumstances".

Yes, They said they only accept students that have taken gap years in "exceptional circumstances". I'm not sure what that means but they said that a year out can dramatically affect your ability in subjects like Maths and Sciences etc. They said they rarely accept students from gap years, what's scary is that she said they only accepted two last year that went on a gap year and they both had 4 A*. I think gap years are a great thing to do though, if i was her i would go to one of those other universities and to take a year out since you only live once!

Yes, They said they only accept students that have taken gap years in "exceptional circumstances". I'm not sure what that means but they said that a year out can dramatically affect your ability in subjects like Maths and Sciences etc. They said they rarely accept students from gap years, what's scary is that she said they only accepted two last year that went on a gap year and they both had 4 A*. I think gap years are a great thing to do though, if i was her i would go to one of those other universities and to take a year out since you only live once!

Was that the general admissions tutor or just one for a particular college/subject? (I didn't apply to Oxford so I don't really know how different their admissions system is.) They don't really seem to mention gap years on their site, though Magdalene just says it might be OK to defer your offer which is slightly different.

However, do remind her that E&M has the toughest competition ratio of any big course at Oxford

it has been suggested on here before that E&M attracts a lot more speculative applications, particularly from overseas, than is true of any other course, such that they're necessarily very ruthless in determining who makes the cut for interview - calling only a third. But a candidate called for interview has a 1/3 chance of admission, which compares pretty favourably with courses across the board. And this lass has gotten that far once already, been interviewed and pooled.

I've yet to see any hard evidence of that, although it is probably true yes.

I think it's the sensible extrapolation from the data made available. The fact is that 9% of all applicants are admitted, and that is the figure popuarly siezed upon, but a peculiarly low percentage of candidates are interviewed: 29%. The yield from interviews is 1 in 3, such that if you are called for E&M interview you are at that stage statistically more likely to be admitted than if called for Geography.

I think it's the sensible extrapolation from the data made available. The fact is that 9% of all applicants are admitted, and that is the figure popuarly siezed upon, but a peculiarly low percentage of candidates are interviewed: 29%. The yield from interviews is 1 in 3, such that if you are called for E&M interview you are at that stage statistically more likely to be admitted than if called for Geography.