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Should I reject my Cambridge offer?

Hi people of TSR.

I applied for Natural Sciences (physical) at Churchill College (Chemistry everywhere else) and got an offer today. This really surprised me as I wasn't expecting it at all (better candidates got rejected at my school). However, I never wanted to go to Cambridge and the only reason that I applied was because of parental/school pressure as well as a small part of me.

I do have offers from other universities and I really like Warwick and want to go to there (AAB, although top 5 for chemistry in some league tables and I really like their new labs as well) and also an offer from Imperial (A*AA) but from my horrible interview/applicant visit day I don't want to go there anymore really.

I don't want to go to Cambridge for a whole lot of reasons, although Natural Sciences and flexibility is something that is nice although not essential. My offer is also A*A*AA with the A* in Chemistry and Further Maths with As in Maths and Physics. I highly doubt that I can get an A* in Further Maths. Maths is possible but only because I sat C3 early in Year 12 but feels irrelevant now.

My parents, a couple of my friends (and probably my school too) think that I should go with my parents pretty adamant. I understand that it is my decision but I'd like some advice as I don't think I can just reject Cambridge and go to Warwick and everything will work out nicely.

Thank you for any replies. :smile:

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Reply 1
Avatar for Dicey
Dicey
1
Do what you want, otherwise you won't enjoy the next 4 years of your life and regret it...

But when you tell your parents try to make them understand rather than just telling them 'I'm doing what I want'
Original post by SkyWarrior
Hi people of TSR.

I applied for Natural Sciences (physical) at Churchill College (Chemistry everywhere else) and got an offer today. This really surprised me as I wasn't expecting it at all (better candidates got rejected at my school). However, I never wanted to go to Cambridge and the only reason that I applied was because of parental/school pressure as well as a small part of me.

I do have offers from other universities and I really like Warwick and want to go to there (AAB, although top 5 for chemistry in some league tables and I really like their new labs as well) and also an offer from Imperial (A*AA) but from my horrible interview/applicant visit day I don't want to go there anymore really.

I don't want to go to Cambridge for a whole lot of reasons, although Natural Sciences and flexibility is something that is nice although not essential. My offer is also A*A*AA with the A* in Chemistry and Further Maths with As in Maths and Physics. I highly doubt that I can get an A* in Further Maths. Maths is possible but only because I sat C3 early in Year 12 but feels irrelevant now.

My parents, a couple of my friends (and probably my school too) think that I should go with my parents pretty adamant. I understand that it is my decision but I'd like some advice as I don't think I can just reject Cambridge and go to Warwick and everything will work out nicely.

Thank you for any replies. :smile:


If you don't want to go to Cambridge and you've made that choice out of the right reasons (i.e. you have genuine reason to believe you wouldn't be happy there and you're not just basing your opinions on rumours you've heard) then you've got every right to reject it. Cambridge is a great university but it's not the place for everyone. If you think you'd be happy at Warwick, firm Warwick. As you probably know, your academic opportunities will probably be better at Cambridge but not by a massive margin since Warwick is still an extremely good university. You're going to be spending four years of your life at University so you might as well enjoy it - if you hate the university you're at, no matter how good it is, you won't do well. So if you genuinely think you'll be happy at Warwick, go there.

Well done for the offer though, you're obviously very intelligent!
Original post by SkyWarrior
Hi people of TSR.

I applied for Natural Sciences (physical) at Churchill College (Chemistry everywhere else) and got an offer today. This really surprised me as I wasn't expecting it at all (better candidates got rejected at my school). However, I never wanted to go to Cambridge and the only reason that I applied was because of parental/school pressure as well as a small part of me.

I do have offers from other universities and I really like Warwick and want to go to there (AAB, although top 5 for chemistry in some league tables and I really like their new labs as well) and also an offer from Imperial (A*AA) but from my horrible interview/applicant visit day I don't want to go there anymore really.

I don't want to go to Cambridge for a whole lot of reasons, although Natural Sciences and flexibility is something that is nice although not essential. My offer is also A*A*AA with the A* in Chemistry and Further Maths with As in Maths and Physics. I highly doubt that I can get an A* in Further Maths. Maths is possible but only because I sat C3 early in Year 12 but feels irrelevant now.

My parents, a couple of my friends (and probably my school too) think that I should go with my parents pretty adamant. I understand that it is my decision but I'd like some advice as I don't think I can just reject Cambridge and go to Warwick and everything will work out nicely.

Thank you for any replies. :smile:


You're just showing off. Have some compassion for those on here who just had a rejection today.
Reply 4
Avatar for TVIO
TVIO
12
Original post by DailyMailIsALiar
You're just showing off. Have some compassion for those on here who just had a rejection today.



Original post by Naveen1412
Exactly
Like are you really gonna make your life decisions based on what strangers say on a forum
You already know where you wanna go so yes you are boasting

That's not fair, seems genuine to me.
Original post by TVIO
That's not fair, seems genuine to me.


It is boasting though. It's quite a standard, 'I wasn't expecting this to happen to me, OMG i'm so happy!!' thread. If the OP wanted to seek proper advice, they would consult their parents or their school teachers, not strangers off of the internet. If they genuinely wanted to act upon the advice of someone they hadn't even met, perhaps they are not as clever as their Cambridge offer makes out.
(edited 9 years ago)
Personally, I wouldn't dream of rejecting it in a 100000000000000000000000000000 years but maybe that's just me. Are you thinking of the prestige of having been to Cambridge, and Cambridge being best for the Sciences (as far as I know)? I am sure you are considering it very seriously or just showing of as posted above
Original post by DailyMailIsALiar
You're just showing off. Have some compassion for those on here who just had a rejection today.


Original post by Naveen1412
Exactly
Like are you really gonna make your life decisions based on what strangers say on a forum
You already know where you wanna go so yes you are boasting


I think that's pretty unfair to be honest, a lot of people might be in the OP's position. If everyone in their life is telling them to accept the offer but they're not happy with that, it's completely natural for them to seek the opinions of others.
to the OP well done, you should be proud, you are allowed to post on a forum for advice so don't worry. Do what will make you happy
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Chlorophile
I think that's pretty unfair to be honest, a lot of people might be in the OP's position. If everyone in their life is telling them to accept the offer but they're not happy with that, it's completely natural for them to seek the opinions of others.

Agreed :biggrin:
Original post by Chlorophile
I think that's pretty unfair to be honest, a lot of people might be in the OP's position. If everyone in their life is telling them to accept the offer but they're not happy with that, it's completely natural for them to seek the opinions of others.



I understand that, but surely they would be better placed consulting people they know and trust in real life. As far as the OP is concerned, people who may encourage them to give up the offer may just be doing so out of spite as they got rejected and the OP would be none the wiser. It would be more intelligent to at least resort to TSR for advice after they've made their feelings known to those closest to them.
Original post by DailyMailIsALiar
I understand that, but surely they would be better placed consulting people they know and trust in real life. As far as the OP is concerned, people who may encourage them to give up the offer may just be doing so out of spite as they got rejected and the OP would be none the wiser. It would be more intelligent to at least resort to TSR for advice after they've made their feelings known to those closest to them.


If everyone they know in real life is telling them to go to a university they don't want to go to then I don't think they're better placed consulting them. From what the OP has written, it sounds like they have told their family what they think. And I'm definitely not writing this out of spite since I wasn't rejected.
Original post by Chlorophile
If everyone they know in real life is telling them to go to a university they don't want to go to then I don't think they're better placed consulting them. From what the OP has written, it sounds like they have told their family what they think. And I'm definitely not writing this out of spite since I wasn't rejected.


But they got accepted TODAY, it's barely sunk in yet and they're already being influenced by strangers. When I was accepted by Oxford, the last place I thought of consulting was TSR. Too many spiteful people, and I wasn't suggesting that you were one.
Original post by DailyMailIsALiar
But they got accepted TODAY, it's barely sunk in yet and they're already being influenced by strangers. When I was accepted by Oxford, the last place I thought of consulting was TSR. Too many spiteful people, and I wasn't suggesting that you were one.


Look, I don't know what the OP's position is. It's quite possible that this is just some kind of panic reflex when something unexpected happens (which is sort of what happened when I got my offer). Obviously he shouldn't do anything stupid and I very much doubt that he was planning on making an instantaneous decision. But the fact of the matter is that if he's being put under a lot of pressure by his family and friends to accept his offer (which is totally believable), it's not a very easy thing to simply say "I'm going to reject it". So we should be supporting him in making that decision easier.
Original post by SkyWarrior
Hi people of TSR.

I applied for Natural Sciences (physical) at Churchill College (Chemistry everywhere else) and got an offer today. This really surprised me as I wasn't expecting it at all (better candidates got rejected at my school). However, I never wanted to go to Cambridge and the only reason that I applied was because of parental/school pressure as well as a small part of me.

I do have offers from other universities and I really like Warwick and want to go to there (AAB, although top 5 for chemistry in some league tables and I really like their new labs as well) and also an offer from Imperial (A*AA) but from my horrible interview/applicant visit day I don't want to go there anymore really.

I don't want to go to Cambridge for a whole lot of reasons, although Natural Sciences and flexibility is something that is nice although not essential. My offer is also A*A*AA with the A* in Chemistry and Further Maths with As in Maths and Physics. I highly doubt that I can get an A* in Further Maths. Maths is possible but only because I sat C3 early in Year 12 but feels irrelevant now.

My parents, a couple of my friends (and probably my school too) think that I should go with my parents pretty adamant. I understand that it is my decision but I'd like some advice as I don't think I can just reject Cambridge and go to Warwick and everything will work out nicely.

Thank you for any replies. :smile:


If it was me, I would put Cam as firm and Warwick/Imperial as insurance because if you don't get A* further maths then you can go to Warwick anyways. But since it's natural sciences you can basically take all chem or chem related modules so you'll basically be studying chemistry anyways. Since you have 2 choices, firm + insurance, if you think cam is worth a shot I would go for it :smile: But it is your decision, don't feel pressured into a choice!
I'm not saying you're doing it for the wrong reasons - but are you sure that there's not a small part of you that wants to reject it simply because your parents pressured you to apply there? It could easily be something you regret for the rest of your life, and I think you're more likely to regret rejecting Cambridge, than regret accepting it.
If you are interested in Chemistry and you are doing so well as you described Bristol is very good, that's to say there main rivals are Oxford and Cambridge. I went there recently on a chemistry trip and it was very impressive (not that I have been anywhere else), especially the transmission and scanning electron microscopes, which the guide gave us the impression they had a lot of.
Reply 17
Avatar for SkyWarrior
SkyWarrior
OP
Original post by DailyMailIsALiar
It is boasting though. It's quite a standard, 'I wasn't expecting this to happen to me, OMG i'm so happy!!' thread. If the OP wanted to seek proper advice, they would consult their parents or their school teachers, not strangers off of the internet. If they genuinely wanted to act upon the advice of someone they hadn't even met, perhaps they are not as clever as their Cambridge offer makes out.

It is true that I wasn't expecting it to happen; if I was, it would make me quite arrogant. I'm not really that happy at getting the offer although that makes me sound whiny and perhaps I don't appreciate it as much as I should, although I had hoped to get rejected as it would make my decision easier for me and I wouldn't need to make this thread. I had been thinking of different scenarios and decided to make this thread for extra advice - I won't base my entire decision around the replies on this thread. I read a lot of threads about parents not letting people move out for uni / pressuring them not to and those threads had a lot of useful replies so I hoped for the same to come of this thread.

Original post by Chlorophile
Look, I don't know what the OP's position is. It's quite possible that this is just some kind of panic reflex when something unexpected happens (which is sort of what happened when I got my offer). Obviously he shouldn't do anything stupid and I very much doubt that he was planning on making an instantaneous decision. But the fact of the matter is that if he's being put under a lot of pressure by his family and friends to accept his offer (which is totally believable), it's not a very easy thing to simply say "I'm going to reject it". So we should be supporting him in making that decision easier.

Thank you very much, you have been the most helpful. :smile:
My friends did talk with me about what I would do if I got an offer before now and a few of them said to do what would make me happy and others said they would accept the offer if they were in my position but they have been very supportive which is better than my parents who think that the decision is very easy.

Original post by nanceheh
If it was me, I would put Cam as firm and Warwick/Imperial as insurance because if you don't get A* further maths then you can go to Warwick anyways. But since it's natural sciences you can basically take all chem or chem related modules so you'll basically be studying chemistry anyways. Since you have 2 choices, firm + insurance, if you think cam is worth a shot I would go for it But it is your decision, don't feel pressured into a choice!

I was thinking of that but there were a few drawbacks to this:
-I want to do as well as possible in my exams so there is a possibility of getting an A* in Further Maths if I try really hard. But I think my effort could be limited if I don't want to go to Cambridge and so I could not try hard enough and I could end up underperforming in my exams and doing worse than I would be happy with.
-If I get an A* in Further Maths, I can't reject Cambridge at that point I don't think and so won't have the choice of going to Warwick.
-If I put Warwick as my insurance then I'm not guaranteed accommodation and the commute is around three to four hours (not completely sure on bus service from train station to uni). So if I don't get accommodation, or it is one of the worse halls that could dampen my experiences which could have been avoided if I placed Warwick as my firm.

Original post by edd1234
I'm not saying you're doing it for the wrong reasons - but are you sure that there's not a small part of you that wants to reject it simply because your parents pressured you to apply there? It could easily be something you regret for the rest of your life, and I think you're more likely to regret rejecting Cambridge, than regret accepting it.

There probably is a small part because I'd like to make my own university decisions instead of my parents deciding for me as I did kind of ignore them telling me not to apply to Warwick because it is too far away and I also ignored them telling me to apply to Kent because it is local (although a university professor advised me not to apply there because their Chemistry department is quite new and Warwick's is better).

The main reasons I could want to go to Cambridge are:
-World leading and very high standard
-Natural sciences course is flexible
-Better job prospects

Neutral:
-At least you are allowed to walk on the grass and don't need to wear gowns to dinners in Churchill

The main reasons I don't want to go are:
-Minor things: Don't like the look of the buildings, the area or the countryside feel to it. I don't appreciate old buildings at all and very much prefer new modern ones (like Warwick's). I also didn't like the canteen when I visited. Also Saturday lectures.
-Unconfirmed: The kitchens don't have ovens. The information doesn't appear to be on their website, anyone know where I can find this out?
-The intense short terms with lots of hours in a small time (including Saturdays). I don't think that this will be helpful for me at all - I'm pretty sure that I will fall behind on the work as I won't be able to keep up and most of my free time will be in the holidays. I'm not sure if most people go home for the holidays but my own room would most likely be a much better working environment than at home but would most likely feel very burned out at the end of each term.

Although I do agree with your last statement about regretting rejecting it over accepting it. I'm not sure if I should put potential happiness over quality of education, because I can't deny that Cambridge is consistently rated very highly and the fact that it is so well known will help me get a job. But then again, Warwick promote finding industry experience during undergraduate study more than Cambridge based on when I asked people there.
Hey there, just putting my cents in.

I've also been grappling with the idea of rejecting Cambridge for Birmingham for a number of reasons, different from your own, but I know where you're coming from.

First up, ignore the dickheads who are telling you you're arrogant. You are making a decision that will sculpt your life, so getting information and advice from as many sources as possible is the smartest at forward.

You're in the difficult and rare position of having the ability to go to Cambridge but not necessarily wanting to go there, and I don't envy you. It is a very different university to others and it frankly just doesn't suit a lot of people, and you might be one of them.

I personally knows of at least three people who dropped out of Oxbridge because they hated it. The one thing in common with those people is that they all went there on the wishes of others, rather than their own.

If you don't want to go, don't. If you don't love your university then your degree will suffer, I guarantee it. Don't rush into, really size everything up best you can.

My advice is, flip a coin. If you are happy with the result, go for it. If you are disappointed, you know what you really want.

Go with your gut instinct I say, and good luck.
Original post by SkyWarrior
Hi people of TSR.

I applied for Natural Sciences (physical) at Churchill College (Chemistry everywhere else) and got an offer today. This really surprised me as I wasn't expecting it at all (better candidates got rejected at my school). However, I never wanted to go to Cambridge and the only reason that I applied was because of parental/school pressure as well as a small part of me.

I do have offers from other universities and I really like Warwick and want to go to there (AAB, although top 5 for chemistry in some league tables and I really like their new labs as well) and also an offer from Imperial (A*AA) but from my horrible interview/applicant visit day I don't want to go there anymore really.

I don't want to go to Cambridge for a whole lot of reasons, although Natural Sciences and flexibility is something that is nice although not essential. My offer is also A*A*AA with the A* in Chemistry and Further Maths with As in Maths and Physics. I highly doubt that I can get an A* in Further Maths. Maths is possible but only because I sat C3 early in Year 12 but feels irrelevant now.

My parents, a couple of my friends (and probably my school too) think that I should go with my parents pretty adamant. I understand that it is my decision but I'd like some advice as I don't think I can just reject Cambridge and go to Warwick and everything will work out nicely.

Thank you for any replies. :smile:


It's not quite at the same level but if it helps I rejected an offer from Durham to go to a 'lesser' university, just because my instinct told me to. For similar reasons: I was worried the way of working and the accommodation, the college system etc felt claustrophobic, didn't really enjoy the preview day/overnight, and I like a slightly lower pressure environment and to feel more anonymous in a big city. My family were also worried but I and they have never regretted it: with the slightly lower pressure I was able to work hard but not too hard and come out with a first, and still enjoy my time and gain a respected degree; I went on to a Master's and a good grad scheme.

Especially for sciences there are fantastically reputable research departments all over the country so as long as the department of the university you're drawn to has a good research rep then I think you will be absolutely fine. Now just to convince your parents!

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