Oxford Applicants 2016 Entry & Interview chat

Don't listen to him. Oxford look at your GCSE results in comparison to your whole school. So if you are getting the highest GCSE results in your school, you definitely are a strong candidate.

How lenient would Oxford be if I were lucky enough to be given an interview but then tried to mess with the given dates? Basically, for my course the days are all day Wednesday, Thursday and Friday but I have school-related commitments on the Thursday and Friday afternoons which I would not be able to get out of (and which I wouldn't want to get out of anyway.) If I had a letter signed by my headmistress and parents would they consider doing all my interviews on the Wednesday (and even early Thursday morning?) Or on different days?
If not I have no idea what I'd do: go to the interviews and forget my commitments, forget about Oxford, or apply again next year...
PS I am not assuming I will get an interview, far from it. Just planning ahead in case


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How lenient would Oxford be if I were lucky enough to be given an interview but then tried to mess with the given dates?

Do you mind if I ask in which subjects he missed the A*s?

Absolutely 0 leniency. Its organisational hell anyway with hundreds of tutors and many thousands of interviewees. They will have absolute minimal flexibility.

I do have to congratulate you on having another opportunity that you consider equivalent to an Oxford interview - must be an amazingly unfortunate strike of luck that you have two life changing opportunities coming up on the same day!

They would not re-arrange for school commitments. The only time I believe they would re-arrange the interviews is for extreme circumstances.

Are the school commitments really that important? No offence - but the interviews are three days of the whole year. I'm guessing the commitments must be very important if you're considering delaying your whole start of university for a year just to attend them?

Thank you for your responses. The school commitments are 1. The carol service, in which I am a chorister and, as Head Girl, the only student reader and 2. The school play, in which I am playing a main part. Of course I was not underplaying the importance of an Oxford interview. Rather, I was just questioning whether there was any leniency at all. Too optimistic, I know.

The deadline is October 15. Approximately when would you find out if you were invited for an interview? Thank you.


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I get the impression that you get lots of consideration if you school is genuinely bad, with a very low A*-C rate, or if you're from a very deprived area. Just being the best in your school does not necessarily mean you get any special consideration though.

It does make a difference, but the bottom line is that very few get in with that proportion or number of A*. You're gambling on being in a tiny sliver of the bar chart below.



Not that many in recent years:





For medicine you've only got 4 options and with >60 percent of applicants getting no offers at all, I'd argue considering each choice is absolutely vital.

Source quote please

I think it would be more likely for your school to rearrange the dates of the service/play.. i'm guessing you are not the only one that is applying to Oxford and would potentially have interview dates on those days, and at the end of the day your interview is a hell of a lot more important!

I'm sure the admissions tutor will love you for making him reschedule an interview so you can sing Away in the Manger, but oh well.

Thank you for your responses. The school commitments are 1. The carol service, in which I am a chorister and, as Head Girl, the only student reader and 2. The school play, in which I am playing a main part. Of course I was not underplaying the importance of an Oxford interview. Rather, I was just questioning whether there was any leniency at all. Too optimistic, I know.

The deadline is October 15. Approximately when would you find out if you were invited for an interview? Thank you.


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Its from - http://www.medsci.ox.ac.uk/study/medicine/pre-clinical/statistics

Thank you for your responses. The school commitments are 1. The carol service, in which I am a chorister and, as Head Girl, the only student reader and 2. The school play, in which I am playing a main part. Of course I was not underplaying the importance of an Oxford interview. Rather, I was just questioning whether there was any leniency at all. Too optimistic, I know.

The deadline is October 15. Approximately when would you find out if you were invited for an interview? Thank you.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Thank you for your responses. The school commitments are 1. The carol service, in which I am a chorister and, as Head Girl, the only student reader and 2. The school play, in which I am playing a main part. Of course I was not underplaying the importance of an Oxford interview. Rather, I was just questioning whether there was any leniency at all. Too optimistic, I know.

The deadline is October 15. Approximately when would you find out if you were invited for an interview? Thank you.


Posted from TSR Mobile

Cheers, PRSOM.

Where in Oxford is considered the centre? I.e where is the main hub of shops, clubs, coffee shops/cafes or just the most popular place for students in Oxford?

English and history but they may go up!

Thank you very much that is a relief. But I am not going to follow with the British curriculum and I am going to change school to do the Spanish one to the `Bachillerato de Excelencia´ as I think I will stand a better chance as they do extra math and physics courses, an obligatory project to help the grade and investigate whatever you want, they have awesome teachers and they give all sorts of conferences so I think it is a nice opportunity to fill my PS of physics and math related stuff...the only thing is I dont get the chance to do FM.. But im self studying math As.
By the way awesome results you´ve got there. What subjects are you doing? Dropping any? How´s the PAT going, I tried some math questions at the beginning of the year and didnt seem extraordinarily hard...
Good luck with everything

I'm not but I'm (college) married to one of the Director's of Chapel Music Good luck - wishing you all the best

Aha, thank you
I need all of the help I can get..