Oxbridge 2018 Reapplicants

Course: bionatsci
I would love to have a gap year and I have so many ideas but I also don't want to sign myself up for another round of torture!!

This is a fair thought but I did ask Christ's admissions about this and they said anecdotally it's quite/fairly common for reapplicants to be successful - usually because they've sat their exams and are confident with their grades and obviously have more practice/familiarity. Not a guarantee by any means of course, but reassuring that it's not a failed endeavor.

That's brave, if you get rejected they'll send your letter to someone else
Seriously though, I found Hertford a lovely environment while I was there for interview. Best of luck!

Thanks! Which subject did you apply for at Hertford? Since I've been in the Cambridge world for ages up until now, is Hertford known to be one of the more competitive colleges or? Good luck with the rest of your universities for this admissions cycle and for next year if you reapply!

Thanks! Which subject did you apply for at Hertford? Since I've been in the Cambridge world for ages up until now, is Hertford known to be one of the more competitive colleges or? Good luck with the rest of your universities for this admissions cycle and for next year if you reapply!

Hi folks,I recieved feedback today from my application to study Maths and CompSci at St. John's. Here's what I recieved (beyond the usual preamble of "places are competitive", etc.):

* For Maths and Joint Subjects, there were 141 applications to St. John's, and 20 offers in total (11 at St. John's, 9 at other colleges). I didn't know anyone who got an offer, incidentally.
* For the MAT, my mark was 70/100 (slightly below the average of 73.5 for Maths and CS), and my overall ranking (for my version of the MAT, for Maths and CS only) was 46/306 (there were 42 Maths and CS offers in total).
* For the interviews, my average score was 6.61/9.
* For my overall application, my score was 7 out of 9, and offers were made to everyone who got an 8 or a 9 (this doesn't specify, however, if some people who got 7 got an offer as well).

Overall, I'm very encouraged by the feedback. My MAT was a little bit lower than I expected (by a couple of marks at most), but overall I think it was very close. As of now, unless there are any barriers (e.g not getting AAB, funding issues, or other such problems), I think reapplying is a very real possibility.

Again, good luck to anyone who's considering reapplying. If you do end up reapplying, I hope that the extra year of experience will be helpful for you (even if you don't get in), and for those who don't end up reapplying I wish you all the best for the future.

Gosh that does close indeed! I wish I had feedback as detailed as that Unfortunately I can only go off of speculation but luckily I know where I messed up in interview + having AABB at AS. However I have no idea if I was a close call or not. Given 40% of music applicants are successful however I don't think my chances are bad. xDD

Can I ask why you need AAB? I thought the standard offer for Maths was A*AA?

Damn, not getting feedback is pretty rough. Maybe they send it to your reference?

The offer for AAB's because I'm sitting Advanced Highers rather than A-Levels, and they're apparently seen as more difficult for whatever reason (which to be honest is fine by me ).

The feedback I got was really vague... Can I ask again for more specific (for example if my grades were ok or whatever) or should I just be happy they didn't totally roast me? They did mention it's challenging to compare students from different schooling systems so I'm worried they're not fans of the swedish system.

build up cash money

Feedback is usually pretty vague tbh. You can ask but I wouldn't expect anything. @The_Lonely_Goatherd mentioned there was this one tutor who 'character assassinated' someone in the feedback but he has since left Oxford. Some colleges (as I've learned) are better about this than others, as are different admissions tutors.

Do you remember anything about the interviews at all? Were there any moments of awkward silence, interviewers writing something down or them looking bored/away? It's really hard to tell but you might be able to infer some things, even if self-evaluation is notoriously hard.

I was rejected pre-interviews.. Which I guess is a bad sign. But it's also why I'm reapplying. I know my PS sucked and I want to show them (and myself, mainly) I can do better

If it's pre-interview and no admissions test it was probably your grades rather than PS. Iirc you didn't have any standardised exams (eg AS level, GCSE, AP test, IB) and just had predictions? This would make it harder for them to be able to assess your level of academic ability so to speak. They don't really look at the PS much unless it is appallingly awful (ie "I went on a gap year to look at girls on beaches in Hawaii" type *******s), especially not for the sciences.

And yes, you can improve!!! motivation ~!! good luck!!

The thing is, I have near perfect grades.12 A's and 4 B's. We have "courses" and when you finish a course you get a grade and can take the next one (if there is one) - for example Biology 1 and then you take Biology 2. So the grades are already decided, apart from the courses I'm taking now. The only one I'm unsure about is my B in chem.. However, my reference was from my chem teacher and he was really nice about it - but I guess they don't make that connection while looking at the grades. My reference could not provide predicted grades bc we were so early in the term. I'm taking Chemistry 2 now and currently on an A, so I guess if I can keep that up I might have a better chance. All there is about the swedish system on their website is "A or B in the majority of relevant subjects"