Chemistry Applicants 2015

You'd think so wouldn't you...

Unfortunately, it turns out I can't do chemistry.

I sodding hope I hear back from Durham soon otherwise this is going to be a miserable christmas!

Alright, well you've got other offers. Even if you don't get in, you'll still be studying chemistry at a great university, so cheer up

I've not got offers from any of my top 3 choices though, and I don't particularly like Bristol or Warwick.

Ah, life.

I think they were OK. They were definitely very very difficult, but they went better than I expected and better than my mock interviews. I was able to answer a decent amount of questions, and if I wasn't, or if I answered something wrong, I was able to pick up on their hints and get to the right answer.
My first one was on physical and inorganic which I felt went quite well, and at the end they said it was good, though I don't know whether that was because I looked mortified. And someone was watching the interview the whole time, perhaps a PhD student or something, and after I left, she left as well, and she said well done. So that kind of made me feel better.
The second one was on organic and maths, which was harder mainly because I haven't done any A2 organics yet and the woman was going through it all so fast, it was hard to follow. But I think I did fine on the maths.
In the end, 9 out of 27 Keble chemists were sent home without follow up interviews (including me). This 9 must me made up of a few who ranked at the very top and a few at the very bottom. I really don't think I could've been at the very bottom, especially since they take into account your background (first person from my school to apply to Oxbridge, etc).
On the other hand, I don't want to get my hopes up. I guess we'll see in January. Even though all of the decisions will be made by the end of this week
How did yours go?

I don't think it's a few from the top and a few from the bottom, we were told it was more likely to be like every 3rd candidate following ranking, so that they could ensure the ability was consistent throughout colleges.
This was from one of the colleges where the head of admissions for chemistry is

So you're saying every 3rd candidate is sent home? So the 3rd, 6th, 9th and so on?

It was a possible way that was suggested to us... we were told to really not read into, as you're not going to be able to work out the system!

It was a possible way that was suggested to us... we were told to really not read into, as you're not going to be able to work out the system!

That sounds like a really odd way of doing it. I thought part of the point of pooling was to ensure strong candidates got interviewed across Oxford as there wasn't "space" at their colleges.

Also, pooling is good for candidates that the colleges are unsure of as well, it would be silly to send them home just because they are third on the list or whatever.

Did he tell you this specifically? Just seems a bit dodgy to me. I think it's true they send candidates around to check ability across the colleges; I wonder if they maybe send the "3rd best" (or something similar) to do that. I remember on Tuesday one guy out of 29 of us got randomly pooled, when everyone else (20 odd) were pooled at 9am on Wednesday morning - thought that was suspicious

Anyway.... we'll never know......

How interesting. I'm sure that must have been a "standardizing" fix (send your Xth best applicant and see how they compare kind of thing) . It makes sense, seeing as they seemed to make decisions of who they were sending home overnight.

Although I don't really know why i'm trying to guess these things Quite fun, though.

Eh weird. I don't think I agree with the whole 3rd, 6th etc. thing all together. Strange that a tutor said it, though.
If yours told you that they would send the top and bottom few home than I think that's correct at least for your college.

There are a few other Keble applicants on here, probably someone can remember

It does make a whole lot more sense to send the best and worst home and then sort out the rest by giving them further interviews. We will never know though!

Birmingham *is* nice tbf, really loved their chemistry demo which they did when I went to an open day there. I've heard back from Keele (which is going to be my insurance probably), Nottingham and York (got an interview there in Jan but I'm guaranteed an offer so I'm not too worried about that). Actually on my way to my Manchester interview now, my offer rests on this!

Sorry to post again but as anyone had their interview at Birmingham but not heard back...?

...totally freaking out!

When was your interview?


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The 4th 😳😢😔😣

That wasn't long ago at all! I didn't have to have an interview because I went to something at Birmingham during the summer, but even so they took almost 6 weeks to get back to me!

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Same I just really liked it I set my form and insurance on UCAS this afternoon which is a bit scary considering how quickly to whole process has happened! When do you expect to hear back from Manchester?


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