The Student Room Group

Missed Oxford Law offer, got in by skin of teeth. Poor A-Level/Law Career hopes over.

Scroll to see replies

Reply 20
It means that other areas of your application compensated for your grades. They were likely impressed by your interview and/or LNAT scores, so you were one of their most promising applicants. I would have taken it as a compliment, hardly a distress call.
Reply 21
Original post by Michael345
Hey all.

First and foremost, I would just to like to stress that this post should not be misconstrued due to the sensitive timing of it. Basically, this morning like many other students I logged onto UCAS Track and saw 'Congratulations your place at X uni has been confirmed'... My firm choice was Oxford, so I was extremely happy and assumed that I had got at least AAA or higher. So, I was feeling very chilled when I got my results. Famous last words. I was met with ABB?! Thought it was a cruel joke

I was horrified. I was sure that Oxford must have made a mistake in accepting me and kept waiting for an email from UCAS to inform me that the track update was a mistake, but they hadn't. I could only assume that it was down to my LNAT score, my mitigating circumstances which I had informed them of prior to results day or the fact that I had missed the 2 As by a matter of 1 and 3 UMS. The 2Bs are being remarked but not optimistic. I don't think that I really should be going to Oxford if I'm honest. I would be embarrassed to tell anyone at my college that I got ABB, quite possibly would have the lowest grades at the college. Just feel like I'd be punching above my weight on a course with some people who have A*A*A*A*,but that is obviously a different discussion. I question whether I'm even capable of a 2.1.. With ABB, I could quite easily be going to Oxford brookes an ex poly instead, so I feel a urge to tell people I'm not smart when they congratulate me for getting a place. I think I could have lived with AAB, but ABB is just not the sort of grades that I'd be getting.

To make this relevant to the legal forum, I had wanted to be a solicitor at a city firm, but almost all of the top 40 firms ask for AAB which I clearly don't have. I just feel like I'm doomed before I've started the degree, as I will be binned from the word go. I will obviously go ahead with the degree but I'd like to set my aspirations from now, since with the aforementioned grades, I accept that one of the more highly sought after firms will be beyond my grasp. I don't think I can imagine myself anywhere but London, are places like Pinsent Masons still a possibility?, all other things being good.

Thanks for any advice.


this is the exact same position I'm in, but I really don't care what people think of my grades except the uni so I'm going to my firm with abb! if Oxford accepted you they obviously want you specifically there, it's not like there's a shortage of applicants for these places! just be grateful and take it :smile: then again if you reject it youll have to wait another year before your next application...


Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by Michael345
Hey all.



First of all, to answer the comment you posted on the other thread Oxford does have proper first year exams; it is just that they are after two terms not three.

I think if necessary, you do need to do an A level resit. You can probably call in a favour via the old boy network to get past an autofilter because it is Oxford; but do you really want to have to try and call in a favour for every firm, you are thinking of applying to. That probably means attending every reception; sidling up to a partner at each one; making small talk; explaining the problem; collecting his card; then later referring HR back to him each each time. That would be more demoralising than doing the resit.

Please just forget about the

I really should be going to Oxford if I'm honest


It is a load of BS. They wanted you and you are in.

In the Triassic Era, long before autofilters, I had an EE offer for jurisprudence at Oxford and did my best to achieve it. It never bothered me, Oxford or anyone else.
Original post by Michael345
Hey all.

First and foremost, I would just to like to stress that this post should not be misconstrued due to the sensitive timing of it. Basically, this morning like many other students I logged onto UCAS Track and saw 'Congratulations your place at X uni has been confirmed'... My firm choice was Oxford, so I was extremely happy and assumed that I had got at least AAA or higher. So, I was feeling very chilled when I got my results. Famous last words. I was met with ABB?! Thought it was a cruel joke

I was horrified. I was sure that Oxford must have made a mistake in accepting me and kept waiting for an email from UCAS to inform me that the track update was a mistake, but they hadn't. I could only assume that it was down to my LNAT score, my mitigating circumstances which I had informed them of prior to results day or the fact that I had missed the 2 As by a matter of 1 and 3 UMS. The 2Bs are being remarked but not optimistic. I don't think that I really should be going to Oxford if I'm honest. I would be embarrassed to tell anyone at my college that I got ABB, quite possibly would have the lowest grades at the college. Just feel like I'd be punching above my weight on a course with some people who have A*A*A*A*,but that is obviously a different discussion. I question whether I'm even capable of a 2.1.. With ABB, I could quite easily be going to Oxford brookes an ex poly instead, so I feel a urge to tell people I'm not smart when they congratulate me for getting a place. I think I could have lived with AAB, but ABB is just not the sort of grades that I'd be getting.

To make this relevant to the legal forum, I had wanted to be a solicitor at a city firm, but almost all of the top 40 firms ask for AAB which I clearly don't have. I just feel like I'm doomed before I've started the degree, as I will be binned from the word go. I will obviously go ahead with the degree but I'd like to set my aspirations from now, since with the aforementioned grades, I accept that one of the more highly sought after firms will be beyond my grasp. I don't think I can imagine myself anywhere but London, are places like Pinsent Masons still a possibility?, all other things being good.

Thanks for any advice.



Hi, first off congrats to your place at Oxford! It's a massive achievement especially for such a competitive course.
I can half sympathise with your feelings atm. The typical offer for my course is A*AA.. I got in with AAB. Quite a few people assume that since I got in, I must have achieved A*AA or higher. Then they hear what I've really got and they all say "How on earth did you get in?" As if I don't deserve to get in, which is already what I'm feeling. My results even got published onto this online magazine... I'm basically just letting the embarrassment slowly go away day by day. However I guess this has made me more determined to do well at university.
Also, is it not possible for you to resit one exam to get the one UMS, achieving AAB?
do you by any chance attend an expensive private school?
Original post by Table dust
do you by any chance attend an expensive private school?


Actually my friend got in with lower grades because he went to a state school.

OP, they only accept about six people per subject per college, so they will have looked at your case individually and in detail. They do frequently reject people who don't meet the offer, even by one mark, so they definitely want you, and definitely think you can cope. :smile:
Reply 26
I did my undergrad in Cambridge and my masters in Oxford and was fortunate enough to do well in both (I only mention this because it's relevant to what follows). Michael, I remember very well the feeling of starting out and being worried that everyone else is going to be so much better, that you're not good enough to be there, etc. This is natural and it will pass as you get stuck into the course. You have a fantastic opportunity going to Oxford to do law and you shouldn't let your A level results make you feel insecure when you get there, for one simple reason:

The kind of thinking and learning you'll be doing in Oxford is fundamentally different from the kind of learning involved in your A levels.

There's a much bigger emphasis on independent learning and original thought, and the "syllabus" is just a guide rather than a complete list of all the things you need to memorise. Of course A levels are relevant to admissions and so help you get your foot in the door. But if you look at the group of people who get in, you definitely can't predict their degree results (or, more importantly, their legal reasoning abilities) just by looking at their A level scores. I knew people with pretty much 100% UMS in all their A levels who were average lawyers (not a bad thing). I also knew people who far exceeded their A level achievements to become absolutely stellar lawyers. Put briefly, A levels and Oxford law develop different skills and test different things.

I would be so so happy if even one person would read this and throw themselves into their university course without worrying about UMS scores any more. What's exciting (and a bit scary) is that you'll be judged on how good a lawyer you make yourself, not on your past. My advice: get stuck in and don't look back!
(edited 10 years ago)
Assuming he goes and nails Oxford, what good will it do him when he can't get past the filters. HR don't give a **** if it's Oxford or Kent, they won't let you apply.


You really think university doesn't matter for training contracts and that it's a pure meritocracy? You think that when HR see 'University of Oxford' on his application that it won't count for something? And he will be treated the same way as a Kent applicant?
(edited 10 years ago)
Original post by Hannibal Lecter
You really think university doesn't matter for training contracts and that it's a pure meritocracy? You think that when HR see 'University of Oxford' on his application that it won't count for something? And he will be treated the same way as a Kent applicant?


You are not addressing his point which is that an Oxford degree won't help you past the autofilters any more than a Kent one. I do not totally accept his point (see my post above) but he is not suggesting all degrees are equal.
Original post by nulli tertius
You are not addressing his point which is that an Oxford degree won't help you past the autofilters any more than a Kent one. I do not totally accept his point (see my post above) but he is not suggesting all degrees are equal.


Apart from a couple of US firms, I got the impression that most law firms do judge each application individually. Freshfields, for example, try and get it across that they do this.
Original post by Hannibal Lecter
Apart from a couple of US firms, I got the impression that most law firms do judge each application individually. Freshfields, for example, try and get it across that they do this.


I am afraid not. In city firms grade or point barriers are common.

I genuinely looked at Kennedy's randomly because I wanted a non-magic circle firm and didn't know what I was going to find.

http://www.kennedys-law.com/uk/careers/graduates/trainingcontracts/

That is a fairly low autofilter

Moreover, I would say that there is no autofilter robust enough that it cannot be circumvented by the right person pulling the right strings.
Original post by nulli tertius
I am afraid not. In city firms grade or point barriers are common.

I genuinely looked at Kennedy's randomly because I wanted a non-magic circle firm and didn't know what I was going to find.

http://www.kennedys-law.com/uk/careers/graduates/trainingcontracts/

That is a fairly low autofilter

Moreover, I would say that there is no autofilter robust enough that it cannot be circumvented by the right person pulling the right strings.


Oh of course, I thought you meant they actually use a computer-based automatic filter system that rejects applicants without the A-levels they want.

If a City firm asks for AAB and the OP applies with ABB and a good 2:1 from Oxford, I would bet that most firms would look past the missing A grade if they judge applications individually.
Original post by Hannibal Lecter
Oh of course, I thought you meant they actually use a computer-based automatic filter system that rejects applicants without the A-levels they want.

If a City firm asks for AAB and the OP applies with ABB and a good 2:1 from Oxford, I would bet that most firms would look past the missing A grade if they judge applications individually.


A number of firms will not let you complete the application form if you don't meet the requirements. However, it doesn't matter whether the process is being done by a machine or a human being. One is talking about a very junior HR person who is told to put all the ones with below a certain score in the reject pile. That person is exercising no discretion at all. She won't even be reading the university. Any circumvention of the filter is being done entirely outwith this process.
OP, get your papers sent to you for each of your B grade subjects and ask your teacher if it's worth getting a remark.
Reply 34
Wait so they let OP in with ABB but rejected another guy with A*A*A*A*A*A*A*? Public school privilege.
Original post by peter12345
Wait so they let OP in with ABB but rejected another guy with A*A*A*A*A*A*A*? Public school privilege.


How do you know the OP went to a public school?

Someone has asked the question but the OP has not replied.

However, given that Oxford doesn't enter clearing or adjustment, the true position was take the OP at ABB or have an empty room and Β£9,000 less income for a year.

Obviously everyone with open offers throughout the university had already been accommodated.

I suspect the decision to take the OP wasn't just made by his subject tutors but by the senior tutor who also compared the OP against all the other near misses in every subject at that college. There isn't usually a problem at Oxford in juggling subject numbers about by one or two.
Reply 36
Original post by nulli tertius
How do you know the OP went to a public school?

Someone has asked the question but the OP has not replied.

However, given that Oxford doesn't enter clearing or adjustment, the true position was take the OP at ABB or have an empty room and Β£9,000 less income for a year.

Obviously everyone with open offers throughout the university had already been accommodated.

I suspect the decision to take the OP wasn't just made by his subject tutors but by the senior tutor who also compared the OP against all the other near misses in every subject at that college. There isn't usually a problem at Oxford in juggling subject numbers about by one or two.

So why don't they just do clearing/ adjustment seeing as some people miss their offers leaving spaces? I knew an admissions tutor at King's College London who told me that he didn't advertise clearing places even though he had some purely because it made the university look bad. This is just snobbishness.
Original post by peter12345
So why don't they just do clearing/ adjustment seeing as some people miss their offers leaving spaces? I knew an admissions tutor at King's College London who told me that he didn't advertise clearing places even though he had some purely because it made the university look bad. This is just snobbishness.


The London colleges used to quietly hand around students privately.

I suspect in a world of falling A level scores and students accepting places but then going off to Harvard etc, Oxford will have to review its policies.

The problem is that what Oxford (and Cambridge which operates a summer pool for near misses) need doesn't really fit with either adjustment or clearing.

Adjustment has only a five day window which is very short for getting people to interview and only works for students who have exceeded their offers. Therefore it is likely to be available only to previous Oxford rejects who exceeded their new offers. So someone who was rejected by Oxford, took a UCL offer of A*AA and got A*AA would not be eligible but an Oxford reject who took a Manchester AAB offer and got AAA would be. A candidate who didn't apply to Oxford wouldn't be eligible at all. Is that any fairer?

Universities are not supposed to discuss clearing unless a candidate has entered clearing which means first getting released from any existing offer. The rest of the university system would go ballistic if Oxford started systematically poaching at equivalent or lower grades.
Reply 38
I don't know what give PeterXYZ the impression that I went to a private school. I went to a standard comprehensive school. Getting ABB from a private school would most probably worsened my chances of getting in.

I apologise if I've come across as melodramatic, but the fact that I'll be filtered out from many firms hurts. If it was the case that A-Levels were meaningless once you had a degree, I'd have been over it sharpish.
(edited 10 years ago)
Reply 39
Original post by eggfriedrice
Hi, first off congrats to your place at Oxford! It's a massive achievement especially for such a competitive course.
I can half sympathise with your feelings atm. The typical offer for my course is A*AA.. I got in with AAB. Quite a few people assume that since I got in, I must have achieved A*AA or higher. Then they hear what I've really got and they all say "How on earth did you get in?" As if I don't deserve to get in, which is already what I'm feeling. My results even got published onto this online magazine... I'm basically just letting the embarrassment slowly go away day by day. However I guess this has made me more determined to do well at university.
Also, is it not possible for you to resit one exam to get the one UMS, achieving AAB?


Yeah, I know how you feel. I found it extremely uncomfortable telling people my results and then having to see them shocked that I got my Oxford place. Law is such a hard course aswell, just knocks your confidence since I thought the exams had went well.

Are you planning to resit?

Quick Reply

Latest