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Should I reapply to Oxbridge next year-help!

Ok, so I applied to Oxford this year for Russian and Arabic at St. John's, and got rejected. My GCSEs are really strong compared to other modern languages applicants (10 A*), teaching myself Spanish and doing it a year early. My predicted grades are good, four A* in Russian, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths. My teachers put me down as a dead cert, though I obviously was pretty sceptical as I'd heard about people who had had surprise rejections in the past. I thought the interviews went really well ( I had eight, two at John's, two at Wadham, one at Somerville, one at LMH and one at Magdalen) but the admissions office doesn't open for feedback until the 12th so I don't know if they actually did. At any rate, I thought I'd enjoy a gap year, so though I applied to Exeter and St. Andrew's I haven't heard back from them yet and so I don't have a lot of choice. I was wondering if anyone had any experience of similar courses at Cambridge and could tell me if they thought there were any significant differences. I come from an independent school so I don't know if that worked against me. Anyways, cheers in advance for your help, sorry it's a lot less cheery than all the other TSR posts, this thing's got me pretty down.

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Reply 1
Take a year out, do an internship / lots of voluntary work using your language skills and try again. You seem like a really strong applicant, so I'd say that if you're sure you want to go to Oxbridge, then you should try once more.
Reply 2
I also applied to HSPS at Cambridge this year and got rejected despite feeling that I have done pretty well in my interviews. I'll ask for feedback and see what didn't work out and probably then decide on whether I should take a gap year to re-apply to Cambridge or go to Durham, which I know little of and I'm not sure whether I'll like it:frown:
If I do take a gap year, I'll try my best in A2 exams this summer as I think my AS grades are what disadvantaged my application:frown:(

I think Oxford has weirdly rejected a lot of intelligent and hard-working people this year, do not get discouraged easily OP. Probably wait for the feedback first and then consider whether spending three years at your second-choice university or taking a gap year to re-apply will suit you. My friend tried to convince me to take a gap year by saying that a gap year would buy me a whole year of free time to explore what I really like to do and not just throw me in three years of academic burden straight away.

Although I'm a bit worried that I would be 20 by the time I start my undergraduate IF I re-apply, my dad has told me that we would certainly waste more time after we graduate and get into workplace...lol
Reply 3
Original post by aprilsfls
I also applied to HSPS at Cambridge this year and got rejected despite feeling that I ha9ve done pretty well in my interviews. I'll ask for feedback and see what didn't work out and probably then decide on whether I should take a gap year to re-apply to Cambridge or go to Durham, which I know little of and I'm not sure whether I'll like it:frown:
If I do take a gap year, I'll try my best in A2 exams this summer as I think my AS grades are what disadvantaged my application:frown:(

I think Oxford has weirdly rejected a lot of intelligent and hard-working people this year, do not get discouraged easily OP. Probably wait for the feedback first and then consider whether spending three years at your second-choice university or taking a gap year to re-apply will suit you. My friend tried to convince me to take a gap year by saying that a gap year would buy me a whole year of free time to explore what I really like to do and not just throw me in three years of academic burden straight away.

Although I'm a bit worried that I would be 20 by the time I start my undergraduate IF I re-apply, my dad has told me that we would certainly waste more time after we graduate and get into workplace...lol


Cheers for your advice, hope you get some luck this year. I was just wondering why you said you thought oxford had rejected a load of intelligent people this year? Again good luck with HSPS, doubt that the Durham course is very different etc., and cheers for taking time out to give me some help, if you've worked out your ASs are the problem then A2s will undoubtedly solve that. Maybe we'll see each other at Cambridge)
Just been rejected too from Cambridge for economics, what would you do in the gap year if you were going to reapply? this is my worry, that I will be wasting away while all my friends are at uni :frown:
This is exactly what I was looking for. Been rejected for CompSci, but only after my rejection did I realize how much I actually like the university. But is it worth taking a year off to reapply and what could I do to solidify my application in such a scenario so that I haven't taken a year off for nothing?
Original post by jchap9776
Just been rejected too from Cambridge for economics, what would you do in the gap year if you were going to reapply? this is my worry, that I will be wasting away while all my friends are at uni :frown:


I was pooled and rejected last year by St. John's for economics. I've managed to get an offer from Homerton this year though without doing anything special in a gap year (so far just working in a bar). I would say A-levels are key, get 3 or 4 A*s with strong UMS and it's definitely worth thinking about reapplying.

Good luck anyway.
Reply 7
Absolutely, reapply. Sounds like you will have the grades, so now is your chance to spend a year making yourself a more 'well-rounded' person. Spend some time in countries which speak the language you wish to study, do some relevant work experience, earn yourself some spending money and do lots of reading.

Nobody will even realise you're a year younger, and there will be others who have taken gap years. You can tell people that it was always your intention, if you wish!
Reply 8
Original post by oclark44
Cheers for your advice, hope you get some luck this year. I was just wondering why you said you thought oxford had rejected a load of intelligent people this year? Again good luck with HSPS, doubt that the Durham course is very different etc., and cheers for taking time out to give me some help, if you've worked out your ASs are the problem then A2s will undoubtedly solve that. Maybe we'll see each other at Cambridge)


Yeah you are right, the course at Durham does not seem much different. So now I'm really hesitating if Cambridge is really worth taking a gap year and re-applying to. I have a very premature idea in my mind that I would go to a culture project in Mongolia if I do take a gap year. It is something that hugely interests me as I don't think during the next few years I will ever have the chance to do something just like an anthropological study until my third year or so... and there are just too many uncertainties..the biggest one being whether I can get really high UMS this summer :-|

It's just that quite a lot of people in my school applied to Oxford and some really well-performing ones got turned down... A friend of mine at an independent school has said the same thing happened there as well
Original post by AndyDufresne
I was pooled and rejected last year by St. John's for economics. I've managed to get an offer from Homerton this year though without doing anything special in a gap year (so far just working in a bar). I would say A-levels are key, get 3 or 4 A*s with strong UMS and it's definitely worth thinking about reapplying.

Good luck anyway.

Cheers mate, what other offers did you have the last time? I have UCL at the moment and am waiting on LSE, and am not sure whether I should just go to one of them or reapply cambridge
I got rejected by Oxford on Wednesday for Archaeology and Anthropology. I'm not sure whether to re-apply if I get top grades because I don't really know where I went wrong in my interviews. Any advice?
Original post by Kolasinac138
This is exactly what I was looking for. Been rejected for CompSci, but only after my rejection did I realize how much I actually like the university. But is it worth taking a year off to reapply and what could I do to solidify my application in such a scenario so that I haven't taken a year off for nothing?


hey bro, I'd advise you to look into YINI. That was what I was going to do in my gap year had I been rejected (luckily I got in for engineering). Strengthens your application, amazing for your CV (most oxbridge are known for having little experience) and you earn some good money 15-20k, okay less than a bus driver but it will be an internship and very enriching


everyone else about 'Oxford turning down good applicants'. Well, tbh they want varying minds on the course - the tutorials and classes are almost like a debate/discussion so oxford want a diverse group, not several students who think the same way and have a standard perspective on things.

Arguably a gap could help you see things differently and set you apart from the rest in that 'oxford' sense, but sometimes it is just the raw workings of your brain. Godspeed
Original post by oclark44
Ok, so I applied to Oxford this year for Russian and Arabic at St. John's, and got rejected. My GCSEs are really strong compared to other modern languages applicants (10 A*), teaching myself Spanish and doing it a year early. My predicted grades are good, four A* in Russian, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths. My teachers put me down as a dead cert, though I obviously was pretty sceptical as I'd heard about people who had had surprise rejections in the past. I thought the interviews went really well ( I had eight, two at John's, two at Wadham, one at Somerville, one at LMH and one at Magdalen) but the admissions office doesn't open for feedback until the 12th so I don't know if they actually did. At any rate, I thought I'd enjoy a gap year, so though I applied to Exeter and St. Andrew's I haven't heard back from them yet and so I don't have a lot of choice. I was wondering if anyone had any experience of similar courses at Cambridge and could tell me if they thought there were any significant differences. I come from an independent school so I don't know if that worked against me. Anyways, cheers in advance for your help, sorry it's a lot less cheery than all the other TSR posts, this thing's got me pretty down.


Hi, I applied to Cambridge at Downing College to do French with Italian and got rejected, pooled but no other colleges were interested. I think we're in a very similar situation. My problem I think was that I was a little alienated/intimated by the whole aura of the place, perhaps my passion for the place didn't come across because inside I was and maybe still am a little unsure about the whole experience. I too am considering taking a year out to maybe do teaching somewhere in France and got the same grades as you for GCSE and A2 predictions.

At least there is a lot of time, I think it's May until we have to properly decide options. Commiserations, I would talk to your languages teachers, 6th form head and anyone else you think can help, that's what I'm doing anyway. If it's any consolation I share your sucky feelings and to be honest it's nice just to know there's someone in a similar position, even if that position sucks.
Original post by oclark44
Ok, so I applied to Oxford this year for Russian and Arabic at St. John's, and got rejected. My GCSEs are really strong compared to other modern languages applicants (10 A*), teaching myself Spanish and doing it a year early. My predicted grades are good, four A* in Russian, Spanish, Maths and Further Maths. My teachers put me down as a dead cert, though I obviously was pretty sceptical as I'd heard about people who had had surprise rejections in the past. I thought the interviews went really well ( I had eight, two at John's, two at Wadham, one at Somerville, one at LMH and one at Magdalen) but the admissions office doesn't open for feedback until the 12th so I don't know if they actually did. At any rate, I thought I'd enjoy a gap year, so though I applied to Exeter and St. Andrew's I haven't heard back from them yet and so I don't have a lot of choice. I was wondering if anyone had any experience of similar courses at Cambridge and could tell me if they thought there were any significant differences. I come from an independent school so I don't know if that worked against me. Anyways, cheers in advance for your help, sorry it's a lot less cheery than all the other TSR posts, this thing's got me pretty down.


First of all, at Cambridge you can't combine Russian and Arabic. You'd either have to go down the MML or AMES route, so I would definitely start considering that first.

You would really be an advantage if you were able to achieve 4A*s, especially with high percentages, so at the moment I would really focus on your grades to give yourself the best chance.
Reply 14
Original post by smile:D
First of all, at Cambridge you can't combine Russian and Arabic. You'd either have to go down the MML or AMES route, so I would definitely start considering that first.

You would really be an advantage if you were able to achieve 4A*s, especially with high percentages, so at the moment I would really focus on your grades to give yourself the best chance.


Yeah that's pretty much what I'm doing. You can apply for Arabic and Russian at Cambridge, you apply through AMES, but I think my subject combo didn't help me the first time so I'm applying for Russian and Spanish anyway.
Reply 15
Original post by elliottstudent
Hi, I applied to Cambridge at Downing College to do French with Italian and got rejected, pooled but no other colleges were interested. I think we're in a very similar situation. My problem I think was that I was a little alienated/intimated by the whole aura of the place, perhaps my passion for the place didn't come across because inside I was and maybe still am a little unsure about the whole experience. I too am considering taking a year out to maybe do teaching somewhere in France and got the same grades as you for GCSE and A2 predictions.

At least there is a lot of time, I think it's May until we have to properly decide options. Commiserations, I would talk to your languages teachers, 6th form head and anyone else you think can help, that's what I'm doing anyway. If it's any consolation I share your sucky feelings and to be honest it's nice just to know there's someone in a similar position, even if that position sucks.


Cheers for taking the time out to give me some help, kinda a worrying actually as I'm pinning my hopes on Cambridge now. I've learned a fair few things about Oxford reapplication since I made the post (research and made it in three different threads). I'm doing exactly the same as you and I've got my head of languages to ask one of the tutors who interviewed me for some informal feedback (he met him at an outreach thing), but Oxford also allows for formal feedback requests and so I'm going to see how far I can get with that. It might well be worth asking the admissions office at Downing to see if they can disclose any feedback score (interview/pre-interview test scores). I really would not be discouraged that you were not picked up in the pool, at Oxford one in three don't get their first choice college, at Cambridge it's much less (couldn't tell you how much exactly). As far as I can tell how much you've read is incredibly important, at least at Oxford, as they only really have a nebulous idea of the candidate they're looking for (on the pretence of fairness), but effectively grades are much less important than talking about literature. If there's anything here that your experienced goes against (I'm gonna apply next year to Cambridge for Russian and Spanish) please tell me, don't want to go into another interview with all the wrong ideas again. Best of luck, I know how you feel.
Original post by jchap9776
Cheers mate, what other offers did you have the last time? I have UCL at the moment and am waiting on LSE, and am not sure whether I should just go to one of them or reapply cambridge


I had an offer from UCL but decided I didn't think I wanted to go to London so picked St. Andrews as my firm. I suppose a combination of good A-levels and the fact that I changed my mind on London and would have gone to UCL or LSE if I didn't get in to Cambridge made the decision to reapply a bit easier. Good luck with whatever you choose
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by oclark44
Cheers for taking the time out to give me some help, kinda a worrying actually as I'm pinning my hopes on Cambridge now. I've learned a fair few things about Oxford reapplication since I made the post (research and made it in three different threads). I'm doing exactly the same as you and I've got my head of languages to ask one of the tutors who interviewed me for some informal feedback (he met him at an outreach thing), but Oxford also allows for formal feedback requests and so I'm going to see how far I can get with that. It might well be worth asking the admissions office at Downing to see if they can disclose any feedback score (interview/pre-interview test scores). I really would not be discouraged that you were not picked up in the pool, at Oxford one in three don't get their first choice college, at Cambridge it's much less (couldn't tell you how much exactly). As far as I can tell how much you've read is incredibly important, at least at Oxford, as they only really have a nebulous idea of the candidate they're looking for (on the pretence of fairness), but effectively grades are much less important than talking about literature. If there's anything here that your experienced goes against (I'm gonna apply next year to Cambridge for Russian and Spanish) please tell me, don't want to go into another interview with all the wrong ideas again. Best of luck, I know how you feel.


Hi, I'm probably reapplying next year too. How do you feel about moving down a year below, though?
Original post by AndyDufresne
I had an offer from UCL but decided I didn't think I wanted to go to London so picked St. Andrews as my firm. I suppose a combination of good A-levels and the fact that I changed my mind on London and would have gone to UCL or LSE if I didn't get in to Cambridge made the decision to reapply a lot easier. Good luck with whatever you choose


Cheers mate :smile:
Original post by jchap9776
Just been rejected too from Cambridge for economics, what would you do in the gap year if you were going to reapply? this is my worry, that I will be wasting away while all my friends are at uni :frown:



prob

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