The Student Room Group

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Reply 1
The previous post I put up (now deleted) was a joke.

But I seriously know someone from my old school who turned down an offer to study music at Oxford (thought it was Wadham but it's been brought to my attention Wadham don't offer music. They might have done before though this was a few years back probs 2000. It might have been Worcester or another college.) to study at the Royal Northern College of Music.
Reply 2
My old English teacher gave up a place at St Anne's Oxford to do music back in the day. He didn't really explain why but he took a gap year trying to work in insurance, didn't like it, so re-applied for English lit next year... he went to Hull in the end. I suppose that's quite a shift from Oxford but my brother went to Hull and loved it. Haha just remembering the blackadder joke about the three great universities of England, the bit when he is reveals the nurse to be a spy, something along the lines of...

Blackadder: Thirdly, she failed to spot that there were only two great universities in England, not the three I mentioned Oxford, Cambridge and Hull.

Melchett: Indeed, Oxford's a complete dump.

classic :biggrin:

mmmm note Stephen Fry playing Melchett went to Cambridge yet Richard Curtis the supposed writer of Blackadder went to Oxford lol.
Reply 3
Lex Talionis
Yeah... just wondering if there's any statistics on this? Or if there's anyone thinking of doing so.

Do you mean official statistics or TSR-based "statistics"? If it's the former, I doubt the university would really be all that interested in having statistics on that, and if it's the latter, the statistics probably wouldn't reflect the actual situation accurately enough to draw any conclusions.
No doubt there are people who end up not taking up their offers for various reasons, but it's generally quite rare.
Reply 4
Both statistics lol, I guess the TSR stats are more interesting.
Reply 5
Im thinking of turning down my offer from Oxford but I'm unsure about it. On my letter it said that if I plannedto reject the offer please coult I let the college know in 21 days. However, as I am unsure I don't want to reject the offer within this time period. If I do not reject the offer in this period, UCAS won't reject my offer from other uni's will it? Any advice would be helpful!
Reply 6
dnra4ever
Im thinking of turning down my offer from Oxford but I'm unsure about it. On my letter it said that if I plannedto reject the offer please coult I let the college know in 21 days. However, as I am unsure I don't want to reject the offer within this time period. If I do not reject the offer in this period, UCAS won't reject my offer from other uni's will it? Any advice would be helpful!


Normally, no. But I'm unsure of this. Contact UCAS and ask them, it's the best solution.
Reply 7
British Bulldog
The previous post I put up (now deleted) was a joke.

But I seriously know someone from my old school who turned down an offer to study music at Wadham College to study at the Royal Northern College of Music.



Wow, that's impressive. Particularly as Wadham don't offer music :rolleyes:

I know of two people who have or will turn down offers, although one was post-results, for family reasons.
Reply 8
No ucas aren't going to cancel your other offers. They only ask because they may want to give the place to someone else if you're not interested.
Reply 9
ow, that's impressive. Particularly as Wadham don't offer music
They may have done in the past, though. Lincoln used to offer classics until the tutor retired- he's now the college wine officer.
Reply 10
yeah out of the 5 people who've got offers from my school this year, 2 are going to turn oxford down...
Reply 11
It depends on the subject; I considered rejecting Oxford for LSE for a while, and each year a lot of people decide LSE over Oxford.
Reply 12
silentkid
My old English teacher gave up a place at St Anne's Oxford to do music back in the day. He didn't really explain why but he took a gap year trying to work in insurance, didn't like it, so re-applied for English lit next year... he went to Hull in the end. I suppose that's quite a shift from Oxford but my brother went to Hull and loved it. Haha just remembering the blackadder joke about the three great universities of England, the bit when he is reveals the nurse to be a spy, something along the lines of...

Blackadder: Thirdly, she failed to spot that there were only two great universities in England, not the three I mentioned Oxford, Cambridge and Hull.

Melchett: Indeed, Oxford's a complete dump.

classic :biggrin:

mmmm note Stephen Fry playing Melchett went to Cambridge yet Richard Curtis the supposed writer of Blackadder went to Oxford lol.


I must say that you sound like the most tedious bore.

On the OPs original question, I know of about 5 people from past years in my school who chose to go elsewhere having recieved offers for Oxbridge. Can't say where they went, though I suspect for most it would be abroad because beyond the specialist art/music colleges there's really nothing to touch Oxbridge for reputation in the UK.
Reply 13
It's usually said Oxford gives out around 1.2-1.3 offers per place for many subject/college combinations. Which suggests between around 1 in 5 people either reject or miss their offer. I reckon more miss their offer than reject it for somewhere else, so it's probably less than 10% of people who reject their offer. Remember when people do, they offer these places to other people, yet I don't know anyone at Oxford who was subsequently given an offer in the new year, due to someone dropping out.

Chris!
It depends on the subject; I considered rejecting Oxford for LSE for a while, and each year a lot of people decide LSE over Oxford.

Not a lot. Indeed very few people actually do, as the courses are so different. They don't offer the same degree, economics related at least. Some of my LSE friends never applied to Oxbridge, a few got rejected, but I've never actually met a single one who turned it down. I'm sure people do, but not that many.
Reply 14
I know people who took Imperial over Oxbridge for engineering.
Reply 15
When I went to Bristol for my UCAS day, an undergrad said he rejected an offer for Chem at Oxford because Bristol had a better social life.
Reply 16
BJ-Dubois you are quite unnecessarily obnoxious, I'm sorry for wasting your time by being such a bore.
Reply 17
When I went to Bristol for my UCAS day, an undergrad said he rejected an offer for Chem at Oxford because Bristol had a better social life.


Yeah, someone from my college who got accepted declined the offer for that same reason. It's not exactly surprising...
Reply 18
I had a friend who rejected Oxford geography for Birmingham, a move I considered quite silly
Given how much earlier you must submit an application to Oxford, and the stress of the interview process, I'd imagine that most people who suspect they wouldn't want to go there don't bother to apply.