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So who else is rejecting Oxford?

Hi,
Just wondering how many other people like me there are who don't want to go to Oxbridge. I've got an unconditional offer to read history at LMH but really don t like the course or college. I much prefer the East European History course at UCl and am waiting to hear from them. Plus I've got an offer from LSE already. My parents are massively against me turning Oxford down. Anybody have any advice or been in a similar situation?

Reply 1

DumberChild

I was *sorta* in a similar situation - I had two academic ambitions, A) go to Oxford and B) become a pharmacist (so basically do an MPharm) but for some crazy reason Oxford (or Cambridge, for that matter) don't offer Pharmacy. So I basically had to choose between my two dreams.

In the end I chose Chemistry at Oxford. It'll be four amazing years where I can just learn for learning's sake and have an awesome time at the best uni in the world :biggrin:

after that I may do Pharmacy post grad or go into research in the pharmaceutical industry.

But yeah, it was a very difficult choice. I just realised my situation is actually the opposite to the title of this thread - I turned down Pharmacy for Oxford, not turned down Oxford lol Ah well, there's my piece...

Reply 2

7589200

18

"but really don t like the course or college"

and you applied to show that you could 'get in' ?

Reply 3

Speleo

7

"but really don t like the course or college"

and you applied to show that you could 'get in' ?

Or maybe so he could post on an internet message board and look really cool for rejecting Oxford. :cool:

Reply 4

Trundle

2

To be fair, perhaps he made an open application and got assigned to a college he didn't like. This happened to my friend, she went there for interview, and hated it.

Reply 5

DumberChild

Speleo

Or maybe so he could post on an internet message board and look really cool for rejecting Oxford. :cool:

But surely its better to have applied, got a place, then consider your options?

At least you're then in a better position to decide whether oxford is right for you or not, knowing that whatever your decision you COULD go there.

Reply 6

Athena

6

DumberChild

But surely its better to have applied, got a place, then consider your options?

At least you're then in a better position to decide whether oxford is right for you or not, knowing that whatever your decision you COULD go there.

I personally think it's pretty selfish to apply if you don't want the place - it's not like other good universities, where they have several offer rounds and you can decline the offer knowing it'll go to someone else/your place will go into clearing. If you have an offer from Oxbridge, that place is taken out of the equation for that year. Tbh, people who decline their offers having applied under those reasons piss me off :frown:

Reply 7

Speleo

7

To be fair, perhaps he made an open application and got assigned to a college he didn't like. This happened to my friend, she went there for interview, and hated it.

You shouldn't make an open application unless you are prepared to go to any college, especially since you're probably going to be allocated to one of the less desirable ones.

But surely its better to have applied, got a place, then consider your options?

At least you're then in a better position to decide whether oxford is right for you or not, knowing that whatever your decision you COULD go there.

It's better do some some basic research about the course and college you are applying to spend 3 or 4 years of your life at before you spend god knows how long on forms/preparation/interviews etc.

Reply 8

Josho

OP

4

Actually I had no wish to apply. Im sorry I didn 't make that clear. My dad put enormous pressure on me simply telling me that applying was enough - but now I'm being blackmailed and pretty much pressured all the time. And if I get an offer from UCL pretty quickly I will turn down Oxford straight away and my place can go to someone else. Im not trying to show off I just wanted some advice because Im sure there must be people with similarly dominating parents.

Reply 9

Speleo

7

As soon as you get your offers, choose your firm and insurance universities on UCAS and tell your parents after you've done it.

If making them angry is likely to have some sort of consequences, financial or otherwise, then you might want to get someone else involved, a teacher (though presumably you're post a-level as you got an unconditional offer), a tutor from the Oxford college (via e-mail) etc.

Reply 10

shady lane

16

Athena

I personally think it's pretty selfish to apply if you don't want the place - it's not like other good universities, where they have several offer rounds and you can decline the offer knowing it'll go to someone else/your place will go into clearing. If you have an offer from Oxbridge, that place is taken out of the equation for that year. Tbh, people who decline their offers having applied under those reasons piss me off :frown:

What is wrong with you people? Why is it OK to apply to places for insurance that you know you would never want to go to, but it's not OK for the OP to apply to Oxford and not want to go there? I honestly can't believe this attitude. There are loads of people who post here like "Oh I'm going to Oxford over LSE/Imperial/Durham/whatever" and don't withdraw their applications to those places when they get Oxford offers. Meanwhile there are thousands of students who want to go to those places as well!

Get a grip, seriously.

Reply 11

Alan Smithee

shady lane

What is wrong with you people? Why is it OK to apply to places for insurance that you know you would never want to go to, but it's not OK for the OP to apply to Oxford and not want to go there? I honestly can't believe this attitude. There are loads of people who post here like "Oh I'm going to Oxford over LSE/Imperial/Durham/whatever" and don't withdraw their applications to those places when they get Oxford offers. Meanwhile there are thousands of students who want to go to those places as well!

Get a grip, seriously.

Real talk!!!!!!

Reply 12

Eau

15

Everybody have their opinions, but I do agree with you on this one, shady lane.

Reply 13

Speleo

7

What is wrong with you people? Why is it OK to apply to places for insurance that you know you would never want to go to, but it's not OK for the OP to apply to Oxford and not want to go there? I honestly can't believe this attitude. There are loads of people who post here like "Oh I'm going to Oxford over LSE/Imperial/Durham/whatever" and don't withdraw their applications to those places when they get Oxford offers. Meanwhile there are thousands of students who want to go to those places as well!

Get a grip, seriously.

I think what annoys people is that most threads about rejecting Oxford are posted by attention-whores boasting about their offers. This thread is different, as the OP has recently clarified.
If someone went in to the Durham forum (for example) and posted a thread about how they were rejecting Durham, do you not think there would be a similar reaction?

Reply 14

7589200

18

shady lane

What is wrong with you people? Why is it OK to apply to places for insurance that you know you would never want to go to, but it's not OK for the OP to apply to Oxford and not want to go there?

Because it is significiantly harder to get into Oxford. As Athena pointed out, the 'other places' make many more offers than the places they have, whereas, Oxford don't.

Reply 15

shady lane

16

It doesn't matter. Everyone has a right to apply to 6 universities, and the OP included Oxford. What if Oxford had been the only university to give him an offer? That's the point of choosing many universities. And like I've said, there are people who get into Oxford and know that's their first choice, but they don't withdraw from places like LSE or Imperial, who almost always give AAA offers as well, even when they have an insurance already! They just want to see if they get in.

I just think some of you Oxford students/applicants think it is so massively different to not want to go to Oxford than it is to not want to go to other universities.

Reply 16

hobnob

14

I think Athena's point was actually that when you reject an Oxbridge place, no-one else will get it and it will simply be "lost", whereas a rejected place at, say, Durham will end up in clearing, so other people who want it will actually have a chance to get it.

Reply 17

shady lane

16

Nonetheless, it is ridiculous to claim that you should only apply to Oxford if you are 100% sure you want to go there and it's your life dream and you've fantasized about the dreaming spires since infancy. Plus, given the way people talk about the admissions process on the forum, the people who didn't get in didn't really deserve it anyway, regardless of the OP's application, right? For all you know that could have been one of those spots that the tutors give to no one because they couldn't find suitable applicants :p:

Reply 18

ravenous_soup_dragon

9

I think that the reason why people get so pissed off with people going on about how they're going to reject offers from Oxbridge after getting a place because Oxbridge applicants tend to invest so much more emotionally into Oxbridge application rather than the other five spaces on their UCAS form. This is perhaps because the process is so much more personal - if you get rejected after interview, it's much harder to not take it personally than if you get rejected by LSE, Durham, Bristol etc because they usually only see you as a piece of paper - the only 'personality' they have to go on is your personal statement. People spend so much time and effort stressing over the interviews and the whole extra effort Oxbridge entails, that after rejection - there's kind of a big empty space, regardless of how much you wanted to go there.

After I was rejected first time round, I felt as though I'd been dumped by a boyfriend I really liked. If I carry this crazy allegory a bit further, knowing that someone else had been offered a place over me, and then rejected it, is kind of like having a boyfriend lured away by a more attractive girl who then wasn't interested in having a relationship..... :s-smilie:

Incidently, I agree that it would be much fairer if someone who knew that they wanted to go to Oxford after receiving an offer then withdrew from other popular places like Durham and LSE. I have an unconditional offer from Oxford now and I feel very very guilty that I haven't withdrawn from my offers (Leeds, Bristol and Newcastle) yet, so I think I will do shortly. xx

Reply 19

hobnob

14

shady lane

Nonetheless, it is ridiculous to claim that you should only apply to Oxford if you are 100% sure you want to go there and it's your life dream and you've fantasized about the dreaming spires since infancy.

Lord, no. But because of the way the application process works, you should at least be seriously considering going there, otherwise you could end up "spoiling" a place somebody else might have wanted.

Plus, given the way people talk about the admissions process on the forum, the people who didn't get in didn't really deserve it anyway, regardless of the OP's application, right? For all you know that could have been one of those spots that the tutors give to no one because they couldn't find suitable applicants :p:

So who else is rejecting Oxford?

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