Oxbridge Rejection

PsychologyJen

LOL, my point wasn't really to do with job ability - it was more to do with equality of degrees. I don't think I'll be going into a job where it'll matter much anyway. There are many people who would argue with you though - my dad, for one. He's seen the way his company pick people over 30 years, and having an Oxbridge or Imperial degree (he's in engineering) does confer almost an immediate advantage. Not that this is the way it is for every company. You went to Stanford though, didn't you shady? I'd imagine that helps.

Imperial doesn't write essays every week. The reason Oxbridge and Imperial have an advantage is because they have the best students. You were claiming that your weekly essays mean you have a better degree and thus will make a better employee than your friend from Warwick. For many jobs, Warwick is extremely highly sought after as well, so that's not really true (especially in the business field).
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I'm not disagreeing that going to a good university gets you more interviews. That's practically a fact. But I'm telling you not to buy into the "Oxbridge degrees are so much harder than other degrees, that's why employers want us." Academic work really has little to do with most jobs. If you believe that, you will be quickly surpassed by graduates from Oxbridge, Imperial, LSE, UCL, and other top unis who actually do work experience and extra-curricular rather than relying on their essays. That is why several of my Oxbridge friends have underperformed in getting jobs--they bought into the myth and were sorely disappointed when they didn't get the top jobs.

Reply 102

LatinMachine

1

shady lane

You were claiming that your weekly essays mean you have a better degree and thus will make a better employee than your friend from Warwick.

Actually I never said that, you're making an inference. What I said was that I would be annoyed if someone thought our degrees were equal (referring to my Psych degree in particular) in effort and work put in at a base level. My friend doesn't do Psychology, that was just a guy I got talking to. She's very intelligent, and could have done well at Oxford too, but she clammed up in her interviews :frown:

And no worries on that other 'myth.' As I already mentioned, with the job I'm going for, where I got my degree won't matter so much. Hence I have a relevant job in my holidays, did plenty of volunteering during my A Levels, am on the committee of my dance club (and hope to get on the team when I go back in October), and have applied for volunteering schemes next summer.

Many of my college friends do not have jobs for this summer - I'm lucky in that I have a job I can come back to every holiday, but it's hard to get jobs like that. They also plan lots of holidays abroad and stuff, which I don't have the luxury of doing (I don't know how they can afford it), but it then makes it even more difficult to get jobs. Tutors also don't like you to have a job really, because we're still supposed to be doing academic work. As we're not allowed a job in term time, and Oxford is expensive, funds run low very quickly, so the holidays are the only time to make money. If I wasn't as lucky with my job (I'm a Health Care Assistant in a hospital), I would have do waitressing or something - I wouldn't be able to afford to take time off to do a voluntary placement (I couldn't this summer unfortunately because of money, but next summer should be okay). I don't think that it's arrogance on their part, and they'll be relying on their degree to get jobs, it's just difficult to fit it all in. If I had gone to another Uni I would have worked during term-time too, so wouldn't be in my overdraft and would have been able to do voluntary work this summer. Long-winded :smile:

Will shut up now.

Reply 103

I got offers from warwick, lse, durham, all that, and chose Bristol as insurance. Every day I think I made possibly the worst insurance choice in history. Do y'all reckon i did?

Reply 104

a_t

I messed up my interview, got too nervous and didn't think about my answers

Reply 105

I got lucky, got asked about apologising for slavery (in news at time), which id debated page after page on TSR, and so owned that question. You could argue TSR got me an offer! :tsr2:

Reply 106

Consie

I got offers from warwick, lse, durham, all that, and chose Bristol as insurance. Every day I think I made possibly the worst insurance choice in history. Do y'all reckon i did?

Depending on what the offers were, you should have done LSE or Warwick as insurance. I know LSE and Warwick historians working in top jobs in investment banks (if you are that way persuaded)--both have a better rep in employment than Bristol does, especially in London.

Reply 107

this is what gets me in a tangle. My bro, who works in M&A (as ive probably said to you before) siad the exact opposite.

Reply 108

Everything that I've seen, from interviews to my fellow graduates, shows LSE and Warwick to be significantly more represented than Bristol. I hope you make your firm offer because Bristol will put you behind LSE and Warwick for sure if you want a career in finance.

Reply 109

So do I. That said, I'm that hot I could probably get to CEO of Goldman by 35 with a degree for John Moores. Know what I'm sayin, baby?

Reply 110

I admire your confidence though. Your brother will get you an interview either way, so I guess you'll be alright.

Reply 111

Craghyrax

17

Consie you made a mistake putting Bristol for insurance because if you miss Cam with your grades, and also missed Bristol by..say 2marks or something stupid, they won't lift a finger to accomodate you because you put them 'insurance' and they're really funny about them. I had them for my insurance when I applied for Biological Sciences first time round..

Reply 112

I admire your confidence though. Your brother will get you an interview either way, so I guess you'll be alright.

You betcha. Then again, I'd probably apply somewhere else, I'm not down with not doing things off my own back (don't I sound like the virtuous one).Then again, I'm more likely to go into criminal law, I'm incompetent at maths and in reality, believe it or not, my ego isn’t that big.

Consie you made a mistake putting Bristol for insurance because if you miss Cam with your grades, and also missed Bristol by..say 2marks or something stupid, they won't lift a finger to accomodate you because you put them 'insurance' and they're really funny about them. I had them for my insurance when I applied for Biological Sciences first time round..

This sucks man; LSE gave me an ABB offer too. Talk about going from hero to zero if I miss my offer.

Reply 113

Craghyrax

17

Je$$ica

I'm sure it would work in your favour rather than the other way round?

It does. If you go to a rubbish school you should still be able to perform well if you're 'oxbridge material'.. within reason.. I'm not trying to be discriminatory here :ninja:

Reply 114

Wildebeest

13

On the subject of accommodation (but in the completely different sense), does this often cause problems if you end up going to your insurance? A lot of the universities 'can guarantee accommodation if you firmly accept your offer by...' - but is there a large possibility that 'insurance' acceptees have to find accommodation in the private sector or something?

Reply 115

calcium878

18

I hear lots of unis provide accommodation in halls for all first years.

Reply 116

r3m0t

1

Wildebeest

On the subject of accommodation (but in the completely different sense), does this often cause problems if you end up going to your insurance? A lot of the universities 'can guarantee accommodation if you firmly accept your offer by...' - but is there a large possibility that 'insurance' acceptees have to find accommodation in the private sector or something?

It varies. Some of them have trouble offering accommodation to any "non-firm" first-year students. Others just say it "in case" an unexpectedly large number of people get in.

You could try calling them and asking, but the knowledge isn't going to be very helpful to you now. You can't try any harder in your exams (so that you won't go to your insurance) and you can't apply to them now for accomodation (sp?). (I assume...)

Reply 117

Jigglypuff