The Student Room Group

'Oxbridge Applications'

On an Oxford open day I gave my address and name in a questionnaire to some nice studenty people, who I though were something to do with Oxford university. However, they were actually this private company (called Oxbridge Applications'), who, for masive amounts of money will intensively coach you for interview. They keep sending me their booklets and things, and the statistics are impressive; you have about twice as much chance of getting in if you use them. However, i think this could be something to do with richer people who can afford to use such companies also being able to afford private schools...
Anyway, i personally don't really agree with what they're doing, and couldnt afford their weekend preparation thingies even if i did, but i wondered if anybody here has used them. If so, what are they like? Did you feel they had helped, or was it all self-obvious cliches about smiling lots, and having a nice firm handshake?
Any thoughts welcome....

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Reply 1
my cambridge college has actually sent us all emails saying "Please please please do not sell your information to this company."
Depends really how much you're wanting to get into Oxbridge... for some people it's a lifelong ambition and I'm sure many of them would spend .. I think it's £140. to make sure they don't mess up and underperform at the vital stage. I've received leaflets too ... they do give you your money back if you don't get called to an interview (which is statistically unlikely). I actually think they will be extremely helpful. Many students really won't know what to expect. Some may know what to expect but will have no idea how to respond. It gives you a chance to practise and learn from it.

Even if you don't get in still... interview skills go far beyond university.


Don't know if it's worth all that money... I'm going to go back to college and ask some of my old tutors for help :tongue:
Reply 3
I went on the Oxbridge Applications interview training weekend in Stratford last year, and would say it was useful from the point of view of getting to meet lots of other applicants and practise interview skills. However, I wouldn't say it was worth the ,I think, £800 fee. I didn't learn anything there that I couldn't find out from either TSR or http://oa.waveflex.com/, and I would actually say that the 2 above sources were a lot more informative than Oxbridge Applications.

One thing, however, that Oxbridge Applications can provide which could be crucial, is an individual tutor/mentor, who has actually done the Oxbridge course you're applying for and therefore knows what the admissions tutors will be looking for and can help focus your application and give you inside info. The tutor I was given was certianly an invaluable support, and I can honestly say I don't believe I would have got into Cambridge without her guidence. She told me which books and articles to read and showed me how to focus the information so that I could pack as many goodies into the 20 minute academic interview as possible.

I don't have any problem with people using such companies to gain an edge in the Oxbridge admissions process; afterall, it's not very different from paying to go to a private school which will give Oxbridge preparation to its students. What I do have a problem with is that not everyone can afford such training, but there are free sources of advice like TSR, and I suppose at the end of the day life's unfair and you just have to make the best of the hand you've been dealt.
£800!!! :eek:
Reply 5
Oxbridge Applications is a rip-off; if you want advice on how to prepare for interviews, come to an Open Day at a college. It's free and will probably be just as useful, if not more so (because you'll actually be speaking to the people who'll interview you, rather than graduates who think they know everything because they got through one interview; I should know, I'm as bad :wink:). Arrange your own mock interview with a teacher or someone; don't waste your money on Oxbridge Applications, they're out to screw you and both Oxford and Cambridge disapprove of them thoroughly. Our college also emailed us to advise us not to help them out :smile:
Reply 6
Amusingly, my friend told me of someone who used this company and spent a hideous amount of money on one of their courses. As promised in their advertising, he got an offer (I can't remember where, it was at Cambridge I think for NatSci but I could be wrong). Then missed his grades. Muwahahahaa!
Reply 7
I'm with madnatsci on this, and furthermore:
(i) Oxbridge seriously dislike these companies, and if admission tutors can spot those who were prep'd by same, I'd say you would be DISadvantaging urself.
(ii) Naturally, those who pay that kinda dosh and go for this kinda prep are seriously in the running for a place anyway. So success rates for these companies isn't indicative of the effect these companies have on the outcomes. it's like masking other variables, you know.
(iii) I gotta say, having been an unsuccessful applicant at one time, that these admissions tutors are seriously SMART. i just think they want the best potential. too slick is BAD in my opinion.
(iv) Also, beware the responses you get to this thread. is anyone from these companies responding??!!?? or perhaps you are :smile:
Reply 8
Onearmedbandit
£800!!! :eek:

Their most expensive package costs over £4k!

They underpay their interviewers too, I think it's about £7 an hour now, which means they're sure not to get the best people working for them (consider that tutoring usually commands at least £14 an hour).
Reply 9
Toni Mag
(i) Oxbridge seriously dislike these companies, and if admission tutors can spot those who were prep'd by same, I'd say you would be DISadvantaging urself.

But do you think that they dislike them because they feel sorry for applicants wasting a lot of money on a useless service, or because they're seriously worried that what they provide might actually work and thus undermine the admissions process?
I'm not sure if it wwill help. My concern would be that you would sound over-coached and not yoursefl, which they will pick up on and will count against you. In money terms it is not huge - if it worked you will make it back through increased careers prospects etc.
I doubt that the full packaage (POA) is worth it in any case. You would mind out just as much from this and other sites - for free too.
Alexander
But do you think that they dislike them because they feel sorry for applicants wasting a lot of money on a useless service, or because they're seriously worried that what they provide might actually work and thus undermine the admissions process?

I'm tempted to say neither. It makes more work for them trying to differentiate the really good applicants from poor ones brought up by this service.
Reply 12
Alexander
Their most expensive package costs over £4k!

They underpay their interviewers too, I think it's about £7 an hour now, which means they're sure not to get the best people working for them (consider that tutoring usually commands at least £14 an hour).

Well, I wouldn't do any tutoring at A level for less than £20 an hour!
Reply 13
InterCity125
I'm tempted to say neither. It makes more work for them trying to differentiate the really good applicants from poor ones brought up by this service.


You could say the same applies to young people who might have been poor applicants if they hadn't been sent to a private school which groomed them socially and academically for however many years. I take the point about the admissions tutors wanting those with the most potential, but I don't believe you can ignore the social side of the admissions process, especially when it comes to humanities subjects. Of course the admissions tutors are going to feel more positively towards a pleasant, polite applicant than an uncommunicative, brusque one. And I don't think they are necessarily able to spot faked enthusiasm. Just because they have a few letters after their names doesn't mean they're any less suseptible to charm than any other human being, or any more savvy when it comes to human behaviour I'm not saying it's possible to charm your way into Oxbridge, but if it comes down to you and another candidate, personality can tip the scales in your favour.
Reply 14
ignor thoese who advise you not to use this componey to help you gain extra advantages regarding oxbridge application. employing every means withtin the leagal range to optimise your chances is the very nature of modern competition. don't let oxbridge tutors' no-coaching order hesitate your decision. if u don't do it, others will. this is your future!
Reply 15
Alexander
But do you think that they dislike them because they feel sorry for applicants wasting a lot of money on a useless service, or because they're seriously worried that what they provide might actually work and thus undermine the admissions process?



Honestly: I think it's because it's a rip off, free-loading on the process. Colleges know the pressure on everyone to explore every avenue to get an edge on what is an imprecise process, especially given the ridiculous grade inflation at GCSE and AS level.
Reply 16
Alexander
Their most expensive package costs over £4k!

They underpay their interviewers too, I think it's about £7 an hour now, which means they're sure not to get the best people working for them (consider that tutoring usually commands at least £14 an hour).


If you think that's bad, its not uncommon in America for companies to charge $10,000 helping customers get into an Ivy League University of their choice. Though if they don't get in they get your money back. Obviously this means that the companies select their customers, and also look at the particular university they intend to apply to.
Reply 17
Minta2
You could say the same applies to young people who might have been poor applicants if they hadn't been sent to a private school which groomed them socially and academically for however many years. I take the point about the admissions tutors wanting those with the most potential, but I don't believe you can ignore the social side of the admissions process, especially when it comes to humanities subjects. Of course the admissions tutors are going to feel more positively towards a pleasant, polite applicant than an uncommunicative, brusque one. And I don't think they are necessarily able to spot faked enthusiasm. Just because they have a few letters after their names doesn't mean they're any less suseptible to charm than any other human being, or any more savvy when it comes to human behaviour I'm not saying it's possible to charm your way into Oxbridge, but if it comes down to you and another candidate, personality can tip the scales in your favour.



Listen to Intercity 125. Every school grooms socially and academically over 5/7 years. Private schools not equal to 'good' schools (c.f. previous threads). The point here is that this is a commercial company piggybacking on the anxiety of those who are good enough but haven't the confidence to know it. At best, it will make NO difference; at worst, it will seem that you are over-performing as a result of special (expensive) interview grooming.
It is beyond arrogance to assume that these admissions tutors, whose livelihood and reputation is on the line every year for decades, and subject to the most intensive of public scrutinies, cannot spot a fake. PLEASE, don't be silly. Be natural. There's no trick to getting in; just some luck maybe.
Reply 18
Toni Mag
Listen to Intercity 125. Every school grooms socially and academically over 5/7 years. Private schools not equal to 'good' schools (c.f. previous threads). The point here is that this is a commercial company piggybacking on the anxiety of those who are good enough but haven't the confidence to know it. At best, it will make NO difference; at worst, it will seem that you are over-performing as a result of special (expensive) interview grooming.
It is beyond arrogance to assume that these admissions tutors, whose livelihood and reputation is on the line every year for decades, and subject to the most intensive of public scrutinies, cannot spot a fake. PLEASE, don't be silly. Be natural. There's no trick to getting in; just some luck maybe.


I disagree that it will make no difference to an applicant's chances; see my post further up in which I mention that I used Oxbridge Applications and as a result was given personal, course-specific guidence which I would not have received otherwise. Indeed, Oxbridge Applications does exploit applicants' and their parents' social anxiety about Oxbridge, and as I said in my previous post, I don't believe all the services they offer are worth the price-tag. As to whether the tutors can spot a fake, well, I exaggerated my enthusiasm somewhat in my interview, so that it seemed as though the subject I was applying for was the love of my life, rather than just something I was keenly interested in, and I got in. Granted, I changed subjects 1 week in because I realised the cousre wasn't what I hoped it would be, but that's a risk you take with any subject at uni, especially one that you didn't study at school.
Reply 19
Toni Mag
Listen to Intercity 125. Every school grooms socially and academically over 5/7 years. Private schools not equal to 'good' schools (c.f. previous threads). The point here is that this is a commercial company piggybacking on the anxiety of those who are good enough but haven't the confidence to know it. At best, it will make NO difference; at worst, it will seem that you are over-performing as a result of special (expensive) interview grooming.
It is beyond arrogance to assume that these admissions tutors, whose livelihood and reputation is on the line every year for decades, and subject to the most intensive of public scrutinies, cannot spot a fake. PLEASE, don't be silly. Be natural. There's no trick to getting in; just some luck maybe.


I really doubt it makes NO difference. In my opinion any interview practice is good, it will probably make the applicant less nervous during the real thing. Also the applicant will be able to express their ideas/views in the interview atmosphere and answer typical interview questions etc.

how can you say that someone who takes interview training is a fake? If they simply want to improve their chances to study a subject they want to, and also gain interview techniques, it doesn't make them a fake.

The key here is to be confident, but not stupidly arrogant. There is no point mentioning things that you don't know about/aren't interested in because you will be found out. Saying such things is what makes one "fake".