Oxford unconditional

Can you receive unconditional offers from Oxford? (In arts subjects)

It used to be possible to get EE offers — basically unconditional, since nobody good enough for Oxford would get lower than two Es — but those aren’t given out anymore. Cambridge also used to issue them but no longer does. The only way to get an actual unconditional offer is with achieved grades.

The EE offer was made when Oxford administered its own entrance exams for all subjects. Those of us who did the exams in the fourth term of sixth form and received an offer spent the rest of sixth form in the pub or asleep. I did zero revision for my A levels because to get two Es I just had to write my name and not punch the invigilator.

One of the issues with 2E offers was that it gave students no incentive to work for the rest of their A level year. That’s not ideal as preparation for an intense and demanding degree course. It also sent the message “we know better than anyone else” (ie school learning and how you perform for your teachers isn’t that important) which is quite undermining of the wider education system.
It would not be mindblowingly difficult to revise the whole system so that exams were taken slightly earlier and university admissions could happen in the summer with achieved grades, but although politicians sometimes talk about doing this, there doesn’t seem to be any sustained political will for it.

They are selective but they also now take the view that A Levels are a meaningful test of something important and that admissions tutors’ perspective on a candidate (based on the small snapshot they get) is not necessarily more reliable than how their performance over 2 years of their education. Now you have to pass both barriers rather than just one - arguably that is more selective than the old days of shooing people in if they impressed in one week in December.

Tutors are not as fussed by A levels as might be supposed: they ask for AAA in many subjects, and most offer-holders exceed the offer. Tutors still trust their own judgments.
The old system had flaws, not least disparate impact on those who were not coached, but now people flog themselves to death until June, and then many go crazy with anxiety until August. Then they have only a few weeks to get ready for Oxford, or they feel crushed if they missed the offer. Previously, people chilled out for months. The posh kids had gap years and my lot partied in the pub. I spent the summer months reading the A level set texts that I had deliberately not read before taking my English A level. I enjoyed them.
My daughter is currently hyper-chilled as she nears the end of her gap year and prepares to join her college. All of her stress ended with an email on 8 January, when she was half way up a volcano in Central America.

I was exactly in this position this year; I was absolutely terrified of not getting an offer, and then I was terrified that I’d miss my grades! A-Levels were awfully stressful, and I had a pretty generous offer (since my college didn’t ask for subject-specific grades). It’s a slightly agonising system.

If you apply with achieved grades and are successful you receive an offer conditional on proof of grades.
Once you supply proof, the offer becomes unconditional.
Otherwise, no.

Do you think that if the applicants mostly didn’t achieve the grade due to high grade boundaries you could still get in? Just wondering because a lot of people I know didn’t get the grades they wanted or required and still got their chosen courses in places like Oxford and Durham

You appear to have answered your own question.

I think the pressure which the system places on students is appalling. I am glad that you made it through, and I wish you a happy and successful time at Oxford.

I’m actually going to be a Cantab — sorry to break it to you 😔