Do I deserve my Oxford offer?
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
They've seen something they like, so you've deserved it.
Just make sure you smash your A'levels so you can be there in September.
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Hi Anon,
First of all, congratulations for receiving an offer!
It’s a huge achievement to get an offer from Oxford, and I know it can be overwhelming when things aren't 'statistically correct'. I'm sure there are more factors that go into your offer than the HAT score alone. It’s possible that they saw something in your interview or written work that outweighed the HAT score. They may have considered things that aren't obvious from the score breakdown, like how you handled the interview or showed your potential in your application.
Perhaps they’re looking for potential, academic ability, and fit for the course. While the HAT is important, it’s not the final word on your ability or suitability for the course. The fact that they offered you a place means they saw something in you that they think could succeed at Oxford.
It's fair to feel confused by all of this, but don't doubt yourself! They don’t make offers lightly, and your offer was earned.
Best of luck!
Danish
BCU Student Rep
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Congrats on your offer! I'm sorry that you're now feeling confused and conflicted. Imposter syndrome is rife at Oxford so, although it's no fun, you're in good company
On a serious note: please try not to think you are undeserving of the place or that you've 'stolen' someone else's place. Neither of those things are the case! The interviewers rarely get it wrong (in my experience, as an Oxford alumna), and there must have been something that really stood out a mile in your application to impress the college that offered you a place. Yes HAT is often important, but maybe you smashed the interview, or had outstanding written work that showed them that you can write very well, indicating maybe your HAT just hadn't gone that well on the day itself.
Oxford dons see something in you, and you can - and should! - be rightly proud of yourself. I'm no expert in history admissions in the slightest, but you've clearly done very well and impressed them. Please try not to worry - but well done for expressing your fears, so that people can allay them
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Congrats! It seems you got lucky where I didn't. Pulled a 92 and got rejected.
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Oxford always shortlists a number of candidates who got lower scores on admissions tests as they are well aware that nerves can throw you off.
Your interviews definitely offset your HAT score. To ace an interview like that is genuinely really impressive, so clearly you are much more capable than you give yourself credit for.
As for GCSEs, remember that 8’s and 9’s are regarded as being of equal value. If your school gets “average” GCSE results (compared to the rest of the country), then your results relative to the rest of your cohort are very good indeed.
So yes, you deserve your offer and no, it was not sent accidentally. It is also abundantly clear that you did not just “get lucky”.
(edited 1 month ago)
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Huge congratulations! And every bit well deserved so please do not second guess yourself. Which college?
Congrats on your offer! I got 51 and was rejected. I was surprised I got so low as I thought it had gone well! I couldn’t redeem myself at the college interviews as I didn’t get any source questions. I just had to talk about my ps and a historical era I was interested in. It was more of a chat so I feel like I never really had a chance to show what I can do. I am going to request feedback to see what I got for the other things.
If you're really concerned then you can always ask for more feedback (i believe they rank your interview performance and your written work, respectively, out of 10) but not every college is willing to share that info
Original post by drriversong
If you're really concerned then you can always ask for more feedback (i believe they rank your interview performance and your written work, respectively, out of 10) but not every college is willing to share that info
Whilst this is true, I would actually discourage doing so for two reasons.
(1. It’s unnecessary work for the admissions teams.
(2. Oxford feedback is just a handful of scores - it doesn’t actually highlight what specifically got you the place or how you impressed your interviewers. If anything, I think it is more likely to cast further doubt on how they were assigned.
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
You definitely deserve it man. Its not easy to get into oxford at all. So be proud of yourself bro. This is a huge accomplishment
Original post by Anonymous
I feel very confused. I received an offer for History at Oxford two days ago, and got back my HAT results today. Surprisingly, I got a really low score of 46/100. The average of everyone who took the test was 59.2, and it was 69.0 for those given offers. I statistically shouldn't have even been given an interview based on my score.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
The Oxford History faculty website says that when deciding who to shortlist, your contextualised GCSE score and HAT make up 50% of the process each. I got alright GCSEs (9998888877), and don't come from a disadvantaged background or anything (I didn't go to private school, but my school gets average results and I live in a nice enough area). I was wondering if my interview and written work made up for my bad score, but those aren't considered until after the shortlisting, and even so, the HAT plays a big role even post-interview.
My initial happiness about getting an offer has turned into extreme confusion. I feel like I've stolen a place from someone who deserved it more, and I'm almost scared that I'll get an email telling me my offer was a mistake.
Hey, congrats on the offer. Go for it. Why not? I got quite an average physics admissions test result and I loved it there, just graduated in September. It was not all perfect. Definitely ups and downs but on the whole, it was the best university experience I could have had. For a longer winded answer, check out my Youtube video on was oxford worth it. jus type in my name, Bartol Sikora on youtube. I hope you enjoy it
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