Less than one day to go for Oxford (14th Jan) and two for Cambridge (15th Jan)!

How are all the DCs and their dear parents coping so far?

DS is sure it will be a no as the interviews did not go well, but he is still a bit anxious about Wednesday.

Good luck to all DC still waiting. I’ve heard so many stories of students who thought their interviews went badly but still received an offer, so I wouldn’t lose hope.

Good luck to all. Remember what it was like last year, not envious

Good Luck to all Oxford applicants for tomorrow!

Good luck to you all for the next couple of days.

Just a word of advice - for many of these applicants, a rejection will be devastating - not just because it is Oxbridge but, more likely, because for them, it will be the first time they have been rejected "academically" - and a first rejection is always hard.

However, it is important to remember that, whatever it feels like in the minute, Oxbridge is NOT the be all and end all and the vast, vast majority who do not end up there (either because they realised this before the application process began, or because they got rejected) find that the alternative they accept is far, far better for them. Very few people regret the place they end up in.

Keep perspective.

Lots of disappointments at my DSs school today.
A usual year is around 15 Oxford offers but this year just 3.
Very strong candidates with all top grades at GCSE/AS and 4 A* predictions didn’t get offers.
Is it going to be very hard to get in from grammar schools going forward?
I hope others have had better news.

Our school had 9 offers - this is slightly down on Oxford offers from last year but not massively - and last year quite a few did not make their offers.

It’s difficult to draw any conclusions as it is too small a sample and cohorts do vary massively as do the colleges being applied to.

Unlike the 11 plus Oxbridge provides a second opportunity to reapply after A level results.

For the fourth year in a row my dd's old school has 100% success rate for students who reapplied to Oxbridge with their A levels.

These students get offered unconditional places instead of offers because they already have their A level results.

For the time being students can focus on getting great A level grades and can firm up another UCAS offer and back up.

No decision needs to be made until late September and reapplying is more straightforward as the personal statement can just be tweaked a bit.

One of the students who just got a unconditional place today told me recently how different he felt applying a year later with great grades already achieved and how more confident he felt in the interviews.

I hope that some who missed out today will find that they are happy to go with their second choice but I also hope that students will at least consider reapplying if they get great grades in August. The pressure is now off but the opportunity will still be there in August if the A levels go well. DG