Education Oxford interview

well if you get in, you get to hang with the cool bit-tech kids whom lurk in and around oxford.

 

Depends on your college. Whilst your physical natsci friend might have been asked "strange" questions by rude interviewers at one college, he could have had a completely different experience at another. This applies to accommodation too, though generally speaking, the worst ones are only given as punishments, and they tend to ridiculously cheap anyway. Can't speak for engineering, but from the POV of a natsci, I would naturally disagree that Cambridge is overrated. Out of interest, where did you apply to in the end then?

 

The majority of people who get interviewed will tell you it was hardcore. The minority who didn't are either liars or complete geniuses. Either way I wouldn't worry about it.

 

Dragontail, are you Nat Sci at Cambridge? If so, can I PM you? I'm strongly considering going Nat Sci there.

 

Sure.

 

did you ask your interviewers if they also went by the name poisonous?

 

Please don't become one of the stereotypical Oxford students. The number of times and rude arrogant student has been on the bus near me talking **** on the phone or to a friend. It really pisses me off.

Don't get taken clouded by the whole, "I'm better than you" philosophy.

 

But...they are. By virtue of being at Oxford (at least, if they're doing a decent degree) - they are better than people who are at some crappy wannabe university.

edit: I do actually agree though, being holier-than-thou-I-pwn-j00-suck is annoying as hell. Gotta be modest about your superiority!

 

They really get to me, coming to my home town and acting like they own the place

 

At a guess and the risk of sounding slightly neddish, I would suggest that that might be a result of the sort of people who tend to go to oxford (<cough>rich kids who live off daddy's credit card</cough>) being loud and obnoxious, and speaking loud enough for the 4 other people who know how to STFU.

 

Jamie, I can tell you now that profqwerty won't turn into one of those... Anyway, I think the PPE students are quite amusing to listen to. Most of them are nice if you talk to them. As spec says, it's only the really posh ones who are like that anyway - and they'd be loud/obnoxious before they got there, it has nothing to do with Oxford.

 

Good for you, going to university.
I didn't, it wasn't my thing.
I Left school at 16, became a Marconi Apprentice then Field Engineer and got paid to fly round the world fixing Radars. I got bored with that (well, with airports mostly - there's only so much you can drink in Murphy's at Schipol before they'll let you on the plane) and left to work on the London Underground. With the collapse of metronet, I found myself in my current job in IT.

Ever since working with supergreen software graduates flown out to the field to see what the world's really like, I've had the notion that the university of life has done me worlds better than 4 years in lectures.

Re-reading that I sound like I'm in my 40's.

Oh God.

 

I could never go to Uni...

I hate education basically.

Lol @ post count.

 

No, they are not superior. You should never view anyone superior to anyone else no matter the criteria. Furthermore, being accepted to Oxford does not mean that one has traits that other people lack or will gain traits that they cannot elsewhere in life.

 

Not even superior based on intelligence. Just because you've gotten into a place which has high entry requirements does not mean you are smart. The same applies for boarding schools.

 

Some people are better than other people. Going through life pretending everyone is equal is stupid. It's self-deception in order that you can pretend you live in a nice world where everyone is as good as everyone else. Some people are simply better than others.

True but it shows, if you're on a decent course, that you can work very hard. Most of the Oxford courses I've looked at want AAB at advanced higher. That takes a huge ammount of effort and a fair ammount of smarts to pull off.

 

I received enough qualifications at A-level to be accepted into Oxford, yet chose to do my studies at a crappy wannabe university to avoid the holier than thou Oxford Uni w*****s.

I now work in the field I studied at a pretty good job, furthermore I did it without mummy and daddy's cash card. Does this mean that according to specofdust I am better than everyone, including the Oxford lot as I saw them as being an irritation?

*Edit - I hope it does, me, Manson, Dharmer, Hitler... Bickle all looking down on the plebs

 

edit:Scrap that

 

I disagree. I'll explain why I think this, but this is so hard without coming out like an arrogant *****
A person who gets into Oxbridge may not be more intelligent than one that doesn't. However, Oxbridge is known for academic excellence and will generally attract students with high UMS marks and tons of As - ie the top band. On top of this, Oxbridge is overscribed, and will use it's selection process, hence accepting the "academically better" applicants (I say generally, as mistakes are made all the time of not giving a place to someone who deserves it). Now just based on this knowledge, we know Oxbridge accepts "academically superior" students - ie. those one that did better at AS, GCSE and the interview. What I'm saying whilst not everyone at Oxbridge is academically superior at those not in Oxbridge, but on average, this is true. And if you still think this is wrong, I'll be intrigued to know why.

However, that doesn't mean anything about the student (he or she certainly isn't "superior" expect at passing exams really). The real test is the job market. You won't ace RL just because you know how to tackle a hard exam question. Loads of successful people didn't go to Oxbridge - that tells us everything.

EDIT: No matter what way I put it I feel like an right arrogant little >_< lmao

 

me I applied to:
Imperial <--- no contact yet
Southampton <-- AAB
Manchester <-- ABB
Loughbourgh <-- ABB
Warriwick <--- interview at end of Jan

so far the best one has been southampton which was very impresive, I suspect that Imperial may not call me to interveiw as they have called people from my collage already but tbh they would have to be very impresive make me not want to go to southampton.

southampton had loads and loads of graduate students and does lots of work in microprocesor design and experimental semi conductor manufacture. They are curently building a 10nM fab and its the only course I have seen where you actualy get to design a LSI chip and get it fabricated. As I have a keen interest in the internal workings of cpu's and such like and plan on doing some kind of graduate study it seemed very good.